tips on destroying destroyers

Hi guys,

I am new to this site as well as the wing commander franchise in general. I am not sure if this is the right place to post it, but does anyone have any tips on how to defeat the destroyer in mission 5 of the prologue. I know how to target subsystems, but his missile launcher is protected by shields AND very hard to hit. He keeps destroying the wellington. It also doesnt help that this is near the end of the mission and there are no checkpoints in this game. So any tips? Should I try to take out his engines perhaps, or save up ALL my missiles just to spam hit his launcher?

You can target subsystems by pressing "S" or "Shift-S" and turrets by pressing "K" or "SHIFT-K". With "V" you can target turrets which are at you crosshair.
And try to fly inside the destroyer's shield perimeter. This way you'll be able to destroy the turrets and the missile launcher.

Also try to use glide - position yourself inside the shield "bubble" near the launcher (so it is behind you) match speed with the destroyer, then enable glide (ALT-G by default) turn to face the launcher and rip it apart.

While using glide your flight path will remain constant from the moment you enabled glide, now you can rotate your ship in any direction you desire without changing the filght path.

Cool mission it is. But is there a way to shorten/surpass the auto navigation scenes? If you try a mission for a fifth time you know the drill....

In addition to getting under the shields and using glide, your initial suggestion of missiles is also an option. If you have ImRecs, you can use them against particular turrets or subsystems of a capship; this works best if you combine it with the other tricks, so you don't waste your missiles against the shields, but actually damage the launcher itself with them.

If you're having a hard time, you can also try lowering the difficulty in the options screen (though I'm pretty sure you can only alter it between missions, from the main Flight Deck options screen).

And no, I'm pretty sure there's no way to skip any content. My advice would be, if you've played a mission more than a couple times, just go ahead and lower the difficulty. WCSaga is intended to play more like the "old school" Wing Commander games, which were always very difficult; there's no shame in playing on a lower difficulty.

Yeah, lowering the level can always do wonders. But I do love a difficult game.

What I like about the prologue is that you learn the controls you need. And so replaying a mission isn't so worrying as it will increase 'automatics'.

alas, diverting from the subject. Good tips are given on how to take on the destroyer.

The tip of gliding under his shield should definitely help. Thank you.

In this mission it can also help to destroy the ship's engines, so the destroyer cannot close distance.

I made it past the destroyer, only to find myself getting slaughtered by the cruisers
[spoiler:1hzc7e9l]Taking out the two launchers at the front of each cruiser helps, but I cant keep the hellcats alive, nor can I stall the killrathi long enough to allow the wellington to abandon ship. Also, that is usually the point where I get killed.[/spoiler:1hzc7e9l]

You can't always save everyone. The game will tell you if you've failed a mission-critical objective; otherwise, so long as you're still alive, you can still finish the mission. Just, you know, try not to die