[el_magnifico]

I always wanted to like the Artemis. The problem is, it has poor gun placement and maneuverability, the two most important dogfighting statistics.

You know, it seems like almost every strike bomber has a crippling flaw: The Artemis has crap gunpoints and maneuverability, the Athena can't carry real bombs, the Zeus can but it has much worse payload and weaker armor.

I agree with you wholeheartedly. But I guess the game wouldn't be fun if you had a superbomber and/or fighter that could do it all.

The Bakha and the Sekhmet are the only exceptions I can think of, being fairly good in an anti-capital and anti-fighter role.

Yeah. Vasudans know how to make bombers, that's for sure.

Spoiler:

What? Who is this Osiris you mention? I'm sorry amigo, me no understands mucho el English ¿sabe?  

In particular, the Sekhmet is both the strongest and most maneuverable strike bomber in the game. It could easily be used as a heavy space superiority fighter instead of a bomber.

The profile is huge, though. And it still forces you to choose a single primary, which makes carrying a Maxim a risky gamble.

[Apollo]

The profile is huge, though. And it still forces you to choose a single primary, which makes carrying a Maxim a risky gamble.

The Sekhmet's large target profile is unfortunate, but it still has the unique ability to carry as many warheads as the Ursa and still dogfight competently. It forces you to choose a single primary, which does make carrying the Maxim a bad idea. However, it also gives it a huge ROF boost that allows it to tear apart most fighters in seconds. It's not a perfect ship, but none of its flaws are as huge as the Artemis's inability to dogfight well or the Zeus's poor armor and payload.

[CP5670]

The Sekhmet is easily the best bomber in the game overall and has no major weaknesses. It works equally well as a heavy fighter and was actually one of the most commonly used ships in online TvT games (next to the Herc II). A Maxim may still be a good choice for it if the enemies in the mission consist mainly of other bombers, since you can pair it up with Tempests for shield damage against slow moving enemies.

One thing that becomes important on insane difficulty is the primary energy capacity (which also controls the recharge rate). Some ships with quad primary banks also have small capacities, and the primary banks are less useful than at lower difficulties. The Artemis, Tauret and Sekhmet all have a capacity of only 100, as opposed to 150 for many of the other ships.

[yuezhi]

you all say perseus, i say valkyrie.

IMO the most overrated fighter ever is the ares. as if the herc2 wasn't slow enough, the ares doesn't carry much more than its predecessor and is easy prey for all the maras, manticores and dragons when it's introduced. on another note, don't ask me about ETS since i've given up on understanding it because of how it changes with difficulty.

[el_magnifico]

It's not a perfect ship, but none of its flaws are as huge as the Artemis's inability to dogfight well or the Zeus's poor armor and payload.

The Artemis supposedly superior missile capacity to the Zeus deserves to be taken with a grain of salt. When you consider the Artemis' unfortunate design, you realize that in those admittedly larger missile bays you have to accommodate both anti-fighter missiles and anti-turret ones. This leaves you, in a best case scenario, with room for 4 Cyclops.
The Zeus has smaller secondary bays, but with split primary systems and better placed gunpoints it can either carry a Maxim or a second anti-fighter cannon, freeing up a secondary slot to accommodate another bank of Cyclops. You can easily end up with 6 Cyclops there, giving you an extra 50% of raw anti-capital firepower when compared to the "superior" Artemis. Also, the fact that they are split in two separate banks means that, at least in theory, you can fire 4 Cyclops in a single pass (yeah, good luck with that).
Of course, a Maxim may not really be the same as a fire-and-forget Trebuchet or the slightly inferior Stiletto II for anti-turret work, and another pair of primaries in a bomber is not necessarily better than a dedicated missile bay for fighter suppression*, but in terms of raw firepower against capital ships the two are still comparable. It says a lot about an allegedly dated design when it can be at least as good, if not actually better, than its supposedly superior replacement in its more defining aspect (number of bombs you can put on the target before needing to rearm).

These same liabilities of the Artemis don't apply to the Sekhmet because it's far more prepared to deal with enemy fighters by using its primaries, while also having TWICE the missile capacity of the Zeus.

*: But do keep in mind that unlike the Zeus the Artemis is unable to carry Harpoons, which are the prime anti-fighter missiles.

[Apollo]

You have a point there. The Zeus doesn't need anti-fighter missiles as much because it can actually hit thing with its lasers, freeing up more space for Cyclops.

IMO the most overrated fighter ever is the ares. as if the herc2 wasn't slow enough, the ares doesn't carry much more than its predecessor and is easy prey for all the maras, manticores and dragons when it's introduced. on another note, don't ask me about ETS since i've given up on understanding it because of how it changes with difficulty.

I usually think of the Ares as a bomber* that's meant to attack other fighters instead of capships--with six gunpoints and huge missile banks it annihilates anything in front of it, but it gets murdered in dogfights, making an escort wing neccesary to protect it.

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*Technically, Trebuchets can destroy capships. They really don't do enough damage to be useful for this, however.

But, they can take down most fighters in one or two hits.

[el_magnifico]

Here's my playthrough of the mission "Sixth Wonder" with a Loki, so that you can compare and see how well it fares as an interceptor (difficulty: Hard).
I'll add a playthrough of "Into the Maelstrom" as soon as I have a chance (which could be a few weeks).

http://youtu.be/EWtJsHey15c