Guns or missiles?

In WC4 the dumbfires are quite effective against capships. On strike missions against light and medium caps I often take fighters instead of bombers, (I use bombers for very big targets like carriers) and load them with dumbfires. The fast fighters have not as much problems with enemy fighters as the bombers and the missiles are usually enough to send corvettes, single cruisers and transports to hell.
 
I don't know about that, it seems the longbow and the Paktahn both had there place. After all, if it wasn't for the excalibur super ship the longbow would have been the only jump capable player ship. As for WCIV, a banshee with dumbfires always had enough firepower.
 
I don't think so, Chameleon. You can't use this tactic when fighting very big caps or many caps, because you can't pack enough weapons on fighters. In those missions with many caps I take bombers (Longbow rocks, it is better than any WCP Bomber!)
 
Originally posted by Ghost
I use full guns to destroy light targets, missiles+guns (in that order) to finish heavy targets, but the high amount of missiles in WCP (compared to others WCgames) makes me use the missiles more than ever
Same here.
Originally posted by Bob McDob

Of course, what do I know. :-)
[Jude Law] Hey Joe, what d'you know? [/Jude Law]

Funny we have an A.I. poll too...
 
Originally posted by Dekkar
After all, if it wasn't for the Excalibur... the longbow would have been the only jump capable player ship.
So, it is. Another reason why I feel jump missions are lacking after WC2. The Longbow could jump, so why didn't we use it? :(

Originally posted by Lynx
In those missions with many caps I take bombers (Longbow rocks, it is better than any WCP Bomber!)
I like heavier fighters, so I don't mind flying bombers, but I'd take the Devastator over the Longbow. I can understand why people wouldn't like the Shrike, though.
 
Originally posted by Wedge009

You sure you didn't get that the wrong way around? FFs are weaker than IRs, I always wasted them on Stingrays etc.

Yep. But a FF can't kill a Stingray and I can't be sure that the FF really goes after the Stingray and of course its range is shorter.
Once I reached a navpoint (and had the improved IR) I targeted every Stingray and launched an IR at each and I could be sure not to be troubled anymore.


(...)
I think the same can be said for Privateer - civilian missiles were useless and so slow.
(...)

I disagree a bit: Two IRs and in 90% of the cases the Talon explodes in a nice fireball. :)
 
For the most part, guns, but there are some times where a missile or two will help make things easier for you.

For example, in Privateer you can lock onto one fighter, double-tap it with IRs while you're engaging another target with your guns. (FFs don't work as well, and of course HFs and DFs are useless for the purposes of "over the shoulder" shots.) 2 ImRecs will kill a Talon, and put a hurt on a Demon (and to a lesser extent a Centurion).

Also, lobbing a missile at the drone you run into later in the game will make it go into evasive manuevers, even though the missile can't hurt it. While the drone is farting around with dodging the missile, you have extra time to get away. Particularly useful if you run into the drone on the way back from the steltek ship, at one of the nav/jump points in an asteroid field (my very first encounter with the drone was in the Delta system, at the Delta->Rygannon jump).

Then, of course, there's WC4, where missiles are deadly when they hit. Especially on the atmospheric missions, missiles are a godsend (and also a curse, if you're the target). During the first Tyr mission I packed a rack of ImRecs, and a pack of Leeches. ImRec for the missile turret as soon as I get out of autopilot, and a leech for the Vindicator(s) there (the ace pilot, for the points where there was 2 Vins to engage).

Also useful during the jamming missions, where missile guidance doesn't work, are dumbfires. In addition to the obvious usefulness against the jamming ship in the last Peleus mission (a 4-missile salvo of DFs will make a frigate's life pretty short), often when engaging a fighter in the earlier missions, the AI was easy enough to tail in a good ship that it didn't take an exceptional degree of skill to lob a missile up a Bearcat's or Excalibur's tailpipes, though obviously it wouldn't be as easy as an ImRec or FoF.

I don't think I ever used WC1 missiles for any reason beyond "why not", though...
 
Twigboy... if we had to talk only about movies that had something to do with Wing Commander, our discussions would be based solely on WCM...
So chill out, and let the topic drift carry on for a while...
 
I usually knock their shields out and ram missiles up their tailpipe (in WCP, i always use my missiles, so i can getm ore kills faster) but my guns do most of the job. afterburners are to blame for 99% of my kills, remove my afterburners im dead/dying
 
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