Tales of Honor: The Secret Fleet Tactics/Strategies

I've been having a terrible time with the last mission on Sachsen Sector (30: Honor Among Thieves). I've tried just using BPL missiles, hull penetator missiles, and various combinations of a the different kinds of missiles both in salvos and alternating launches. The best I can ever do is get the other ship down to about 4k/6k health. What am I doing wrong?

Do you have a replay you can post and link us to?

Donnachaidh wrote:I've been having a terrible time with the last mission on Sachsen Sector (30: Honor Among Thieves). I've tried just using BPL missiles, hull penetator missiles, and various combinations of a the different kinds of missiles both in salvos and alternating launches. The best I can ever do is get the other ship down to about 4k/6k health. What am I doing wrong?

Nothing. He is just that tough! lol
You kinda have to slog your way through.
I went very heavy on the spitfires until his weapons were gone.
Roll with the punches lol

Donnachaidh wrote:I've been having a terrible time with the last mission on Sachsen Sector (30: Honor Among Thieves). I've tried just using BPL missiles, hull penetator missiles, and various combinations of a the different kinds of missiles both in salvos and alternating launches. The best I can ever do is get the other ship down to about 4k/6k health. What am I doing wrong?

How do you have your ship equipped?
Making sure your major departments are at their max level can make a big difference. Beyond that anything that helps you fire faster, or use defenses more frequently can be a major help.

Components to increase damage to enemy systems are nice, but I view them as secondary to the items above (and be aware there seems to be a bug with them were using more than one per department actually decreases damage to enemy systems)


For hard fights my normal strategy is to lead with hull perpetrators (so I don't waste expensive missiles when he uses his defensive capabilities) then switch to hellfires (anti-weapons) to pull his teeth, then Mk13s to generally cripple him and force him to spread his repairs around. Then back to hull perpetrators for a while to conserve missiles (or nukes if I'm feeling rich), throwing in another round of hellfires or mk13s whenever he starts getting weapons or other systems back online.


Of course that's easier said that done against a end of sector boss.

Donnachaidh wrote:I've been having a terrible time with the last mission on Sachsen Sector (30: Honor Among Thieves). I've tried just using BPL missiles, hull penetator missiles, and various combinations of a the different kinds of missiles both in salvos and alternating launches. The best I can ever do is get the other ship down to about 4k/6k health. What am I doing wrong?

If you are talking about warnecke, than I had a huge problem with him too. It was a little bit ago, but I think when I beat him I had the following. All departments leveled to max. Two recharge accelerators leveled to max on weapons, sidewalls, CMs, ECM, and lasers. 1 roll accelerator maxed out on the bridge. One system damage enhancer maxed on each system. Two system shields on my bridge, and one in weapons. A maxed warhead enhancer in weapons. A BPL armor in sidewalls. All remaining spaces were given to repair accelerators. Please note that some of the blue repair accelerators are faster before you level them up.

I used staggered salvoes, firing each battery when the other was at half refresh. I fired one salvo from each battery of hull pens to deplete his defense, then I fired about 4 or 5 salvos of Hellfires, so I could survive, then I spammed the heck out of him with BPLs, and hang the cost. Once all of his defenses were at 50% or lower, I switched back to hull pens, and let the staggered salvos keep his systems offline. I stopped his first salvo with active defenses, took the second on my wedge, and then concentrated on defending myself against anything that could damage my offensive system. My repair priority was offense, roll, lasers, CM, ECM, sidewalls, making sure that each was online before fully repairing anything.

Even with this, it took me a couple of trys. I finally beat him with the prebattle sidewall enhancement. I think the system damage enhancement would have worked as well or better, but it was never offered.

Jonathan_S wrote:
Components to increase damage to enemy systems are nice, but I view them as secondary to the items above (and be aware there seems to be a bug with them were using more than one per department actually decreases damage to enemy systems)

I went back to pummeling the Breslau sector boss for fun and profit, and you seem to be right about this. With two sidewall damage items, I could barely touch his sidewalls. They seemed to hover around 90%.

Once I took one out of service, his sidewalls were done within four salvos. Based on that, system damage items are definitely bugged.

Donnachaidh wrote:I've been having a terrible time with the last mission on Sachsen Sector (30: Honor Among Thieves). I've tried just using BPL missiles, hull penetator missiles, and various combinations of a the different kinds of missiles both in salvos and alternating launches. The best I can ever do is get the other ship down to about 4k/6k health. What am I doing wrong?

Okay, just for grins I stopped beating up the poor Breslau end boss and went after Warneke. He's not hard at all if you have the right item load.

* Obviously, have your system level at maximum.

* Add a system damage component to everything. If your enemy has weapon damage, they're going to repair weapon damage. If your enemy has everything except bridge damage, they might want to fix that laser or ECM before they focus on the weapons, which gives you a break. Your goal is to keep his weapons down to 4-5 missiles per battery, enough for you to use one countermeasure against two salvos.

* Try to fill as much of the remainder with blue level or higher system cooldown items. I'm not worried about damage, because I'm not going to take any damage. (This changes against very difficult enemies, about 50-75% harder than Warnecke.) If you don't have those items, use multiple green cooldown items instead.

Once in the fight, try the following. Warnecke is middling power on everything, with very short cooldowns and excellent repair on his lasers. He's honestly a bit of a softy.

OPENING MOVES:

* Start off with a slightly staggered (~0.5-1 second) double salvo. You want to get that off instantly, because no matter what you do it's going to get countered. Your SECOND salvo from each should follow as soon as it's done cooling down; since the fourth one is the first salvo you can count on actually getting through, make that your BPL or anti-weapon shot.

* Warnecke (as with any decent enemy) will counter just prior to you getting your second salvo off. Even with maximum defenses you will have a difficult time stopping his first wave. Therefore, don't! Start rolling just prior to your second shots, so you're covered by your wedge right after the shots go off. This will allow your weapon system to recharge while your wedge intervenes.

* Roll down: Fire two more (~1 second stagger) salvos. Your fifth salvo will be shot down by CMs and/or lasers. Your sixth salvo should have a few leakers. Use BPLs for this one.

* Simultaneously, be prepared for Warnecke's second wave to come at you. By using BPLs or anti-weapons in the 4th salvo and adding an anti-weapons system item to your load out, you weakened this considerably. If you can take it with two systems (5-6 incoming missiles per battery), use your lasers and CMs since those recharge faster. Otherwise, use all three to stop it unless one of them is a standalone wave of green anti-ECM missiles. If so, blow your ECM on the first wave, put it on cooldown and ignore the anti-ECM missiles. Start repairing as soon as those hit. By the time your ECM can fire again, the battle will be effectively over.

* Again, fire off a ~1 second separated pair of salvos. If you're having difficulty here, make one of these a BPL and the other anti-weapon. You should get at least leakers on both.

CATCHING THE PATTERN:

* If you have more missiles coming than you can catch, let them bypass you in the order of maroon nukes, cyan anti-sidewall, green anti-ECM, followed by yellow/red anti-CM or anti-laser. Do NOT let a red-orange anti-weapon hit you, and above all make sure you stop the purple Mk 13 bomb-pumped lasers. The nukes will do massive hull damage, but one salvo or even two won't kill you outright.

* Roll as often as possible, whenever you have either two salvos of missiles you can't catch, or any anti-weapon or Mk 13 salvos that you don't think you can catch. If you have a single salvo of anti-laser or anti-CM that will bypass your defenses, strongly consider rolling.

FINISH HIM:

* The BPLs in your 6th, 7th and 8th salvos, as well as your system damage items, have inflicted broad system damage. Your BPLs may even have prevented him from rolling, as he can normally do so with every other salvo if you launch both batteries near-simultaneously. Your anti-weapon missiles have reduced his salvos to a manageable level.

* If you are having serious trouble, begin staggering BPLs and nukes in an alternating pattern, firing each as the last one passes through your ECM protection. If enemy salvo sizes creep back up, switch to BPL/anti-weapon.

* If you are having trouble, but not seriously, mix BPL and hull penetrators in a 1/3 pattern, again with the above alternating shots.

* If you have your enemy systems well under control, alternate hull penetrating salvos as your previous salvo passes through your ECM band. Your enemy will roll every 4th to 6th salvo. By alternating your shots this way, you will catch them immediately after they roll back and ensure weapons systems stay locked down.

I like using my light cruiser to beat up hard mode event bosses by using the above basic methods. For comparison, the medium event boss is somewhat harder than Warnecke. He's easily beatable as long as you don't stay locked into trading broadsides with his battlecruiser.