For
this thread, I’ve chosen to analyze just the general overview of the
Federation ship classes: frigate,
destroyer, light cruiser, heavy cruiser, battlecruiser, dreadnought, and
battleship. These techniques
aren’t set in stone, and sometimes they can’t be used with various hulls
(and besides, I don’t have a listing of all the weapons and BPV for individual
ships, because since 2.0.0.6 came out, all the data in the strategy guide became
obsolete-and shiplist.txt is too clumsy for this aesthetic soul).
FRIGATES,
or It’s The Little Things
Federation
frigates, especially in early years, are one of the most underrated elements in
the game. They have really nice
shielding and good assortment of weapons, not to mention an acceptable turn mode
and capability for long-range bombardment (proximities/drones) or close-in
slashing (phaser-1s, phaser-Gs). But
to fly these things successfully without being force-fed (insert heavy weapon
here), you have to know three major points:
1)
Speed is life.
2)
Speed is life.
3)
Speed is life.
It’s
true. In a Federation frigate,
speed is life. But how to get
speed? Once again, it’s all in
that phaser capacitor. Chop that
thing down to one-half and you’ve just freed up a bunch of energy that you can
use to give your frigate every point of speed that it can get.
My
main strategy with a frigate is to stand at long range with proximity photons
and blast away at their shields. It’ll
take a while, but I’ve taken down a few starbases (the real deals, not the
puny battle stations) with a fleet of three frigates with proximity photons.
Against ships that can move, however, you need to try a different tack.
When you begin a mission (usually far from your opponent), look for him,
crank up your speed, and run-in the opposite direction.
That’ll keep him from finding you, and give your precious proximities
time to charge (I love proximities). When
they’re done, target them, flip your ship around, and let ‘em have it.
Repeat. When they’re pretty badly damaged (and trust me, they will
be, it will try your patience), charge them with overloads at range 5, smashing
their shields and then punching holes in their hull with your phasers, possibly
following up with a drone assault and/or a suicide shuttle/scatterpack.
Ouch.
So
remember, with the Federation frigate, the all-important axiom:
Speed is life. But of course, pizza’s nice too.
DESTROYERS,
or <Sigh> What Were The Mechanics Thinking?
The
most maligned Federation ship is their destroyer, which (from the side) looks
like the Enterprise flipped over and flattened. Unfortunately, this is rather well deserved.
The basic Federation DD has 4 photon torpedo tubes and six phaser-1s.
Good load-but look at that power bar and you’ll be shocked.
NINETEEN, 19, NINETEEN power???
You can’t even roast a chicken for Thanksgiving dinner with that thing
(shut up, Hydrans!), let along charge all of your photons.
So:
In a destroyer, how do you win? Two
possible answers: 1)
You don’t, or 2) Barely.
There are some really good captains online that can fly the DD well, but
they have had a lot of experience in the Federation’s smaller ships.
I am not one of them.
My suggestion is to turn off one photon hardpoint, which frees up a lot of power. Watch your special shuttle usage-WW and SS now cost one point of energy to arm as well. Other than that-I would recommend a prayer. It’s a deadly ship, but one which requires a lot of skill.
LIGHT CRUISERS, or Where Can I Get Me One Of Those??
Ah,
yes. My favorite class of ship.
Dump me in a Federation NEC and you have dead Mirak au AMD or
maybe sautéed with some phaser-Gs. And
besides, they look cool (ever wonder why Khan chose the Reliant instead
of the Enterprise? Now you
know.).
Federation
CLs can be described quite succinctly: they’re
lean, mean fighting machines, armed to the teeth with phasers, missiles, and the
deadly photon. Try engaging one at
range and you’ll see why. Unlike
most Fed ships, they’ve got some power to burn (especially those old
favorites, the NEC and the NCD+), and when used in conjunction with a few
frigates and a heavy cruiser or two, they become some of the best escort ships
in the game (even rivaling those of the Klingons!). With all that power, a savvy captain can make his CL nearly
impossible to hit while delivering a nice load of weapons in exchange.
The
light cruisers come in three different varieties: phaser boats with photon banks as supplements, light
bombardment ships armed with phasers and missiles, and (of course) the lucky
ship with all three weapons systems. They
generally all have really nice forward shielding, but are a bit ‘fragile’ in
the aft parts of the ship, and so it follows that a Federation captain worth his
bars will almost certainly not let his opponent get behind him.
All
right, the phaser boats. You really
can’t use these in many different ways, since their main weapon, the phaser,
is only effective offensively at close range (10 or under).
That’s why the Federation Ship Design Bureau, a tank-full of grouching
old men drawing designs of new ships and pirating old 20th century
videos of Britney Spears, reeling from the bad publicity the got for those icky
destroyers, decided to give your cute little CL some photons.
As always, start at range 55, blast ‘em with those proximities, and
then run like heck until they recharge. You
can turn off your phasers at this range as well, leaving a few on to take care
of any stray missiles that come your way. When
you’ve bled them and pounded them, then close and destroy them with
your phasers.
The
missile ships are a bit harder to fly, since they’re easy prey for plasma
ships and saber-dancing Klingons. The
best place to test out your drone-chucking abilities is against the best drone-chuckers
in the whole known galaxy-the Mirak Star League.
Take your beautiful NEC into Mirak territory and I GUARANTEE you that
they won’t even scratch your new paint job.
Your phaser-Gs are the best reusable point-D system in the game, so use
them mainly for defense (unless he’s showing you a down shield and you can’t
resist the urge to see the fireworks). Concentrate
on using your other phasers for offense, knocking down shields and then using
your H&R against their AMD systems (despite the 2.0.0.55 patch release).
Once they’re down, feel free to capture them or just overwhelm them
with your drones.
With
the last type of CL, the ships armed with phasers, photons, and missiles, use a
combination of all these tactics and your cute little light cruiser will emerge
victorious.
HEAVY CRUISERS, or Destroyer Madness: Part Two
Sadly,
the most familiar ship in the game, the NCC-1701 Enterprise, is, I must
inform you with a breaking heart, a Federation CA. Now who in their right mind would fly a CA?
Captain Kirk? Oh, wait…But humor aside, the Federation heavy cruisers do
not have as much potential as their smaller cousins, the light cruisers
(although they have some nice ship classes, which will be discussed later).
Usually,
the year you play in as the Federation doesn’t matter.
But here, it does. In early era, all you get is the pathetic CA, armed with four
photons and eight phaser-1s. It’s
got horrible shielding, a horrible turn rate, and no power.
Eventually, they improve it to the CA+, but still, it’s a really bad
ship. The heavy cruiser I’m
talking about is the CC+, the ship that nearly everybody learns to respect the
hard way.
Now,
there are a few ways to fly a heavy cruiser.
First of all, remember that your redundant systems are a lot better than
other races (except for the Hydrans, but they’re your allies, thank GOD!), so
don’t be afraid to get into the melee and start pounding them with your
phasers. However, once again, I
must remind you of the best way to fly a Federation ship. Close to range 55, fire all proximities, and run away.
Repeat. I know it sounds
rather repetitive, but trust me. It
actually works.
With
a heavy cruiser armed with both photons and missiles, your job is a lot easier.
Send in your missiles after the photons have stunned a phaser or two (use
a probe to make sure, you’ve got 10, remember?) and you’ll have them
reeling. Close the distance with
full overloads and you have a dead ship on your hands.
Just don’t fire them at range 0-1 (someone has already pointed that
out), or you’ll end up taking down your own shields as well.
With
the heavy cruiser classes, you have to learn to use shuttles.
The ships you’ll be facing will mount a lot more missiles (Mirak/Klingon)
or a lot more crunch potential (Gorn/Romulan/ISC).
In short, you’re screwed if you don’t have at least one WW ready in
that shuttle bay. A scatterpack can
also help you get a lot of missiles in the air at a time, and that SS will hurt
once you’ve dumped it into a shield already damaged by your proxies.
It is also a good time to Mizia (fire your weapons in staggered intervals
rather than all at once) once you’ve proceeded to alpha strike their shields.
That
is a tactic often misused with Federation ships: the alpha strike. Let
me describe to you the typical thought procedure of a new Federation captain
seeing his shiny CC for the first time: “WOW!
Look at all those phasers! Look
at all those photons! Daddy says
that those photons are really good, so let’s run up to them, dump them all,
and knock down a shield! Then
I’ll fire all those phasers into that shield!”
Unfortunately,
this utopian view of the enemy doesn’t work very well.
First of all, you’ll eat their weapons before they eat yours,
and if you’re charging full speed towards a waiting Romulan, your ship will
suffer some dire consequences, and I don’t mean being forced to sit in the
corner with your head to the wall. Instead,
use your alpha strikes wisely. This
is how an experienced captain thinks: “Hmm. I have a lot of phasers, and a lot of photon torpedoes.
(Note: Some Federation ships
are also armed with missiles) Let’s
use the photons on proximity mode to do damage to some shields before closing
and using a Mizia on their down shield. Once
I’ve scored some internals, I’m free to alpha strike them and destroy them
before they kill me.” That’s
the purpose of an alpha strike-to overwhelm the enemy’s defenses and wipe them
off the face of the earth. Use them
wisely, and you’ll be pounding even mighty battleships with your little CC+.
BATTLECRUISERS,
or Nice Cruiser…Nice Cruiser…No, Don’t Fire Those At Me…
The
Federation battlecruisers are a big improvement over the heavy cruisers,
providing your ship with a lot of weapons to choose from and use effectively.
Use these babies well and you have an easy astounding victory.
There
are three original Federation battlecruisers:
the Kirov-class, the Bismarck-class, and the New Jersey-class.
Each one is armed with its own types of weaponry, and each one is a
decent fighting ship in its own right (Hit me on the head, please.
I’m starting to sound like a university lecturer!).
Translation: bad-ass
shields, firepower that would make even a Gorn captain cry, and one nasty
shuttle bay.
The
Kirov is basically an improved CC with additional missile racks
installed. This thing is really
dangerous, because it has a powerful phaser battery as well as capability for
long-range bombardment (once again, with proximity photons and missiles). These are especially deadly when combined with a carrier
fleet-you tie up their AMD and their Plasma-D with your missiles while the
fighters chew them out at the same time. It’s
not very healthy for the other guy.
The
Bismarck is probably the most controversial ship in the game, but I think
this is just a bunch of anti-Federation propaganda.
It combines the striking power of the Kirov with two plasma-F
launchers. Now, THIS is a ship for
close-in fighting! Once you’ve
knocked down a shield with your proximity torpedoes and your missiles, you kick
up the speed and lob your plasma into their hull, following up with your phasers
to keep them reeling.
The
New Jersey-class battlecruiser is also a good ship, but for far different
purposes. Its photons are nice
shield-lowering devices, true, but you’re not going to have the power to
charge all of them…so set them on proximity mode and start pounding away.
The BCJ is my ship of choice for base assault missions (well, the DNH
works too). However, in a skirmish,
I much prefer either the BCF or the BCG, because those ships can shoot and
scoot.
Am
I missing something? Ah, yes, the Excelsior-class
battlecruiser. Personally, I really
don’t care much for this ship either, simply because it can’t move quickly
enough to avoid missiles or plasma. However,
that rear-firing photon is a nasty surprise for anybody that will try to
tailgate you.
DREADNOUGHTS,
or My God That Thing Is Big
And
I don’t mean the size of the ship. Taldren
jacked up the BPV on some of the Federation dreadnoughts, making their price tag
high enough to make even Bill Gates faint at his desk.
Now, on this forum, I’ve been reading some awful slandering of the
Federation dreadnoughts, and I have three words to say to those who have not
seen the light: Space.
Control. Ship.
SCS for short. This thing is
really, really, really deadly.
But
now’s not the time for individual strategies (I had to digress in the
battlecruiser section). Basically,
your typical dreadnought is under-gunned, but has better shields and a better
power curve than others. You can
get speed-use it! Otherwise, you
won’t stand a chance.
And
once again, I must state the obvious-in a dreadnought, you also have to use the
proximity photons. Don’t be
lulled into thinking “Oh, boy, I’m in a big, big ship that can take eighteen
plasma-Rs on its front shield and still remain in good fighting shape!”
Any damage you sustain is really bad for your ship.
Lessen that amount of damage, and you’ll be able to fight longer.
Another
tactic I have found useful in the DN series is to fly the DNF, with a bunch of
plasmas on board as well. Think of
it as an improved BCF, with better shields and more phasers.
Buy a bunch of administrative shuttles as well, just to launch those
suicide shuttles into the shields you’ve knocked down with a plasma volley.
If they cloak on you, laugh and overrun them with your phasers.
If they start uncloaking on your attack run, though, smile nervously and
HET the hell out of there. It’s
the only way to win.
BATTLESHIPS,
or The Afterthought
I
really don’t fly these behemoths: My
own personal ship, the ISCS Rod and Berry, is an ISC Torpedo Dreadnought.
But the Federation battleship is one of the best in the game.
It has enough power to take on multiple targets at once and still deal
with missiles, and the last time I checked, it had a few fighters as well.
The phaser array ALONE can destroy most light cruisers, and that
rear-firing photon is a plus.
Tactics?
Sure, you just pop into range 55 and fire all of your proximity torpedoes
against a single ship in an equal BPV match.
If you’re faced with a bunch of smaller ships, use the same tactic and
stay at range. Eventually, they’ll grow impatient and charge you (or leave
the game cursing mightily at your unwillingness to charge into their enveloping
plasma-Rs). Either way, you win.
---------------------
Captain S’Tasik,
ISC Division
Xenocorp
ISCS Rod and Berry, DNT