How to kill M6 and M7 with a fighter and without missiles.

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RyuKazuha
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How to kill M6 and M7 with a fighter and without missiles.

Post by RyuKazuha » Tue, 9. Feb 10, 23:04

A little Guide, I've not seen around here. Basic Combat Guides normally only care about fighter/fighter combat, wich is useful, but there are still many good pilots out there, that are afraid of the slightly bigger ships and on the run, while they could fight and make money.

Early on, big ships tend to frighten most players. Even traveling alone, they are most of the time strictly avoided, while it's fairly easy to take them down, even in a fighter and without any missiles in the cargo bay.

In fact, if your fighter is capable of overwhelming the enemies shield regeneration, the only thing you need to worry about is the time it will take you to rip its defense. (And, most of the time, it's escort, but if you aren't able to seperate the escort from the target, you're not yet ready to try this.)

There are several Methods of getting rid of Capitals in a fighter. Some require more specialized equipment, some less. I'll list two wich are the easiest know to me.

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1. The Blind-Spot-Approach

The trick is fairly easy: Most Mid-sized ships have, what most of the bigger ships lack, a big blind spot, or even two, that will allow you to get near them without even a scratch to your shields.

But be aware the ship is not going to stand still or hug you, for what you're doing, it'll constantly buck and turn to get you into the death zone, so you'll have to follow it's movements without getting to close or to far away. Use Shift+F to match speed with your enemy, once you are in position and adjust. Since you don't have to worry about taking fire, you'll have enough time to do that.

I personally like to get really close to smell the fear, but you'll be fine at any range, as long as you are in range and in an angle to giver fire. Steering with WASD will also greatly help you hold your relative position.

Rule of thumb: If you can't see the guns, they can't shoot you.

Xenon:

P:
The P has no blind spot, it has a freakin' blind belt. Actually it's only armed with a bulk of forward Guns and a tower in the back. Don't let it lock on you, or you're toast, with capital T, but if you attack the midship and don't get past the engines, you won't take fire. If you position yourself alongside the thinner part in the middle, you are able to target the guns mounted at the front and fire away.

PX:
Xenon to learn, but slowly, this one now has side-turrets to cover some of the blind areas, but it's still wide open, if you attack from the bottom or the top. I'd recommend to position yourself right behind the top thruster, there you are safe, have a nice shot on the engine and you'll see in wich direction your friend wants to go. But keep in mind to constantly adjust your speed, or you may crash into the thruster.

Q:
This one is also blind on the top and on the bottom. If you wanna have fun, maneuver between the top thrusters, if you just want to get the job done, i'd recommend attacking from the bottom There you have plenty of room to fill it with holes.

Pirates:

Marauder
Attack from below, the biggest blind spot is under the forward "knob" If you have a direkt look on the unpainted section, you're in the right position. You've a bit space to maneuver here, but don't overdo it, or you get some punishment from the side-turrets.

Carrack
Do you really want to do that? If Luke Skywalker or Spike Spiegel are among your relatives, you might want to prove something...
Your Window of opportunity is right above - take a seat - the main turret battery. I don't name it blind spot, because if the ship happens to roll just slightly, you are under fire of the main cannons. There's another spot under the rear part of the ship, even smaller.

Boron

Hydra
This is no Hydra, this is a freakin' pregnant flat fish with a big "shoot me" painted on the back and around the belly button. Avoid her face and shot the nice flat piece of target practice this ships top is And if you are bored, take a look at the lower part.

Heavy Hydra
She looks prettier, but from above you still have plenty and plenty of room to give her a branding.

Tresher
Tricky one. No obvious blind spots, but this time, our rule of thumb comes in handy: if you attack from behind, a little bit above the rear fins, the turrets won't open fire on you, because the ships hull blocks their view. However, if they allready locked you as target, they may continue, so make sure you haven't been "seen" by them before, or they are busy with something else.

Split

Dragon
Same as the Hydra, avoid taking him up front or from behind and you'll be fine.

Heavy Dragon
I think, this one is the only heavy M6 that is even blinder than the light version. No back turret, no turrets at the side or at the bottom. Guess where to strike...

Panther
Attack from below, aim for the first third of the ship and avoid the last.

Tiger
Full screen defence. There is no blind spot, but it's weakest point is lef and right of the engine. If you run from behind on a ~45° straight for the socket of the top turret, you may be able to slip through. Afterwards, you've some room, but if you stick your head out to high, you go boom.

Paranid

Hyperion
Aim for the waist.

Nemesis
Attack from below or above in the mid two quarters, attacking from the side is good too, but if you go the first way, you can't miss a single shot.

Heavy Nemesis
It has a blind spot, but to hit it is not good for the nerves. Approach from below and aim for the main battery. Avoid the rear turret, it won't hit you, if you are on the right way, but your enemy moves, so be aware.

Agamemnon
Fairly easy, it has huge blind spots above and below, just dive in and fire away.

Deimos
Attack is suicidal. Full screen defense is weakest at the bottom, but if you break it, you've just not enough room to keep the head down and will either crash or get zapped.

Teladi

Osprey
The best defensive Setup in the M6-Class so far. To do it right, you have to approach it from the left or right, not to high, not to low. The space between the two forward batteries marks the correct height.

Heavy Osprey
The heavy Osprey is heavy to miss, if you attack from below.

Shrike
Virtually flawless defense in all directions, however, if you manage to evade the first few bursts of death, you could hold yourself alongside the right flank of the ship "under the radar" and find your target at the intersection.

Kha'ak

M6
Rogues do it from behind, so should you.

Terran

Springblossom
From below.

Katana
Same, Terrans don't seem to care about that area.

Yokohama
The Rogue-Thing this time around.

ATF

Vidar
Quite a ship, with quite some leaks in the defense screen. Get behind it and enjoy yourself. If you are brave (or stupid): there are two other blind spots at the forward left and right, but you'll have to get near the front battery to slip through.

Vali
Plenty of room above and below the ship, stupid design.

Aegir
Full defense screen. If you want to break through, try to get it directly from above and dive deep enough to get out of the fire of the top turret.

Yaki

Washi
Spit'em on the head from above.

Senshi
Take it on straight from the front, a little more left than middle, it wont get you. Dive and cut its belly, but try not to look out at the left or right.

Karyudo
Full screen defense, no meaningful chance to break through eiter.

Akurei
There is a small blind spot, an if I say small, it's really small, plus its direct under the cone of the main battery. If you wanna **** with pirates, get yourself some real guns. ;(

Argon

Centaur
Position yourself right below the nose and aim for the unarmored part, theres another blind spot above the ship.

Heavy Centaur
Right above and below the two sidefacing turrets are your entry points. Just make sure you don't get to far on either side.

Griffon
Quite well protected, but there are blind spots on starboard and port side of the ship. Be aware to not get below the ship or stick your head out above the average height of the upper part, or the turrets there will inform you dearly about your mistake.

Cerberus
Remember what I said about the Akurai? This is model wise the same ship, with the same defense screen.

OTAS

Skiron
It's blind on the upper and lower side, however, since the side turrets are mounted on the upper side of the ship, it's safer to approach from below.

Astraious
Same es Cerberus and Akurai.

Goner

True Light Seeker
Dunno why you'd want to fight them, but whatever: It's easier to just say where you don't want to be if messing with this ship: right in front, everywhere else it's just target practice.

2. The Chaingun Massacre

A method dependent on special Equipment: The Energy Bolt Chaingun, a ammunition based gun mountable on most races M3 Fighters excels all other fighter weapons in terms of range (2800m wich is 500m ahead of the Phased Repeater Gun, giving you much room to maneuver) , thus allowing you to stay out of range of the enemies anti-fighter weapons, while delivering punishment.

The only problem with this method is, that while OOR of anti-fighter weapons, the enemy anti-cap weapons still target and fire at you, so you need to evade them by strafing. You shouldn't expect to survive getting hit by these weapons so still try to attack from a side not able to confron you with a literal wall of fire.
However, once you get a hold on this technique, even M2 and M1 are your possible prey, IF you just have enough ammunition in stock and enough guns to overcome the enemies shied regeneration rate.

Be aware the equipment needed for this approach is expensive (150.000 Credits per EBC and may take some time to collect.
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So... that's it. I did not include M7M, since they tend to use their missiles against fighters, wich is quite unfair. :P

Thanks to all who contributed to this guide in one way or another. Special thanks to Gazz, who hinted me to include the Chaingun Massacre. :)


Greetings,
Ryu Kazuha
Last edited by RyuKazuha on Thu, 18. Feb 10, 12:02, edited 10 times in total.

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Reimu Hakurei
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Post by Reimu Hakurei » Tue, 9. Feb 10, 23:20

Good list of blindspots, that... however I feel you have forgotten to mention that the plasma burst generator is the best laser weapon to combat large ships with.

And yes Marauder is English.

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Post by RyuKazuha » Tue, 9. Feb 10, 23:36

I didn't really forgot, I just left it out, since the outfit doesn't really matter for this approach. You can take out most of the ships with a couple of PACs. Also, outfitting is an issue widely covered with several guides, so i didn't feel like repeating the same thing over and over again.

Maybe I'll add it later for now, it's enough.

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Post by Elucca » Wed, 10. Feb 10, 00:07

One thing to fix that I can see: The Teladi M6 is called the Osprey, not Eagle.

RyuKazuha
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Post by RyuKazuha » Wed, 10. Feb 10, 00:22

Thx, already edited.

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Post by Flozem » Wed, 10. Feb 10, 00:33

I like the guide. Maybe should go in the spoiler forum though...

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Post by Captain Chris sTc » Wed, 10. Feb 10, 00:37

Thresher. you sure the hull stops the path of fire. i've seen fire going through ships that are shooting it before.

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Post by RyuKazuha » Wed, 10. Feb 10, 00:45

Pretty sure, at least I never got scorched when approaching from this direction, as long as i stayed "out of sight" of the upper turrets. If someone has actually made other experiences, please let me know, so i can edit this point.

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Post by Catra » Wed, 10. Feb 10, 00:59

if the turret is already shooting at you, itll continue to shoot through the hull. if it hasnt "seen" you yet, it will not fire.

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Post by RyuKazuha » Wed, 10. Feb 10, 01:03

Okay, I corrected this part.

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Reimu Hakurei
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Post by Reimu Hakurei » Wed, 10. Feb 10, 01:18

Correct me if I'm wrong again but it has occured to me that there seem to be no Argon ships mentioned...

Edit: Also for the pirate ships you may want to note that the Marauder and Pirate Centaur are both effectively the same (AFAIK; they use the same model at least), and add their version of the Osprey which replaces the up-down config with left-right both mounted on top of the hull.
Last edited by Reimu Hakurei on Wed, 10. Feb 10, 01:38, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by RyuKazuha » Wed, 10. Feb 10, 01:26

Oh, now that you say it... darn, will add them tomorrow. I tend to ignore Argons for some reason unknown to me. *g*

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Post by imperium3 » Wed, 10. Feb 10, 02:17

Do the Washi, Senshei, Karyudo and Akurei actually have their own models? I was under the impression they don't (like the Shuri for example).

And what's the Pirate Marauder?

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Post by RandomBandit » Wed, 10. Feb 10, 02:25

+1 for the BeBop reference :D
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Post by Gazz » Wed, 10. Feb 10, 02:42

Reimu Hakurei wrote:Good list of blindspots, that... however I feel you have forgotten to mention that the plasma burst generator is the best laser weapon to combat large ships with.
That depends.
While PBG does indeed peak at 25k DPS at a range of 350m, it uses energy.
Depending on what ship you use, EBC might destroy a capital ship faster.

EBC can also make blind spots completely irrelevant because with strafing, you can hover beyond Flak/PRG/PBE range and chew up the target while evading all "slow" bullets is easy enough at that range.
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Post by RyuKazuha » Wed, 10. Feb 10, 12:20

imperium3 wrote:Do the Washi, Senshei, Karyudo and Akurei actually have their own models? I was under the impression they don't (like the Shuri for example).

And what's the Pirate Marauder?
Fully named "Marauder Hauler"

Most of the Yaki-Models are derived from other Races M6 and M7

Edit: Added Argon, OTAS and Goner.

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Post by brattbags01 » Wed, 10. Feb 10, 18:32

Can't really see this working, one blast of flak weaponry (M7) and you're toast :(

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Post by Gazz » Wed, 10. Feb 10, 18:39

See my last post. Any M1/2/7 (except Khaak) is dead meat against a player fighter.
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Post by Master of the Blade » Wed, 10. Feb 10, 18:39

But that's the whole point of the thread- to tell people WHERE on an enemy ship you won't get fragged by FLAK cannons! I think it is rather useful for when you have a Q(or other enemy race frigate) epidemic in the early game and need to kill them using a fighter.
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Post by Gazz » Wed, 10. Feb 10, 19:23

Yes, but the WHERE can have more than one meaning, depending on what lasers your ship has. =)

At a range of 2.3 - 2.8 km to the closest Flak turret, your ship is perfectly safe from Flak/PRG but can hammer the target into oblivion.
And it works the same way against every capital ship without having to memorise individual blind spots.
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