Star Wars - explanations of ships

[Conquistador]

Okay, the game not so much but a few of the spaceships/starships look interesting - but what the heck is the role of all of these ships?  

I used to play Full Thrust and as an air gamer I understand basic "roles" like Fighter/Bomber/Reconnaissance  but where is there a site that explains the differences between a A/X/Y/etc. fighter and all the other ships?  What does an A-wing do better than a X-wing than a Y-wing?  

More maneuverability, shields, armor, fire power, bombardment capability?

Gracias,

Glenn

[Diakon]

I don't play the game but I can tell you from the excellent Star Wars Battlefront games on the PS2 that an A-Wing is an Interceptor, an X-Wing is a good all-round Fighter and the Y-Wing is a Bomber. In the video game the Imperial's even had exact opposites; Tie Interceptor, Tie Fighter and Tie Bomber.

Hope that helps.

[Ironworker]

X-wing is a superiority fighter. 
Y-wing is an attack fighter. 
A-wing is an interceptor. 

[Gunbird]

Hey man, give the B-wing some love too (Heavy Fighter), thats my favorite.

[SotF]

An A-Wing is extremely fast and maneuverable, it's primarily an interceptor role that doubles as a superiority fighter.

The X-Wing is primarily the standard baseline fighter with heavier firepower than the A-Wing, but slower and with better shields. Also remember that the X-Wings guns don't work when the S-Foils are closed, their normal power distribution shifted to engines and replenishing shields. The X-95 is similar to the X-Wing in setup, but it's older and doesn't have the S-Foils, and half the guns, and smaller warhead bay. Also remember that through the novels there are several variants and upgraded versions of the X-Wing...the best known are the X-Wing R, the X-Wing XJ, and the Stealth X...the latter two are from the NJO and later periods while the R was in use even pre-Yavin as a recon variant that loses it's warheads for sensor gear.

The Y-Wing was originally a fighter, but by the time of the rebellion it was largely used as a bomber because of the larger loadout, heavier armor and shields, while being rather slow (though it's turreted ion canon does help cover that somewhat).

The B-Wing is a heavy bomber/gunship...basically add more weapons to a Y-Wing and let it come close to combat speed of an X-Wing though it's also a lot larger than the others.

The E-Wing was intended to be an upgrade for the X-Wing with faster firing guns and nearly A-Wing speed, it was removed from use due to many issues with the design and the problems with the built in Astromech.

The K-Wing is pretty much a small freighter sized bomber meant to match the Missile Boat...it remained in use, but it couldn't match the missile boat in capability and was pretty much weaponry central in a slow craft that took a TON of firepower to even slow down.

V-Wing is an airspeeder Air Superiority fighter best known for the fights with the World Devastators over Mon Calimari, it didn't really end up used that much as it wasn't space capable without modifications that could give it a short exo-atmospheric hop for launch and landing.

[Vermis]

I don't play the game but I can tell you from the excellent Star Wars Battlefront games on the PS2 that an A-Wing is an Interceptor, an X-Wing is a good all-round Fighter and the Y-Wing is a Bomber. In the video game the Imperial's even had exact opposites; Tie Interceptor, Tie Fighter and Tie Bomber.

Hope that helps.

I remember the same stuff well from the older X-Wing PC games.

Remember kids, real starfighters don't need shields.

[SotF]

I remember the same stuff well from the older X-Wing PC games.

Remember kids, real starfighters don't need shields.

All of their better craft did there and in other games. TIE's are largely gimped to start with since they need modifications for normal landing procedures  outside of their launch/recovery racks...

Advanced, Defender, Gunboat, Missile Boat, Phantom, TRI, Raptor, and a lot of other such Imperial craft were shielded. The earlier models are the ones that the Empire decided numbers were better to have with than adding shields and hyperdrives...

[wminsing]

I agree if you want an in depth explanation you'll need to hit Wookiepedia (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page), but a quick summary:

X-wing: Space Superiority, secondary role as a fighter-bomber.  Good blend of firepower, protection and maneuverability, can carry torpedoes. 

Y-wing: Attack, also found doing long-range recon, can also be used as a fighter in a pinch.  Less firepower than the X-wing and a lot less maneuverable, but tougher, usually has a turret, and can carry more torpedoes (and some times other weapons). 

A-wing: Interceptor and fast recon.  Not as tough as the x-wing and less firepower, but much faster and more maneuverable.  Carries missiles.

B-Wing: Heavy Attack, lots of firepower and fairly tough, not very maneuverable.  Carries torpedoes and other ordinance.

The main TIE family is easier.

TIE Fighter: Space Superiority

TIE Interceptor: Improved Space Superiority, faster, better armed

TIE Bomber: Attack, lots of ordinance and not much else

-Will
   

[Connectamabob]

In the video game the Imperial's even had exact opposites; Tie Interceptor, Tie Fighter and Tie Bomber.

The TIE Iterceptor and TIE bomber were in the OT movies. The intereceptor is seen a lot (even more than the regular TIE) at the battle of Endor in RotJ. The bomber only shows up in one or two blink-and-you'll-miss-it long distance shots, but it's there too.

TIE Bomber: Attack, lots of ordinance and not much else

Mine layer too. And in one of it's scarce appearances in the movies, it acts as a personell shuttle, implying the ordinance pod may actually be a fairly flexible mission pod.

[westwaller]

The bomber only shows up in one or two blink-and-you'll-miss-it long distance shots, but it's there too.

Is the TIE Bomber not the thing that er...Bombs the astroid in which the Falcon is hiding in The Empire Strikes Back?
That's a whole scene for it...

[Mr Tough Guy]

Is the TIE Bomber not the thing that er...Bombs the astroid in which the Falcon is hiding in The Empire Strikes Back?
That's a whole scene for it...

[Connectamabob]

Hah! Y'know I'd totally forgotten about that scene... Their longest, most promenent appearence... For some reason I was remembering the TIEs in that scene as regular TIE fighters. Shows how long it's been since I've seen the movies.

[Daeothar]

Basically, there was a difference in space combat philosophy between the Empire and the Rebellion.

The Empire had a virtually endless influx of eager personnel, making life pretty cheap for them, which matches up nicely with the overall Imperial philosophy of course.

The Rebellion though, was short on qualified pilots, and as a result, their pilots were much more valuable to their war effort.

Or so goes the explanation. Of course this makes even more sense when seen from a movie making perspective; your small group of heroes takes on swarms of faceless evil bad guys.

I can't escape the feeling that the entire universe background grew out of the cinematic need for establishing the heroes fighting from a numerical disadvantage. Loss of good guys is more keenly felt, and each can blow up many enemies, making them even more heroic (unless said hero is too heavy for his fighter to resist the gravity of a small moon space station )

But this all changed when the PC games were released, specifically the TIE-Fighter series. Flying as the bad guy is fun, but not when you're in a paper plane fighting flying tanks. So there, the Imperial fighters were souped up to get to an equal footing with the Rebellion's mighty fighter range. That's when we started to see shielded TIE's, such as the TIE Advanced, Avenger and Defender, and all new designs such as the Assault Gunboat and Missile Boat. many of those started carrying missiles and hyperdrives too, for the sake of playability, making them as capable and tough as their Rebellious counterparts.

And that carried over to the expanded universe. It was explained away that due to heavy losses at Yavin, Endor etc, the swarm philosophy was dropped, in favor of more durable and capable (and thus more expensive) fighters, which would keep their pilots alive longer, meaning that experience could be increased and shared etc.

But then again, we never saw losses in either film suggesting that the Rebel attacks were that crippling to the Imperial space fighter fleet. After all, the Imperial fleet was supposed to be spread far and wide across the galaxy in stupifying numbers; just one or two pitched battles would hardly be felt from a strategic perspective. Of course, I'm not talking about the loss of the two Death Stars here, which would have been grievous blows indeed.

And in the end, because of the reasons as explained for the first movies, much of the later expanded universe material reverted back to the original Imperial swarm tactics, because once again, the rebels needed to be more heroic and the enemies more faceless and numerous (and dying in droves ).

So while there obviously are examples of superior Imperial fighters, they only came to be because of the computer games, and they have not played a major role in the rest of the expanded universe. Sadly, as TIE-Fighter still ranks as one of my all-time favourite PC games, and I will always have a soft spot for the TIE Avenger, my favourite fighter...

[Ahistorian]

Another reason is that the Emperor specifically did not want his armed forces having an easy option to rebel/defect/desert, so he ordered fighters that had limited air supplies & shields, as well as no hyperdrive capability, to force them to stick close to their ships.

[Conquistador]

Another reason is that the Emperor specifically did not want his armed forces having an easy option to rebel/defect/desert, so he ordered fighters that had limited air supplies & shields, as well as no hyperdrive capability, to force them to stick close to their ships.

Must be nice to be so loved...

Machiavelli was right, though, you know...

It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.
Niccolo Machiavelli

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/n/niccolo_machiavelli.html


Gracias,

Glenn