Description
It is a major battle with Shivans. I would like to keep the content as a surprise. The main idea is: it is something really weird going on. You have been given a rare privilege - the right for an Executive Decision. You are leading the way. You are going to Wag the Dog...

Storyline:
The storyline centers around an "executive decision" that Alpha will be called on to make during the mission. The only problem is that, after playing the mission, you will not have any idea what this "decision" could have been. The command briefing sets up the background: three Shivan Asmodeus transports are covered by three Shivan Basilisk fighters. Obviously important stuff, because it's heavily guarded. Of course, you'll be fighting a LOT more than three fighters. The GTA wants information on the cargo and Alpha is out to get it, even though the entire fleet is standing by on "Condition Red." <p> Since the author's mission description just doesn't do this mission justice, I have to spill the beans on the "big suprise." The Shivans have set up this transport as a decoy and plan to ambush the Terran fleet. And that places Alpha at ground zero. Amazingly, the GTA jumps right into the trap to save Alpha Wing. This seems hard to believe, since the GTA should order Alpha Wing to retreat rather than rush headlong into a trap. In fact, the GTA seems to anticipate the Shivans so well that the capital ship reinforcements jump in head-to-head at the same instant. Although this is probably more of a design flaw, this stretches the believability of an otherwise good story. <p> Still, this mission at least tries to wrap a convincing story around the mission. For that good effort, I will avoid mentioning the cliche in the title.

Balance:
Alpha will be able to fly any of the fighters or the Athena light bomber. Perhaps your best bet is to stick with the Hercules you're assigned. However, change the missile loadout to any of the choice selection of missiles available. You'll have to make some choices, since the missile supply isn't endless, but you'll find enough to make do. I really liked the overall weapons loadouts on this mission and found it to be very well-chosen. <p> The Shivan and Terran forces were almost evenly matched, with perhaps with a slight numerical advantage for the Shivans. Don't expect to blast through this mission without taking heavy casualties, and perhaps losing a capital ship or two. However, the Shivan bomber wings don't have enough fighter cover in the final few waves. This translates into much of the threat being concentrated against the capital ships, leaving Alpha free to do great damage without too much harassment from a fighter cover.

Design:
This mission doesn't take advantage of the 3rd dimension in FRED, but does manage to make use of the two dimensions it does work in. The battle ends up taking place over 11,000 meters. This works extremely well for the fighters, since this moves the action around the field of battle. However, the design doesn't do as well with the capital ships that often jump into the battle with their horns locked together at close range. Frankly, I was suprised until I realized that the capital ships were both decellerating from massive subspace velocities and coming from opposite directions. Even the 10,500 meter distance between a Demon and an Orion will disappear quickly if the ships are pointed directly at each other. Oh well, another screenshot of capital ships nearly colliding for my collection. <p> The timing could use some work, so that the Shivans and Terrans didn't appear to arrive at the same time. If this is a trap, then the Terrans should arrive first, then the Shivans arrive to intercept them. A few more Shivan fighters wouldn't hurt either, especially as cover for the Shivan bombers. <p> However, the timing of this mission does result in an easy ride for your processor thorugh what turns out to be a Battle of Endor-scaled mission. Since the action arrives in three to four bite-sized chunks, you'll get the same level of action without nearly the same amount of frustration and performace loss. <p> This mission doesn't have many events, so none of the battle is highlighted. This also results in only one or two messages in the mission which are mostly redundant, given that the random messages will often highlight the same events. Again, hats off to Volition for making such a great default mission environment. Without events, there are no directives or hull status indicators for the capital ships. <p> Overall, the design could be improved to make this mission really shine. Some background chatter and messages to highlight the arrival, departure, or destruction of key ships would result in a more entertaining mission. Modifying the AI orders during the mission using events would result in a more dynamic battle. And ship status and directives are almost must-haves for a battle like this one. Toss in some events to flavor, possibly even implement that "executive decision," and you've got yourself what could be a great mission.

Gameplay:
Your Hercules will certainly get a workout at the end of the mission. As it is right now, you'll be treated to some better-than average action without a tremendous amount of danger to yourself. There's a lot to do, but everyone seems to busy fighting the capital ships to take you out as you rip through waves of Shivan bombers. Great fun, but your adrenaline won't be flowing quite as much as it should in a battle of this size. <p> Still, the good weapons loadout gives you the opportunity to try a few different tricks on the Shivans. It'll be fun for a run-through or two, but then you'll be chomping at the bit for the truly great missions with all the FRED trimmings.

Other Thoughts:
This mission has some really good things going for it, but the flaws drag it back down to a mediocre-rated mission.