WTF is "Capture Aurora" mission?

[Nikita1221]

So. After some time in the game, you can get topic "Capture Aurora". Why would you try to assault head of state? Plot actively discourages you to attack governments (they hate aliens, they pay you money, thanks to their help you turned from bunch of savages into world feared pirates and without their support you quickly degrade back to savages). But whatever.
After several months mission appears. I mount best force I could and attack.
First phase is fine. Of course, there's lots of enemies and lots of field guns, but at that point you should be able to defeat this (I certainly was).
Second phase. Oh, the second phase. It's a mansion map, and I HATE THIS MAP! It's gigantic, it's full of walls, and it has four floors (or more, I didn't count). The alien/faction bases have two, the second barely count since map blocks joined only through lower level, and have long corridors flowing through them. The fact that it's mansion is enough to make it insufferable. How to make it even worse? Of course, add few enemies in power armour, making usual for mansion strategy "send one gal in every direction of the map" irrelevant (or you have to give each gal antitank rocket). How to make it even worse? Add unsurrendering enemies, of course! Good luck searching that last robo-maid in this gigantic, unobservable mansion!
After 3 hours of trying to beat this (the fact that after first phase I had only 6 gals, one of which was in tank, might have contributed to that) I broke down and edited save to make everyone surrender.
Third phase. First one was much labyrinth like, but this... Well, at least it's meant to be labyrinth and thus is relatively small. Tip: if you still decided to go through all of this, equip all of your gals with Vibro blade or similar weapon with cutting damage. You will need it for third phase. And remember, it must be on gals all the time - only equipment that carries through phases is equipment on gals.
And after all of this pain, what do you get? You get -2000 rating (because of course, what else you expected after killing company worth of government soldiers without any good reason?), all of your equipment from the ship is gone (either it's a bug or I've been unlucky and all of it was destroyed with field gun blast) and, worst of all,

Spoiler:

Your princess is in another castle, Mario! Wait for next update!

@&#*@& %#&@*!
I know, Xpiratez is not for faintest souls, but shouldn't this mission be tweaked a little bit? Or removed completely, since it doesn't make any sense story-wise.

[Cristao]

My sympathies are with you. I had a similar experience. Luckily I had a high score that month that helped.

[ontherun]

... trolling mission?! Cannot think otherwise...

[Nalca]

It's a mansion map

C'mon, it's a easier version of the map, without the underground part or the tower and with a big armored room, and you can bring big explosives. Or a big tank with 85mm explosives shells.
Just make sure to NOT explode your stuff (Easier if it's not here. But it look like a bug)

And remember, it must be on gals all the time - only equipment that carries through phases is equipment on gals.

Don't forget you can loot the guys in power armor. They have good axes if I remember.

The third part is a little more horrible if you're using assault armor, because these things suck freshness even when they don't fly, and you can't explode the map so you need to dive in the labyrinth to kill every dolls.

all of your equipment from the ship is gone

I don't remember losing stuff, so the most likely reason for that loss is : You stuff got blown by one of the big auto-cannon in the first mission.
That is the meanest part for me, when you realize that after the whole thing.

[Alex_D]

I feel the OP's pain. I'd like to share my take on that mission. Warning spoilers ahead:

Spoiler:

I played this one over the weekend. It was my second "rodeo", this is I played the same mission in a previous campaign long time ago. I remembered the high negative score due to killing these pesking futuristic RCMPs, so this time I packed Neural Whips, as well as the Vibro Axes. I had a laser tank in support of 12 units (four Termicators, my two Syns, one Destroyer, and my best five Anni Gals). Remembering the larger freshness drain, I packed some cigarettes, and extra batteries (liquid cool) and stims for the Syns. The extra gear was stowed with the tank.  I also brought extra stuff that wouldn't mind if blowed up. The latter was not necessary as the field guns were inaccurate and the gals spread out pretty quickly.

The first map was a massacre (for them), hitting the pillboxes and field guns with sniper fire and moving north. Many Dog (cyborg or otherwise) and humans (those pesky Canadians) were whipped into submission. My gals scoured the entire front wall complex searching for them. Most casualties were caused by their friendly fire rather than my own fire.

The second map was hard and long. I hate the mansion maze map too, second only in hate to the Space Freighter. Once I realized the starting room was full of these power armor dudes, I went full VAxe and NWhip, dropping my main guns (some Heavy Plasma or Custom Snipping guns) on the spot. The tank remained in the main room collecting the stuff on the starting tile and guarding it, as I saw a Robomaid grabbing one heavy plasma and running after a gal. Fortunately another had a VAxe and cut her down without exploding. I found Aurora hidden in her secured part of the complex. She plus others managed to hit, injure and stun one of my gals. Fortunately she survived after another pick her up and healed. I don't know what caused, but there was an explosion, Aurora went down two levels or so (treasure room) with the gear my downed gal dropped earlier. Aurora "died". I went after the remaining units, chasing down the last of the units, especially those field guns on the roof. The Syns ran out of energy and had to recharge. Good thing about the spares. The last human surrendered before I could revive my downed gal. So I went to the third map.

The third map was crowded to say the least. Again, the tank went into tile loot guard duty. I revived the downed gal and went to search for the extra Auroras, in full VAxe frenzy. There were some explosions, I think someone reacted fire into one. I counted like twelve Auroras lurking around. The VibroAxe saved the day. And the Syns were the start of the show.

At the end, and because I went the extra mile into not killing everyone, I broke even in score. I attach it for reference. My largest capture to date. If I were to do it again, I'd have brought my Xenforcer (as carry mule) instead of the tank and added three more gals to the party.

[Torchwood]

Say hello to the grandest story mission currently implemented. Buckle and bring time, because this one is long and one you only want to do once per run, but the rewards are well worth it. This one is not something you should tackle without lategame tier equipment and crew. Because of how it is gated behind the ability to consistently shoot down and recover Aurora's ships as well as significant tech requirements, you should not.

Manpower (galpower?) is paramount for success. I recommend a full complement of 24 of your best, whether by convoy or thunderhorse. A leviathan with 36  Since vehicles cannot be used effectively for most parts of the mission, the arguably harder ones, I would not recommend them, power armor will serve you better for heavy firepower needs. Do your best to avoid casaulties - silence the field guns ASAP. The soldiers' equipment is rather mid but their anti-tank equipment can still be dangerous. Assault armor serves as more than adequate protection, but this runs the risk of running out of freshness. In terms of tech level, you should be around school graduation level with access to at guardian armor, preferably better. Harbinger suits are expensive to produce, but well worth it.

A few hints from my experience with the mission, some spoilers follow:
-Silence the enemy gun enplacements early, ideally with mortar fire. Remember that you can always ditch equipment and switch to something more suitable for corridor fighting when the need for artillery expires. Don't bring anything fragile that might fall victim to a stray shell if you can help it, be it personnel or materiel.
-Make sure you have countermeasures to enemy power armor as well as robotic adversaries. On that note, gal-made power suits are quite resistant to electricity.
-As the soldiers are govt forces, killing them will net you -score but stunning them. Whether you want to demoralize them through slaughter or disable them is up to you - the rank-and-file have no armor and any weapon will work, but do not expect surrender until the general and princess are accounted for.
-There are freshness potions scattered across the mansion to refill tired gals, look for blue shimmers. If that is not enough, the time-honored combination of cigs and apples can recharge freshness.
-Need help finding stragglers indoors? Aye-Phones and SENSE are not restricted by obstacles such as walls or ceilings, though the latter will not help you with robots.

Hopefully, you can overcome the challenge and reap the rewards. The tome you find is incredibly useful to make your best troops even better.

[Nalca]

A word of warning about tanks : Anything explosive will be either useless or really dangerous for your stuff in the third part.
Also, you can say hello to the princess with a tank. You need to 'remodel' her house a little for that.

[Ruberto]

I can attest that equipment is lost over levels.
I made sure it was all right before killing last soldier in the first level; but going into the level 2 ALL MY GEAR WAS GONE.
must be something wrong with mission after all

[Alex_D]

I made sure it was all right before killing last soldier in the first level; but going into the level 2 ALL MY GEAR WAS GONE.

If the mission first level automatically ended by killing or incapacitating the last soldier, then the loot pile would transfer over. I think if ended manually or by surrendering of the last unit, then the loot doesn't transfer over. But I'm not sure.

Only bring what you can carry. That's my advice.