[X3R] Bala Gi mission [Spoilers]

[killakanz]

Hi all.

Just done the Bala Gi mission when I have to tow the M7 to the shipyard. This mission took me two days, mainly because I died so much or failed by other means.

However, I finally managed it today after buying, gearing up and jumping 3 Nova raiders and 3 Busters to accompany my own regular Nova into the second unknown system, have them all lurk by the Hyperion after killing the sneaky lurking pirates. I then capture the Nemesis, call on my UT to buy it some shields and a tractor beam and jump them in, give the Nemesis a jumpdrive from one of my Novas and jump it to a safe shipyard (requiring 2 stops for energy) to repair hull 50% and do engine tuning bringing it's speed up from 17m/s to a whopping 74m/s (that cost me a few million credits), jump back to unknown sector and then tow the Hyperion with an escort of 4 Novas and 3 Busters.

My tactic was to continue towing until pirates came along, slowly stop (to make sure the Hyperion doesn't crash into the Nemesis), transport myself into the lead Nova and charge the pirates with all the escorts. Then once the fight was over, get back into the Nemesis, re-engage tractor beam, rinse-repeat.

This happened once in the unknown sector before Maelstrom and then in Maelstrom I encountered 3 waves of pirates! Mainly 3+ Novas and/or Falcons with M4 escort, at least one packing a PSG. The 3rd wave (all packing PSGs) issued the ultimatum to hand over the Hyperion, so I get a feeling players don't usually face this many pirates.
To top it all off, I was then attacked by a Kha'ak cluster in Merchant Haven, before running into a single pirate Nova and it's 3 Harriers just after jumping into Grand Exchange. Then just as I thought I was home safe, 4 Falcons were camping the shipyard.

I got the Hyperion back, but in this strenuous process I lost all 3 busters and a Nova Raider. A second nova raider had suffered 75% hull damage and didn't take part in the final fights in Grand Exchange as it fell behind the pack, and the others all minor damage. I also managed to cap a pirate nova on the way and sold it.

I have a feeling that because I legged it away from all the pirates and raced my lone ship to find the Hyperion before jumping out and gathering backup to jump in, I faced everything there on the trip out. Might it have been an easier towing run if I fought my way to it first?

I do know one thing though, for me this mission has been the most epic, difficult and memorable battle I've fought through in X3, waaay surpassing the SP storyline, but that might be because the ships on my side were all mine and I cared for them and felt each loss...

This makes me wonder if you guys have any interesting stories of this mission, or have any better tactics? Were the circumstances different when you did it?

[Storm666]

or have any better tactics?

I used a M6 Centaur for the tow part of the mission and took the fights on whilst still towing the hyperion, its great fun dogfighting whilst that M7 is being swung all around the place in a fight.

[pjknibbs]

There's only one group of pirates which are triggered by the mission itself. Are you playing with the XTM mod installed, by any chance? If you are, it means there's a LOT more pirate activity in Maelstrom and the surrounding area than you'd get in a vanilla game, which perforce makes this mission that much harder.

[The Nightmare]

when i did the mission the 1st wave of pirates that were next to the Hyperion didn't activate and i was glad but then the crazy teladi who gave me the info where is the yancht came out of the north gate in Maestrom with 2 aditional ships claiming that the yanch is his(yea right) so they chased me to the shipyard where i killed them with the Hyperion

[bansisdead]

Spoiler

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I used a paranid TL and a Pirate nova raider, dropped a satellite in the maelstrom. I loaded all the cappable ships on my TL from the unknown sector and installed some shields and weps/TBeam on the nemesis(optional;install jumpdrive&ecells, jump to shipyard and repair alittle to speed it up, but remember you can get the nemesis fully repaired at the shipyard for free once you tow the m7) which i had bought along the way. Finished off the pirates in the unknown sector no problems then set off towing the m7 too the maelstrom, when the 3 pirates showed up on the advanced satellite i sent in my TL then sent in the pnr to help clear up once the TL had done some damage. In merchants haven i disconnected the m7 and re-engaged the tow then autopilot too the ship yard. Took one attempt with the planning done, easy.

Having the TL with me also seemed to scare off any random pirates in the unknown and maelstrom sectors.

[killakanz]

Are you playing with the XTM mod installed, by any chance?

No, just vanilla patched up with the scripts bonuspack.

[jlehtone]

This makes me wonder if you guys have any interesting stories of this mission, or have any better tactics? Were the circumstances different when you did it?

"Tactics are for the weak!"


Starting a game way before the 2.0 patch did made a difference. Cherry-picking the elite units for salvage operation is different from mustering all you can afford. Carriers, Destroyers, ...

And venturing into uncharted space is like following Brett via the "Safe route", or Saya on the "Red route". Having explored the areas many moons before allowed the "just jump over" approach. And peek into Forum spoilers inspired a preparative Grand Tour through all other Pirate space on merciless rampage with hope that the respawns will populate the Eastern sectors. Sadly, they did not.

So, Carrier jump to Unknowns, location of treasure, salvage, and order for Carrier to proceed ahead into Maelstorm, while a Centaur with beam did jump in. Several hours of Mine Towing before X3R 2.0 made the Bala Gi look like taking candy from baby.

Upon entering Maelstorm, 31 pre-2.0 Argon Nova Raiders took Dragonclaw formation around the Centaur. I've never seen a formation that wide. Whatever random Pirates there were, they were crushed. The less random Pirates, it was a case of "break beam, kill target, restore tow".

But near the North Gate of Maelstorm a random Pirate Nova made a memorable move: a Hammerhead kamikaze. Luckily a forward portion of my Nova escorts were sufficiently ahead, and only 9 of them were killed there, with my Centaur safely away from the blast.

For obvious game-technical reasons the Merchant Haven was possibly even more crowded than Maelstorm (but still quite empty), So nothing to worry about. A nice chance to learn how to command AI fighters without personally participating in the skirmish.

[killakanz]

Heh, lots of people saying how they brought in capital ships to do the job and it was all a walkover... I guess I was still a bit early in my game, getting these handfull of fighters together broke the bank, and were the results of many hours saving with my handful of Mercurys and pair of mines.

Nevermind, my business is growing and I'm making more money faster now, mostly from secondaries (stott spices, plankton, Bogas and Scruffin fruits in Argon and Paranid territory, no competition, making a nice fortune from it) will soon afford that Argon trading station...