WC's best fighter and bomber of all time

Fighter: Prototype Excalibur – designated YF-103? A heavy that flies like the lights; loaded heavier than the heavies; Cloak and Jumper; Auto-tracker kitty-whacker; she can put the hurt on capital ships with her guns, and even hull lighter escorts without foxing missiles off. And IIRC, the prototype also had a centreline (heavy) hard point that could gobble up something special like an anti-ship torpedo, a T-Bomb and what have you.

Bomber: Black Lance; the great hunter…. Of its day, only the fewest of the newest Fleet’s floating targets could withstand a Flashpak attack; everything else was funky-chicken to the sensor blips….
 
"Weed" said:
And IIRC, the prototype also had a centreline (heavy) hard point that could gobble up something special like an anti-ship torpedo, a T-Bomb and what have you.
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I think the Excalibur had four three-missile racks, and that during the final missions, the two centreline racks were replaced with a heavy rack for the temblor bomb.
 
Gamer8585 said:
"Blair...Blair...Use the For---err...super-human mathematical ability?"
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I love all the Luke Skywalker/Chris Blair similarities throughout Wing Commander. I just saw one that I had never heard about while I was watching the Academy Cartoon. When Blair's life support is going out in his fighter and he's about to pass out, his father appears in a vision and convinces him to wake up and shoot the incoming enemy fighter... I about fell out of my chair... nice Star Wars reference (even if it was unintentional).
 
mach81 said:
Fighter: Sabre
Bomber: Crossbow

I know, I liked WC 2 too much
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Yes, it was indeed the most excellent of the Wing Commander games.

Mjr. Whoopass said:
I love all the Luke Skywalker/Chris Blair similarities throughout Wing Commander. I just saw one that I had never heard about while I was watching the Academy Cartoon. When Blair's life support is going out in his fighter and he's about to pass out, his father appears in a vision and convinces him to wake up and shoot the incoming enemy fighter... I about fell out of my chair... nice Star Wars reference (even if it was unintentional).
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Who said it was unintentional? Whenever Mark Hamil plays in something there must be a Star Wars reference (I think its a law or something).
 
The best fighter : Centurion from Privateer, with It's quad fussion cannons,two more on the rear turret, twenty FoF missiles, excellent speed and turn rate, infinite afterburners, jump capability and all the upgrades avaible in Righteous Fire. What could possibly beat that ? :D

As for confed craft :
Fighter : Vampire (WCP) imo the most durable in long-lasting combat.
Bomber : Vindicator (I always liked those Stormfire cannons ;) )

EDIT : well, I've forgotten about the Steltek drone. That was really something! :D too bad It was impossible to fly that thing :(
 
Mike-L said:
The best fighter : Centurion from Privateer, with It's quad fussion cannons,two more on the rear turret, twenty FoF missiles, excellent speed and turn rate, infinite afterburners, jump capability and all the upgrades avaible in Righteous Fire. What could possibly beat that ? :D
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Ya'know what, replace one fusion cannon with the Steltek laser and I totally agree with you.
 
Tigerhawk said:
Let's take the Standoff example: Tracking of fighters lost and returned. Say you lose half of your airwing. If all your Stilletos return but you lose all of your Gladii, you can't kill a capship at all. Yet if you lose half an airwing of Dragons, you can still do both jobs at once effectively.
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There's another basic point that people are getting at though. You don't just push a button and create either a Dragon or a Stiletto. There are different costs associated with different things. Obviously if it was cheaper and easier to make super ships than light fighters, you might never need light fighters, but that's not the case. If you can make ten Stilettos for the costs of one Dragon, you will definitely find situations where you'd want the Stilettos. Nor can you even fit as many Dragons as you could Stilettos in any given space. You should be able to see the benefit of being able to cram in a bunch of tiny patrol fighters capable of scouting out some large area around a Carrier. On the off chance that they find something big, you then send your bombers or heavy fighters to go take it out.

Aunfox said:
Bombers: Broadsword (with automatic Turrets) cause nothing makes me smile like melting the guy on my tail. It was the B52 of space.
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Or the B-17 (the Broadsword is the A-17 in Wing Commander).

McGruff said:
If it was, it wouldn't be phased out in favor of the Piranha.
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How do you know it (the Arrow) was phased out?
 
ChrisReid said:
How do you know it (the Arrow) was phased out?
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I assumed that it had been phased out because it was being flown by pirates, meaning the market could have been flooded with Arrows. Also, it seemed that by Wing Commander IV, the Hellcat had taken its place.
 
The Arrow may have been phased out of front line Confed service (according to the Piranha entry in the WCP official guide), but that doesn't mean it was phased out everywhere, even if you don't look towards the Landreich (which gets a lot of Confed's hand-me-downs).
 
That's what I meant. The WCP manual explains the whole wartime vs post-war change in design philosophy, with the Piranha being the ultimate specialized light fighter to replace all previous designs. That wouldn't mean that there isn't a lot of Arrows and Ferrets, and even Hornets doing patrol duty in Confed's quiet rear areas.
 
I assumed that it had been phased out because it was being flown by pirates, meaning the market could have been flooded with Arrows. Also, it seemed that by Wing Commander IV, the Hellcat had taken its place.
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I don't think it seemed that way at all... Wing Commander IV had pirate Arrows, yes, but it also had Confederation Arrows and all new Black Lance Arrows (which cloaked). The Hellcat certainly didn't replace the Arrow -- the Lexington had an Arrow squadron, you just never had the option of flying them in the game (there was also a Thunderbolt squadron).

The WC4 material (website and official guide) said that the pirate Arrows were "stolen" (the backstory being that they, along with the Thunderbolts, were provided to pirates by Tolwyn...).

The Arrow may have been phased out of front line Confed service (according to the Piranha entry in the WCP official guide), but that doesn't mean it was phased out everywhere, even if you don't look towards the Landreich (which gets a lot of Confed's hand-me-downs).
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Yeah, I really don't think we've seen the last of the Arrow.
 
Best Fighter: Sabre or Rapier II or Excalibur, with the Wraith from Standoff running a close second
Best bomber:Broadsword. Seemed a lot better in standoff than the Crossbow. Personally, I thought the broadsword was much better defensivly than the Crossbow... or Longbow for that matter:D :cool:

Also, on a related note, put broadsword vs Kamekh and Crossbow vs Kamekh, and I will take the Broadsword over every time due to the overwhelming amount of turrets
 
Fighter: Sabre or Raptor. Would have been fonder of the Rapier had I been able to remove the dumbfires.

Bomber: Broadsword. Slow, ungainly, but unquestionably lethal.
 
In the "bad" ending of WC4, you can see some arrows in the confed fleet under marshall tolwyn. This means that they served at least until then.
 
mach81 said:
In the "bad" ending of WC4, you can see some arrows in the confed fleet under marshall tolwyn. This means that they served at least until then.
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We actually see Confed Arrows in combat in Wing Commander IV a couple of times. They look like this:

wc4arrow2.png
 
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