Good question! I decided to take out a few fighters and find out what the real armaments were tonight... we should archive this for posterity! For those unfamiliar, the capital ships in Wing Commander III are listed in the manual as having (generally) only laser turrets, whereas in the actual game many of them have multiple turret types.
A few notes:
- There's some debate over what the three capital ship weapons are. The red bolts are lasers, the white/gray bolts are tachyon guns and the green bolts are anti-matter guns.
- While many of the specifications listed in Claw Marks are incorrect, all but one have the correct NUMBER of turrets. The exception is the Kilrathi Heavy Destroyer (Ralaxath) which is listed as 11 lasers and 3 tachyon guns but instead has 10 lasers and 1 anti-matter gun. I suspect that the tachyon guns are the complete error in the listing.
- The following are listed correctly in Victory Streak: both factions' transports and the human light carrier (Yorktown.)
- CapShip Missiles do not appear as the standard armament of these ships; instead, the game assigns them for particular situations. The Kilrathi Corvette can carry at least one, as it fires a Skipper in Orsini 4 and Ariel 3. The Kilrathi Destroyer (Scout) can carry at least three, which it fires (pandemic-tipped) in Tamayo 2.
- Both of the human ships of the line, the cruiser and the destroyer, fire a single CSM when batting Kilrathi warships. In these cases, the intent may be more that the game needs to 'script' the ending to what's visually a gun battle between the two ships... but you could argue easily each way! The missiles are visible (and targetable.)
- I have been unable to substantiate the old claim that the Victory fires a CSM. Does anyone know where? I've confirmed that it is NOT Ariel 3 or Delius 3.
Terran Confederation
Transport (
Clarkson-class)
- (2) Dual-Mount Laser Turret
Destroyer (
Southampton-class)
- (7) Dual-Mount Laser Turret
- (2) Dual-Mount Anti-Matter Gun Turret
Cruiser (
Tallahassee-class)
- (8) Dual-Mount Laser Turret
- (4) Dual-Mount Anti-Matter Gun Turret
Light Carrier (
Yorktown-class)
- (11) Dual-Mount Laser Turret
Empire of Kilrah
Transport (
Sha'kar-class)
- (2) Dual-Mount Laser Turret
Corvette (
Kamrani-class)
- (4) Dual-Mount Laser Turret
- (1) Dual-Mount Tachyon Gun Turret
Destroyer (
Ralarrad-class)
- (7) Dual-Mount Laser Turret
- (1) Dual-Mount Tachyon Gun Turret
Heavy Destroyer (
Ralaxath-class)
- (10) Dual-Mount Laser Turret
- (1) Dual-Mount Anti-Matter Gun Turret
Cruiser (
Fralthi II-class)
- (11) Dual-Mount Laser Turret
- (4) Dual-Mount Anti-Matter Gun Turret
Heavy Carrier (
Bhantkara-class)
- (6) Dual-Mount Laser Turret
- (2) Dual-Mount Anti-Matter Gun Turret
Dreadnaught (
Hvar'kann-class)
- (32) Dual-Mount Laser Turret
- (6) Dual-Mount Anti-Matter Gun Turret