The WC Icon

WC Iconic fighter

  • Hornet

    Votes: 2 4.8%
  • Rapier II

    Votes: 10 23.8%
  • Saber

    Votes: 1 2.4%
  • Arrow

    Votes: 1 2.4%
  • Excalibur

    Votes: 2 4.8%
  • Dralthi MKII

    Votes: 23 54.8%
  • Vaktoth

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Hellcat V

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • TBolt

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Vampire

    Votes: 3 7.1%

  • Total voters
    42
I would say the Concordia over the TC actually... The Concordia was, as Loaf so eloquently penned it, the "Hero Ship" after Wing Commander II according to a lot of the books and I can remember it being a total let down seeing the Concordia blown apart... even though at that point I'd never flown off her.

True. I don't have WCII, 3, or 4. And I only played WC1 once, so I don't really know.

But what about the Excalibur? The killer of Kilrah?
 
https://www.wcnews.com/wcpedia/TCS_Tiger’s_Claw#Alternate_History_.28The_Real_World.29

"The Tiger's Claw has appeared in more Wing Commander products than any other ship. She is the main carrier in Wing Commander and its add-ons, and is seen in the opening Wing Commander II cinematic where she is destroyed by stealth fighters. She also appears in the the animated television series Wing Commander Academy as well as the Wing Commander feature film."
 
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That isn't really true, though - Dralthi appear in more games than the Tiger's Claw... and, unlike the Tiger's Claw, they have a single iconic appearance throughout the series.
 
"The Tiger's Claw has appeared in more Wing Commander products than any other ship. She is the main carrier in Wing Commander and its add-ons, and is seen in the opening Wing Commander II cinematic where she is destroyed by stealth fighters. She also appears in the the animated television series Wing Commander Academy as well as the Wing Commander feature film."

That isn't really true, though - Dralthi appear in more games than the Tiger's Claw... and, unlike the Tiger's Claw, they have a single iconic appearance throughout the series.

Not even close to being true. In addition to all the things that the Tiger's Claw is in, the Dralthi also features promimently in Privateer, Armada, Wing Commander 3, Wing Commander 4, Prophecy, Arena and more...

And the ship you fly least in any of the mainstream games.

You guys need to get your facts straight. You can fly the Excalibur in like 11 or 12 WC3 missions compared with like 7 or 8 for the Rapier in WC1. And then you have other fighters which really are only available for a few missions in total - Dralthi, Epee, Bearcat, Wasp, etc.
 
You guys need to get your facts straight. You can fly the Excalibur in like 11 or 12 WC3 missions

Out of about 50+ Missions.

compared with like 7 or 8 for the Rapier in WC1. And then you have other fighters which really are only available for a few missions in total - Dralthi, Epee, Bearcat, Wasp, etc.

Out of about 38-40 Missions.

I still say the Rapier is more significant.
 
Out of about 50+ Missions.

Out of about 38-40 Missions.

I still say the Rapier is more significant.

I wish I could just make numbers up too. There are 43 missions in Wing Commander 3. Even if it were 50+, the Excalibur would be available a greater percentage of the time than the Rapier in WC1.
 
I wish I could just make numbers up too. There are 43 missions in Wing Commander 3. Even if it were 50+, the Excalibur would be available a greater percentage of the time than the Rapier in WC1.

Apologies? I was going by the number on the back of the Kilrathi Saga box.

And I was counting the SWC SM1.5 as its called.
 
No you weren't, you weren't even counting Secret Missions 1&2.

In the overall appearances yes, not in the count above though. If you just count those missions, then I agree that the Excal was the more used of the bunch. With the original set of missions + SM 1, 1/5, & 2... in hindsight perhaps the 3rd Rapier should have been on that list as well.

And who Voted for the Vampire? That thing was unsightly and its controls were WAY too sensitive! It was well armed, but hard to keep flying straight.
 
Dralthi, It's the only fighter that appears in almost every single wing commander game. The only games it's not in are Academy, wing commander 2, the addons for wc2 and privateer 2. It's in both the movie and the animated series. I own every wing commander game product plus the movie and Academy tv. It's in all of them
 
And who Voted for the Vampire? That thing was unsightly and its controls were WAY too sensitive! It was well armed, but hard to keep flying straight.
Not sensitive at all. You just have to learn to take advantage of the increased manoeuvrability. Once you do, it's terrific.
 
I too would have to say Dralthi (Although I voted Sabre by accident). The other one I would have voted for (had it been on the poll) would be the Raptor. My favourite fighter, and a really distinctive design too.
 
In the overall appearances yes, not in the count above though. If you just count those missions, then I agree that the Excal was the more used of the bunch. With the original set of missions + SM 1, 1/5, & 2... in hindsight perhaps the 3rd Rapier should have been on that list as well.

And who Voted for the Vampire? That thing was unsightly and its controls were WAY too sensitive! It was well armed, but hard to keep flying straight.

Me. I only have WCP & SO. :D It's one of my favorite ships, along with the Panther.
 
Not sensitive at all. You just have to learn to take advantage of the increased manoeuvrability. Once you do, it's terrific.

I dunno man, that thing was shakey the entire time. When i was flying the panther, that was easy to fly. When I got behind the joystick with the vamp... it was shaking all over the place (my hands are shaky)

Me. I only have WCP & SO. :D It's one of my favorite ships, along with the Panther.

You seriously need to play the other games, you will be wowed by some of the fights (raptor) and completely disgusted by others (Epee).
 
This is exactly the reason the Dralthi is immediately recognizable in the Wing Commander film while the Rapier and the Tiger's Claw were redesigned -- as important as those other ships are to *us*, they aren't the series' signature.

For me, it's the Rapier, and I voted as such.

I hadn't even considered this point though, and it's a good one!
 
Also, think of the Kilrathi Saga trailer. The Hornet, Sabre and Excalibur showcase the Confed side...while only one fighter is needed to represent the Kilrathi....the Dralthi IV.
 
If people are curious, I just went through the CIC game guides and counted up the number of times you fly each and every ship.

I only counted the "main" games and their addons: WC1, SM1+2, WC2, SO1+2, WC3, WC4, WCP, SecretOps. Also, if the same ship was flyable in multiple games, even if it was an updated version or model (e.g. the WC1 and WC2 Rapier II's, or the P64 Ferret and P64C Super Ferret), I counted them as the same fighter (just as I would consider the P-51B and P51D Mustangs to be the same fighter). There are nine such ships. I counted the total number of missions (both losing and winning tracks) you were required to or had the option of flying the fighter. Here's the tallies:

Hornet 13
Scimitar 19
Raptor 19
Rapier (WC1+2 version) 31
Dralthi 4
Ferret (including the "Super Ferret") 12
Epee 6 (Thank goodness!)
Sabre 23
Broadsword 17
Crossbow 6
Morningstar 9
Arrow 31
Hellcat 39
Thunderbolt 23
Longbow 22
Excalibur 13
Banshee 18
Vindicator 22
Avenger 23
Bearcat 5
Dragon 9
Pirahna 3
Tigershark 10
Wasp (including "Black" version) 9
Panther (including "Black" version) 40
Shrike (including "Black" version) 17 (waaaay to many)
Vampire (including "Black" version) 15
Devastator (including "Black" version) 12

Note that I think the game guides were a little wrong for some of the WC4 missions...they say you can only choose the Dragon for a few missions (like the Ella starbase mission), when I am quite certain (and the posts in the game guides agree with my memory) that you can pick other fighters, especially the Bearcat. I know this because I think I am the only person on the planet that actually perfers the Bearcat to the Dragon and would pick it whenever available.

So whoever said the Dralthi was the least flown fighter, at least by the player, was almost right. It turns out that the little Pirahna beats it out, with only 3 mission appearances to the Dralthi's 4. Just as well, considering it didn't have enough guns to actually shoot anything down.

The most flown fighter was the Panther, with 40 mission appearances, barely beating out the good old Hellcat V, with 39 possible appearances. However, the Panther actually probably beats the Hellcat by more, considering that Prophecy and SecretOps don't let you choose your fighter (unless you hack the game to do so...now that would be an fan project...can you imagine the challenges we could offer to one another--Beat the entire game except the strike missions flying a Tigershark!). So most people probably fly the Hellcat a lot less.

Oh, and I agree that the Dralthi is the face of the series, although the Rapier or the Hellcat wouldn't be a bad choice based on the number of times you fly the things. I also disagree that the Raptor had a distinctive shape...it always looked to me as if the game designers were heavily inspired by the Rylan Gunstar (from "The Last Starfighter") when they came up with that ship.
 
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