The Styles of Wing Commander

[Bandit LOAF]

Er, what insurmountable odds? Trying to beat up on bunch of half trained Border Worlders who were flying Sabres and Ferrets and whose flagship was a destroyer 20 years out of date?

What? The Border Worlders were highly trained -- they were the people who'd been on the edge of the war for 30 years... and although they flew Sabres and Ferrets, they also had highly sophisticated, newer ships. You're just de-valuing them to make Confed sound less impressive...

That's not even getting into the corruption and the breakdown in Confed's values that allowed it to be manipulated like it was.

What? It wasn't 'manipulated' -- Tolwyn's black project was approved by the senate, as was his position as Admiral... and his actions against the Border Worlds... -- all of these were caused by the war, not amorphous 'corruption'. What he *shouldn't* have been able to do was issue illegal orders for his forces to attack convoys and innocents... but I fail to see how this is a result of Confed's 'corruption'. A democratic society doesn't mean a perfect society -- it didn't take corruption to fund Tolwyn's projects.

 

[pendell]

I preferred WCP -- ALL the uniforms WCIII and after are pretty neat, but WCP was clean, and neat. Not dingy and haggard and pot-bellied like WC3, not overly spiffy like Confed WC4, and maybe just a little cooler than WC4 BW.

Was I imagining things, or were the WC4 BW uniforms very similar to WC3 uniforms? I could have sworn that the Border Worlds had bought up surplus war-era Confed uniforms, than sewed new patches on over the Confed Star.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

 

[pendell]

Originally posted by Raptor


That half trained bunch of Border Worlders and their allies were able to cripple one fleet carrier, capture a second, destroy a third and hijack a fourth.
Best, Raptor

Only because we were on their side and were instrumental in three of those four actions. And the fourth was with the connivance of Confed authorities, so I'm not certain that really counts as a BW action -- you'll notice Eisen was wearing his Confederation uniform on the bridge of the St. Helens.

Heck, when we were flying against the Border Worlds as part of Confed we handed their heads to them in a fairly convincing fashion.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

 

[Quarto]

Aww, come on, the WC2 uniforms were the best (except, perhaps, the Admiral's uniform ). Especially the ceremonial uniforms.

 

[Penguin]

Quarto: IIRC Didn't that Tolwyn uniform have a cloak as well?

pendell: In WC4 whoever did the head handling were they who were fastest on the missile trigger. And the Border Worlders sure had a lot of Banshees running around.

Raptor: Confed looked very combat effective in the losing thread of WC4...

 

[Col.Dom]

Originally posted by pendell
Was I imagining things, or were the WC4 BW uniforms very similar to WC3 uniforms? I could have sworn that the Border Worlds had bought up surplus war-era Confed uniforms, than sewed new patches on over the Confed Star.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

Unless mine eyes deceived me, I'm pretty sure the UBW uniforms were the WC3 Confed uniforms. The only notable difference is that they were navy in color and have black shoulder and elbow paddings (with the obvious UBW insignia patch over Confed's).

The WC3 uniforms were blue and had pale blue shoulder and elbow paddings.

So, yeah, the UBW must've bought up the war-era Confed uniforms because they are identical to the ones in WC3. I wonder where the jeans and bomber jackets went, though....

 

[Penguin]

Originally posted by Col.Dom

I wonder where the jeans and bomber jackets went, though....

They're in the wash

 

[Col.Dom]

Ain't nothin' like a pair of pressurized jeans and a bomber jacket with life support systems in them

 

[Zor Prime]

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Oh wow, I loved WC1. In my opinion, it was the best. And that bucket, how much more Martha Stewart can you get?

 

[Wulf]

Originally posted by Zor Prime


Oh wow, I loved WC1. In my opinion, it was the best. And that bucket, how much more Martha Stewart can you get?

Hahaha, I like your sense of humor!

 

[Deathscythe]

WC1 for the leather jacket to cruise the space port, chicks in the future dig leather and the black flght suits from WCP, i was thinking of seethers black flight suit but i think it was very form fitting, dont know why, but baggy is cooler, and one think im not too sure i dont but in WC1 if when you ejected (only did it to see what happend, never had to of course..... really i didnt i swear) your hands are bare im guessing "worse case scenirero frost bite"
""= sarcasm

 

[Raptor]

Originally posted by Penguin
Quarto: IIRC Didn't that Tolwyn uniform have a cloak as well?

pendell: In WC4 whoever did the head handling were they who were fastest on the missile trigger. And the Border Worlders sure had a lot of Banshees running around.

Raptor: Confed looked very combat effective in the losing thread of WC4...

They had a lot of ships in one place. That's not quite the same thing as being combat efficient. While I admit that I might be underrating the Border Worlders's abilities in WC4, as LOAF said, I still feel that Confed should have been able to kick butt in a much more convincing fashion. Instead, the Border Worlders and their allies (and recruiting good allies is all part of being efficient at war, as is stopping you enemies from doing that from within your own ranks) were able to deny Confed the use of *four* of its fleet carriers through damage, destruction, or capture. Of course, storyline wise iit's a good thing the Border Worlders were able to do so well, but Confed's performace seemed kind of lacking.

Best, Raptor

 

[Bandit LOAF]

In every single case, though, the carriers were crippled for some reason -- Eisen captured the MSH while it was undergoing engine trials, Princeton was undergoing repairs and Lexington and Vesuvius were operating with limited capacity because they were bases for project persone1 (as was Princeton).

The fight for the most combat ready of these ships, the Vesuvius, cost the Border Worlds a whole bunch of line ships (frigate after frigate).

Imagine what happens if Blair fails to convince the senate -- MSH and Intrepid are stuck in the Sol system, and the Border Worlds fleet is stuck with a pair of escort carriers (crippled escort carriers! Badly damaged at Speradon) and some converted transports. (And no magic-Blair). Confed, on the other hand, seems to instantly produce another Vesuvii...

 

[dacis2]

IF the decleration of war WAS signed, confed would have a helluva time bouilding another vesuvius with a fat assed carrier and a little assed carrier with battle hardened aces and Black Lance technology in Sol, Eisen would probably send in a wing of black lance fighters to nuke sol station and the major shipyards there. no blair, no problem, just send the never ending frigate fleet to sol system and threaten the Senate and earth to take back the decleration of war or they will commence orbital bombardment. but how do you fit infinity ships into a system?

 

[Bandit LOAF]

IF the decleration of war WAS signed, confed would have a helluva time bouilding another vesuvius with a fat assed carrier and a little assed carrier with battle hardened aces and Black Lance technology in Sol, Eisen would probably send in a wing of black lance fighters to nuke sol station and the major shipyards there. no blair, no problem, just send the never ending frigate fleet to sol system and threaten the Senate and earth to take back the decleration of war or they will commence orbital bombardment. but how do you fit infinity ships into a system?

This is wrong for so many reasons.

Eisen was *at* the senate -- it's rather doubtful that they'd let him go back to his stolen starship.

Mt. St. Helens was crippled, it wasn't in any position to fight.

The Border Worlds wasted all their frigates destroying Vesuvius.

There's clearly another Vesuvius almost ready (McKinley?), as we see it in the losing ending.

They don't have many Lances left... and Blair lost his when he went to the senate. They don't have many normal fighters left, either.

It'd be both really, really stupid and completely out of character (and impossible) for the Border Worlds to attack civilians/Sol.

 

[junior]

Originally posted by Bandit LOAF

It'd be both really, really stupid and completely out of character (and impossible) for the Border Worlds to attack civilians/Sol.

If they had done so, they'd ironically have made Tolwyn's claims about their actions come true.
Besides, most democratic governments try to avoid looking like they're intentionally causing civilian casualties. Tolwyn was attacking civilians, of course, but he was framing the UBW for it, and the actual Confed government had no idea what he was up to.

 

[Col.Dom]

Speaking on Styles....

You know, this site ought to have a page where they show the evolution of our favorite characters. You know, have face shots of each of the characters from each of the games.

Like, Blair's progress from 2nd Lieutenant "Bluehair," and Maniac's, um, apparent crack addiction. I think it'd be neat-o

 

[Mekt-Hakkikt]

Originally posted by Quarto
Aww, come on, the WC2 uniforms were the best (except, perhaps, the Admiral's uniform ). Especially the ceremonial uniforms.

I fully agree! Though I don't know what you have against the Admiral's uniform...

 

[junior]

Re: Speaking on Styles....

Originally posted by Col.Dom
You know, this site ought to have a page where they show the evolution of our favorite characters. You know, have face shots of each of the characters from each of the games.

Like, Blair's progress from 2nd Lieutenant "Bluehair," and Maniac's, um, apparent crack addiction. I think it'd be neat-o

Well what have we got? Let's see...
Between the original games and WC3...

Blair's hair goes from blue to brown, and he gains a few pounds (and quits shaving).
Maniac loses the wide-eyed, bloodshot, hyperactive look.
Angel gets a radical change in hair-do.
Paladin goes from blond-haired posterchild of Scotland to John-Rhys Davies.
Tolwyn goes from blue hair to blond, and loses his mustache.
Hobbes goes from humanoid tiger to WC3 Kilrathi (And Hobbes was named after the philosopher. Honest! *grin*).
Thrakhath and the Emperor both go from humanoid lion to WC3 Kilrathi.

Bluehair, Angel, and Spirit all look slightly older in WC2 than they did in WC1. Bluehair and Angel only change slightly, however. Spirit has a major change in hairstyles (and also takes to wearing kimonos), while the other two just look a little older. Doomsday and Jazz don't change as far as I remember. Didn't see Maniac in WC2, so I can't comment on him. Paladin starts getting blond straggles on his chin, and takes to wearing really loud obnoxious tropical print shirts (lime green, iirc).

 

[Mekt-Hakkikt]

Re: Re: Speaking on Styles....

Originally posted by junior

(...)
Tolwyn goes from blue hair to blond, and loses his mustache.
(...)

Huh? I don't remember seeing Tolwyn with any other hair colour than white/silvery/grey (WCATV, WC2, WC3,WC4, WCM)