Wing Commander Media Chronology?

Minuteman

1st Lieutenant
I finally (finally!) acquired the Wing Commander Academy TV show and figured I'd do a totally watch/read/playthrough of the Wing Commander series (I generally replay the games once every year or two, but this time want to re-read the books and watch the movie/tv show in about the right order).

Would this order be accurate?

Wing Commander Academy Red vs Blue (show)
Wing Commander (film)
Wing Commander Academy Other episodes (show)
Wing Commander Pilgrim Trilogy (novels)
Wing Commander 1 (Game)
Freedom Flight (Novel)
Wing Commander 2 (Game)
End Run (Novel - and my personal favorite)
Wing Commander Academy (Game)
Wing Commander Standoff (Fan Project)
Fleet Action (Novel)
Wing Commander Armada (Game)
Wing Commander Saga (Fan Project)
Voices of War (Manual)
Wing Commander Privateer (Game)
Heart of the Tiger (Novel)
Wing Commander 3 (Game)
Wing Commander Privateer Righteous Fire (Game)
False Colors (Novel)
Wing Commander 4 (Game)
The Price of Freedom (Novel)
Action Stations (Novel)
Wing Commander Prophecy (Game)
Wing Commander Secret Ops (Game)
Wing Commander Unknown Enemy (Fan Project)
Wing Commander Defiant Few (Fan Project)
Star*Soldier (Manual)
Wing Commander 1/2 Ultimate Strategy Guide (Manual)

Not sure where to place Wing Commander Armada or Wing Commander Academy (the game). Truthfully, I've never played those (despite them sitting on my GOG shelf).

Does the above timeline sound about right to everyone? Am I missing anything?

EDIT - added fan projects Standoff and Saga for fun. Also edited based on forum replies.
 
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Academy would probably between WC2 and End Run.
Armada between Fleet Action and Privateer.
Secret Ops and Arena after Prophecy.

And perhabs Unknown Enemy and Defiant Few could be added to that list just for fun as well. :)
 
Academy would probably between WC2 and End Run.
Armada between Fleet Action and Privateer.
Secret Ops and Arena after Prophecy.

And perhabs Unknown Enemy and Defiant Few could be added to that list just for fun as well. :)

Nice! Where would I add Unknown Enemy and Defiant Few? Somehow I missed those. Haven't played them yet.
 
That's just about right! A few notes that I will readily admit are more pedantic than changes to your order:

Action Stations (Novel) - The story itself takes place in 2634, but it starts and ends in 2678 (between Wing Commander 4 and Prophecy.) It also differs from many of the other books in that it's 'real' in the Wing Commander universe and is a story being told by someone who was not actually involved in the events. So it's a historical novel written in 2678 by a future historian rather than a direct recounting of events (a bit like the Wing Commander universe's equivalent of Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels.)

Wing Commander Academy (show) - You should watch the first episode (Red and Blue) before the film and the others after it (it takes place at Flight School, the others are misions aboard the Tiger's Claw.) There's enough out there to zipper all of these 2654 stories together even more closely... so if you really want to you can watch the movie and read X chapter of the novel and fly Y mission in WC1 and watch Z Academy episode... but it's probably not especially satisfying since they weren't ever intended to fall together that way.

Wing Commander Privateer (Game) - Privateer is a weird one, but I think the general consensus is that it should bookend WC3. Privateer is set in 2669 (the same year as WC3) which means that Righteous Fire (a year later) is 2670 (just AFTER WC3.) (That's problematic of course since there's no reference to the war ending... but perhaps the Kilrathi plan makes a little more sense if they're a desperate faction...)

Wing Commander Armada takes place in early 2669, but the game itself has a very limited narrative. There are some text-based missions which you'll never make it through (they're very, very, very hard) and a general 'campaign' you can win... but most of the story comes from the manual, Voices of War. Absolutely read VOices of War (probably should be Voices of War -> Privateer -> WC3 -> Righteous Fire.)

Wing Commander Academy is 'set' in 2667/2668, between End Run and Fleet Action. But there's even less story than Armada, it's just a mission builder. The manual is worth reading, but it's much less important than Voices of War... it really just gives you a little bit about the war at this point in the timeline and tells the story of Jack Lombard, a stand-in for Blair who is never mentioned again ever. (There is a little nod to Academy in Fleet Action; Bear is said to have been working on the new trainsim it features in the time between the novels.)
 
That's just about right! A few notes that I will readily admit are more pedantic than changes to your order:

Action Stations (Novel) - The story itself takes place in 2634, but it starts and ends in 2678 (between Wing Commander 4 and Prophecy.) It also differs from many of the other books in that it's 'real' in the Wing Commander universe and is a story being told by someone who was not actually involved in the events. So it's a historical novel written in 2678 by a future historian rather than a direct recounting of events (a bit like the Wing Commander universe's equivalent of Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels.)

Wing Commander Academy (show) - You should watch the first episode (Red and Blue) before the film and the others after it (it takes place at Flight School, the others are misions aboard the Tiger's Claw.) There's enough out there to zipper all of these 2654 stories together even more closely... so if you really want to you can watch the movie and read X chapter of the novel and fly Y mission in WC1 and watch Z Academy episode... but it's probably not especially satisfying since they weren't ever intended to fall together that way.

Wing Commander Privateer (Game) - Privateer is a weird one, but I think the general consensus is that it should bookend WC3. Privateer is set in 2669 (the same year as WC3) which means that Righteous Fire (a year later) is 2670 (just AFTER WC3.) (That's problematic of course since there's no reference to the war ending... but perhaps the Kilrathi plan makes a little more sense if they're a desperate faction...)

Wing Commander Armada takes place in early 2669, but the game itself has a very limited narrative. There are some text-based missions which you'll never make it through (they're very, very, very hard) and a general 'campaign' you can win... but most of the story comes from the manual, Voices of War. Absolutely read VOices of War (probably should be Voices of War -> Privateer -> WC3 -> Righteous Fire.)

Wing Commander Academy is 'set' in 2667/2668, between End Run and Fleet Action. But there's even less story than Armada, it's just a mission builder. The manual is worth reading, but it's much less important than Voices of War... it really just gives you a little bit about the war at this point in the timeline and tells the story of Jack Lombard, a stand-in for Blair who is never mentioned again ever. (There is a little nod to Academy in Fleet Action; Bear is said to have been working on the new trainsim it features in the time between the novels.)

Outstanding. Thank you for weighing in on this. I'll adjust my list a bit based on your suggestions here. I also just thought of Star*Soldier - I'm assume that gets added at the very end, right?
 
That's right! If you continue your list forward a bit it would be...

Secret Ops (2681)
Arena/Star Soldier (2701)
Privateer 2 (2789)

Since you're reading several novelizations, you might add the Wing Commander I & II Ultimate Strategy Guide, which is written in-universe as the player character (then named Carl)'s memoir. Like Action Stations, it's 'about' the war (the story of WC1, SM1+2 and WC2) but it was written in 2704... so shortly after Arena!
 
Nice! Where would I add Unknown Enemy and Defiant Few? Somehow I missed those. Haven't played them yet.
"Unknown Enemy" is a "Secret Ops"-add on, which takes place at the same time as "Prophecy". You play as a Border Worlds pilot stationed on a Bengal-class Strike Carrier in the Kurasawa-system.
http://unknownenemy.solsector.net/

"Defiant Few" is a series of audio dramas telling the story of a Nephilim assault on Perry Naval Base about 2 years after "Secret Ops".
https://www.rmepaul.com/4th-starveling-audio
 
Don't forget Super Wing Commander's Secret Missions 1.5 campaign that slots in between Secret Missions 1 and 2.
 
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