Good wingman for a Mamba Raider?

[Anach]

Planning on grabbing a wingman for my Mamba or hopping in a new ship to lead a group, she's alright when it comes to taking on most fighters but struggles against fast ships / groups. Generally caught from behind by the fast ships when takeing on the big ships or vice versa. Pottering along the storyline atm (X3:R) and pretty skint (~5Mill). Any suggestions on good InSystem wingmen to protect me?


Never had them before, always rolled up my sleeves and held on tightly to the strafe buttons as i solo'd everything but this start i'm thinking of putting together a few ships to take on my enemys. What i was wondering was how profitable they are, whether the AI is a help or a hinderance.

I have played around with a Falcon with 2 buster wingmen, they where alright against a normal pirate patrol. Up against Xenon L's / M's / LX's in my mamba at this stage and finding myself running off with plasma burning my arse as i try to find something big, prefrably with equelly big weapons , to hide behind.


Personal experiences and thoughts for 1/2 wingmen? Which ships compliment each other, which the AI use best etc. [/spoiler]

[crawlerw]

1. Grap some mass drivers for the Mamba
2. find a couple of fast M5's there role is harazment not killing dont need to be expensive

[Anach]

1. Grap some mass drivers for the Mamba
2. find a couple of fast M5's there role is harazment not killing dont need to be expensive

I'll try that. Useing aHepts + Apac turret, how many MD's should i take? I have Cycrow's MD ammunition generator script installed so that should help some.


The M5's certainly seem a good idea. Currently looking through the lists to find the perfect match for me, would anyone mind nameing the best one to save an eejit's brain from over-heating?

[A5PECT]

Four Solanos with four PRG's apiece.

[Andaius]

how's he going to do that when he's playing X3:R?

[inkalsecurity]

Best distraction wingman IMHO Yaki Raijin (M5) armed with 4*AIRE and some wasp missiles (you can use Group command keys, so they will launch wasps when you order them - wasps will confuse turrets!)
These crazy yaki ships have 3*25MJ shielding, pretty cool for an M5!

Only problem with them: you have to cap them, and they're pretty hard to cap...

[A5PECT]

how's he going to do that when he's playing X3:R?

Oh, my bad. Perseus Sentinels with BPAC's came in handy during my X3:R days (I needed to use an Elephant to ferry them around, though).

[zazie]

Useing aHepts + Apac turret, how many MD's should i take? I have Cycrow's MD ammunition generator script installed so that should help some.

I used the Mamba Raider long ago in X3R Vanilla as player ship (did countless XI in it ) .
The main problem of the MR is the low weapon energy and the rather slow recharge rate. You must therefore take care of energy drain.
That's why I recommend to put an MD in your rear turret. It will kill the missiles even if your energy is down to 0 - essential for surviving dog fights.

If MD ammunition is not an issue you can equip four of your front lasers with MDs too, two alpha-HEPTs and two beta-PBEs.

With such a setup you can attack an LX full frontal, turn over and switch to the aHEPTs (for capping) or aHEPTs plus MDs (for killing). No fighter and/or M6 will be a real challenge.

[btw: In X3R the Xenon or pirate patrols hardly ever used PBEs. XTM changed that (and it was for the first time WOW! when I was torn into pieces even without knowing what is happening ) and X3TC collects some nice M3-fighting thanks to the aggressive design of the Xenon M4 and M3]