Hi there.

Absolutely in love with the WC series, but I can't seem to come anywhere near my performance ... um ... 20 years ago.
In WC1 I am in the 3rd Series - Brimstone - after losing McAuliffe.
So stuck. Can't kill the battle ship in mission three. It's not the battle ship that worries me obviously, but I can't for the life of me take down a Krant down in my Scimitar. Not without wasting missiles I need for the big boy...

Long story short, I know I am rusty with a capital R, but still.
I currently play on my laptop using the keyboard. Mouse controls don't really work for me.
Should I get a joy stick? I don't remember WC1 to be this freaking hard!
And I wonder how much the controls really improve with a stick.
Like I said, it's been ages since I played the game and I don't remember it to be so choppy and hard to aim.

Any advice is much appreciated.

I found that to be a tough mission too.

When you get to the Krants, you might want to avoid taking on the ace pilot first. The others will be easier to destroy. Don't be afraid to use some of your missiles to cut down their numbers quickly. You can probably take out the capital ship with just your cannons, actually, and certainly with dumbfire missiles and cannons. So use the fancy ones on the fighters. Use a lot of afterburner so you're hard to hit. When the odds are more even, you can move on to the ace, and then the cap ship.

When your shields are max and you're desperate, you can also always ram a Krant with a short burst of your afterburners... but it can be risky.

If you're really frustrated, you might also be able to win this mission just by taking out the capital ship and using your afterburners to get the heck out... clearly not the most satisfying solution though, and Maniac might die. :P

If it's any consolation to you, I don't believe you've lost reflexes you had twenty years ago. The problem has more to do with the fact you've given yourself a significant handicap by foregoing a mouse or joystick. I don't think anybody is able to progress very far in these games using the keyboard alone.
I highly suggest switching to an actual mouse, or, better still, a joystick or gamepad. A gamepad would probably be more comfortable, and it's certainly compact, to use since you'd need extra space to layout a joystick. Gamepads should be easily configured through DOSbox.

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it very much!

I just realized that my spare mad catz 360 wired pad works in Windows.
Tried it out last night and mapping it via dosbox is... OK, at best.
I found the Joy2Key software some user recommended, but how the heck do I get dosbox to let me use it?
I can controll my pad with ANY window but the dosbox game window :(

HELP

I don't think the keyboard is such a bad option in the early WC-games. I completed WC1 on the Amiga, and that system uses a digital joystick, so it's essentially the same as a keyboard. These were mass market games, not meant for the few who owned analog sticks back then. Though maybe a proper keyboard works a bit better than a laptop one.

Edit: Also, while I can't remember having played that actual mission, I find that capital ships in WC1 are relatively "easy" to kill with regular cannons, so I would try using missiles on the krants to get rid of them. The fact that you're flying a Schimitar obviously makes it tougher, but it's worth a try.

Yes the game seems to be much harder than I recall. I even dusted off the old SNES to try it out on that one. I was able to do very well on that one. I can take on a good 9 fighters at a time. (of course my fighter is in rather bad shape at that point) In the gog one I have a hard time fighting 4.

I think part of the problem is this is the original wc and not the re-released one that origin did a few years later. (better sound effects, ships didn't magically turn on a dime. etc