Bala gi's legacy plot doing my head in!

[steve75]

I'm in lightwater following the orca ready to board it and it's not turning red, if I attack it and attempt boarding my marines can't penetrate the hull and abort...I've been going at this for hours and it's really starting to annoy me now. Anyone suffered this at all, Or does anyone have a solution?
Thanks

[TTD]

You have to keep the shields down and keep at the hull,but be careful not to blow it up,otherwise you lose the PHQ too.

There is a good video showing how it is done,somewhere on the forums.I used it for my attempt.

Even then,I took three attempts before I succeeded.

[NightStryke]

You have to keep the shields down and keep at the hull,but be careful not to blow it up,otherwise you lose the PHQ too.

I did it not long ago and the Orca is invulnerable until you cap it; it won't go below 95% hull or so, so you can actually just blast away at it with impunity, though granted that you'll not want to be shooting at it when you cap it as at that point a few stray PPC shots can destroy it.

Also, OP, if your marines can't penetrate the hull then you probably need to train them more in the mechanical skill, assuming they're not just being thrown back by the shields.

[David Howland]

Hi Steve75,
NightStyke is correct here the ship can be hammered mercilessly until the change of ownership, so keep the bombardment going until the last marine is safely on board!
You do not mention your tactics here, but I take it you are using an M7M with 20 marines with pods, if you are not using this many I would recomend this as a minimum. It can be done with less but only by experienced boarders, which I am assuming you are not.
I was an inexperienced boarder when I did this but had the luxury of as many assets as I could want. I had made a first attempt with my Dragon and Gannet which failed, so did some more marine training and gathered an OVERWHELMING force. I retuned to the plot with: An M1, M2 and M7 optomised for Ion bombardment, my Dragon and two M7Ms each with 20 marines all well trained in mechanical, 10 pods and filled with hammer and flail missiles, I also had 50 salvage insurance.
The extra ships not only allowed heavy bomdardment but were very effective at boxing in the Orca. Of the 40 marines at my disposal I used 25 in two waves, three pods from my Cobra and two pods from my Gannet. 50 sal. ins. allowed saving at every strategic point of the operation, enabling replay of any disappointing part of it!
The most difficult bit was the end which I had to replay three times to get the fragile Orca to a shipyard without destroying it.
Good hunting!

[Neil Depledge]

Orca captured by Yaki so on your M7M set Yaki as enemy. Can now fire missiles as it's 'enemy'. Pods when ready and bingo. Bring in your support Griffon with a couple of shields, JD and energy to transfer over to your new Orca. Reset M7M back to friendly with Yaki and save while you decide which sector to place your HQ.

[Targ Collective]

You need to bring two ships to the sector (in my experience) to trigger turning it to Enemy, but that could just be a quirk of my experience.

[NightStryke]

You need to bring two ships to the sector (in my experience) to trigger turning it to Enemy, but that could just be a quirk of my experience.

It gets toggled to enemy when you bring in a ship carrying marines.

[Targ Collective]

Ah! That would be it then.

[eldyranx3]

Last time I did that plot the Orca was invincible. Has that changed?

[TTD]

The moment you claim the Orca it becomes like any other Orca.
That is why you have to make sure you are not allowing other ships etc to still attack.
It took me a few reloads to get it right,even with the video help.

[David Howland]

In my previous post I mentioned three attempts to remove Orca to safety but did not give any explanation. I now come clean in case it helps someone facing this challenge. So as follows:-
1. Having seen my last marine aboard I switched my fleet from attack shields to protect Orca duties. I transfered my jump drive and some fuel as I was giving comand for the jump, my M2 collided with the Orca and destroyed it.
2. This time I did the same but on taking possession I ordered my other ships from protect Orca, to Defend the East Gate. I ordered the Orca to follow me to the empty northern part of the sector. This time I transfered jump drive, fuel and and two shields to the Orca and ordered it to jump two sectors to a shipyard. I followed under rocket power, after passing through the first gate I ckecked the sector ahead to see how my Orca was doing and was amazed to find no Orca. I checked my log and found an Orca destroyed message but no ref. to what had destroyed it? Grrr.
3. This time I followed the same proceedure but as well as transfering the gear I transfered myself as well. This time we made it to the Shipyard and then an Eq. Dock!
So the moral of this story is, in TC if you want something doing right, do it yourself!

[steve75]

Thanks for that advice, I'll get some marines properly kitted out and have a go at it again. Didnt think id take it in only my springblossom and 5 marines. I think a cobra would be a good investment in that case. Again thanks for the advice.