[Dan1]

I hate scorpions, seems like I read somewhere that they are the only ship that can move in all 3 axis at once.  Dragons don't concern me, lock at distance with tribuchets or close in with furies = dead.

[achtung]

A good way to kill them is with a fighter with a lot of firepower (Herc) and load up with Interceptors or Hornets, with primaries Banshee and Prometheus. Once the Dragon is in range of your missiles, fire a few to knock it off course and weaken its forward shields. While its still recovering, fire with all your primary firepower. This usually destroys them quickly.

Another way to fight them is when you're in a really annoying slow bomber that can't dogfight well and if you're tied up with Harbingers and Tsunamis. Allocate 75% of all energy to your shields and attack the Dragon head on. Fire your primaries at it, remembering to put the necessary energy onto your shields. If it breaks off to avoid collision, quickly press Q to equalize your shields. Keep it targetted. When you see in your targetting box it's coming in for a run, as quick as you can turn towards it and fire your primaries. Repeat as needed and that should kill it.

At least, that works on medium...

Hornets against a Dragon?   

I usually just go gun-ho with a volley of Primary weapons fire and furies.  Or just knock em out with dual interceptor blasts.

[Mongoose]

I just play on Easy and pick them off en masse.

[NGTM-1R]

I just play on Easy and pick them off en masse.

There stands a wise man.

[Dark Hunter]

Why is everyone so angry about Dragons being hard to kill? I'm happy they're so tough! They are the only fighters to provide a decent challenge!

Basilisks= pathetic
Scorpions= better, but still weak
Manticores= look weird, and are fast, but weak
Maras= these are space superiority fighters?
Aeshmas= Basilisk clones
Astaroths= must be made out of wet paper...
Dragons= YAY! A challenging fighter!

[Mars]

I took out 3 or four reactors that way, the ursa's did nothing. K, they got one reactor, cause I didn't have enough harbingers.

Dragons... distract em  While they aren't looking, launch harpoons at them 

Other than that, I raise my hand 

What you probably don't realize (I didn't for years) is that it only takes ONE harbinger to take out a reactor, if you make sure every one of your bombs hits your target dead on you can take out both engine subsystems (prevents failure by running out of time) and all but one reactor.

[Mathwiz6]

Same, all shivans suck except dragons, some maras (in some cases) and astaroths. They may be made of wet paper, but they have a hell of a pain in the ass hull shaping.

Not to mention modded ships.

Who hates vindycathal? Ya know, those bomber thingies with 3x the health and shields of a seraphim, with a small beam cannon, shivan super bombs, and 3 turrets, that can drop a Ca in about 2 minutes?

[NGTM-1R]

The Astaroth is like the Dragon, only more annoying because it's even smaller.

[Mars]

Can a Shivan even fit in an Astaroth? I suppose it doesn't matter because we don't know big the Shivans actually are (the outside may well be an artificial extension)

[Turey]

Can a Shivan even fit in an Astaroth?

maybe they use midget Shivans?

[NGTM-1R]

Can a Shivan even fit in an Astaroth? I suppose it doesn't matter because we don't know big the Shivans actually are (the outside may well be an artificial extension)

The outside is cybernetic, possibly the beam cannon as well, so it may be they just wired a brain and life-support gear into the fighter.

[Javito1986]

Well no, I'm not -complaining- persay. One of the things I love about Freespace 2 is how difficult it can be, and the near invincible Dragons are part of that. Even with lesser Shivan fighters, they still tend to get you every so often. On higher difficulty levels, which is where I like to play, you need to learn to rely on your wingmen and work with them. I still remember the first time I changed to Hard difficulty, on the second level of FS2, and was amazed at how I kept getting wasted by the NTF fighters at the start of the mission. I had no idea how to avoid the missiles and they would just blast you to bits with their guns on the first pass. It takes practice. I also like that I don't usually come away with 20 kills every mission.

You know what it reminds me of actually is a PC game called Rowan's Battle of Britain - in my opinion the most realistic World War II sim ever created. In -that- game you learned to dread fighting enemy fighters and throughout the whole campaign you were lucky to get even five kills.

So when I complain about Dragons, it's actually a compliment. I dread Dragons and run from them like a scared little girl the same way I used to avoid Messerschmitt 109's like the plague in Rowan's BoB. And it's no coincidence that they're both my favorite games of their respective genres.

[Moonsword]

The best way to kill a Dragon involves a Trebuchet and said fighter's tailpipe.  While they're superb strike weapons, Trebs can cause some incredibly cheap fighter kills from time to time.  They're not dogfighting weapons but the AI doesn't really have enough sense to properly dodge a Treb, meaning that long-range shots tend to pick off fighters one at a time.  Save the Hornets, etc. for shooting at bombers and pick the damn escorts off (like Dragons or Maras, the things that can actually cause trouble) with Trebs.

As for Basilisks, they're targets, plain and simple.  Heavily armed targets (vs. freighters) but targets, none the less.

[Cobra]

As for Basilisks, they're targets, plain and simple.  Heavily armed targets (vs. freighters) but targets, none the less.

True that. I've got over 200 basilisk kills, while all my other ship kills are around 100-140 or less.

[asyikarea51]

Vindhyacals, Dragons, Gorgons, Maras... Dragons, small and really fast. Gorgons, they can be hard to hit because of their shape. I have yet to fight a Vindhyacal though.

No, I'm not complaining, just that sometimes when I'm not in a good mood, they can get irritating...

Every now and then they get on my nerves up to the point where I just change mods and launch my own breed of anti-fighter missiles at them.

[Snail]

Every now and then they get on my nerves up to the point where I just change mods and launch my own breed of anti-fighter missiles at them.

I made a missile called the 'Chaos Swarm' which is basically a modification of the Rockeye which does less damage, but is much smaller and has a shorter firing rate, as well as better homing capability. This way, I load up in a Hercules Mark II or Ares (Cyone in Inferno) and just blast the thing. It doesn't matter if some of them don't hit. Some will. And that's all it takes.



Oh, and I meant Tornadoes in my last post. They don't hit either, but still, they're... Interesting. Oh, another way to do it is to just ram the bastard and fire primaries while it's still recovering.

[Mathwiz6]

Vindhyacals, Dragons, Gorgons, Maras... Dragons, small and really fast. Gorgons, they can be hard to hit because of their shape. I have yet to fight a Vindhyacal though.
No, I'm not complaining, just that sometimes when I'm not in a good mood, they can get irritating...

Every now and then they get on my nerves up to the point where I just change mods and launch my own breed of anti-fighter missiles at them.

Loooolll  . Vindhyacals, small and fast? 

(fine, afterburner 195, but normal 35. And they have huuuge target area (at least on top)

[Dark Hunter]

I believe, if you check the post a little closer, you'll see he was referring to Dragons as small and fast, not Vindy's. 


Vindhyacals are nowhere near as tough as people say they are... unless, of course, you've got three of them attacking things that you're supposed to defend, then they are 90m of hell. 

It's just that they have soooo much sheild strength. If you're not in a Herc 3 armed with Firestorm cannons, they can be a real pain to inflict damage on.

[Mobius]

Once you take out a Vindyachal's shield defense,many of your laser shots miss the target because of the shape.

The Maras isn't that powerful,they look fat and are quite "hittabble".

[Cyker]

One neat trick that I've had some success with on Dragons is to hammer it with a Morning Star and then either Harpoon or Tree the sucker while it's stunned.

Morning Stars are highly underrated as a defensive anti-fighter weapon - In one test my brother made, he armed bulldog turrets with morning stars instead of subachs and deployed them like a mine field - We couldn't get close enough to take them out with primary weapons!

If only ONE MS particle hits you, you get slowed *just* enough for the other 500 to hit you. Next thing you know, you're being pushed out of the minefield and facing the wrong way!

And a cap ship armed with nothing but anti-fighter beams and morning stars is freaking scary to attack...!