Do WC3 wingmen fire torpedoes?

-danr-

Vice Admiral
First playthrough in five years, and WC3 is still a joy to play!

But I'm on Ariel 3 "play possum in the nebula" and the game is kicking my ass. I don't remember it being this tough.

I chose Thunderbolts, and Maniac. This is probably a bad choice because Maniac wants to take on the capships first, and because he doesn't follow orders there is nothing I can do to stop him. This wouldn't be a problem if he dispatched the destroyer quickly, but he tries to take it down with guns, and it takes ages, and really I need him helping me with the Vaktoth who are ganging up on me.

He doesn't use his torpedoes? Do wingmen ever use the torps in WC3?

I'm using the default difficulty setting. Ace?

I could run in and torpedo the destroyer myself, but the problem repeats itself at Nav 4 where there are more Vaktoth and another destroyer.
 
Maniac is indeed a bad choice, as you have already identified. Why not fix the obvious problem first and use a wingman or wingwoman that actually listens to "attack my target" 😆 ?

Other than that, letting the first Vaktoth eat FULL GUNS and a liberal use of HS missiles to dispatch some quickly is your best bet. Use your torpedo on the second destroyer at NAV 4 then.
 
Flint and Vagabond will definitely use torps on the higher difficulty settings. Just played through the game on Crazy for the second time myself. Strangely it seems like they prefer to use torps on Corvettes and transports rather then the larger Capships. 🤷‍♂️
 
Maniac is indeed a bad choice, as you have already identified. Why not fix the obvious problem first and use a wingman or wingwoman that actually listens to "attack my target" 😆 ?

It was a weird 'head canon' thing on my part - until this point my Blair hasn't flown with Maniac since reuniting with him on the Victory. Despite Maniac being an ass at times, he's still one of the best pilots on the carrier. Blair knows this and needed his skills in the tricky nebula situation.

Managed it first time last night. Managed to kill two Vaktoth a bit quicker than normal, and Maniac didn't take all night in dealing with the first destroyer. For Nav 3, I headed in quickly and used my own torpedo. Then "picked off the kitties one by one" - just like WC1 Maniac suggested. Bossman is turning in his space grave.

Flint and Vagabond will definitely use torps on the higher difficulty settings. Just played through the game on Crazy for the second time myself. Strangely it seems like they prefer to use torps on Corvettes and transports rather then the larger Capships. 🤷‍♂️

Interesting, I forgot that Wingman AI scales with difficulty. The corvettes can be a real pain to deal with, there have been times when I've wasted a torpedo on one :p
 
Universal truth.
Not necessarily. Again, on higher difficulties there are some missions where you need to quickly thin out the enemy ranks without using too many missiles early on. For all his faults, Maniac can get kills, so he is well suited to these missions. Locanda 1 is a good example. The trick is you have to adapt your tactics. When he makes his run at a cap ship it's fighter screen will often focus on him and won't fly evasive. Then you pounce on them, quickly assist Maniac with the cap ship (already weakened hopefully), and return to any remaining fighters.

Maniac also seems to do best with the Arrow and Hellcat. 🤷‍♂️
 
If you play on Nightmare your Wingman use Torps ..but only with the Longbow ..not with the Thunderbolt
Maniac, Vagabond and Cobra like the Hellcat and kill a lot of Cats ..
Hobbes and Flint like the Thunderbolt and Longbow
Vaquero is a bad choice ..he can´t hit anything ..this fool
And i don´t know about Flash .. i have ignore this Guy
 
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If you play on Nightmare your Wingman use Torps ..but only with the Longbow ..not with the Thunderbolt
Maniac, Vagabond and Cobra like the Hellcat and kill a lot of Cats ..
Hobbes and Flint like the Thunderbolt and Longbow
Vaquero is a bad choice ..he can´t hit anything ..this fool
And i don´t know about Flash .. i have ignore this Guy

Flash scores a few kills, but like Maniac he will not listen to your orders. He also has a tendency to eject/die by attacking capital ships alone while being pursued by multiple fighters.

If you take him with you as one of the 3 wingmen for the raid on Kilrah, then he will obey your orders (so will Maniac actually)

I usually choose to take him for those final missions because story wise it's a logical decision, he knows the Excalibur better than anybody else, and helping to win the war is a little chance for redemption after he refused to fly sorties earlier in the game.
 
Flash scores a few kills, but like Maniac he will not listen to your orders. He also has a tendency to eject/die by attacking capital ships alone while being pursued by multiple fighters.
I feel for you; this is a very annoying trait of Maniac as well. But there was one mission (playing on Crazy) where Maniac got 3 fighter kills in about 15 seconds. 😮

Cobra seems quite good in the Longbow with high morale
 
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