My first M7M op

darth_adversor · Post by **darth_adversor** » Sun, 28. Jul 13, 11:50

Holy. Freaking. Crap. M7M's are awesome. Maybe too awesome, I definitely won't be using my Cobra for anything other than boarding. But I finally got the old missile complex up and running and even though I was practically falling asleep, I couldn't resist the urge to take her out on her maiden voyage.

I was causing trouble in Senator's Badlands the other day when I noticed an Akuma on the prowl. So I thought, well...I don't have an M2 yet, and I do despise the Yaki, so what the hell...I'm gonna rock out with my kha'ak out and see if it's still there. Sure enough, there she was, about 20 clicks out. Perfect.

I kinda figured I'd need to reload a couple of times in case some of my pods were destroyed en route, or if I misjudged the ship and sent in too many hammers, etc, but I actually took her on the first try. I was amazed at how easy it was, compared to spacewalking. In another thread, I remember someone saying that M7M boarding is basically "automatic" compared to spacewalking, and yup...I couldn't agree more. I guess I could see it getting boring eventually, but for now, I'm loving it.

No losses out of 20 marines, and I have a shiny new Akuma waiting for me at a nearby Equipment Dock. Just need to decide on a loadout now.

I love this game.

brucewarren · Post by **brucewarren** » Sun, 28. Jul 13, 13:10

If you're still on TC, board yourself a terran Skirnir.

It can't be used for boarding ops because it doesn't pack pods, but when you've got one of those boarding is not what comes to mind.

Then do a missile barrage with it. You have to do it at least once so that you can understand why some people called it the I-Win button.

heratik · Post by **heratik** » Sun, 28. Jul 13, 13:19

haha, yep, M7M = WIN!

I bought a Kraken the other day, and now the universe is on it's knees before me.

A prime example is Xenon capital hunting, when you jump into a Xenon sector and find it has a couple of J a couple of K, 4-5 Q and 20-30 fighters...

...A couple of minutes (and very little effort) later (only that long because Hammers are so damn slow) you have an empty sector apart from one lone Xenon capital ready for boarding.

Gotta have a PLENTIFUL supply of Hammers and flails though, although I seem to remember you already have a decent plex churning them out?

ajax34i · Post by **ajax34i** » Sun, 28. Jul 13, 14:47

Yeah, I mean, calculate the cost of the missiles used for one boarding op, at market prices. It's not cheap.

Hemmingfish · Post by **Hemmingfish** » Sun, 28. Jul 13, 15:09

Doesn't matter about the cost, just the sourcing. If you successfully nick a capital ship you will make it back and a lot more besides.

Larxyz · Post by **Larxyz** » Sun, 28. Jul 13, 19:36

hmm, quick question:
Can you use the m7m to board OOS?
just a thought

/larxy

darth_adversor · Post by **darth_adversor** » Sun, 28. Jul 13, 19:40

brucewarren wrote:If you're still on TC, board yourself a terran Skirnir...

...Then do a missile barrage with it. You have to do it at least once so that you can understand why some people called it the I-Win button.

Yep, I remember reading in the Wiki that "it's the closest thing to a Death Star you can get." Late game, when I'm so powerful that it doesn't matter anymore, I'll try one out.

heratik wrote:haha, yep, M7M = WIN!...

...A couple of minutes (and very little effort) later (only that long because Hammers are so damn slow) you have an empty sector apart from one lone Xenon capital ready for boarding.

Gotta have a PLENTIFUL supply of Hammers and flails though, although I seem to remember you already have a decent plex churning them out?

I'm looking forward to when I can go Xenon cap ship hunting. I'm not ready yet, my marines aren't good enough fighters. I only have six or seven 5-star guys so far. Plus I imagine I'll need to use a Sirokos so I can have that +1 guy on the op. But yes, I've got 6 flail and 6 hammer factories churning these bad boys out. Not enough to go boarding non-stop, but in between missions it should be enough.

Berserkenstein · Post by **Berserkenstein** » Sun, 28. Jul 13, 20:40

darth_adversor wrote:Plus I imagine I'll need to use a Sirokos so I can have that +1 guy on the op.

The benefit is not just having the +1 guy on top.

You launch 21 marines on the first wave, then you launch the other 9 shortly after the first set of marines are almost done with the hull. This is because you are guaranteed to lose some on one of the decks.

darth_adversor · Post by **darth_adversor** » Sun, 28. Jul 13, 20:48

Good to know.

Hypothetically, if I sent in the additional 9 but not all of them were needed, would they just float and wait for pick-up?

Berserkenstein · Post by **Berserkenstein** » Sun, 28. Jul 13, 21:18

darth_adversor wrote:Good to know.

Hypothetically, if I sent in the additional 9 but not all of them were needed, would they just float and wait for pick-up?

No, they get blasted by your target's laser turrets.

What you said could possibly happen too I guess.

darth_adversor · Post by **darth_adversor** » Mon, 29. Jul 13, 00:47

I really have a love-hate relationship with this game sometimes.

I jumped back into Yaki territory looking for a Ryu to cap (I need IBL's), but all I could find was a Chokaro. Well...I don't have one yet, so I figured I'd try to snag it. A tough proposition considering its shields are weak...one too many flail, and it's lights out.

So anyway, I finally got my marines on-board. Two 5-star fighters, one 4-star, and two 3-stars. That's decent, right? I took an Akuma last night with no losses, and that was a mixed bag of troops, including some 2-star fighters. So I figured I had this. With several reloads, the best I could do was 2 losses. On some runs, all of them died. WTF? How much resistance could there really be on a TM?

So I guess my question is...were two 3-star fighting marines worth the Chokaro? I'm thinking no. I just hate that I wasted all that time for nothing.

BurningMan · Post by **BurningMan** » Mon, 29. Jul 13, 01:12

darth_adversor wrote:I really have a love-hate relationship with this game sometimes.

I jumped back into Yaki territory looking for a Ryu to cap (I need IBL's), but all I could find was a Chokaro. Well...I don't have one yet, so I figured I'd try to snag it. A tough proposition considering its shields are weak...one too many flail, and it's lights out.

So anyway, I finally got my marines on-board. Two 5-star fighters, one 4-star, and two 3-stars. That's decent, right? I took an Akuma last night with no losses, and that was a mixed bag of troops, including some 2-star fighters. So I figured I had this. With several reloads, the best I could do was 2 losses. On some runs, all of them died. WTF? How much resistance could there really be on a TM?

So I guess my question is...were two 3-star fighting marines worth the Chokaro? I'm thinking no. I just hate that I wasted all that time for nothing.

Did you scanned the Chokaro for internal sentry lasers or opposing marines?

Because i have boarded a lot of TMs recently in my pirate game with 8 marines all 2-3 fighting stars ranging from 28-50 fight skill and never had losses.

darth_adversor · Post by **darth_adversor** » Mon, 29. Jul 13, 03:22

Yep, no internal defenses. Oh well, I decided to reload and try a different sector.

I'm wary of jumping into Yaki territory in my M7M, lest there be a capital near the gate that ambushes me (no satellite coverage in their space). So twice now, I've scouted ahead in my Shrike, and then ordered the M7M in once the coast was clear. And twice now I've regretted it. This last op was a bit of a fiasco. I had fighters launching when I didn't want them to, and auto pillock problems with them docking. All while I'm trying to focus on the Akuma.

So now I've got a second Akuma, which is cool I guess, but still no IBL's. It was loaded down with CIG's.

The Akuma got too close at one point, so I had to order the Shrike out to Empire's Edge. Well unbeknownst to me, fighters had launched just as I gave the order. So eventually, I discovered that 4 of my 5 Falcon Haulers were flying through Yaki territory trying to get back home. They made it through Ocracoke's Storm and partially through Savage Spur before I finally realized what happened. A small miracle I didn't lose any.

I'm gonna take my chances from now on and roll in the Cobra, leave the Shrike at home.

darth_adversor · Post by **darth_adversor** » Mon, 29. Jul 13, 07:36

Sweet. I took a Panther a bit ago, came stocked with 10 IBL's.

It was crazy. It had a Tiger escort that I forgot about until it was right up on me, it had me down to 4% shields by the end. Close call! The Panther had sentry lasers too - so I got a little trigger happy with the flails - by the time the core was breached, she was down to 6% hull. Another close call! Don't marines abort at 5%?

Anyway, I'm sure you're all tired of hearing about my boarding exploits, so I'll make this the last post.

heratik · Post by **heratik** » Mon, 29. Jul 13, 10:38

I had trouble with TM too trying to board them with 5 marines from my M6, always lost at least 2, in the end I had to use a TP and deploy 6 marines to cap them with no losses (even after frying all defences with Ion-D)

Also, if you are having trouble managing TM shields with flails, you could just park your M7M 10 km out and get up close and personal with an M6 to manage shields and just remote order the M7M to board.

Triaxx2 · Post by **Triaxx2** » Mon, 29. Jul 13, 12:52

Both TM's and M6's are a real expletive when it comes to boarding. That's one of the reason the numbers were changed in AP to put 8 marines on-board, rather than 5.

Boarding with an M7M is tons of fun. I'm still not tired of it. If it becomes boring, Nuklear-Slug spent his third DiD using fighter wings for shield work, instead of missiles from the M7M. It means things take a little longer but it can be more enjoyable.

heratik · Post by **heratik** » Mon, 29. Jul 13, 13:14

Yep, there are always ways to spice up M7M boarding, a favourite of mine in my last game was to head down Gaian Star way with some M6 or M7 escorts and just cap every pirate capital I came across, managing shields whilst dealing with the constant appearance of new fighter clouds and Caravels and Galleons spewing more fighters can be quite intense, my usual boarding posse was my Kraken, a Shrike with a wing of 6 Nova R and 2 Hype V, one with a pair of Falcon S, I would purposefully not jump out my new acquisitions but rather leave them with an escort of some kind while I moved onto the next target, and only once I had 3-4 capitals capped would i hand out JDs and jump them out and pick up all the bails in the spare hangar space in the Shrike and the other Hype V (Flails are great for making pirate fighters bail

) I would often have to cal in extra support and would end up with 5-6 capitals and carriers and various M6 of my own leaving a trail of destruction behind me.

Ah good times, you will need a shed load of flails though, I usually carry at least 300.

RayF · Post by **RayF** » Mon, 29. Jul 13, 13:19

darth_adversor wrote:...I'm gonna rock out with my kha'ak out and see if it's still there. ....

I was with the impression that in TC khaak ships are not boardable..I even tried to board a frigate, but i got the no no message..
How!?

heratik · Post by **heratik** » Mon, 29. Jul 13, 13:26

RayF wrote:
darth_adversor wrote:...I'm gonna rock out with my kha'ak out and see if it's still there. ....
I was with the impression that in TC khaak ships are not boardable..I even tried to board a frigate, but i got the no no message..
How!?

It was a play on words by Darth, replace the word Kha'ak with the word for a male chicken.......

RayF · Post by **RayF** » Mon, 29. Jul 13, 14:08

oh,sorry..i misunderstood.

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My first M7M op

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