I’ve always loved the design of the Hiigaran assault frigates from HWI, as well as there Battle Cruisers. So I’m going to stick with the Hiigarans. 
For me it’s a close tie between the Vagyr and Taiidan as I like their overall ship design except a few ships.
The Dagger-class Ion Array Frigate from the Turanic Raiders however is my favorite ship. The way those ion arrays open just before they fire, and the chatter you hear when your camera is close to them is very badass. 
I have a tie between the Kadeshi and The Kiith Somtaaw
The Kadeshi were part of the Kushan till they decided to leave the caravan in the exile instead of following the herd they became a race of raiders who even the Taidan empire feared (ironic since it was they who exiled them)
As for the Kiith Somtaaw how much more badass could you get going from the everyman worker clan of miners to a fighting force defending all living in the galaxy from a virus plotting to take over the whole galaxy
Honestly I hope the Kadeshi are more fleshed out this time around, and I hope the Somtaaw are still cannon
For me it were the Taiidan. Their ship designs were not just some of the best but they were also evil. I like evil. 
As side of that I also think the Turranics, Bentusi & Kadesh had some wonderful and unique designs.
But in all honesty the whole 2 games had epic designs. If we could include Catacylsm
The Nagarok was epic followed by the Somtaaw and beast which featured almost all main factions of HW1.
Kadeshi, because they were the only “true threat” you had in the campaign. Until you figured out their weakness. Plus the “i am your father” revelation that they were your very own people.
2nd would be Kith Somtaaw. TBH i am surprised the Kushan/Higarans didn’t wipe themselves out in total clan warfare between landfall, and the end times. Cataclysm showed how divided the clans were. The Somtaaw were the “lowest of cast’s” trying to make a name for themselves, and get recognition. Which turned into disaster. The story of the Somtaaw rising to the challenge, and undoing their mistake is pretty good. That “BFG” on the command ship was a little over the top though. "Fire the Wave Moti---- err i mean the BFG!!
I am a taiidan imperial at heart nuff said =)
Sometimes the simplest words are the most effective. The Taiidan Empire rules!
Always Taiidan. Skaal-Tel forever.
To any kadeshi lover
I actually would like to see a game that shows the Kadeshi point of view, from the war the led them to exile to how they became trapped in the nebula.
Maybe they could put that in as “extra missions”? A new campaign within the existing game?
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that’d be quite useful. They would probably need Relic to help them with creating a canonical Kadeshi story line though.
Somtaaw.
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Since the Raider mission was added we now have mod support for separate campaigns that sit in that Extra Mission section. This could totally be a thing.
Exactly.
Absolutely I dreamed for that for years. While I would still prefer a real map editor with point and drag and an implemented trigger system like the Armed Assault series has it’s still epic to get the possibility to create own missions with the lua.scripts and once the related mod tools for that come out I will certainly check it out.
I just hope it wont be to hard getting something decent up and running.
I can tell you for a fact that it’s entirely possible to make missions with complex logic and events right now with currently available tools, even if there’s not a GUI for it. The one thing that we really lack the tools for is the ‘Non-Interactive Sequence’ in-engine cutscenes, and I’d argue that while they do enhance a mission, you can generally tell a story and execute gameplay without them.
My favourite race is the taiidan because they do things like this:
They are very good at being bad 
I’m just a huge fan of their design style. Nothing beats the aggressive shapes of the Skaal-Tel and Kudaark. I might need a few Sajuuk Cors along side them, but I been loving how a decent spam of Kudaarks works so well in the current balance mod. Their plasma bombs let them still be a fairly high threat to other capitals enmass. Turret/bullet swarms are my favorite. Too many fighters? Bring on the Diirvaas muhahah
Taiidan carriers risk it all with a massive open shipyard at the front. Shows how much of a warrior race the taiidan are. 
What do you do?