Favorite tactics

Originally posted by Raptor
Unforgiven: The T-bolt doesn't autoslide, but it was a very good ship for killing corvettes nonetheless. Its guns and shields meant that you could come away unscathed even in a gunfight with the corvette. The quickest option though, was simply to use the torpedo from head on. Wam, bam, thank you ma'am. :D
If it couldn't autoslide, I'm sure I selected it for the torps, because I do remember selecting the T-bolt, and now that you mention it I also remember using torpedoes against the corvettes.
Torpedoes aren't much use though if you are up against four corvettes, since you only got the one. I remember this one mission where this was the case, you had to clear a path for the Victory to go to the jump point and there were four corvettes on the way there. I also remember that in that mission I had to use 'Attack my target' to keep Hobbes away from the corvettes, otherwise he'd always die! :(
For some reason I never could get the hang of actually shooting turrets. And they seemed pretty accurate to me, at least those of the WC3 corvette. Not if you're flying on rookie of course, then they couldn't hit the Midway if it was parked on top of them with a big target painted on it. :D
And even if they did manage to hit anything, did they actually cause any damage on rookie?
 
After some trial and error I found that the arrow light fighter in WC3 could take on anything due to it's excelent speed and ability to use the shelton slide. Thus, one could disobey the law of physics by flying in parallel to a capship, strafe it mercilessly, yet increase momentum whilst facing a totally different direction!! (although it made me feel like I was flying a Starfury from Babylon V)
This was also made flying into the belly of a carrier more fun, blowing the **** out of it from the inside, then burn like a bat out of hell as it exploded....
 
In Wc3 I would actually rate the Kilrathi corvettes the third hardest capship to beat. Obviously the first would be the dreadnaught and the second hardest the cruisers. I never really experimented with the autoslide enough to take out the corvettes, but always flew behind the corvette at least 10 000 clicks before lining up and going in swinging from side to side to dodge the turret fire. And if I was lucky enough, to aim straight at the rear and get rid of the tachyon turret. If I was flying the T-bolt and had to get rid of several capships, I'd always use the torp on that as bigger capships like destroyers were easier to aim at and unleash a helluva lot of firepower
 
Also, in addition to someone's comments about writing a will when taking out WCP Kilrathi corvettes if you don't have autoslide, and you've destroyed all the fighters and you're in a bomber, go out of turret range (about 10 000 clicks) stop the ship, turn around so the corvette will be chasing your 6, match speed with it once it starts up and drop about 6 or so mines, which should do the trick in destroying the corvette. The other ships such as the Tigershark and Wasp, the CMD isn't too bad either as long as you're quick in aiming and letting it rip, turning away using AB and then going back in again. And the Dragonflies aren't too bad at doing damage either
 
Meson: Against the WC3 Kilrathi corvette there's no such thing as the wrong fighter :)

StarLight: I was the one who mentioned the will. Anyways that WCP kat corvette packs a wallop. You really can't take more than 3 hits before your ship gets really screwed. I never thought of the mining tactic though. When flying a bomber, what I did was I flew round the corvette letting my turrets trash it. Takes a while...
 
Hi. I have only played WC3 a couple of passes through. I never have much luck in a T-Bolt. Autosliding in an Arrow vs corvette I still manage to get shot up often, but otherwise, autoslide or torpedo is the way to go. In a longbow you gotta torpedo them. Seems to me that you must be a good shot to get the corvette rear turret, in the higher levels. I've found kilrathi corvettes and vaktoths much harder to deal with in WC3 than in Prophecy. I have little luck on the tail of a vaktoth in WC3, and little problem with them in WCP.


I have yet to play past the first mission in WC4. I have the game and will start it shortly. Really looking forward to it, so much so I guess I've put it off for the "right time", or until I finish these annoying LucasArts games I recently got.

Been playing WCP and SO since late 99. Best games of their kind out. As for the simulator and the Kilrathi, fighter vs fighter they are no match for you. In a shrike (or T-shark) use charging mass drivers (CMD) head on. 1 dart works great too, but shoot head on further than 10,000 km away, so they don't shoot it. Forget about going after a turning and evading fighter with your bomber, unless it is the last one, or you have a close-in IR shot lined up. Boost your bomber's front shields (see below) and use CMD/dragonflies, or devastator plasma on fighters that will charge you in a straight line. On nightmare, you cannot afford many misses here though... As for the Kilrathi corvette, you can't attack turrets separately, but you don't need to. The afterburner/autoslide combination destroys corvettes at any level. With a T-shark, I use CMD's and afterburn in at an angle, like an autoslide, then get off the throttle and pivot at the last second and release a fully-charged CMD blast, usually on his rear, where I can release a heetseeker as well. I don't use dragonflies, unless I have them left over, as you are too vulnerable while firing them. In shrike vs corvette, you are a little too vulnerable with CMD's, but you don't need them. Make sure your power adjusts engines to normal or slightly better, and fly past the corvette at a tangent, like you were autosliding, and get into the rear turret! You take it over and seem to have unlimited guns at a high rate of fire. If you are getting hit by cat gunfire, hit or tap the afterburners (the key "strangely" works in the turret) and the corvette cannot hit you. When your guns quit hitting the cat, swing around in the cockpit and repeat as necessary. I can usually complete sim mission 3 in an unedited shrike at nightmare with "no damage," except for several armor hits from the fighters.

My basic approach in the main game or the sim is as follows. First, I hit the P key and push my joystick forward. This boosts gun and shield power vs engines. I use afterburners and autoslide to pilot the ship. As most of you know, afterburning straight to full speed and then getting on autoslide and releasing the burners gives you burner speed with no fuel loss. Going back and forth between Tab and Caps Lock is the key here. In ships without autoslide, you can usually complete the mission with judicious, although frequent, use of the burners. In a devastator, burners go fast so I let the fighters take out some bug fighters, and be sure to "not miss" a charging enemy attacker with plasma fire. This is the only senario that I would , at times, not boost power as above, but keep it balanced instead. Next, to compliment this strategy, I boost front shields 80/20 vs rear. Keep them off your tail with burners and turning, and decoys. I use full guns except as above, and in SO I use dust cannons in a wasp and pulse particles in a shrike (dust cannons drain too fast in a shrike). I never use full guns in a bomber. I don't order wingmen around much, except when they are in bombers and I tell them NOT to attack tritons -- they will throw away their torps on long-range shots, easily destroyed by bug turrets. I kill tritons close in with shrikes and via plasma gunfire in a devastator. Regarding capships vs fighters, I autoslide while taking out missle turrets first, using decoys and close-in maneuvers to evade capship missles. In SO you can shoot capship missles, although I have a tendency to get a bloddy nose relying on this tactic vs a fighter's head-on missle shot. In a bomber vs capship, as noted the rear is vulnerable. In a shrike I get a bridge lock and weave slightly to evade turret fire and shoot close-in. Tapping the tab key also evades turrets. Then I fly away, adjusting shield strength, and repeat as necessary.

As for devilrays, in a fighter I try for a couple of rear hits and follow-up with an IR shot close-in, and only when he is flying straight away from me. The other tactic is to attack his front shield, getting off burners and allowing him to retreat and pivot and attack you again. A missle shot, followed by flying off at a slight angle (so he does not shoot your missle) will work on a weakened front shield of a devilray, but this is a passive approach, slower that you may be able to afford. In a bomber I target the nearest Devilray and order my wingmen to attack it -- it will tear them up if they don't anyway, so what the heck. I rely on the "passive" approach above with plasma or CMD's/dumbfires, evading after I shoot. It usually works. I don't use the nav map much, so if a wingman's in trouble I'm usually too busy and far away to save him.

The result of all this is that I have periodic trouble with WCP's second-last mission (the second 1/2), and the SO "Holy Crap!" mission, where you face unlimited enemy fighters until you kill the capships. Otherwise, I "shoot them until they die!" Hope this helps.
 
I'm a sucker for the Tbolt since it had a killer gun loadout and a torpedo to boot. It wasn't the most fun fighter to fly (Arrow, Excalibur) but man, as far as getting your money's worth in armor and guns, the Thunderbolt is tops. Too bad the hardpoints are so limited, otherwise I'd have almost no need for an Excal.
 
I liked the TBolt too. The first time I played Wing 3 after you could fly the tbolt, I wouldnt fly anything else. I was crushed when I got to missions where I couldn't fly the Tbolt.
 
Originally posted by CoachMark
Hi. I have only played WC3 a couple of passes through. I never have much luck in a T-Bolt. Autosliding in an Arrow vs corvette I still manage to get shot up often, but otherwise, autoslide or torpedo is the way to go.
Just aim your nose so you'd fly past the Corvette at a few 100 km, press afterburner briefly and as you hit top speed, toggle autoslide. Turn your nose to the corvette and *fire*.
The corvette won't so much as scrape you then.
Trick is not to fly too close to it since it'll still hit you then, and also not to far away because then you can't shoot it enough in one pass, and when you have to do it too often it uses to much AB fuel.
Welcome to the board!
 
WC3

I've just been replaying WC 3. I play through Win 98 and a digital USB joystick (Saitek Gold) and I have little luck. The default joystick configuration is useless, as the stick drifts and moves in directions different from my movement. The joystick patch is a poor improvement, as while the drift is eliminated, the stick moves the ship up at about 1/2 the speed that it moves down, and after a while, a slight movement of the stick one way produces movement the opposite way....only full movement produces correct, although slowed, movement. All this makes for an unplayable game at the two highest levels. I guess I look at WC 3 as a novelty for the story, but not a playable space sim. I understand now why Kilrathi Saga is so popular, although I don't know if it solves these problems. Mark.
 
I've played DOS WC3 with the keyboard so I don't know of any problems there. I've played the KS WC3 with Keyboard, Mouse and mostly my USB SideWinder Force Feedback 2, and it works just fine.
 
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