Weapons/missiles

[BankruptAssasin]

Well, first a little update, i have been playing my nuclear slug type game, i have 2 pelicans, 4 kestrels docked in 1, 3 novas and 1 falcon docked in the other. These are going to be my main strike force for capping large ships, i am using the npc bail addon, but I'm going to disable it soon as for some reason, uncappable ships are now lying abandoned, i was able to get a dragon without shooting it - its shields were off so i just sent my marines over and they got it - im circling an elephant that is the same plus a kracken - this has spoiled it a little for me and will turn npc off when i play again.

I just want to know what weapons should i put on the strike team - its really just weapons that are good against shields but do very little damage to the hull. I have them loaded with pacs/hepts and ebc and have wasps for missiles are these good weapons/missiles for shield damage?

[ajax34i]

Two options:

1. IRE, PRG, PBE - these weapons do damage to shields (and less to armor). Read this guide for weapons characteristics, it's very good.

2. Install 6 of a high-damage weapon (HEPTs, EBC's, flamethrowers), and as soon as the shields are gone (it'll be fast), switch over to 1 or 2 of a low damage weapon (IRE, PBE).

[BankruptAssasin]

Thanks for the reply, i should have mentioned that i wont be doing the shooting, i intend to leave my minions to do that and i wait till the shields are constantly less than 7% before i send the marines, i just need weapons that will keep the shields low and keep the hull in good nick. The link u sent me to is very good, i was actually looking at one quite similar after posting this - PRGs seems good, c- shields and f on hull - that's the kinda damage i want on hull and most weapons only seem to do about a c for shields anyway (except the large cap one obviously).

I'm using Wasps - but i never use missiles really so I've no idea what ones do what to shields and hull etc.

[ajax34i]

Missiles just have damage, and it gets applied to the outer shell (shields, if no shields left then hull). There's a missiles guide on that site too; you're just looking at their damage and guidance system (you don't want dumbfire).

If your minions are doing the damage, you can outfit them with the PBE, and order them to "attach shields of", but you'll probably have to micromanage and tell them to "none" or "move to position (away)" to make sure they don't cut into hull.

[Manks]

I, too, took some inspiration from Nuklear Slug and tried boarding with small fleets and wings. Here's what I learned:

I guess the first, most important thing is that you really need to pick your targets. With such a small fleet, go after M7Ms and TLs, and M7Ms only after you've personally killed off their escorts and depleted their missiles. Now on to the main bit.


If the target has a lot of fighter defense, wing commands make it more-or-less impossible to pull your fighters out once the marines are on board. What'll happen is that once you give the docking order, one of them will get hit and the wing will decide to protect its own, going all out on your target. This one outcome was decisive in how I tackled loadouts and strategy in general. Note, you can overcome this with scripts, and if you reissue the order often enough you might be able to get them out.

So a few vanilla alternatives:
1) the fighters stay in range until the ship is capped
2) pull the fighters out early and find some other way to lower the shields and keep the turrets distracted
3) screw wings and issue orders manually
4) do it all yourself

A few other key points:
1) Regardless of strategy, it is important to drop the shields as fast as possible, so as to limit how much fire you take
2) Another key goal is to keep the turrets confused so that the pods can land
3) You are going to take losses, so don't over-equip your fighters
4) Finally, all advice is really contingent on what your target is. Boarding ops on Paranid ships with their PSGs is really tough for fighters.

For choice 1, I'd go with medium to heavy weapons on big slow fighters. PACs, HEPTs, and EBCs along with thunderbolts or whatever missiles are appropriate for the level of shielding of the target (don't go overkill on an M7C). Once the shields are close to low, turn off the missiles. You're likely to notch off a bit of the hull with the big guns, but its usually not by very much.

For 2, same story as 1) in terms of the ships you pull out, but the question is as to how to keep the shields low. For that, you could use a light fighter wing equipped with no more than IREs and PACs, loaded up with wasps. Wasps are really invaluable in boarding ops since they can overwhelm the turrets. An alternative is to drop a bunch of fighter drones at the right time, or use both. I actually used drones in all my ops, regardless of loadouts. For those that stay in, expect to lose them so go with cheap ships that are easy to equip.

For 3, I'd go heavy again, but know that the whole thing is a royal pain. You could mix heavy and light and then pull out the heavies first while the lights spam wasps.

I think the real key here is 4. If/when I give wings and boarding another shot, I'm going to use them only in support roles. That will mean blowing up escorts and having very little to do with the main target. In terms of wings, they'll be told to accompany some other ship, which is set to attack fighters, or something similar. I'm thinking using a vette as the leader. Of course, if this is DiD, then I'd skip 4.


As for the ships themselves, I found myself prioritizing defense over everything else. Big shields and a fair number of mosquitoes all around. I started out trying to be clever, building wings based on matching speeds, or building wings with mixed ships so that it could tackle different situations. If boarding is your goal, build a boarding fleet and don't use it for anything else. And don't be afraid to have multiple wings to use on different targets, depending on their defenses.

In the end, it was pretty much Falcon Haulers all around since they last a good while and are easy to replace.

[Snafu_X3]

Use drones. 20-30 of each. Get fairly close (out of range for guns) then release the Mk1s, these will distract turrets. Then close, release the Mk2s & give them the 'attack shields' order. Their heavy-hitting dual PACs should make short work of the shields. While the Mk2s are doing their stuff, back off & get ready to launch your pods. Once the shields are down, launch pods & do what you want - jump out for an easy cap & loss of most drones, or stay around to watch the fireworks

You need to close because the Mk2s aren't very quick; they may have difficulty chasing a target & getting its shields down before their auto-destruct battery runs down. It also helps if you can keep the target from swapping heavy weapons to drone-killers (ie flak or other fast-firing guns), so keep pounding <target> with big guns from a distance you deem to be prudent. Your boarding/C&C ship should have the shields to take it