Toughest Fighters

Farbourne

Farbourne

Rear Admiral
So there's been a lot of talk lately about folks in the replays having a tough time taking on this fighter or that fighter, and I'm actually surprised at how varied the responses are. I would have thought the toughest opponent fighters in each game would be universially agreed upon, but no. I guess everyone has different flying styles, and it's a testament to the depth and design of these games that so many of us could have such different experiences playing the same game. For example, there was a thread recently about how some people really feared Sartha, while others didn't understand that.

So I'm curious what fighter gave us each the most trouble in each game. It seems like it should be obvious, but maybe there could be some surprises. Here's my opinion:

WC1: Gratha. I know the Jalthi was supposed to be the be-all, but they were so easy to outfly. But Gratha were almost as powerful, always encountered in large numbers, and were frikkin tanks.

SM1+2: Hriss. Obviously, it was the Cat's answer to the Rapier. (Actually, the captured Rapiers were the toughest, especially when you were in a Dralthi, but I'm not counting those because you only meet them like twice).

WC2: Grikhath. Drakri and Sartha didn't instill any fear, and the Jalkehi was majorly broken, but Grikhath were pretty fast, had those damned rear guns, and could actually kill your carrier.

SO1+2: Gothri. Ugg!!! My greatest nemesis in all of WC! (And Standoff didn't help the matter, especially when you have to take on hordes of them in Stillettos!)

WC3: Vaktoth. Second only to the Gothri among Kilrathi nemeses. I really could only handle them when flying a Hellcat or an Excalibur. Although the Ekapsi is a very very close second.

WC4: Excaliburs. Barely edging out Banshees. For some reason, they seemed harder to kill than Bearcats to me, and they handled way better than Lances. Maybe the Lance would be the greatest nemesis, especially with that damned cloaking device, but you only have to fight them when not in one yourself in like two missions, and excepting Seether, their pilots didn't seem to be anything special.

WCP: Obviously, the Devil Ray. Nothing touches it.

WCSO: Ahhg! Too many bugs! Can't think!

Do other folks concur, or did you have your own nemeses?
 
Gothri is certainly at the top of that list.

I also think the Kilrathi astaroid fighter needs to be on that list. Those things were really quick and hard to hit.
 
WC1 - Krant I just hate the bastards and they are an even bigger pain in the ass in Standoff

SM1/2 - have to agree here I found the Hhriss to be quite the opponent

WC2 - Gothri hands down

WC3 - K'ha'haf like Drizzt said they were really tough opponents with Vaktoths coming a close second

WC4 - I'm actually going to go with Hellcats in this case. We face so many of them throughout the game and with missiles being what they are in WC4 Hellcats could be a real pain in the ass

WCP - again have to agree. The Devil Ray in the hands of an Ace was perhaps the toughest opponent in the series

SO - Devil Ray still

Privateer - Steltek Drone
 
I mostly agree with what was already listed:

WC1: Gratha (Salthi when in a Scimitar)

SM2: Hhriss

WC2: Grikath

SO: Gothri

WC3: can't really remember: either Vaktoth, Paktahn or the K'ha'haf

WC4: I think the Banshee gave me the most trouble.

WCP and SOPS: Devil Ray

Armada: Shok'lar, followed by the Gladius

Privateer: apart from the Steltek drone, I often have troubles with the Stiletto and Dralthi/Gothri (though I try to avoid shooting them down anyway)

Arena: I often have problems against the Broadsword Behemoth

Priv2: Jincilla Skull

Not so varied yet. :)
 
WC1 : Gratha

SM1 and SM2 : Rapiers, Hhriss.

WC2 : Grikath

SO1 and SO2 : Gothri and enchanced Mandarin Sabres (the ones with *three* Particle Cannons)

WC3 : Vaktoth and K'ha'haf

WC4 : Bearcat. I found Excaliburs surprisingly easy to take down as long as you don't get shot, actually. Attacking them from behind works especially well, IMHO.

EDIT : Oh, and fighting Dragons when you aren't using a Dragon yourself can be quite painful, especially if you run out of missiles.

WCP, WCSO : Devil Ray (well, duh).

Unknown Enemy : Gratha. The Devil Rays are pretty tough too, and the Border Worlds fighters in the sim missions are a real pain.

Standoff : Depends almost entirely on the fighter I'm using. The Grikath and Gothri are especially annoying, though; and the Drakhri are quite dangerous when they decide to gang up on you.
 
Sharpshooter said:
Standoff : Depends almost entirely on the fighter I'm using. The Grikath and Gothri are especially annoying, though; and the Drakhri are quite dangerous when they decide to gang up on you.
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I think far and away the Krant is the biggest pain in the ass to kill. It's just fast enough to get away from most missiles as well as forcing you to burn precious AB fuel to keep it within accurate gun range.

I'll agree the Grikath are annoying because of their slow speed and the large angle of fire for their turret. The Gothri I really don't have a problem with as long as you attack it from above/below/sides.

Drakhri and Sartha are deadly because of their ability to throw a well aimed DF at you every now and then. So many gauntlet runs ruined by something like that.
 
WC1 - Grathas mainly due to the Kurasawa 2 mission, but I think I had my only KIA when fighting against them during the standard 18 mission series.

SM1 - I'll get back to you later on this one...

SM2 - The Hhriss by far

WC2 - Grikhaths

SO1/SO2 - I can't recall the Gothris really being a pain, so I'll have to check my videos and see if I can jog my memory.

WC3 - Vaktoths

WC4 - Dragons if you're flying against them in anything not using the Stormfire cannon(or not in a Dragon yourself)

Prophecy/SO - Devil Rays, although I never thought the bug AI was very threatening
 
Interesting... we all seem to be more in agreement than I thought we would be.

After playing through SO1/2, I started seeing Gothri's in my sleep!
 
WC1: Gratha, tank-like Armour and lethal if you're coming up against more than two of them. Especially hard to kill with a Hornet, but then so is everything.

Secret Missions: The Hhriss was a bitch, probably the best in the game, but the updated Dralthi could be a handful too, before SM2, the Dralthi had been my favourite enemy to come up against.

WC2: I still hate the Sartha, sure it dies easily, but it can take some twisting and turning to get a clear shot.

WC3: Fighting the Sorthak from the arrow was tough, I hated coming up against Vaktoth too. Hobbes in the Thunderbolt should have been harder.

WC4: Has to be the Excalibur, easily the best ship from WC3 and now a real bitch to have on your tail.

WCP & SO: Nothing comes close to the Devil Ray.

Privateer: Gothri.
 
WC1 - Gratha

WC2 - haven't played this enough to know yet

WC3 - K'Ha'Haf by a mile. Second was fighting against Flash in an Arrow, if he gets away from your missiles then he's incredibly hard to beat.

WC4 - Lots of difficult ones here. Found Avengers the most difficult BW fighter to beat, probably Bearcats the most difficult Confed one. Dragons were very tricky if you're flying a Banshee, but not too bad otherwise...

Prophecy - nothing was challenging except the Devil Rays.
 
WC1: I think I recall one of the Kilrathi fighters having a rear turret that was annoying, so I would say that one (Jalthi or Gratha?).

WCStandoff: (didn't play WC2, so thought I'd reference this fan game with some WC2 fighters): Gothri, the rear turret was deadly and it also had a lot of armor.

WC3: K'Ha'Haf: The mines on these ships were really annoying, especially since my standard attack procedure is to get right close to the enemies tail. Also, since my ship of choice was the Arrow when the Excal wasn't available, the heavy shields and armor on these rock ships were very tough to take out. I found that I would have to order my wingman to attack the same one I was fighting in order to deplete the shields. The fact that it looked like a rock was irrelevant though.

WC4: Cloaking Arrows. Missions where these showed up generally ended badly for me. The Arrow is already one of the toughest opponents, but add cloak and it's even worse. For some reason your wingmen's AI never knew how to deal with cloak either in WC3 or 4.

WCP: Obviously the Devil Ray
 
My list is pretty much the same as everyone else's, but in Armada I often had problems flying against the Arrow, though I'm sure having to use the keyboard made things more difficult.
 
WC1: Gratha (and everything flown by Drakhai, but that's not a problem with a fighter.)
WC2: Gothri
WC3: Difficult.... I hated Paktahns (hard hitting rear turret) and K'ha'hafs most. But it strongly depends on the fighter I am flying. When I was in a Longbow I feared Darkets most.
WC4: This is also close... I think its the Excalibur.
WCP: Devil Ray. Without any doubt.
 
Interesting. We have some disagreement, at least.

The K'ha'haf are the asteroid fighters, right? I never found them too difficult. They were slow and couldn't maneuver for anything, and were easy to just blast away at. Yes, they had lots of armor, but their main weaponry seemed completely ineffective, so just blasting at them for a while seemed to work OK. The mines were a cute trick, but once you realized where they were coming from, they were relatively easy to avoid.
 
Mekt-Hakkikt said:
No rear turrets on fighters in WC1 - but the Gratha still manages to be annoying just wonderfully. :)
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Ok, thanks for clarifying. I seem to distinctly remember a slow red ball coming out of the back of one on the SNES version, but then again I have an active imagination that could be getting in the way of my memory.
 
Well, there are at least two Kilrathi fighters with mines - though I'm pretty sure you hadn't that much problems with the Dralthi ;).

Also, if only I remembered whether I ever saw a Kilrathi ship launching a mine at me in WC1. I remember the guide says "2% probability of launching mine"...and I have the vague memory that it happened to me once...just like I have the memory that a Dorkir shot a laser at me.
 
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