Redemption scenario

The Redemption scenario drew inspiration from a real incident in Rebel history. This event occurred shortly after the Battle of Brigia. A group of shuttles, accompanied by the CR90 corvette named Korolev, were in the process of transferring wounded personnel to the EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate called Redemption. Suddenly, the Imperial Nebulon-B frigate Warspite emerged from hyperspace and immediately launched TIE Series fighters. It then jumped back into hyperspace, only to reappear on the opposite side of the transfer point and unleash another wave of fighters. The Rebel X-wings assigned to defense had already moved to engage the first wave, leaving them poorly positioned to intercept the second. In the historical account, the pilots of Red Squadron, notably Keyan Farlander, managed to evade the TIE/LN starfighters long enough to destroy both waves of TIE/sa bombers, resulting in the successful escape of all Rebel ships.

Farlander's critical decision involved prioritizing the swift destruction of the initial TIE Bomber wave using his proton torpedoes. He also chose to disregard the threat posed by the TIE Fighters, which were engaging the X-wings, until all TIE Bombers had been eliminated.

The challenge of preventing the multiple TIE Bomber squadrons from launching proton torpedoes at the Korolev made this scenario an excellent choice for a training simulation. Within the simulation, pilot trainees had the option to fly as either the Rebel defenders or the Imperial attackers. The teams typically consisted of four Rebel pilots against as many as twelve Imperial pilots, meaning that any Rebel pilot who managed to achieve the mission objective and survive demonstrated exceptional skill.

Within the simulation, the Rebel pilots received instructions to defend the frigate against the TIEs. The Warspite had the potential to advance further into the system and participate in the attack if the pilots weren't careful. However, they were free to experiment with their strategy. Conversely, those piloting the Imperial fighters were limited to the original strategy, with much of their initial attack sequence preprogrammed.

The standard strategic approach involved dispatching a single X-wing to confront the first wave of TIEs, while the remaining three provided close support for the transfer. This would cause the Warspite to launch subsequent waves from a considerable distance, thereby mitigating any unnecessary risk to itself. If all fighters moved to engage the first wave before Warspite entered hyperspace, as had happened originally, the Warspite would return much closer to the Korolev, making subsequent waves much harder to reach before they could launch torpedoes. Only when the Warspite was in hyperspace would it be safe for all X-wings to move out to engage.

The weakness of this strategy was that it forced a single X-wing to deal with five fighters at once, two TIE Fighters and three TIE Bombers. That same X-wing would then have to turn right round to confront the next wave from a different direction. However, most other strategies proved disastrous.

Farlander's technique, which involved using proton torpedoes to target the bombers and then engaging the starfighters, became a favorite among the solo pilots. This technique recognized that only the bombers could hurt the two vulnerable capital ships with their torpedoes. Corran Horn was known to be one survivor of the scenario, by using a variation on this technique in which he initially engaged with lasers and used torpedoes to destroy any bombers that made it past him before they could get into launch range. Among the bomber pilots "killed" was Horn's rival Bror Jace.

This event is mentioned in the book X-Wing: Rogue Squadron, however it is based on an actual mission level from the game Star Wars: X-Wing. The strategies recommended in the book are, in fact, actual strategies used in the level.