X3: TC first successful boarding, hired TL

[Fezder]

Sweet, boarded yaki chokaro with spacewalking, no casualties. Damaged chokaros' hull enough to reduce speed.Then hard part was to keep fire coming my way, so marines can actually board.This target eluded me pretty long, so I'm satisfied. I got about 20 elite marines (all skills 100) so terran vessels are looking appealing! Especially that lifter. Too bad terran doesn't have police lincense...

[DrSuperEvil]

You only need 12 100 fight marines for terran ships. The Jump Beacons on the terran M1s in Jupiter are also tempting.

[radcapricorn]

You only need 12 100 fight marines...

At first I misread that, and started wondering exactly how you'd transport that amount of marines

[Fezder]

Yesterday boarded agamemnon. Beast, but still no good enough for last part of operation final fury. Really need to one of destroyer class ships. Fight rank is vindicator and there are too many destroyers around. Or better M7, but I thing destroyer is what I need.

[Fezder]

Well, only one way to find out; boarded paranid odysseus using only cobra! First few flails to aggro him, then lure out of harms way....then flail tunnel followed by marines, and cargo hold had 18 ISR's! Yup. M7M is killer in boarding ops!

edit: also, got one hyperion vanguard

[radcapricorn]

Congrats! Especially on that Hyperion. Are you thinking about boarding two ships at once yet?

[Fezder]

Nah, sounds too much hassle! Although, I found odussey and hyperion on one sectors between....

[RainerPrem]

Well, only one way to find out; boarded paranid odysseus using only cobra! First few flails to aggro him, then lure out of harms way....then flail tunnel followed by marines, and cargo hold had 18 ISR's! Yup. M7M is killer in boarding ops!

edit: also, got one hyperion vanguard

You can always get yourself a Boreas in Aladna's Hill. Just saying ...

[Fezder]

Yeah, boreas seems good to have also. Something to do while doing capital gear.

[Honved]

Yesterday boarded agamemnon. Beast, but still no good enough for last part of operation final fury. Really need to one of destroyer class ships. Fight rank is vindicator and there are too many destroyers around. Or better M7, but I thing destroyer is what I need.

Why isn't an Agamemnon good enough for OFF in TC? (incidentally, OFF is a bug repellant brand in the US, very appropriate.) I've done it at least twice with a Diemos, and there are no Kha'ak M2 class ships in TC that I'm aware of. Load it up with Phased Shockwave Generators and charge the enemy, using strafing to dodge most of the incoming fire. PSGs in the turrents simply vaporize anything smaller that approaches, quad PSGs in the nose will drop the shields on any Kha'ak capital ship in your way down to a nub in seconds, and ramming will do the rest. Your shields are FAR tougher than their hull. It's a bit tricky taking down the first 2-4, but it helps if you can angle yourself on the approach so the ones in back can't hit you through the ones in front of them, and then the stragglers and respawns come at you at long enough intervals for you to recover somewhat between them. The biggest down side is there's not much salvage left after the PSGs have vaporized everything in your wake. Of course, going in with more of everything (an M2, or several) makes it almost easy.

Incidentally, you'll want to carry other weapons to swap out in normal race sectors, because those PSGs are a collateral damage international incident, if not an outright war crime, just waiting to happen.

[Fezder]

I couldn't use those phased shockwave generators due friendly fire. Instead, I placed flak artillery arrays as side turrets, firing fighters. Back turret was congussion impulse generator, same purpose.
Front turret 4xincendiary bomb launcher. And main gun was mix of PSG+ISR, depending what I'm aiming at. Managed to destroy one of stations, but then it was too much.

Could take another shot with more PSG's.

[ubuntufreakdragon]

I don't use Missiles in normal boarding but boardingpods.
I normally use a terran M2 as practise target for the enemies turrets, 12gj can take all a M1 has to offer and are still up, as a nice bonus 4 not overloaded psp shots do exactly 1gj damage which makes taking out enemy shield pretty precise and easy.
I just move the M2 in a different angle (30°) than the approaching boarding pods, but both objects are visible to the same turrets.
Only against Xenon I use fighter drones to disturb the target.

[Fezder]

OFF is now completed, replaced ISR's with HEPT's, and FAA's to PSG's. Friendly fire wasn't issue this time, because support died due khaa'k....or me, dunno!

[jlehtone]

Friendly fire wasn't issue this time, because support died due khaa'k....or me, dunno!

That is the nice side of the Kha'ak; they "help" you.

IIRC, there was an another plot with almost reasonable amount of slaughter (unlike the hands down OFF).

Are you thinking about boarding two ships at once yet?

Nah, sounds too much hassle!

Isn't the chance to hassle the reason we play?

X3AP. Harmony of Perpetuity. Big sector. Some 80 km from the only Gate to a Station. The Station requests assistance; Pirates are about to raid them. There they come. Fighters, occasional Bomber or Corvette, and about three Capitals (decent Fight Rank has its perks). A long line.

We are ready. We get the attention of the fastest Capital. Draw it to side. Marines have the serious talk. Rinse and repeat. There is no point to kill any of the big ships. Even the Paranids approve threes.

[DrSuperEvil]

PSGs do good shield damage but only deal PBG levels of hull damage. I mostly use them as a shield against missiles for fighting M7Ms and swatting M1 fighter wings.

[Honved]

PSGs do good shield damage but only deal PBG levels of hull damage. I mostly use them as a shield against missiles for fighting M7Ms and swatting M1 fighter wings.

That's not a problem in TC, where hull values aren't drastically increased. Since the Agamemnon and Diemos have impressive amounts of shielding for their class, they can easily afford to ram other ships in the same class (or lower) after taking the shields down even half-way. Even 4 PSGs are more than capable of dropping the shields during the approach for a ramming attack (just hold down the fire button and charge), and the enemy ship simply evaporates on impact, while you've still got plenty of shield strength left. The Paranid capital ships aren't optimal for use against some of the other race fleets, but are the perfect tool for the task in OFF.

Ridiculous numbers of Kha'ak "Scout" fighters are no problem, because the area effects of a PSG are more than sufficient to vaporize entire waves of them. Other turret weapons simply can't compare in this role. As said, using them in race sectors is a problem, because of collateral damage to EVERYTHING within their general arc of fire and range. Just don't send two Paranid capital ships in together and keep them close, or else you'll end up with only one capital ship in short order, badly damaged. The good part is that they have no need of escort; the bad part is that any escort you do give them will not live long, even if the enemy never fires a shot at them.