Favorite tactics

V

Viper61

Spaceman
Hello all! I'm new here to the message board although I have been reading the posts for quite some time.

The discussion I want to start is something everyone talks about anyway in other posts. Tactics. The tactics in Wing Commander games seem to change from game to game. In WC1, the enemy fighters seemed to want to do nothing but joust with you head on, while cap ships just seemed to spin and die quickly, causing no real threat. WC2 seemed to make the fighter's AI a little more advanced, but the introduuction of the live action 3D games saw the AI grow into a really bad-@#*$ opponent. Everything from the fighters learning to attack in numbers (even the little Darkets were problems if they threw enough of them at you), to the capships learning to defend themselves (damn that cannon on the back of the corvettes!)

To deal with this growing intelligence of your opponent (whether it be the cats, Border Worlds, or the Nephilim) I'm sure alot of you developed some great tactics for dealing with every challenge that arose, from taking out a Cap ship to keeping your wingman alive (a real problem in some of the games). I'd like to share some of mine and hear some of yours.

(I'm going to concentrate on the games after WC2 since I thought WC1 and WC2 were pretty straight forward. Even heavy Jalthi Fighters could easily be taken out with lasers and cap ships in WC2 where no prob as long as you held onto a torp or two)

Fighters-I enjoyed a tactic for fighters that worked even on the highest levels of play. The kilrathi loved afterburners, they never seemed to run out! As soon as a ship targeted me, I could run at him (not bothering to fire because I wanted to save the gun energy) waiting for him to fire his salvo, dip down about 15 to 20 degrees, (this way I could still see his approach and dodge the fire) wait till he was almost on top of me, and turn till I was directly behind him, immediately punching the after burners staying less than 1000 kloicks behind him. (I would assume this would be pretty hard without a joystick! :) ) This allowed me to do one of two things. If it was a light or medium fighter I could chew him up from behind with guns or if he was a heavy fighter I could fire away till his aft shields were gone and dump even the easily evaded heat seeker up his pipe at close range. Just typing this makes me want to boot up WC3 and light up some Voktaths! This tactic worked even on the Nephilim, though you had to strip some of their extremely thick armor away before letting the missle go.

Wingmen- If I could I'd love to fly without a wingman, though instead of 3 fighters ganging up on me I would have 5 or 6! My favorite strategy on this was to send my wingman off on his own quest, down 2 of the baddies that were after me, then break off to help him/her even if I had one on my tail (I usually make sure I leave the light fighter so I can take a few shots to my shields before I get into trouble.) Fighters were usually so busy with my wingman, they wouldn't pay attention to me until I put down at least 2 of them. I would then turn my attention back to the fighters on my tail, helping out my partner any time I could.
By the way, my favorite wingmen are Flash and Vagabond. Vagabond was a very competent pilot, alot like Stilletto, fighting both fighters and cap ships. Flash, for all his arrogance, was one hell of a pilot ( I always had to accept his challenge to get him on my roster). He was murder against fighters but was fodder for cap ships.

Cap Ships- Cap ships are both hard and easy depending on your tactics. Prophecy caps never gave me any trouble (though they seemed to play hell with my wingmen). Kilrathi cap ships had some tough armament, but after that was neutralized (one way or the other), they were cake. Almost all the Cats Cap ships had blind spots at their rears. If you could sneak in there, you could pound away at them until they finally targeted you. The "yellow bolt" guns (have no clue what they are)on the heavier caps were murder, even if they did fire slow, and that cannon on the rear of the Corvette just had to go.

Anyway, I'd love to hear some of your tactics on any of the games. I'm off, I've talked so much about ways to kill ships I've go to go do it now. :)
 
All of my tactics are based in WC Armada.... because as always, I am a huge freak. (when it comes to Armada anyway)

Dogfighting: I prefer to use an arrow light fighter when dogfighting, due to it's amazing speed and manueverability... (also, I try to update the armada arrow by putting on some decoys, and changing the 2 Dumbfires to IR's) But I fear that posting my tactics may lead others to develop anti-tactics... (looks around suspiciously as the paranoia sets in)
Wingmen: What can I say? In Armada your Wingmen are vital. Though I AM a wingman, not a wing commander, I rely on teamwork heavily.
Cap-Ships: For larger ships (Carriers) A torpedo should suffice, but that's easier said than done. Using maximum velocity (but no afterburn, you need time to lock), and plenty of barrel rolls/zig-zagging, the damage taken from flak cannons can be redced to a minimum, allowing you to fire, turn, and burn. Also, light fighter escort is vital to distract enemy fighters. For smaller ships, (Transports) a multiple-dumbfire bombing run should successfuly eliminate a light cap-ship quickly. But torpedoes, or even good old fashion strafing runs can be effective.
 
Same here, no real freaky tactic. Just get the nearest enemy in your target, shoot at it and if somebody gives me a hard time, I do a little bit of evading and lots of AB. Oh yes, I rely heavily on AB and almost no wingman usage. They just steal kills. ;)
 
Just go with yer feeling while you're flying. Live for the moment, not for the anticipated and eagerly awaited kill.

Just target, turn line up a bit and fire. The analysis can come after the battle. That's what I do.

I'll post my tactics (which I learn after aforementioned analysis) some other time, seeing as it's late an' all.
 
I like to go with a head on approach for dogfighting, especially against lighter fighters. At the start of a fight I 'burn straight at the nearest target, let of the 'burners at about six or seven thousand clicks and then cut losse with full guns once the target was in range. After that I usually go for targets of oppertunity.

I don't really care for wingmen. They don't do me any good.

As for capships, taking 'em from behind seems to be the best way. The cat ships in WC3 had blind spots directly aft so I'd park myself there and have at it. The corvette caused some problems with that tactic but if I could knock out that blasted gun on the rear it made things much easier. Same with Nephilim capships. There is always a blind spot at the rear.
 
Listen, the first thing to remember is that you have to grab the glory right from the cat's mouth if you want to get anywhere. I know, I'm probably supposed to be talking about how great it is to be flying from this bucket, but just think of it as advise from an old-time flyboy. I've been the best since I went star-sledding. You have to do more than zig when they're looking for you to zag. Slide, pull a few Gs, afterburn, whatever it takes to keep them from getting in your head and second-guessing you. This isn't just the way to fly, it's the only way to live.
 
I guess it depends on what you are flying.

I found that the Kilrathi tended to fly straight towards you in wc3 until they got to about 4000k away and then they split to try and surround you. At 5000k, if you were flying an Excal or Arrow, you could take two or three of them down before they split and then it was just a case of turn and burn baby.

As a certain slayer once said "I`m gonna set em up and take em one on one".

It works because the AI/Kilrathi didn't seem to have any idea what team work means. - Does that mean the Maniac is part Kilrathi?

Cheers
 
[Blair] There's one on every board, but only one. [/Blair] Two of them might be a little too much to cope with. :D

Best, Raptor
 
Originally posted by $tormin
i just shoot them until they die :(
Click to expand...
At least that's a hell of a lot more effective than my tactic. I just shoot them and then I die. :D
I like wingmen around me because they draw fire away from me. Also sometimes they are useful! :rolleyes:
My dogfighting is usually based on making sideway passes, picking on the big groups first.
When dealing with capships I have no real tactic. Just take out the fighters and then torp the ship. If I'm in too heavy a ship to take on the fighters (like a Longbow vs. Darkets), then I'll lay low and maybe attempt a bombing run anyway, and shoot everything that happens to move into my sight.
 
Fighters:When they go head to head, I somtimes use this tactic: I fire a few bolts, then I afterburn behind them, autoslide (If the ship can autoslide) and fire a few bolts at full guns or missiles(in WCP where you have enough of them!). But its only useful against light/medium fighters. I wouldn't go head to head with a Devil Ray.

I use missiles often at close range so that the bogey has no time to start decoys.
 
And its best done at point blank range. :D I don't go for long range or high deflection shots all that much. Get in close, wait till you have a good firing angle, and then pour on the pain.

Best, Raptor
 
Devastator

In the devastator, i'd just let him/her/it come to me and let the blue "shit" fly and do it's stuff:D
 
I pretty much do the shoot em till they die thing.. Space sim battles in general tend to involve spinning around and chasing little red dots.

Couple of tactics I use for bad situations:

Faced with overwhelming fighters, out on deep patrol, try to have a shelton slide-able ship. Turn around and burn away from them, and have them come after you. Then slide around and start blasting away at them, while still flying backwards.

If you're doing CAP, and badly damaged, fly into your carrier to recuperate, e.g. charge shields and repair damage, and let your carrier do some shooting of its own. Of course this only works in WC3 or WC4.

Taking on Vaktoths in WC3, one tactic, requires a dumbfire, come at the Vaktoth head on, full burn, but don't fire, just try and avoid its guns. Just before it turns away and you're real close, fire the dumbfire and you might just get it.
 
Vaktoths are very easy to kill with a Thunderbolt in Wc3. Just go head-on with them and blast them to bits. While the Vaktoth and the T-Bolt have the same firepower on paper, the Vakoth's guns are so widely spaced that only a couple of them can hit you at a time. The Thunderbolt, OTH, has it guns so close in that all six will hit what you aim at.


Best, Raptor
 
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