Wc3 In-Game Capship Armaments

Six-Gun Slim

Rear Admiral
Apologies if this has been covered in the past, but I am looking for some information that I'd like to incorporate in my own project (I'll get to that in a future thread, though!). Specifically, I'm looking for the in-game armaments for the capital ships in Wc3: the old '/ships2' page and the encyclopedia are incomplete, and I'd like to know their in-game capabilities for reference. Plus, if someone knows what their actual in-universe armaments are, ie the weapons they should have but aren't actually part of the game, that would be helpful as well.
 
WC Saga should be a good point of reference for you, simply load up the mission editor, place a capital ship and look at its turrets in the ship editor. It will even highlight the corresponding weapon!
 
Apologies if this has been covered in the past, but I am looking for some information that I'd like to incorporate in my own project (I'll get to that in a future thread, though!). Specifically, I'm looking for the in-game armaments for the capital ships in Wc3: the old '/ships2' page and the encyclopedia are incomplete, and I'd like to know their in-game capabilities for reference. Plus, if someone knows what their actual in-universe armaments are, ie the weapons they should have but aren't actually part of the game, that would be helpful as well.

I had to do a fair amount of research on the topic my own self for WCRPG; that all got put into Chapter 7.3 of the Core Rules. Might be a good starting point for you, if for no other reason than WCRPG includes the firing arcs (from a top-down perspective only).
 
Good question! I decided to take out a few fighters and find out what the real armaments were tonight... we should archive this for posterity! For those unfamiliar, the capital ships in Wing Commander III are listed in the manual as having (generally) only laser turrets, whereas in the actual game many of them have multiple turret types.

A few notes:

- There's some debate over what the three capital ship weapons are. The red bolts are lasers, the white/gray bolts are tachyon guns and the green bolts are anti-matter guns.
- While many of the specifications listed in Claw Marks are incorrect, all but one have the correct NUMBER of turrets. The exception is the Kilrathi Heavy Destroyer (Ralaxath) which is listed as 11 lasers and 3 tachyon guns but instead has 10 lasers and 1 anti-matter gun. I suspect that the tachyon guns are the complete error in the listing.
- The following are listed correctly in Victory Streak: both factions' transports and the human light carrier (Yorktown.)
- CapShip Missiles do not appear as the standard armament of these ships; instead, the game assigns them for particular situations. The Kilrathi Corvette can carry at least one, as it fires a Skipper in Orsini 4 and Ariel 3. The Kilrathi Destroyer (Scout) can carry at least three, which it fires (pandemic-tipped) in Tamayo 2.
- Both of the human ships of the line, the cruiser and the destroyer, fire a single CSM when batting Kilrathi warships. In these cases, the intent may be more that the game needs to 'script' the ending to what's visually a gun battle between the two ships... but you could argue easily each way! The missiles are visible (and targetable.)
- I have been unable to substantiate the old claim that the Victory fires a CSM. Does anyone know where? I've confirmed that it is NOT Ariel 3 or Delius 3.

Terran Confederation

Transport (Clarkson-class)
  • (2) Dual-Mount Laser Turret

Destroyer (Southampton-class)
  • (7) Dual-Mount Laser Turret
  • (2) Dual-Mount Anti-Matter Gun Turret

Cruiser (Tallahassee-class)
  • (8) Dual-Mount Laser Turret
  • (4) Dual-Mount Anti-Matter Gun Turret

Light Carrier (Yorktown-class)
  • (11) Dual-Mount Laser Turret

Empire of Kilrah


Transport (Sha'kar-class)
  • (2) Dual-Mount Laser Turret

Corvette (Kamrani-class)
  • (4) Dual-Mount Laser Turret
  • (1) Dual-Mount Tachyon Gun Turret

Destroyer (Ralarrad-class)
  • (7) Dual-Mount Laser Turret
  • (1) Dual-Mount Tachyon Gun Turret

Heavy Destroyer (Ralaxath-class)
  • (10) Dual-Mount Laser Turret
  • (1) Dual-Mount Anti-Matter Gun Turret

Cruiser (Fralthi II-class)
  • (11) Dual-Mount Laser Turret
  • (4) Dual-Mount Anti-Matter Gun Turret

Heavy Carrier (Bhantkara-class)
  • (6) Dual-Mount Laser Turret
  • (2) Dual-Mount Anti-Matter Gun Turret

Dreadnaught (Hvar'kann-class)
  • (32) Dual-Mount Laser Turret
  • (6) Dual-Mount Anti-Matter Gun Turret
 
A minor nitpick--the system in which the plague missiles are launched is Laconda, not Tamayo--it's Flint's home planet.
 
- I have been unable to substantiate the old claim that the Victory fires a CSM. Does anyone know where? I've confirmed that it is NOT Ariel 3 or Delius 3.

I'm pretty sure the Victory fires a couple CSMs at the Asteroid base in Delius 3.

Admittedly it's been a while since I played the game (and I haven't had my personal laptop with me for quite a while, so I can't easily help you verify this) but, if memory isn't failing me, i think the missiles are fired immediately as the Victory and the player arrive at the Depot nav point.

To be fair, in this particular instance, i'm not totally sure if the missiles are able to destroy the base. I think they may critically damage it, to make it easy for the player to destroy it. This part I'm not totally sure. Again it's been a while...

In any case, thanks for collecting all these stats, these are pretty cool! :)
 
I'm back from the Delius System! With an interesting report.

The Victory does indeed fire two (simultaneous) CapShip Missiles at the station (destroying it, if they impact.) Unlike every other appearance of CSMs, these two can't be targetted (even in the nav map.) So, plenty of room for debate there! (Though my gut says I suppose I'd give the Victory two CSM launchers, since it's clearly the intent of the narrative that it's blowing up the station somehow.) If you shoot down the two missiles (they show on your radar) then the Victory doesn't fire any others.

Additionally, we can add the kinda-interesting armament of the station to the list:

  • (6) Dual-Mount Tachyon Gun Turret

(Which I say is kinda-interesting, because Victory Streak lists two Kilrathi bases, neither of which are necessarily this one... and the 'number of turrets' don't match up to either.)
 
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