Most Dominant Fighter of it's time...

What was the most dominant fighter of it's time?


  • Total voters
    62

FrostyNSO

Spaceman
What fighter do you think is the most dominant fighter of it's time.

Now when I ask this, I mean in large scale. In the hands of 100's of pilots throughout the course of the war, rather than in the hands of one pilot on a "suicide" mission :)

I'm not a huge fan of it, but I had to say the Vampire, though I would put the Raptor in close second.
 
Sorry, I had to say Excalibur. The things got guns, speed, shields, and maneuverability. Having just reloaded WCP, I realized that Confed must have had a brain fart or something. All the fighters have been reverted to using antique weapons, and the missile pods are just barely useful. (At least a dumbfire has some actual ordinance onboard. Someone seems to have forgotten to add that to the pod missiles, because the darn things are only useful *after* you've taken out the shields. Kinetic weapons? How quaint.)

Thankfully, Confed got its act together and loaded out the Cerberus with much better hardware. Aboard the Cerberus, the Black Panther ended up being the most versatile and kick-ass fighter short of a torpedo run.
 
I chose the Excal, it was the first Confed Fighter to have a Jump Drive (correct me if I'm wrong)
 
TopGun said:
I chose the Excal, it was the first Confed Fighter to have a Jump Drive (correct me if I'm wrong)

You're wrong. The Broadsword had Jump Drives in WC2. Now if you mean that it was the first Space Superiority Fighter to have a Jump Drive as opposed to a bomber, then I see your point.
 
TopGun said:
I chose the Excal, it was the first Confed Fighter to have a Jump Drive (correct me if I'm wrong)

Consider yourself corrected!

Remember jumping in a Broadsword and the Morningstar in Wing Commander II?

Other fighters that have jump drives include the F-117 Rapier in the movie and the Super Wing Commander versions of the Hornet and the Rapier II.

... and then there's jump capable Sabres and Ferrets in Fleet Action.
 
In the large scale, the Excalibur wasn't available in enough numbers to make a significant differance in the War. (If you exlude that one mission to Kilrah. *G*) By the time it was in widespread service, there wasn't anyone to fight until the Border Conflict, by which time other fighters like the Bearcat and Dragon were coming on stream. Personally, I would chose the Thunderbolt. It was significantly better than the Vakoth, throughly outclassed most other Kilrathi fighters, and was a serious threat to capital ships.
 
I'm leaning towards the Gothri - more torpedoes than a Broadsword, a long range, produced in great numbers and the maneuverability and armament of a heavy fighter.
 
Bandit LOAF said:
Consider yourself corrected!

Remember jumping in a Broadsword and the Morningstar in Wing Commander II?

Other fighters that have jump drives include the F-117 Rapier in the movie and the Super Wing Commander versions of the Hornet and the Rapier II.

... and then there's jump capable Sabres and Ferrets in Fleet Action.

I always value your info LOAF

I've only played the first 2 missions of WC II :(
 
When I think about it the Excalibur always seemed to get my wingman wasted, remember the Freya missions where you have to take out a cruiser? If I wasn't careful I would usually lose a wingman on that mission.
 
Raptor said:
In the large scale, the Excalibur wasn't available in enough numbers to make a significant differance in the War. (If you exlude that one mission to Kilrah. *G*)

This is true. But if it *had* entered service earlier, it would have been a deciding factor in the war.

By the time it was in widespread service, there wasn't anyone to fight until the Border Conflict, by which time other fighters like the Bearcat and Dragon were coming on stream.

Surprisingly, you only see Excaliburs once or twice in WC4. From the few times I did meet up with them (usually with my entire missile loadout reserved just for them) I took a serious butt whooping while I unloaded my missiles. I don't even want to think what would have happened if they were more common. (e.g. The Lexington didn't seem to have any.)

Personally, I would chose the Thunderbolt. It was significantly better than the Vakoth, throughly outclassed most other Kilrathi fighters, and was a serious threat to capital ships.

I have to say, the Thunderbolt had to be *the* nicest bomber that Confed ever designed. It may have been slow, but God help anyone who got between its cross-hairs (or tried to attack from behind, MWHAHAHAH!).
 
Bandit LOAF said:
... and then there's jump capable Sabres and Ferrets in Fleet Action.

FWIW, the Ferret was an exception rather than a rule. It was a special Secret Ops doohicky that was designed to get Hunter the heck out of Dodge if things went sour. Too bad he bought it. :(

Paddybhoy said:
When I think about it the Excalibur always seemed to get my wingman wasted, remember the Freya missions where you have to take out a cruiser? If I wasn't careful I would usually lose a wingman on that mission.

Bah! I gave up on the Wingmen. They could be occasionally useful, but usually they were just for soaking up fire. In WC4, my mission would usually go something like this:

Step 1: Launch.
Step 2: Autopilot.
Step 3: See enemy in the distance.
Step 4: Hear Maniac whine like a baby about having to eject.
Step 5: Clean up the entire mission by yourself.

Pathetic.
 
For the Prophecy era, the Vampire. Though, the Wasp was nice as well, but not as utilitarian.

In WC-IV, Bearcat. Was just starting to come into its own.

In WC-III, Thunderbolt.

In WC-II, hmm. In my hands, the Sabre. The wingmen can get a Rapier.

In WC-1, Raptor.

Superships: Dragon, Excal, Morningstar.
 
Raptor said:
In the large scale, the Excalibur wasn't available in enough numbers to make a significant differance in the War. (If you exlude that one mission to Kilrah. *G*) By the time it was in widespread service, there wasn't anyone to fight until the Border Conflict, by which time other fighters like the Bearcat and Dragon were coming on stream. Personally, I would chose the Thunderbolt. It was significantly better than the Vakoth, throughly outclassed most other Kilrathi fighters, and was a serious threat to capital ships.

I almost left out the Excal for that reason, but i knew the Excal fanboys would whine if I did.
 
I think the Rapier would have been the most dominant fighter throughout the war.

I mean surely it must have been considering the amount of different versions it went through.

Since there's a 10 year period between WC1 and WC2 and there's still a Rapier (even if its a redesign) that says enough about its qualities.

Excalibur certainly is an excellent fighter but considering how few there were produced and how little it was flown during the way, it didn't cause a real dent except at Kilrah.
 
I had to vote for the Raptor. In WC1, there was only ONE Kilrathi fighter (the Salthi) that could outrun and outmaneuver you, but one or two salvos from full guns will take care of them. Everything else is either outgunned, outmaneuvered, or left in the dust. Usually, it was a combination of at least two of those traits. In the right hands, nothing could even scratch your Raptor, except for a rogue Exeter and several flights of captured Rapiers.
 
Fellentos said:
Excalibur certainly is an excellent fighter but considering how few there were produced and how little it was flown during the way, it didn't cause a real dent except at Kilrah.

That's only true if you discount the Prophecy-era war. In SecretOps we see tons of Excaliburs acting as ship escorts. And (believe it or not) they *do* hold their own in a fight. I'm tempted to say that they do almost as well as the Cerberus's own upgraded fighters (or non-downgraded depending on how you look at it).
 
FrostyNSO said:
I don't think the Bearcat was produced and implemented in the numbers it would take to be considered a dominating force.

It seemed to have a big presence in various places.
 
By the way, the T-bolt and Excal were also around as of WCP/WCSO, with a bunch of both flying off of the various destroyers and stations the Cerb flight crews worked with, and the Midway class had a squadron of T-bolts as part of their full fighter loadout (which we didn't have in WCP, thanks to Midway not being a fully operational carrier at the time).

(Didn't feel like editing the WC1/2 fighters to note they were still in use as of WC4 era by the UBW and Landreich. :p )
 
As far as I'm concerned there's no question: the Raptor, for 2 reasons:
- it's by far the best fighter in WC1, SM1 & SM2
- it had been around since the early years of the kilrathi war
See encyclopedia : "The Raptor served as the Confederation's main Heavy fighter for a number of years. The first known use of a Raptor was at McAuliffe on 2639.033 when wings of Raptors were used to drop mines around a jump point in preparation for the arrival of the Confederation fleet.
Even as late as 2670, more than thirty years later, Raptors were still in service in the Landreich"

Without the Raptor, Confed probably would have lost the war, before Blair even graduated.
 
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