Xenon Invasion - done quick.

[autosave22]

This is a PSA brought to you by the Mamba Raider Owners Club.

The Xenon Invasion - done quick.

You will need:

- Mamba Raider (of course)
- Afterburners Mk1
- 60 or 70 ECells, (a true Split would use Space Flies )
- ~6 Hammerhead Missiles, aka Unknown Objects

You can probably see where I'm going with this... L's and M's are frankly boring, so the plan is to dive bomb the Capital Ships, claim the cash, and bring the whole charade to quick and lucrative end. I got the idea when I noticed that when you fire missiles at high speed, they inherit some of the speed you are carrying.

Here's the plan:

- Slap about whatever M's or L's happen to be annoying the neighbours, until...

- J/K appears in a flash of light.

- Hit the AB, and full burn towards unsuspecting victim. (450ish m/s - never really had time to look ). Shouting "Hail the Split", or "Leeroy Jenkins", is optional, yet recommended.

- Start "drunken sailor" if, or rather when, things start to get warm.

- Launch the hammerhead at a distance of 3km. Any nearer and flak/pbe can start up which can destroy the missile (you're dead!). Any further away and the turrets have time to lock on the missile and destroy it (you're also dead!). Note that J/K's are quite big, and the 3km on the HUD is to the centre of rotation of the craft. The missile's point of impact could be quite a bit nearer, especially if it decides to lock onto a turret.

- Pull the biggest U turn EVER. Do not try to do "fly-by" straight ahead bombing... you will die (beginning to spot a theme here...)

- rinse and repeat depending one how many J/K's turn up.

- mob brow / change pants once finished.

TIP: set the right hand monitor to auto missile mode. Helps you assess if the hammerhead hit or not.

Last night I bagged 2 Js and a K. I netted 25 Million for 10 minutes work.

This technique is not so good for improving race rep though - but I can buy Pythons, so "meh..."

This only works on the weaklings that are sent on XI. The J/K's in Xenon sectors have real shields.

I was going to sign off with something trite like "You live and learn", but it turns out the opposite is true

Happy hunting.

Rob.

[NUKLEAR-SLUG]

Small downside to this plan is that the Hammerheads being a touch explosive will also blow up any GPPC crates that get dropped.

[pjknibbs]

I don't think they will--the explosion happens, ship blows up, THEN dropped crates are generated, as far as I know; the blast has been and gone by the time the GPPC crates appear. Happy to be proven wrong, but I'm reasonably sure that's how it works.

[jlehtone]

Last night I bagged 2 Js and a K. I netted 25 Million for 10 minutes work.

That quick? Try to get 5 K and 4 J in 9 minutes then. (Possible with Dragon without Afterburner, overtuning, or Hammerheads.)

And those K/J sadly carry no FAA/PBE.


Early on (say 18 months ago) some claimed that they saw no crates when blasting with Hammerheads. But considering how random the crates are ... no valid proof.

One thing is certain though (but unlikely). If the first K drops crates and then you Hammerhead the next close enough ...

[autosave22]

Ok I'll bite.

Care to elaborate on how you kill 5 K and 4 J in 9 minutes?

J's jump in - usually at some distance - say 10k - and only stay for a minute or so.

How do you get there fast enough, with enough time left to hurt it?

Or do all your Xenon jump in at once, and you sit in the middle and torpedo spam them all before they gather their bearings?

Hmmm... so many questions, I'll try it tonight.

R.

[XanII]

This sounds insane. i like it. i'll try it.

Had a XI last night. Had to take out 2 jumping J ships this time. They Smashed the XL sized SPP in Scale Plate green. now there is a huge station debris right in the middle of the sector. never seen station debris being left behind before when a station blows up.

[jlehtone]

J's jump in - usually at some distance - say 10k - and only stay for a minute or so.

I'd say rather 20 seconds than full minute. Ask yourself where they are, when they are not there.

M6 can launch Typhoons. About five do what Hammerhead does, and APPC on Dragon can beat targets good from fair range too. So you can engage multiple targets simultaneously.

(You only get 5 K in Getsu Fune at Xtreme combat rank.)

[XanII]

Tell me jlehtone how do you clear a path through fighters with your Dragon?

Massive missile spamming before going in?

[jlehtone]

What fighters?

[Carlo the Curious]

I used to use the Hammerhead technique when I just wanted some quick cash from a XI, but now I have access to capital ships I find it's usually much faster to just use a Python.

The last XI I did was in Thynn's Abyss with (I think) 4K & 4J - 43 million in 4 minutes .

Spoiler

Show

When they're not in the invasion sector the Js hang out in the adjacent Xenon sector. If you've already cleared it then they're easy meat

[fud]

Indeed. If you want a fast XI missions, throw an armada in sector and watch it via the universe/sector map (you are OOS).

A few M6, couple dozen M3, maybe an M2....it's all over quick.

[fiksal]

Tell me jlehtone how do you clear a path through fighters with your Dragon?

Massive missile spamming before going in?

that and maybe he just ignores them
I suppose Dragon might be able to ignore anything but L's, for a little bit.

[XanII]

Not unless you pandora tune it?

Oh man i really need to start studying the Dragon. i still havent flown any longer than a couple of minutes with it i guess. Hard to switch over from a Centaur to Dragon. heck i have even flown an Osprey more than a Dragon.

[fiksal]

Not unless you pandora tune it?

at some 140 m/s it can outrun L, possibly LX,
any P.
Ns and Ms on the other hand do not pack too much punch against Dragon... however if you are in the middle of them, I imagine it can be painful

Personally, I do not dare flying Dragon around Xenon without Mosquitos

[TBV]

Nine minutes! Dear me, that's an age.

I just use M7 with GPSG now. Takes much less than that. I really don't
notice the fighters. They are just collateral damage.

I don't find friendly fire to be a problem. At high combat ranks getting
race rank back is easy. Or I could just buy it back.

Such a wonderful feeling of freedom. Just shout "Heads" or "Fire in the hold"
and let 'em rip. If the so called friendlies are in the way then that's their problem not mine.

[autosave22]

What fighters?

Penny drops...



Bah - it's like skydiving. Why jump out of a perfectly serviceable airplane?

Oh, and I know all about Dragons, and their missile spamming abilities.

It was a few nights ago... I was trying to work out if the Group Keys were doing anything. (They really could do with some audio feedback) when the next thing I know my Attack Group of recently purchased MD'd Scorpion Vanguards decided to take out a Split TS. Now to be fair, what happened next, I did nothing to avoid - "What's the worst that can happen" I thought, all snug and warm in my Raptor. I lose a bit of rep maybe?

Wrong! Race response - that's what... The first couple of Dragons, and even the RR Raptor + fleet was handled by my sector patrols, without me lifting a finger.

But then, a "Rapid Response Bomber" turned up (also a Dragon). I saw this little line of dots come from the nose. "Hmmm wonder what that is..." I thought.

Doh! Dead again. (pretty smoke though)

[fud]

In X3, a snowball fight has dire consequences.

[jlehtone]

No tuning. I that "9 in 9", X534 had just been cleared before taking the XI. But X534 is of moderate size. That is why it took so long to get to the J's with 145m/s D.

I keep X472 fully populated (5P, 7K, 9J, and all the fighters). I almost ignore the fighters there (LX, M and N can catch Dragon), dodging/jumping as needed and kill only the XI-J. 15-20 minutes for such XI.

But going for full lenght (nearly three hours) XI is fun too.


The first time I saw snowballs (from Dragon) I mistook them for landing lights of a station ...