- Particle Cannon:
The
Particle Cannon first appeared in Wing Commader II: it provided long range and
high damage potential at a fast rate of fire. Most of the Terran fighters were
equipped with this gun, including the Rapier, the Sabre and the Epee. In WC3
the only Terran ship equipped with this gun is the Longbow bomber which has
got a dual Particle cannon rear turret, providing a great defense from rear
attacks by light and medium enemy fighters. In WC4 the Hellcat and the Longbow
have this gun, but it isn't as powerful as in the previous games: its range,
fire rate and damage potential have decreased, making this gun not
particularly effective.
- Tachion Cannon:
This weapon
is every fighter pilot dream: great range, very high damage potential and fast
firing rate; obviously the downside is that the Tachion cannon chews up your
power reserves quickly. The first fighter to be equipped with this gun was the
Excalibur (in WC3), but in the following years many ships were designed to be
armed with the Tachion cannons, like the prototype heavy fighter Bearcat or
the Black Lance fighter Dragon; even the Vindicator medium fighter in the
Border Worlds fleet.
- Spiculum Image Recognition
missile:
The Spiculum Image-Rec missile is the deadliest among
the Confed and Kilrathi arsenal: its warhead requires a few seconds to lock on
a target and memorize the ship type, then you can launch it and the Spiculum
follows the target until it's outpaced or it hits. The warhead causes a lot of
damage, so I find this missile very useful to finish off an enemy: knock down
shields and armor and fire a Spiculum to the exposed side of your enemy to
quickly terminate him.
- Leech missile:
The Leech
missile first appeared in Wing Commander Academy and Wing Commander Armada as
a particular warhead available for the Wraith medium fighter only. The Leech
tracks an enemy and once hits, it drains the target of all its energy leaving
it without shields and therefore vulnerable. In WC4 the Leech was subjected to
some improvements, that made it able, not only to drain the enemy of its
power, but also to leave him as a "sitting duck". The Leech is very useful
especially when you have to fight against a crowd of fighters: disable a
couple of enemies with it, then deal with the remaining
foes!