Fly By Night is a massive step up from the debut album. It’s almost like a totally different band. And this is for one reason only.
Neil Peart
“He was the goofiest guy we’d ever seen..” claimed Geddy. They had auditioned three previous hopefuls, but Neil blew them all away. So much so that they felt bad about sending away the fifth guy who had produced meticulous charts for the songs. Neil’s influence is obvious, his drumming is central to the band’s dynamic. It was the first time Rush actually sounded like Rush. Neil also became the lyricist for the band leaving Geddy and Alex to write the music (although Geddy had already written the lyrics for some of the songs on this album) and the difference in lyrical content between this and the debut album is also huge. I love this album. It is so full of fun and Neil’s performance gets your blood racing, especially if you’re a drummer.
- Anthem
- Best I Can
- Beneath, Between and Behind
- By-Tor And The Snow Dog
- Fly By Night
- Making Memories
- Rivendell
- In The End
Eagle
I’ve only chosen one song for the two ships this time. I know – broken the rules almost before I’ve started. But By-Tor and the Snow Dog is such a great track and, at 8’37” long it’s enough for two! So here we have the “By-Tor” an Eagle. Great fun to fly although it looks a little too much like a Klingon Bird Of Prey for me. I took it into a fair few skirmishes and earned a few million credits bounty hunting with it but needed the help of the authorities every time. I really, really suck at combat!
Viper Mk III
And here we have the Viper Mk III, “Snow Dog“. Rush’s Manager, Ray Daniels had two dogs that were named “Snow Dog” and “Biter”. Neil thought it would be a great idea to write a fantasy setting around the two and to have them fight. The joke got a little out of hand and you can tell Geddy sings this with his tongue firmly in his cheek. Again, made a few million credits from bounty hunting in this thing too. Used missiles which I had never used in my PC account. Great fun! Once I unlock Professor Palin though I’m going to engineer some enhanced thrusters for this baby and race it!
“Well, I can do what you do
You just do it better
And I can cry like you cry
It just makes me sadderWell, I can shine like you shine
Rush – In The End (Fly By Night)
It doesn’t make me brighter
But if I think like you think
It don’t make my load much lighter”
Neil Elwood Peart. A legend. One of the main things that really smack you in the face when you listen to Fly By Night for the first time is the sheer quality of the drumming. Then you realise that the quality of the musicianship overall has increased tenfold over the previous release. It’s tight, choppy, clever and joyful; as if a supernova of creativity has exploded over the vinyl. If you are thinking of just dabbling into Rush and will probably have already got 2112 (mainly because of the book Ready Player One) then this must also be an essential purchase.
By Tor – Settlement Defence!
“Tobes of Hades, lit by flickering torchlight
Rush – By Tor And The Snow Dog
The nether world is gathered in the glare
Prince By-Tor takes the cavern to the north light
The sign of Eth is rising in the air.
By-Tor, knight of darkness,
Centurion of evil, devil’s prince.”
So now we have a massive Thargoid invasion in the Bubble! I thought I’d get in on the act and engineer By-Tor to see how well an Eagle fares against Thargoid scouts in defence of a besieged settlement. First though, she needed a new paint job! I thought that the lovely azure blue suited her rather well!
The problem with an Eagle, though, is that it only has three small hardpoints. Now I was hoping to use the new fangled advanced AX (Anti-Xeno) multicannons, but they don’t make them for small hardpoints. So it was off to some Guardian ruins to acquire a weapon blueprint or two for Guardian gauss cannons. Now they do come in small size and although they can be hard to aim, I thought I might as well throw myself in at the deep end!
Now By Tor is rather limited with defence options. Just using two gauss cannons took up so much power, even with a fully engineered power plant, I decided to forgo shields and go with hull reinforcement instead. Thargoid weaponry can damage hull through shields anyway. Although they do absorb some of the damage, they weren’t going to help as I fell to the ground once a Thargoid interceptor had released a shutdown field. So that was an easy sacrifice to make. Also, for the third hardpoint, I decided a turreted beam laser with long range and thermal vent experimental effect engineered into it would be a good addition. It might not do much damage, but it would keep a nice line toward the target for aiming, and, hopefully, cool me down after firing the gauss cannons. Once all the engineering and outfitting had been done, it was time to go patrol a settlement that was under attack by the dreaded delphiniums of doom.
It wasn’t long after arriving at my chosen settlement that the first anomalies opened and the Thargoid swarms began to pour through. Just some scouts at first, followed by an interceptor. Now my skill level as a pilot would struggle against even the weakest of interceptors, and that when I’m flying a much better defended and heavily armed ship. I had no intention of attracting their attention in By Tor, so I would just concentrate on the scouts. I was sure, if I was lucky, I might just be able to bag one scout before I was destroyed, but I was very pleasantly surprised at just how effective an eagle can be against them.
At first I found it extremely difficult to actually land a gauss cannon shot on a scout. The continuous beam laser really helps though and after a while I was landing about one in ten shots. Even though the beam was cooling me, the double gauss cannon volleys were still heating me to critical levels. How long was it going to be before I popped this little menace?
After what seemed like an age, I destroyed my first scout. I thought I would have to head straight back to dock at the settlement but I still had just under seventy percent hull left. By Tor was holding her own rather well. So I carried on and popped two or three more scouts, then it really was time to repair.
After launching there were yet more anomalies and I headed for the nearest one to attack whatever came out, but I was in for a nasty surprise!
Yeah, that’s right. It was an interceptor, and not just any interceptor, a Medusa no less! It’ll come as no surprise that I didn’t last more than a few seconds and it was time to face the rebuy screen. But the great thing about many of the smaller ships is that the insurance cost is very low, so rebuys aren’t as bad as you may think. After that, it was another relaunch and straight back into the fray.
Then I began to land a lot more shots with the gauss cannons and was scrapping scouts left, right and centre. It only takes a handful of double small gauss cannon hits to bag a scout and I was fast beginning to rack up the kills and the combat bond rewards.
I suddenly realised that I was grinning! A great, toothy, evil crevasse that split my face. The sheer exhilaration of flying By Tor aggressively cannot be understated. The noise of her engines and her considerable agility makes her an extremely fun craft to fly and, if you’ve not tried it, I would highly recommend fighting scouts in an eagle.
Snow Dog – Settlement/Outpost Defence!
“Across the River Styx, out of the lamplight
Rush – By Tor And The Snow Dog
His nemesis is waiting at the gate
The Snow Dog, ermine glowing in the damp night
Coal-black eyes shimmering with hate.
By-Tor and the Snow Dog
Square for battle, let the fray begin.”
And now its Snow Dog‘s turn! I had already splashed out on a stunning chrome paint job for her and it really suits the Viper Mk III! I outfitted her with a pair of small beam lasers this time, hoping it would keep me a lot cooler than the single on By Tor. Also, with the two medium hardpoints I could now fit the enhanced gimballed AX multicannons and I was eager to give them a go.
One thing that really struck me was how naff the FSD was, even engineered. I was really limited to what systems I could visit because both my jump range and fuel tank were too small. Now, one hyperdiction too many and I’m stuck in Thargoid controlled space! But I found a suitable settlement soon enough and got settled in to hunting down the swarming Thargoid scouts. I also found that the beams were cooling me down very effectively indeed! Especially as I wasn’t using gauss cannons to heat me back up again!
Once I had cleaned up the scouts, and I found Snow Dog could clean them up a lot more quickly, nothing more turned up. I couldn’t travel too far away but there was an outpost in orbit that was also under attack so I headed for that.
Fighting around the outpost was a little more tricky, but at least there was no plummeting to the ground every time an interceptor released a shutdown field. It felt a lot more intense, but the were more scouts as well as more interceptors. So I had to be careful. But getting a few shots off at an interceptor while the NPC AX pilots did most of the donkey work with them was a good way to earn a lot of credits.
The dual beams were keeping me nice and cool and it didn’t seem like I was getting hit as much as in By Tor. Snow Dog is a pretty useful ship for handling scouts! And there was plenty of time to get back to the outpost to repair and refill ammunition.
I had a lot of fun in Snow Dog, and she was a lot more effective at popping scouts. If I had been a better pilot the By Tor would also have been a lot more effective too – those gauss cannons take a lot of skill to use. But I think I’m getting there!
So…who won? By Tor or Snow Dog? Well, I have to say, even though Snow Dog was more effective (more because of my piloting skills than anything else) I found that flying and fighting in By Tor was a lot more fun! The noise of By Tor‘s engines and the way she swoops around just makes her an absolute blast to fly, even if it meant I kept getting rebuys. I’m definitely going to have to have another go with her. So, I shall have to say again, if you’ve never tried scout combat in an eagle before, I can wholeheartedly recommend it! But, Snow Dog was a lot of fun too.
Elite Dangerous RUSH FLEET 