X3AP: The M8 is reborn!

[cswiger]

So, I was going to wander north of Grand Exchange into Xenon space, but there was an armada of a J, K, four Qs and a bunch of smaller friends waiting on the other side of the gate. Since I'm in the M3 Nova Prototype, I decide to emulate "brave Sir Robin" and run away. Back in GE, I notice that a Split high tech trader and it's handful of escorts are going to try to pass into the Xenon sector, so, what the heck, I'll try to go with them and add some firepower, but I expect that we're all going to be toast.

Go through the gate with the leading group of four Split Mambas, and we start shooting at the nearby fighters as the Xenon capships start turning and lighting up their turrets, and a few seconds later I hear the whooshing of nearby missile fire. Seems like the Split brought an M8 Viper in the rear!

Well, that M8 pilot decides to unload an entire hold of whoop-ass, otherwise known as the Tomahawk heavy missile barrage.

Takes out the J. Takes out the nearest Q.
Takes out a second Q and some LXs or Ps that were in the way.
Dings a third Q hard enough to be out of shields and maybe 80% hull, and takes out about half of the K's shielding.

M8 dies, maybe from a Xenon missile, or maybe from the M4s jumping us with PBEs. (There are some Ls also, but they're not as fast and so most haven't really caught up yet.) The Split M3s and I do a firing run of HEPTs on the damaged Q, and then a second run and it goes up, but we're now down half our force, and the remaining Q and K are closing from PPC range to flak range, and I'm down to about 20% shields.

So I duck back through the south gate, and then kill a pursuing M4 that followed me. Dock at a nearby station to get a save in and let my shields recover, then head back to take a look. The K and Q and about a third of their fighter escort are left, and the Split are gone, but they did a much more credible job then I was ever expecting.

Well, I'll be back. Soon. And I'll be bringing some friends....

[Matticus88]

I can't wait to get AP nearly solely for these random scenarios.

[Skillzfire]

have you expiranced the fear of the terran m7m? tunnel of death does not describe it, i dont like M7M now they use the missles now and they are not shy about spamming them, an dmissles have health now, so you can use a ID as deffence now, htough i find if your fast enogth you can make the m7m hit itself hard though

[A5PECT]

If a missile impacts another missile both will be destroyed regardless of their hull and damage ratings.

That means a Mosquito will one-shot a Shadow.

[Skillzfire]

If a missile impacts another missile both will be destroyed regardless of their hull and damage ratings.

That means a Mosquito will one-shot a Shadow.

can it mannage 80 shadows they tend to launch them in barrages now

[Cycrow]

shadows are no longer swarm missiles

[Skillzfire]

oh fair enogth, but still even Flails can be a pain to a capital

[Revenat342]

Best missile fight I've seen is a full terran vs. argon fleet battle in treasure chest. Was going badly for the Argon, then a missile hit a station-class asteroid and the fragments took out the Tokyo that was ripping the Argon up. Argon finished off the Osaka then mopped up the fighters.

Basically, the terrans managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by flying too close to an asteroid =p

[Skillzfire]

got to admit the battles are amazeing, especialy when m7m's get involved

[gandy|UKCS|]

I have been impressed at the battles even the one i decided to fly through and take 1 hit which left me with 1% hull and no shields.. it was still epic

[Skillzfire]

I have been impressed at the battles even the one i decided to fly through and take 1 hit which left me with 1% hull and no shields.. it was still epic

what where you flying a toaster? pretty sure even a M4 can take a glancing blow froma capital weapon

[Gazz]

A single PPC bullet does 63 MJ of shield damage (and hull damage to match).

M4 / M5 rule of thumb:
Incoming PPC have right of way.

[Jumee]

I have been impressed at the battles even the one i decided to fly through and take 1 hit which left me with 1% hull and no shields.. it was still epic

what where you flying a toaster? pretty sure even a M4 can take a glancing blow froma capital weapon

Well even in katana when I just entered Omicron Lyrae in like 5 seconds I was dead

[cswiger]

I'd been bouncing back and forth between Black Hole Sun and GE, looking for defend sector missions to try and provoke the Xenon so I can capture an L. I went back up to Xenon 598 maybe an hour or so later in the game (hard to say just how long, with SETA involved):

http://idisk.mac.com/cswiger-Public/x3screen00004.jpg

You can see the K towards the middle of the sector, and a second Q had joined the surviving Q by the south gate to GE. There's also an LX which probably a Split had damaged earlier, and some Ls and Ms.

Here's a 200MB 30-second clip taken via FRAPS:

http://idisk.mac.com/cswiger-Public/x3ap_2011-12-18.avi

My M3 Nova versus the closest ship after warping in, which was a P. The next most closest ship was a Q, which is firing most of the shots going past me, and I switch to it via shift-T + F3 just as FRAPS ends the clip.

[ And no, I don't normally ram bigger ships with an M3, but it's actually pretty tough to take down a Xenon P so quickly. Oh yeah, and ram a P from the side, never from the back...especially not when you're eating HEPT fire as you close in. ]