Description
Rescue a medical ship from a Neo-Terran Front attack.

Storyline:
A medical ship filled with several hundred refugees has broken down in the middle of nowhere and it is up to Alpha to protect a tow transport. The briefing is average and the debriefing is simplistic. There are no major events in the mission that propel the storyline, unfortunately.

Balance:
This mission is actually quite well balanced. Of course, given the wing layouts, this probably wasn't overly difficult to do. You've only got about 12 ships in-mission, consisting of the medical ship and 4 Myrmidons for the good guys, and alternating Hercules and Zeus bombers for the bad guys. There are only two enemy wings set to respawn 5 times. Still, without player intervention, the medical ship will be destroyed.

Design:
It's hard to argue with the fact that the Design is extremely rudimentary, with only a handful of events (all for messages). But, it's also hard to deny that the mission plays itself out quite well. That said, I'm giving out a 3.0 here because the author has created, in a sense, a "backbone" for which a deeper mission could be derived. With more events, enemy wings, and messages, the rating for this mission could be much better.

Gameplay:
It's a pretty fun "shoot-down-the-bombers-and-their-bombs" mission, and it's easy to rack up a ton of kills here (I scored 19). Never underestimate the power of the dumbfire Tempest missiles against slow ships like bombers, they literally tear them apart!

Other Thoughts:
I would encourage the author to go back and refine some parts, add more messages, and generally put more depth into the mission. With the messages, try to milk the "innocent lives" premise to give the player some emotional attachment to that ship. Heck, maybe even have one of the wingmen say that their wife and kids are on it. What we have here, author, is a good start on a potentially great mission. I would strongly encourage you to continue working with it.