A wolfpack of M7s or a M1 or M2

[thundercles]

I have ~300 mil in credits and would like to start building a fleet capable of clearing the war sectors. Currently I am flying a shrike with the gauss cannon/ EBC set up and was wondering should I opt for 2 or so more or a heavier ship?

I like the idea of Re'ing a shrike and producing my own but i am not sure how feasible that would be.

If I opt for a M1 or 2 what should I get?

[Sylthos]

Sounds like you're playing AP. Tell you the truth, I'd invest in a M7M, marines, and a complex to support your M7M. When that's complete, you can build a fleet with whatever you can capture. Those warzones will help you out. If you don't fell like captuiring, an M7M is still a formidable ship in it's own right.

[kgkosio]

I agree with Sylthos, a M7M and a complex to support it. The complex to to support your conquests should include at least 3 hammer and 8 flail factories.

[thundercles]

well sounds like I got some work to do

and FYI this complex, I picked Herron's Nebula, to be a closed loop needs...
And I'm Argon
6x bakeries
6x ranches
3x crystal fabs
2x ore mines on the 29 yield roids
2x silicon mines on the 43 yield
and one XL solar plant

~100 mil

[Triaxx2]

Those numbers are backwards. That should be eight Hammer, and four Flail. Flails produce much faster than Hammers, but Hammers are what you'll need more of. You'll have to knock down the shields to the point they can be controlled with Flails which can take quite a few hammers, particularly since AP seems to have improved the priority of turrets to shoot at missiles.

Of course, if you get the M7M first, you can use other means to facilitate the capture of capitals, and sell them to fund the complex.

[gardenersassistant]

Here is another vote for an M7M, but also some thoughts on using a possibly not much loved ship, the Deimos, in the war sectors.

I'm having a great time in the war sectors flying a Deimos, with an M7M giving occasional support. My fighting rep is going up speedily.

The problem I found with the war sectors is missile barrages from Claymores and Skirnirs. My Deimos is armed with 18 PSGs and 4 IBLs. The turrets are set up for first priority missile defence, second priority attack enemies. The Deimos has a Split Turbo Booster, and most of its cargo is energy cells to feed the Turbo Booster, with a few Typhoons to deal with Claymores if they are away from the main action and I can't be bothered to go to them to sort them out. With some moderately careful flying (by no means high skill or rapid reactions, which I don't have), I can see off all missile barrages.

I'm not capturing capital ships yet as my marines are still in training, so I'm destroying them and starting to get some nice terran weapons (mainly PSPs at the moment) which will be useful for fitting out captured Terran/ATF capitals. (Just picked up 14 PSPs from one hit for example.)

The M7M is an Aquilo, which has 6GJ shields and a few flails to defend itself. But its main cargo is about 300 Hammers and I call it in to kill the M1s and M2s when I have cleared the smaller stuff. Mainly it is jump in, fire, jump out.

Before the M1/M2 kills I goad carriers into releasing their fighters, and the Deimos drifts through clouds of them cutting them to pieces. No skill required. And lots of bailouts. A lot get detroyed by the ongoing PSG fire, but I get a nice little bonus of 1-3 million for any that are left in half decent hull condition which I can be bothered to claim and sell.

Sometimes I take the shields of the M1/M2 victims down with the Deimos before calling in the Aquilo to finish them off. The PSGs are brilliant for this and it saves on Hammers, although to be honest with my complex having a dozen Hammer factories the supply of Hammers isn't a problem.

Sometimes I complete the kill on M1s or M2s with the Deimos. It's fun to do, although I am starting to wonder if that it might reduce the booty by way of weapons compared to quick kills. But perhaps that is my imagination, or just random variation.

As it happens I do have a larger ship, a Megalodon heavily armed with Gauss Canon, FAA and CIG, but I haven't used it for anything yet. I was going to use it as a heavily armed supply/support ship that could operate in the war sectors, but didn't realise how little cargo space would be left after it was fully kitted out. It turned out that supplying my Deimos in-sector in the war sectors was not a problem, and I now use a Guppy (for its speed) which carries a Mistral super-freighter with Special Command Software to pick up booty which is too big for the Deimos.

[GoldenShadowGS]

You should try a regular Mistral. Its much faster. You don't need 15,000 cargo space for collecting loot.

[gardenersassistant]

You should try a regular Mistral. Its much faster. You don't need 15,000 cargo space for collecting loot.

I think I might need more than the Mistral's 4,000 though. For example, that would allow no more than 19 PSPs - what is the maximum number that might be dropped at one time?

And there may be loot from more than one ship. I just had a session when I ended up with a Valhalla, Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo which I killed at the same time to avoid problems with picking up loot. As it happens I didn't get much from it, but I imagine there could be more than 4,000 of loot in such cases.

That session was a nice illustration of the effectiveness of an M7M. The Aquilo had enough Hammers on board to kill all four, the Valhalla and one of the others being in the 16-20 GJ range for shields + hull, and the other two being in the 12-16GJ range. With 300 Hammers on board it would have been able to do one more without needing to restock. A very powerful beast.

Getting back to the Mistral question, operating in the War Sectors I prefer something with more than the Mistral's 100MJ of shields. The Guppy that the Mistral Superfreighter travels in has 1GJ of shields. And it is as fast as the Mistral.

[Triaxx2]

I don't know if you want to go modified or not, but if you do, I'd ditch the Mistral SF altogether and get MARS. The goblins can be set up to go out and fetch freight, and bring it back to a mothership, like the Guppy itself, or a TL.

I have an Albatross that has MARS that jumps in and picks up after I've been pirating.

If the ship they've launched from has hangar capacity, they can also be tasked to pull bailed ships back so you don't have to fly all around space for them.

---

Back to the OP, if you're going to use a wolfpack, it should definitely be of M7's. M2's are more like turtle pack, albeit an extremely heavily armed one.

A trio of Tigers is enough to demolish just about any other single capital around, and can hold their own against groups. Particularly Terran M7 groups, which are well shielded, but don't have their own M7 class weapons.

On the other hand, making a Shrike the core of your force, and using two Panther's as wingmates is an excellent way to bring a lot of firepower in, without sacrificing speed.

[gardenersassistant]

I don't know if you want to go modified or not,

Probably not (although I'm not sure why - avoiding game-breaking/performance crippling side-effects I suppose, being the cautious type, I've never got into the modified side of things.) ...

but if you do, I'd ditch the Mistral SF altogether and get MARS. The goblins can be set up to go out and fetch freight, and bring it back to a mothership, like the Guppy itself, or a TL.

I have an Albatross that has MARS that jumps in and picks up after I've been pirating.

If the ship they've launched from has hangar capacity, they can also be tasked to pull bailed ships back so you don't have to fly all around space for them.

... but on the other hand, this is very interesting. Thanks. I shall have to do a bit of digging.

(Just had a quick look. It does look good. The improved turret control looks nice too.)

[Triaxx2]

There are some game breaking ones, but no, MARS isn't. Just be sure to install the AP version, because the TC one conflicts, since they incorporated the improved missile defense into AP.

[gardenersassistant]

Sometimes I take the shields of the M1/M2 victims down with the Deimos before calling in the Aquilo to finish them off. The PSGs are brilliant for this and it saves on Hammers, although to be honest with my complex having a dozen Hammer factories the supply of Hammers isn't a problem.

Wrong! I keep getting 5 - 7 M1/M2's when I visit Asteroid Belt, and even with softening up some of the shields first, and the time taken to clear out all the smaller stuff before the M1/M2 kills, I am continuously short of Hammers. I bought a second Aquilo but have not managed to kit it out fully with Hammers yet and use it. I have just doubled my Hammer factories to 24. Perhaps that will be enough!

[AshToDust]

I don't know if you want to go modified or not,

Probably not (although I'm not sure why - avoiding game-breaking/performance crippling side-effects I suppose, being the cautious type, I've never got into the modified side of things.) ...

That's kind of funny. M7M looks to me as a game breaker with the use described here

I would go for a M7 pack myself. Maybe 5 of them... 3 for the front line, 1 small carrier for collecting duty, bombers hunt and scouting and 1 M7M for boarding operation only...

About going *modified*
MARS is a must
XRM is a whole experience all by itself if you restrict yourself to only one race (racial loadout limitation)

[Umbru]

Freight drones can collect loot for you. They only have 800 units of space each but they don't take up much room in your cargo hold so you can travel with a whole swarm of them. Although I think if I remember right you have be careful they don't all try to run pick up the same pit of loot at once.

[gardenersassistant]

Freight drones can collect loot for you. They only have 800 units of space each

What happens when they try to pick up something larger than 800 units? (For example, any more than four PSPs.)

[Coreblimey]

They pick up what they can carry. The rest disappear.

[gardenersassistant]

They pick up what they can carry. The rest disappear.

Oh dear.

Thanks.

[Triaxx2]

Another good point to MARS. If the mothership can't hold it, the Goblins don't bring it back. They can also be ordered to leave dumbfires alone.

CODEA also has cargo salvage, but it only salvages weapons, not things like Meatsteaks or other food stuffs.