This was my most satisfying game yet, since a lot of strategy was involved.
I wasn't confident that my ship was upgraded enough, so I played a risky game and jumped to a number of beacons to attack enemy ships for scrap, so I could upgrade my systems.
I also made a last-minute call to trade in my Heavy Laser I for a Burst Laser I, since it would give me one more hit I'd probably need to get past the Flagship's shields (2 Heavy ion + 2 Burst Laser + 1 Heavy laser).
In the final stage, my ship was down to 3HP.
In stage 3, the flagship got one or two shots in, leaving me with 1HP when I fired the winning round of shots.
My setup:
- no drones at all
- 24 power in systems + 3 Zoltan
- full shields
- 3 Engines
- Cloak x3
- Teleporter x1
- Medbay x1
- Oxygen x2
- Halberd , Heavy Laser I, Burst Laser I, Heavy Ion
- Augments: Zoltan Shields, Weapon Pre-Igniter, Weapons Loader
Strategy:
- Beam 2 team members into the enemy's 3x missile launcher as soon as possible
since I had the first shot, shoot the Heavy Ion, wait 1-2 seconds, then fire Burst Laser and Heavy laser. Without too many missed shots, this will take flagship's shields down to 1. This means: time to fire the Halberd beam.
As soon as possible after this: cloak, to avoid the drones/lasers/missiles. This way, when the cloak disappears, I still have a number of Zoltan Shield bars and the Automated Reloader makes sure I can fire another salvo by then.
My cloak also gave my crew time to repair damaged systems.
Boarders are taken care of by taking away Oxygen. Next time I might even do that at the very start...
At fase II, I took quite a lot of damage, but concentrating on taking out Drone control as soon as possible paid off. Enabling me to win with 3HP left.
At the final stage, as soon as its Zoltan Shields were down, I beamed one member (the other boarder was killed in stage 2) into the 3x missile room, carefully watching for the 'killer weapon', so I could enable my cloak at the right time.
The flagship got a couple of shots in, so I was down to 1HP. To make matters worse, it somehow re-enabled its Zoltan Shields. So I took them down and prayed that the 3x missiles wouldn't hit. Miraculously, they did not. I was terrified the secret weapon would kill me, but my shields were holding.
The enemy ship had 2 shield bars left, so while my Halberd beam was recharging, I tried to get a few shots in and succeeded to chip away at its health.
Then I noticed the flagship had 4HP left, so if I could just take down the 2 shield bars and hit 4 rooms at once, I would be home free. I fired my heavy Ion, which took its shields, and aimed my Halberd Beam so it would slice 4 rooms at once... victory!!
Like I said, my most satisfying run ever. I had to make some difficult decisions, which paid off in the end. And won by the smallest margin possible. Extremely satisfying
