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[edit]
| Enemy Waves | |
|---|---|
| Start | Nemesis x1 |
| Turn 3 | Nemesis x1 |
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[edit]
After destroying the Nemesis, you will be returned to the war room. Follow the instructions receive the briefing for Mission 2.
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[edit]
| Enemy Waves | |
|---|---|
| Start | Talon x1, Nemesis x2 |
- 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.
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.
Post-Chapter 2[edit]
Back at Daidalos, Helena will guide you through the procedure of creating additional ships. After producing a new Manticore and adding it to the Daidalos fleet, she will mention how the Colonial FTL database IDRIS has been tampered with by the Cylons. You will need to take Daidalos to Caprica, and spend some Tylium to accelerate the jump. While the game warns you every time you spend additional tylium to make a jump prematurely, the cost is never very high, especially on easier difficulties.
Chapter 3 - Transmissions[edit]
| Enemy Waves | |
|---|---|
| Start | None |
| Turn 3 | Nemesis x2, Talon x2 |
- Colonial Fleet relies heavily on the IDRIS network. It provides access to accurate, real-time locations and trajectory data of interstellar objects.
- The network is vital to our jump calculations. Without IDRIS, we can't tell if there's going to be a planet-sized inconvenience at the end of an FTL jump.
- We believe the Cylons are behind the interference of the IDRIS network, and using the civilians at Caprica Terminal as a human shield.
- Caprica has granted us operational access to the terminal surrounds. Galactica is still MIA, so there will be no battlestar to save the day if the Cylons do show up.
- To recap: we have to destroy every Cylon transmitter we find, restore the IDRIS relay, and jump back to Ragnar, all without causing a single civilian scratch. Just another day at the office, right Commander?
Upon arriving, you will be granted access to a pair of Adamants. These ships are far sturdier than Manticores and favour broadside engagements from beneath their opponents. Adamants also have guided missiles and their own Viper squadron, essentially making them mini-battlestars.
The first overrun satellite starts very close to your position. Have the Adamants link up with your Manticores and prepare to engage larger threats. Direct either Vipers or your Manticore to destroy the satellite.
Shortly after destroying the first satellite, Helena picks up another satellite that must be destroyed. At the same time, a small Cylon fleet of two Nemeses and two Talons arrives. Launch your Vipers and have them defend your ships.
Destroying the second satellite reveals two more, close to the Cylon fleet. As sending single Manticores or Vipers into the fleet will get them destroyed, you can have the Manticores or the Adamants use their missiles to target the satellites from afar. The missiles will reload quickly enough, and you won't be needing a full stack anyway.
Destroying these third and fourth satellites still don't solve the problem, and your objective becomes to destroy the enemy fleet and secure Caprica Terminal. Caprica Terminal must survive to complete the mission, but the Cylons won't actively target it - the biggest threat to the terminal is stray fire, especially poorly-aimed missiles.
Destroy these four enemy ships to complete the mission.
Chapter 4 - Cocalus[edit]
| Enemy Waves | |
|---|---|
| Start | Talon x2 |
| Identify an enemy ship | Nemesis x2 |
- Without accurate data from IDRIS, we're stuck relying on these old onboard computers to calculate our FTL jumps.
- As long as we're careful with our data, we can take the Daidalos from there to Gamma, and back home to Ragnar. Hopefully without collecting any moons along the way.
With the battlestar Athena at Picon, the goal now is to get back to the safety of Ragnar, where the Cylons will never attack. Thanks to the sabotage to the FTL network, however, an intermediary jump to Cocalus is necessary.
Two DRADIS contacts will appear on the far side of your jump point. While you can use boosters to reach these targets quickly with your Manticores, use caution. After scanning one of these enemy ships, two Nemesis class corvettes jump in close to the Daidalos. The torpedoes in particular present a considerable threat to Daidalos, so be sure to destroy these targets first. Daidalos does not have much armour protection but it does have a large amount of health, so it can take care of itself long enough for your Manticores to make it back in time.
Once the Nemeses are dealt with, you can destroy the Talons at your leisure. Ensure you keep the nose guns of your Manticores firing, or use their back-mounted light cannons as you pass by them. Aside from the two surprise Nemeses, this mission is easily dealt with.
Post-Chapter 4[edit]
Upon completing Chapter 4, you are now out of the tutorial section and can freely move the Daidalos and work on building fleets.
Where you go from here is up to you, though here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Keep Daidalos safe. Ragnar is the gas giant on the far left side of the map, and the Cylons will never go there. You also do not have to send the Daidalos to every campaign mission, unless it says that Daidalos is required at the mission marker.
- Take advantage of Daidalos bonuses. Stationing the Daidalos above one of the twelve colonies provides a passive benefit. See the Walkthrough page for additional information.
- Build additional fleets. Don't have Daidalos participate in a mission if it doesn't have to. Adamants will form the backbone of your fleet for the time being, until you complete Chapter 5 and unlock the Artemis. Give your fleets an officer and station them above a colony to keep them secure.
- Hire additional officers. Skilled officers can result in game-breaking combinations, so keep them safe. Ensure they remain promoted as well; the game does not do a good job of updating you about officer promotions, so periodically check in on them and level them up when necessary.
- Expect stiff resistance in Helios Alpha (bottom right). Keep your strongest fleets around Caprica, Tauron, Gemenon, and Picon. Don't neglect the other colonies either. A Cylon fleet stationed at a non-colony world does nothing, and can be left alone.
- Complete Side Missions for Tylium and Requisition Point bonuses. Daidalos doesn't have to be present for these side missions, so use other fleets instead.
- Especially if you're playing on Lieutenant or Commander difficulty, don't be afraid to lose some ships. Losing a single Manticore isn't the end of the world, and is not worth restarting the whole campaign for. However, do be afraid to lose officers.
