Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock/Chapters 1-4 (Tutorial)


 * After Virgon buried their nukes, the leaders of the Twelve Colonies promised we would never see war of that scale again. Peace would reign in our lifetime, and the lifetimes of our children.


 * They could not have predicted the Cylon rebellion, less than thirty years later. The worst conflict in Colonial history, and we are at a stalemate. No foothold gained that isn't lost again within weeks.


 * The Jupiter project was supposed to be our ace in the hole. The largest, and most powerful battlestars ever created. Each of the Twelve Colonies were promised one, in return for signing the Articles of Colonization.


 * The first, Galactica, was Caprica's crowning glory. It went missing two weeks after deployment.


 * Athena, the fifth ship, belongs to Picon. We were days away from delivering it when we heard the news.


 * Picon's capital cities were devastated by Cylon assault fleets; among them, our own Colonial Fleet Headquarters. There was no chance to intervene.


 * Command of Colonial Fleet has fallen to Rear Admiral Cain. Our mobile shipyard, Daidalos, has become the adhoc fleet headquarters.


 * As Cain's XO aboard Daidalos, you have been promoted to Operations Commander of the entire Colonial Fleet.


 * Cain intends immediate retaliation for the attack on Picon. The War Room awaits your arrival, commander.

Chapter 1 - Daidalos
The first five chapters of the game are the tutorial stages, and thus are impossible to fail provided you follow the on-screen instructions.

You start the game with two Manticores, and instructions to move full speed towards the unknown DRADIS contact directly ahead. More advanced capabilities will be withheld until later, so just stick with what little you're given for now. There will be more time to experiment later. On Turn 2, focus fire is enabled. Follow the on-screen instructions to tell your ships to focus down the still-unknown DRADIS contact. The tutorial has only one of your Manticores to focus fire, but tell the other to lock on as well. An enemy ship at 1 HP does the same amount of damage as a target at full health, so it is good practice to concentrate fire on single targets.

Additionally, you will unlock the most powerful tool a new player can have: Toggle Weapon Arc Visibility. Press the \ key or the button to see the firing arcs of your ships. The weapon arcs shown are strictly 2D, however, and do not show the elevation or depression abilities of the guns; refer to the ships page for that information. Going into Turn 3, your DRADIS contact will finally be fully identified as a Nemesis, and a second Nemesis will appear to support it. Despite equal numbers, the Nemesis is an extremely poor fighter, and only carelessness will cost you your Manticores. Keep your Manticores either in front and above or below and behind to keep their guns firing.

As per Cain's instructions, select the Nemesis corvettes to identify them and gain slightly more information regarding their armour profile. Your Manticores also receive access to their missiles. Have your Manticores launch their missiles at either Nemesis at the same time. The Nemeses will respond in kind with their own missiles, but as of now there is no way to deal with them.

Turn 4 will introduce repairing subsystems. Sinon will appear and prompt you on how to repair the tech bay of one of your Manticores. Many Cylon ships are capable of doing subsystem attacks, so keep in mind of how to repair for the future. Losing the tech bay is a minor annoyance; losing Navigation and Fire Control can be devastating.

All future turns will be without tutorial prompts. Simply destroy both Nemeses to end the mission, and enjoy the replay.

Post-Chapter 1
After destroying the Nemesis, you will be returned to the war room. Follow the instructions receive the briefing for Mission 2.


 * Cain has got her stomping boots on. Started shelling out orders before she'd even finished sticking the Admiral pin to her jacket. She's out to prove she's ready for the top job of Colonial Fleet.


 * Can't feel good to earn that promotion off the back of your superior's bad luck. But we've all lost someone in this war, I guess. My sister was on Galactica before it disappeared...


 * Picon's government is blaming Cain for not delivering Athena earlier. Both she and Sinon won't be happy until we've delivered all twelve of the Jupiters to the Colonies.


 * At least we'll get to see Athena clear out some toasters before we hand her over to Picon. Daidalos is ready to jump on your command, sir.

To begin Chapter 2, follow the instructions on screen to move Daidalos directly to Picon. In the future, you won't be able to jump directly from colony to colony directly - you will need to use the connecting planets outlined in the Walkthrough page.

Chapter 2 - Athena
For this mission (and subsequent ones), you will be able to choose the starting layout for Daidalos and the rest of your fleet - consisting of the Manticores from the previous mission. You can also use this screen to switch out the various squadrons and weapons you have equipped. For these tutorial missions, the default start positions are fine. Click on Continue to start the battle.

As your fleet jumps in, you will have three enemy contacts. On top of your Manticores, however, you also have control of the Battlestar Athena. Select one of the enemy targets and have your fleet move to engage them.

On Turn 2, Cain will describe the Colonial ship Posture system, as outlined on the Colonial Ships page. A neutral posture provides the best movement options, so stay on course until you identify the enemy.

On Turn 3, the game will instruct you to launch Vipers from the Athena. Follow the prompts to launch Vipers. The Daidalos has Vipers of its own, so deploy these as well. You cannot issue orders to Vipers on the turn they are deployed.

That is the purpose of Turn 4 - to teach you to issue orders to your squadrons. The enemy Nemesis will likely have launched missiles on its turn, and the enemy Talon will have deployed its squadron of Wardrivers. Not to be confused with Heavy Raiders, which can board your vessels, Wardrivers are exclusively hacking craft, and are no match for your Raiders. Have either Daidalos' Vipers or Athena's Vipers focus their fire on the Wardriver squadron, and have the other group defend the ship that is being targeted by missiles. Both the Wardriver squadron and the missiles should fall to the Vipers before they deal meaningful damage. The Athena also has access to a Raptor squadron. While it can also perform missile interception in the same way as Vipers can, it is far better to be used as a support craft. Have it use its rockets on the enemy Talon. These rockets don't do large amounts of damage, but since they're there, you may as well use them. Afterwards, have them boost the firewalls of the Wardriver's target, and give the Vipers a little more time to destroy the Wardrivers. While the Raptors can be used to board enemy vessels, it isn't recommended against extremely fragile early game enemies. If an enemy ship is destroyed with the Raptors still attached, the Raptors will be lost as well.

Around Turn 5 or 6, Sinon will describe the effects of hacking. Hacking must first get through a target's firewall (which can be improved by Raptors) and when it does, it begins dealing direct subsystem damage. The ships that do this - in this case, the Nemesis and the Wardriver - are both extremely fragile.

Cain will also step in to describe flak. Using flak is extremely dangerous, as it not only can act as an anti-missile shield, but it also deals extremely heavy damage to fighters - particularly your own escorting Vipers. Ensure your Vipers are far enough away from the Athena if you engage the flak so they are not killed by their own mothership.

Sink all three enemy ships to complete the mission.