Campaign Mission: Anacrusis
Objectives
| Required Objectives |
|---|
| Locate Two Destroyers |
| Secondary/Implied Objectives |
|---|
| Defeat the Blocking Force without losing any ships |
Ships
| Allied Ships | Enemy Ships Present | Enemy Reinforcements |
|---|---|---|
| ANS I Stare Transfixed (Beam DD) ANS Through Valor Alone (Beam DD) |
OSPN Finders Keepers (MMT) (cutscene ship) - E/M/H OSPN Cobbled Together (600 MN) - E/M/H OSPN Half Of Infinity (600 MN) - E/M/H OSPN Rogues Gallery (MMT) - E/M/H OSPN The Magic Number (MMT) - E/M/H OSPN Indirect Approach (Fighter Jman) - E/M/H OSPN Brain Death (600 MN) - M/H OSPN The Other Half Of Infinity (600 MN) - M/H OSPN Excuse The Interruption (Jam shuttle) - H OSPN Unbelievably Charming (ruttle) - H OSPN People Mover (ruttle) - H OSPN Not What You Expected? (SALS MN) - H |
None |
Area Outline
Alder arrives at Anacrusis, an abandoned mining site with a cored-out asteroid, where a Draugr Tugboat is confronting two Alliance warships.
As the cutscene plays, the two powerful Keystone-class Beam Destroyers, Through Valour Alone and Stare Transfixed, use both their close-range beam weapons and torpedoes to shred the enemy Draugr-class tugboat in seconds.
Keystone-class destroyers were originally a flawed frigate design, but the Alliance then fitted them with heavy MK6100 Beam cannons. These 6 km-range weapons have turned the Keystone into one of the most powerful units in your fleet that can eviscerate even the largest Protectorage warships with sufficient time on target. It is recommended that you consider toggling the Battleshort button on these ships, as they can overcharge their beam and bypass their cooldown cycle to continue to do damage on enemy ships. The consequence is that if the longer they fire on Battleshort past their cooldown cycle, the more damage they take, meaning you can burn your beam out on overuse. Through Valour Alone and Stare Transfixed also have backup short-range torpedoes, but they do have only minimal point defense.
As the cutscene ends, Alder is informed that the dead tug was not just a scout, but part of a larger force. There is a Protectorate carrier somewhere on the map, and it’s been launching fighters to harass the destroyers. To proceed, you simply need to destroy the enemy vessels or drive them away.
The enemy forces comprise one Protectorate Journeyman-class light carrier, one group of two Flathead-class monitors, a second group of two Flathead-class monitors, and a group of three Draugr-class combat tugboats
Originally an ore-carrier, the Journeyman-class light carrier is dwarfed by Harsh Winds Blows in capability and fighter complement. However, the Protectorate have been resourceful in their military acquisitions and are using Barracuda strike fighters against your Alliance fleet. Although old, these are specialized void/space fighters that can fight your 20mm Tantos on equal terms. Moreover, Barracudas are highly flexible in their loadouts, and this Journeyman has equipped theirs with rockets that can damage your new and valuable Keyestones and Raines.
The Protectorate aside from their tugboats, has also deployed a variant of the Flathead-class Monitors you fought at Iron Spindle specialized in close range engagements. All Monitors on this map are equipped with T81 Plasma-cannons, T30 100mm Turrets, and 600mm C90 Casemate cannons. C90 Casemate cannons fire very slowly, but can fire bruising High Explosive Squash Head (HESH) rounds that will do great damage upon contact. They also have access to the Bombshell round that damages light ships in a sphere. More worryingly, however, are the Plasma cannon and 100mm turrets. The 100mm turrets cannot pierce Long Lance’s armor. However, with the application of the fiery plasma ampoules from the T81 turret, which permanently strip your armor, 100mm can pierce and deliver deadly damage to your ships.
Do not engage these Flathead monitors within 7.2km for extended periods of time. In any case, your Frigates 120mm guns are ineffective against Flatheads. Jam them out with jammers, or delete them with Cyclone hybrid missiles, or Claymore-launched torpedoes.
Aside from keeping these facts in mind, however, Anacrusis is a bit of a sandbox as to how to deal with the enemy ships. It is, however, a very hard mission and is the first of the “boss rooms” of the campaign.
What is recommended is the following:
- Get 1-2 SEWACS out to scout and watch for offset tracks. Ensure that you escort your SEWACS with fighters, as the enemy will try to seek and destroy it with fighters
- You can either pair your Keystones together to instantly destroy the enemy groups you’re encountering, or separate them.
- You need to escort your Keystones with fighters as the Protectorate will take every opportunity to rocket-strafe these valuable ships
- If you are separating them to hold points, you want to support them with bombers to help the Keystone finish off that group, or cruise-routed missile strikes.
- Do not immediately fire your beam on targets as they close into 6km. Beams have a falloff and unless you’re shooting at light targets, should be fired at about 5.8km maximum.
- Use your battleshort [BSHORT] button to keep the jammers up or beam firing
- The Monitors have heavy flak protection, only Cyclone hybrids or Bomber-dropped Torpedoes (Forgetfulness) can penetrate them. You can use the cheaper Thunderhead or Squall Size 2 missiles but only after the monitors are disabled.
- It is recommended that you don’t fire your beams at a maximum 6km range because the beams drop off in damage quite severely. Instead, for beamstones, hold fire until you enter about 5.5km range.
What I did for this mission was to split my Keystones, one going lower left, the other one holding a point high right underneath the tower. Ensuring I escorted my Keystones with fighters to fend off the Journeyman, I had my lower Keystone engage the monitors to the lower left. I supported its attack with bombers and missiles routed from Harsh Winds Blow.
Grouping Long Lance with my gun frigates and Winter Chain to create a gun-battle group, I moved this formation to the centre near the central orb, and destroyed the tugs that attempted to flank my lower-left Keystone. Finally, I grouped up my fleet and pushed the final monitor group on the centre-right.
After you finish off the frontline forces, the Journeyman carrier will retreat if it is out of munitions or planes. If you can catch the ship and disable it without blowing it up, you should loot the carrier for its strike fighters.
As your fleet watches the Journeyman flee, Captains Moeller and Stratton then have a discussion about the Alliance and its future. Barracudas were after all, originally Alliance strike fighters. Lucille is not happy about the Protectorate looting them for their use and about how they’ve always sat back and let the Alliance bleed. Now that they’re seceding, Lucille straight up says that they are breaking the Alliance. Tristan flatly tells her the Alliance is already dead and this civil war has started a downfall that cannot be stopped. He is, however, here to fight for a few more decades of peace.
As you ruminate on the implications of your campaign, you can choose to try to move onto the next room, maybe even pursue the Journeyman. However, DO NOT do this. This campaign has no time limit, only fuel restrictions.
Once the dialogue has finished, loot the Tugboats for useful missiles, then, if you took damage in the fight (which is likely) use some fuel to head back to Iron Spindle and its repair berths.
The Iron Spindle station has repair berths near the exit. You can use the berths to make repairs, stock up on any munitions you left on your first visit, then jump back to Anacrusis, and onwards to Katabasis
