Tips on Boarding a Hyperion Vanguard?

[BankruptAssasin]

I want to board one of these, i done it once a few years back but i have been next to useless trying. I have 4 M%'s firing wasps and a few drones keeping it sheilds down, but the marines always go missing, i am using a TP to deliver them as i don't have an M7M just yet.

Thanks

[Gomezie]

By missing, do you mean they float in space and dont latch on?

If so I would deliver them yourself but drop him infront of the vanguard so it has to fly through them

[BankruptAssasin]

Yea, they just float in space. I am delivering them myself, i even have the boarding script thing to make it easier but the Hyp seems to be too good and quick in it's turning, maybe i will try to get it to follow me and release them.

[ajax34i]

Tips:

1. Don't fly the TP yourself. Fly an M3 and be in charge of taking the shields out, dragging, doing damage, and ordering your other ships around.

2. Use a fast TP, if possible. TP needs to position itself in front of the Hyperion, and the Hyperion is fast, so the TP and the marines will have a hard time.

3. Give the TP the order to begin boarding while the Hyperion is still blue. It will wait for you to turn it red then try to get in position in front of it.

4. Shoot the Hyperion when it's a little bit away from the TP and, when it's focused on shooting you and the shields are gone, turn around and drag it back past the TP. This will position the TP perfectly for marine deployment.

5. Shoot the Hyperion to 50% hull. Don't try to preserve the hull at 99%, you need to damage it pretty seriously, in order to damage the Hyperion's turrets and slow down its speed to almost a crawl. Hyperion is faster than most TP's, and you need it to be slow for the marines to catch it. It will also kill your TP fast if you leave all its turrets undamaged.

[brucewarren]

May I ask if you've done any of the Shady Business yet?

Spoiler

Show

It's just that the new acinonyx makes boarding a hyperion very much easier.

a) It has the firepower to take the thing on one on one
b) It's fast enough to actually catch it
c) GCU Grey Area put me on to the fact that it can launch boarding pods.

[Sovereign01]

How much have you got by way of assets? the way I board Hyps is to use a Springblossom to suppress the shields while I have a Sirokos standing by with pods.

Springy is good for the task as it boasts decent firepower and sufficient speed to get away once the marines are on board . Most of the time the Hyp's attention is on me so the pods are ignored completely

Of course you could use the Springy to deploy marines directly instead, more difficult but do-able

[Imgran]

He just said he doesn't have an M7M. What class is the Sirokos again?

[funkytrousers]

I *just* boarded one from my Centaur (from the AP plot), plus the marines that came with it: 2 with 4-5 stars and 5 with 2 stars (after a bit of training, anyway). This is the third ship they've boarded, after a Chokaro and a Pirate Centaur.

It was tough --- my poor Centaur took a hefty beating. Had to hit it with IonD for a while since it had sentry lasers I wanted to fry. Got it down to about 50% hull to slow it down as well.

Launched my marines manually, and kept the shields down mostly enough with PRGs in my turrets (had a few PACs in the main battery to assist when they didn't quite keep up).

Hardest part was actually getting it out of system. I didn't bring a spare jumpdrive ahead of time, and there was a strong military presence around all of the gates... eventually my Chokaro jumped in, we swapped jumpdrives around and all jumped out JUST as a pair of Tomahawks closed within 1km of us.

[michaelbm71]

For a noob-safe method - this is the story of my first boarding operation:

area of operation - Pontifex Seclusion, 10 k off the western gate
assets involved - my skiron with 10 typhoon missiles, my Ocelot TP with a full frontal battery of EBCG and some 12+ 4-Star marines, my Discoverer who had been shadowing the target for about a day, all ships with max upgrades
the target - Hyperion Vanguard, scan showed firewalls and sentry-lasers, 6 FBL, 2 ISR and some assorted missiles

I sneaked in from behind on board of my skiron, with the ocelot following me. From 6k out I fired Typhoon missiles, some reloading to match the number of missiles to the target, 6 typhoons proved about right to crush all shields of the target and about 10% of hull strenght. I changed ship to the Ocelot and rushed in, missiles still in flight. Cutting into the flightpath of the Hyperion from behind, it dit brake to avoid collision even while in combat. Directly in front of it, I launched all marines. After that, it was only some strafing around the Hyperion, suppressing the shields with short bursts of EBCG fire. I didnt mess with IonDs, simply rushed in to get the job done.
Cut scene - Boarding OP successfull
1 marine got lost somehow along the way, no hull damage to my attacking ships.

[darth_adversor]

My experience is with TC, so hopefully that translates well for AP also.

I capped my Hyperion with a Heavy Centaur Prototype (which was my previous cap.) 5 marines, I think I took one loss. They were fairly decently trained.

A lot of people say civilian TL's are the easiest to cap, but that bigger ships in general are easier than corvettes. I respectfully disagree on both counts. With a corvette, you launch marines, and yes...initially, they won't even come close because the ship is either too fast or maneuverable. In the Hyp's case, both. BUT...you've aggro'd the ship, so it will follow you if you run away. So run away in the direction of your marines. It's as simple as that.

It definitely takes some practice and probably several reloads to get everything just right. But if I can do it...anyone can.

[brucewarren]

There's a reason people think civilian TLs are easier- they're unarmed so nobody is shooting at you while you're learning how to do it.

If you try to take them from an M6 you have the problem of not enough marines. A TL really needs either 20 noobs or about ten decent guys to take it. (I'm prepared to be corrected on precise numbers here. It might just be possible with the 8 an M6 can carry but they'd need to be very very good. What I can say for certain is that 8 noobs would have no chance) IIRC it's the sum of the fight skill of the guys that counts, not the average. More guys = easier cap, better guys also = easier cap.

Just realised I was using AP numbers. With the 5 guys you can use in TC you'd have no chance of capping a TL from an M6 no matter how good they were.

Also TLs have thick hulls. With pods launched from an M7M that's not so much of an issue, but it might be from an M6 or a TS.

If like me, you prefer m7m boarding then Civilian TLs are the easiest. If you board from M6/TP then they won't be.

[darth_adversor]

If you try to take them from an M6 you have the problem of not enough marines.

Perhaps I should've clarified. When capping a TL, I always use a TP, because you're right, 5 marines won't be enough. I was referring to capping other M6's.

The problem that I mentioned with civilian TL's is that, even though they're not shooting at you (which is nice), it takes an Executive Order, bipartisan Congressional support, and proper planet alignment to get your marines onto the target at the same time. And you better save immediately once you finally get it right, otherwise half your squad of 4-star marines will get ganked on deck 1, thanks to the lovely RNG.

I'm exaggerating, obviously. But with the 3 most recent TL's I've capped, I had more reloads on each than I did with the Hyperion. True story.

[Sovereign01]

He just said he doesn't have an M7M. What class is the Sirokos again?

That would be why I said he could do it just using an M6, did he say he doesn't have one of those?

[RayF]

Guys,
you mean to tell me that i can cap one of the best ships available in the game with just 5 marines!??

[brucewarren]

In TC yes. You'll probably need 8 in AP because of the 5->8 change in marine capacity made to the m6 class.

If you can somehow get a nineth aboard you should be laughing.

The hard part is getting them aboard alive. Once they're in it's no harder to actually cap than any other m6.

[darth_adversor]

Guys,
you mean to tell me that i can cap one of the best ships available in the game with just 5 marines!??

Are you referring to the Hyperion? If so...yes. I did. But like I said, they were trained up pretty well. All 4-star fighters, possibly one 5. I can't remember.

5 marines, several reloads, and a whole crap pot of cuss words.

[hsung]

Guys,
you mean to tell me that i can cap one of the best ships available in the game with just 5 marines!??

I boarded the Hyperion in AP again with a Centaur and 5 marines. I believe you will need at least one marine with 3 stars in Hacking and overall. Also, after all 5 marines have entered the Hyperion, I saved and reloaded several times until they reached level 3 to override the computer.

[Sovereign01]

Your odds of success increase dramatically if you send one more marine than the ship can normally carry, or at least its normal capacity.

With the adjustments made to boarding it's no longer possible to take a TL for example with just 5 regardless of their skill like you could in the early versions of TC.