This article contains some information about Lucasarts' X-Wing which I have collected after playing this old DOS game again.

Comments on the Starfighters

Y-Wing

It might sound crazy but in my opinion the Y-Wing is the best starfighter in this game. It has just one disadvantage: The top speed. It can't fly faster than 100 MGLT. Another issue is the agility but in my opinion it is agile enough. On the other hand the Y-Wing has a lot of advantages:

• While fully charging weapons and shields the Y-Wing still can fly at 60 MGLT like the A-Wing. That's faster than the X-Wing and a lot faster than the B-Wing.
• The Y-Wing carries eight Proton Torpedos. That's better than the X-Wing and a lot better than the A-Wing which only carries Concussion Missiles. Yes, I know, the B-Wing carries 12 Proton Torpedos, but eight is already an impressive amount.
• The Y-Wing has Ion Cannons which comes in handy in a lot of situations.
• The Laser Cannons are mounted directly in front of the cockpit. That means it has no dead range. Wherever you aim the Laser Cannons will definetly hit. The Y-Wing is a great TIE killer because of this.
• The Ion Cannons are mounted directly above the cockpit. They also have no dead range. It is very easy to disable small crafts like a TIE Fighter with the Y-Wing.

Because of all those advantages the Y-Wing is not only a TIE killer, it is also a Star Destroyer killer. It's damn easy to destroy a Star Destroyer with a Y-Wing after you have taken out all it's TIE defenses. First take out the shield generators with the Proton Torpedos, then shoot some Ion blasts to disable the beast and then use the Laser Cannons to finish it off. Piece of cake.

X-Wing

The X-Wing sucks because of the large dead range of the Laser Cannons. On the other hand it has four Laser Cannons so it's still possible to hit small objects like TIE Fighters. Another disadvantage is the low speed of 50 MGLT while fully charging weapons and shields.

Because of the six Proton Torpedos the X-Wing is still a good craft to hunt Star Destroyers. The lack of Ion Cannons makes it more difficult and time consuming but a good pilot can handle that.

A-Wing

The A-Wing is a damn fast starfighter. But it's weak shields and the lack of Proton Torpedos makes it the worst starfighter against capital ships. The Concussion Missiles are not enough to take out the Shield Generators of a Star Destroyer so more work is needed to finish it off.

It's easier with the A-Wing to fight against TIE Fighters as with the X-Wing. The Laser Cannons still have a too large dead range but it's ok.

The A-Wing is a great interceptor and that's exactly for what it was build.

B-Wing

I don't like the B-Wing. And that has the following reasons:

• The Laser Cannons have a very large dead range. One cannon is directly mounted before the cockpit but the other two a far away on the wing tips. Is very difficult to hunt down TIE Fighters in this crate.
• It's pretty slow. Only 45 MGLT while fully charging weapons and shields. But on the other hand it has a better top speed than the Y-Wing.
• The Torpedo Launchers are far from the cockpit. So doing a blind shot at a TIE Bomber is difficult. The Torpedo will most likely dive away under the TIE Bomber.

The B-Wing is still a good craft against capital ships. That's what is was build for. But it's a real pain to fly that thing against starfighters because of the large cannon dead range.

Tips and Tricks for Combat

Combat Speed

A good speed while fighting against TIE fighters is 60-75 MGLT. The A-Wing and Y-Wing can do this while fully charging weapons and shields which is a great advantage. If you are flying a X-Wing or B-Wing you should set laser and shield regeneration only to the level Increase to get more speed.

If you are fighting against Shuttles, Transports, TIE Bombers or Gunboats you should always set laser and shield regeneration to full charge and maybe decrease the speed a little bit. Otherwise you will crash into the enemy and you will not survive that in most cases.

Linked Cannons

It's a bad idea to use the single fire mode and spray rounds of laser fire somewhere in the direction of the enemy. This is not only ineffective it's also energy consuming. Learn to aim and use linked fire. You'll see that you have plenty of energy left in the laser banks which you can redirect into the shields. You'll also see that it's damn easy to shoot down TIE Fighters with one aimed and linked shot if you have some practice.

Hunting TIE Bombers

In some missions you fly an A-Wing to intercept some TIE Bombers. In those missions it is important to kill the Bombers as fast as possible to prevent them firing any Torpedos. A good practice is to use the concussion missiles without locking from behind the Bombers. Without the locking the Bomber will not evade the missile. Another advantage is that you don't need to wait for the lock. Just fire the missile. You need some practice in aiming the missiles but it's not that difficult.

You can do the same with the other crafts using Proton Torpedos. But it's a shame to waste Torpedos on those Bombers. If you want to save your Torpedos or Missiles (or you have none left) then fire at each of the Bombers one by one with your linked Laser Cannons. Each Bomber will stop attacking the target for now and begin evasive maneuvers. After all Bombers are now evading finish them off quickly before they go back to their deadly work.

Gaining speed

If you have just started your mission and you need to get very fast to your destination but you don't want to loose energy, try this: Move your existing laser energy to your shields and then redirect the laser energy to your engine. Keep the shield energy at normal level. In that way you don't loose any energy and you are flying fast enough to reach your target. If you are in range of your target move half of the shield energy back to the lasers and your energy levels are restored.

Mission tips and tricks

The following is not a tutorial how to complete the missions. You'll handle this yourself, I'm sure. The following tips are meant for the professionals who wants to get the most out of the missions. After a mission is completed there is a lot of enemy stuff flying around. So don't hyper out immediatly. Do something for your score. Do something for your next promotion!

Tour of Duty I - Mission 1 (Destroy Imperial Convoy)

That's a quite easy mission. Send home your wingman or command him to wait. Then finish off all the freighters. No need to waste the Proton Torpedos. Use your Lasers. The Corvette and the Transport are not in danger so ignore them. They will hyper out after some time and the mission is a success.

Meanwhile a Frigate will hyper in and launch TIE Fighter waves. Killing all those TIE Fighters is enough to get a high score which will be awarded.

If you like you can use your Torpedos against the Frigate and try to destroy it with your Lasers. I don't like fighting against Frigates so I hypered out.

I have finished this mission with 21507 points and I was rewarded with the Kalidor Crescent.

Tour of Duty I - Mission 2 (ID Reconnaissance Mission)

In this mission you need to identify all incoming capital ships with your A-Wing. Not a great task. You will be hunted by some TIE Fighters. Whenever there is no more to identify, kill them and wait for the next wave or the next capital ship to identify.

After the mission is completed you have much to do. First of all kill all of the fucking TIE Fighters and the sixty TIE Interceptors which will launch in groups of six. Killing all those TIEs (or even the half of them) is enough to get awarded.

After all the TIEs are vanquished you can go for the capital ships. The Freighters are easy. The Corvettes can be taken out one by one from behind but the Star Destroyer is sometimes in a good shooting position to stop you from doing so. So I recommend beginning with the Star Destroyer. Fire some shoots on it and it will launch some TIE Bombers. If you can get rid of them you should take out its Shield Generators and then destroy it with bare lasers. After that you can take out the Corvettes from behind. If you are still thirsty for blood you can now take out the Frigates.

I have not destroyed the Star Destroyer or the Frigates. Just some of the Corvettes. After that it was late at night and I needed some sleep so I hypered out with 64000 points in my pocket. I was rewarded with the Bronze Cluster.

Tour of Duty I - Mission 3 (Fly Point During Evacuation)

One of the very easy missions. A Star Destroyer arrives and launches some TIEs (24 TIE Fighters, 6 Bombers). Get rid of them first. Now go for the star destroyer. It has no escorts, it launches no fighters if getting attacked and it doesn't move. So it's an easy target. Take out the Shield Generators with your Proton Torpedos and then send the beast to hell with your lasers.

I have finished this mission with 22692 points and I was rewarded with the Silver Talons.

Tour of Duty I - Mission 4 (Protect Medical Frigate)

In this mission the Empire tries to destroy some poor ships carrying wounded to the Medical Frigate Redemption. A Frigate hypers in to drop of three TIE Bombers and two TIE Fighters. Command your Wingmen to wait and go for the TIEs with full speed. Destroy the five TIEs and then hurry back to the Redemption. The Imperial Frigate will appear again on the opposite side and again drops two TIE Fighters and three Bombers. Order your wingmen to engage the TIE Fighters so they are busy. Kill the Bombers then the Fighters and then send your Wingmen home so you have all the fun for yourself. The Frigate will send more TIE Fighters but nothing more.

Not much points to get here. Just six TIE Bombers and 22 TIE Fighters. The Frigate will hyper out after some time. I even was not able to lower its shields before it escaped.

I have finished this mission with 14397 points. I got no reward.

Tour of Duty I - Mission 5 (Ambush Imperial Supply Convoy)

In this Mission you just have to destroy three Freighters. Much to easy. But there are a lot of points to get here. After destroying all the TIE escorts, the Corvette and the Freighters head on for the TIE Interceptors. Destroy wave by wave until no more are coming. Now attack the Star Destroyer and you will end up with just more TIE Interceptors which are coming in groups of six. A long fight but not that difficult. Now you are ready to destroy the Star Destroyer. Usual way: First take out the shield generators with your Proton Torpedos and then fire it to hell with bare lasers.

I have finished this mission with 69053 points and got the Silver Scimitar as reward.

Tour of Duty I - Mission 6 (Raid for R2 Units)

Mission goal is the protection of a capture operation. Enemies are pirate Y-Wings (12), Transports (5) and Shuttles (4). Not much points to get here. I finished this mission with 13153 points and got no reward.

Tour of Duty I - Mission 7 (Recover Stolen X-wings)

Mission goal is the recapturing of three hi-jacked X-Wings. Go to full speed to catch the X-Wings and disable them. Then go for the TIE Interceptors which are far away. Dogfight them. Remember? You are flying a Y-Wing, the TIE Killer. Ignore what's happening behind you. Shuttles are coming in, rescuing the X-Wings, a Cruiser will hyper in, Shuttles and X-Wings will enter the hanger, Cruiser hypers out. Nothing important.

The Star Destroyer launches 52 more TIE Interceptors in groups of two. The pilots are the worst employed by the Empire. If you have a TIE behind you you will barely notice him. I think they have not learned how to push the trigger yet... Really boring.

Kill all the TIEs and now the Star Destroyer and your Y-Wing are alone in space. What now? Correct. Take out the Shield Generators, say Booh with your Ion Cannon and then a lot of Boohs with your Laser Cannons until you here a great Kawoom.

I have finished this mission with 41362 points and I was rewarded with the Golden Wings.

Tour of Duty I - Mission 8 (Rescue Sullustan Tech Staff)

In this mission you have to identify prisoner transports and disable them. It's best to first destroy one of the TIE Fighters and then disable the other one. Now you have time to identify the transports, destroy the non-prisoner ones and then disable the prisoner transports. Now rebel transports hypers in to rescue the prisoners. At the same time TIE Interceptors are launching from the two Imperial Frigates. Destroy them wave by wave until the rescue operation is complete.

Now it's time for some fun. Shoot at one of the Frigates to get more TIE Interceptors. The other Frigate also has Interceptors on board if you fire at it. So if you will you can fight against eight TIE Interceptors at once. If you don't feel strong enough don't shoot at the second Frigate before you have eliminated all Interceptors of the first Frigate. And don't forget to destroy the disabled TIE Fighter to get more TIE Fighters. That's a total of at least 100 TIEs. Lots of points. If you still are in killing mood, try the frigates. You are flying a Y-Wing so it's not that difficult. But as I already said: I hate fighting against Frigates, so I hypered out.

I have finished this mission with 66861 points and I was rewarded with the Diamond Eyes. This is the last reward in X-Wing. And we are still in Tour I.

Tour of Duty I - Mission 9 (Diplomatic Summit at Sullust)

In this mission you are flying an A-Wing and your job is to protect a meeting of Alliance and Sulustan leaders. The beginning is boring, no enemies in sight. Time to fully charge the shields. A Star Destroyer will hyper in after some time and will launch TIE Fighters (6), TIE Interceptors (12) and TIE Bombers (6). Do team work with your wingman and destroy them as fast as possible. After that you can attack the Star Destroyer. It does not launch any more fighters. Go for the Shield Generators with your Missiles. After that you need some more laser shots to finally destroy the Generators. Now do the usual shooting stuff until the Star Destroyer is destroyed.

I have finished this mission with 20020 points.

Tour of Duty I - Mission 10 (Rescue Sullustan Leader)

In this mission you are flying a Y-Wing and your job is to find and disable the Shuttle carrying the Sulustan leader.

The Star Destroyer is far away so you have enough time to get rid of all the other Shuttles shooting at you. They are far more dangerous than the TIE Fighters because of their Quad Lasers. Now disable the shuttle and engage the TIE Fighters. If you want your peace then disable at least one TIE of every group and send the X-Wings home so they don't engage them. Wait until the rescue operation is complete and then you can relax. You can now engage the TIEs again and after they are all killed (Watch out for the TIE Bomber waves!) you can easily destroy the Star Destroyer with your shiny Star Destroyer Killer.

I have completed this mission with 40009 points.

Tour of Duty I - Mission 11 (Capture Staff from Cygnus)

Not much to do here. Just destroy everything which does not carry the Technical Stuff. Some TIE Fighters, two Freighters, a Gunboat. Not much points.

I have completed this mission with 14220 points.

Tour of Duty I - Mission 12 (Recover Explosive Warhead)

Oh hell, what a boring mission. Destroy all the mines, disable the freighter, wait for the boarding party and then intercept two Imperial Transports trying to stop the captured freighter. Two Imperial Shuttles will attack you to prevent you from killing the Transports. Not much points to get here.

I have completed this mission with 5251 points. After hypering out a video sequence shows the destruction of the Star Destroyer Invincible. That's the crate I already have destroyed five times... Because of completing this Tour of Duty I was rewarded with the Corellian Cross.

Tour of Duty II - Mission 1

Destroy the Imperial Transport first, then go for the TIEs. A lot of TIEs. 37 TIE Interceptors, 35 TIE Fighters and 35 TIE Bombers. And finally there is the Star Destroyer Intrepid awaiting your missiles on its Shield Generators. I have the odd feeling we will destroy the Intrepid again and again in the next missions.

I have completed this mission with 64947 points.

Tour of Duty II - MIssion 2

In this mission you have to shoot your way through a field of Gunboats and TIE Fighters. After identifying the Freihter two Y-Wings and a Transport will hyper in to rescue the Wookies. Protect them by destroying the TIE Fighters launching from the Intrepid. After the Wookies are safe and the mission is complete destroy the Freighter and kill all of the remaining TIE Fighter waves. Now attack the Intrepid to get more waves of TIE Interceptors and TIE Bombers. It's best to destroy two of the Bombers and let the last one fly until you have destroyed all Interceptor waves. Then you have your hands free for the rest of the TIE Bomber waves. After that the Intrepid is ready two be destroyed the second time.

I have completed this mission with 72248 points and finally got the promotion to General.

Tour of Duty II - Mission 3

In this mission you have to destroy an Imperial Convoy with your Y-Wing. Just two Corvettes, two Freighters and some Transports and Shuttles. If you send home all your wingmen it should be possible to get more than 20000 points but then you have to fight your way alone through the Gunboat waves. And it's not easy if four Gunboats are shooting at you with Missiles. So do team work. Go for the gunboats and kill the Capital Ships if you find some spare seconds.

I have completed this mission with lousy 16101 points.

Where is the rest?

Well, you have to pay for it. No, just kidding. There is no more to read here. After TOD 2.3 I had finally got the last promotion and got the last medallion and lost the interest in the game. But maybe some day I will continue playing and then I will continue this page. But for now this is all I have to say, sorry.