AP Wings and Shield Suppression

[Manks]

Hello everyone,

Just wondering if anyone has had success using wings in boarding ops for shield suppression, and if so, how you handled getting them to back off.

Back story: I was out capping an Aggy the other day and after my marines were inside I wanted to get all the fighters to retreat (ouch, PSGs). I'd give their wing an order - say dock at their carrier, move to position, or fly to sector - but instead of following it, a few of them would take a hit or two on the way out and then decide to wail on the target. Between different saves, the only way I could get the op to work was to leave them on attack shields for the duration or individually open up their consoles and tell them to retreat one by one.

Since I'd rather not just use missiles, I'm guessing that leaves me with fighter drones, a massive repair bill, doing it all myself, or using lots of cheap, expendable fighters. Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks,

M

[Progress-M]

I haven't used wings in fear of these kinds of complications in the past - however now with the M7C's I would be very keen to learn.

Some missile & drone usage would take the pressure off the fighters a bit, give the defensive turrets more targets?

Diving in yourself with an M6 along with the fighters might help as well - take some of the attention off the lighter attackers and remotely launch marines off an M7M.

I'd be interested to hear if you find a workable solution using a fighter wing.

[DrBullwinkle]

using wings in boarding ops for shield suppression, and if so, how you handled getting them to back off[?]

The problem is caused by wing members trying to protect each other as the wing retreats. If one takes damage, then others will try to attack the attacker.

Trying to dock at the ship that you are flying increases the risk of wing members taking damage while trying to dock.

The solution is to get the wing out of trouble quickly -- before they take more damage.


Vanilla:
1) Command the wing to dock somewhere well out of range of combat.

2) Then hope that it works.

3) Repeat if necessary.


Using Scripts:
Docking Lockup Fix solves many docking issues, including this one. It allows your fighters to use Docking Computers to insta-dock when they get into range of their carrier.

[Manks]

Thanks for the replies. I guess I'll have to play around some more, but it looks like I'm going to have to change my entire game plan. I'd rejigger around cheapo M5s, M4s, fighter drones, and wasp spam if I wasn't picking on the Paranid, but PSG fire will blow that away like its not even there.

Not sure if I can use wings at all without just paying for it each time, but its also not that hard to just drop the shields myself, dump a few drones out the window, and mash the 'm' key while the pods are in-bound. Sad, since I really like the idea, but I'd like to exhaust vanilla before I go down the modified route.

[DrBullwinkle]

It is also not all that hard to have your fighters dock at another carrier; which is out of combat range. It's not as reliable as the script, but it will work more often than not.

[Progress-M]

You weren't keen on the missile approach, which is fair enough - however in this particular case the single player-driven M7M-approach (flail+hammer) is probably a lot simpler than anything else as you don't have to worry about the target's weapons much. Don't even need the drones.

I've capped Aggy's before with this method and the PSG didn't seem to swat the marine pods successfully much.