Fighter vs M2

General discussions about the games by Egosoft including X-BTF, XT, X², X³: Reunion, X³: Terran Conflict and X³: Albion Prelude.

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pasmon
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Fighter vs M2

Post by pasmon » Mon, 1. Jan 18, 13:56

What is the best fighter squadron to take out a well shielded lone Terran M2 with energy weapons while evading flaks and ppc?

RAVEN.myst
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Post by RAVEN.myst » Mon, 1. Jan 18, 14:23

Personally, I really wouldn't recommend fighters to take on M2s, especially Terran ones - you'll suffer ruinous attrition even with a large enough squadron to successfully finish the job. However, potential options for taking on such large targets, if you're masochistic enough to try (that's not a criticism or insult: I'm a big fan of using groups of smaller ships to take on larger ones), include:

- Falcon Hauler or Falcon Sentinel with EBCs - relatively sustained damage with strong shields (200MJ and 400MJ, respectively); downside is their low speed for fighters.
- Terraformer M3s (I forget which hexadecimal code is their "name") fitted with PMAMLs. The matter anti-matter warheads do very good damage, especially in numbers. However, the downsides are heavy: the ship's shielding is very thin (50MJ), and their speed can be so high that it causes them to crash into the target and each other (this can be mitigated by not upgrading their speed as much - experimentation required - you definitely don't want them to have their max speed of 450+m/s, as their turning is too slow, and they kamikaze into their target, yet you want them fast enough to get into attack range as quickly as possible, and to present harder targets.) Also, you will need ample warhead ammo...

Another, also ammo-intensive approach is to use your fighters as missile delivery platforms. You'll need TONS of missiles, though you may forgo arming them with weapons, as you want them to focus on missile fire. Any fighter that can field Tornado missiles will do well, BUT: sourcing sufficient said missiles may be difficult (I think you'll need to build a complex to churn these out), and I suspect only some fighters are compatible - likely the pricier ones.

Whatever approach you take (the above is not an exhaustive list), you will need large numbers, and expect heavy casualties.

Happy hunting! :)
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Alan Phipps
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Post by Alan Phipps » Mon, 1. Jan 18, 15:06

You can help the attacking fighters by launching waves of swarm missiles and fighter drones from ships held further away to distract the target's defences. The missiles and drones you expend will probably be cheaper than the fighters you might otherwise lose.
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pasmon
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Post by pasmon » Mon, 1. Jan 18, 15:21

Is it possible to bring down shields of a M2 destroyer in quick strike using Ion disruptors from fighters and then dock the ships for safety.

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Post by Alan Phipps » Mon, 1. Jan 18, 15:28

One problem is that IonDs 'bounce' from target to target so if you have a swarm of fighters using them on the same target, you will be stripping your other fighters' shields as well as the target's.
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Post by RAVEN.myst » Mon, 1. Jan 18, 15:47

pasmon wrote:Is it possible to bring down shields of a M2 destroyer in quick strike using Ion disruptors from fighters and then dock the ships for safety.
One possible way to do this is to use fighters equipped with Pulsed Beam Emitters - these are as good at stripping shields, with the added bonus that, due to their rate of fire, once the shields have been removed, hull hits have a fairly good chance of taking out installed systems, which can include guns, shields, and ship equipment. PBEs have a short range, though, so you may experience increased "kamikaze".
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fireanddream
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Post by fireanddream » Mon, 1. Jan 18, 16:07

Not really worth it in vanilla since every time you hear FLAK/SSC fire off one or more of your pilots die a miserable death.

Like others said PBG is a weapon too good for fighters. The chance of TK-ing is also minimized because of capital ships' sizes. Mass driver is another fun weapon to use on Solano swarms, never tried it but I anticipate a kill under 1 min with 60 solanos equipped with mass drivers. Will probably lose 15 in the process, and the logistics tho.

The ultimate squadron are drones. Try dropping 2000 of them over an Osaka.

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Post by Sirrobert » Mon, 1. Jan 18, 16:30

Thanks to the auto-pillock, fighters tend to crash into large ships when they are attacking.
Without that problem though, fighter clouds utterly destroy large ships.

And for that, Litcube has made Bounce
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Post by pasmon » Thu, 4. Jan 18, 22:39

What is the best loadout for a group of eclipse targeting an M8, M7 or M7C including antifighter missile protection?

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Post by Triaxx2 » Thu, 4. Jan 18, 23:54

Buster Raiders with Mass Drivers. A dozen should be more than enough. Unless it's AP, then two dozen.
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pasmon
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Post by pasmon » Fri, 5. Jan 18, 05:45

What are the best anti-missile lasers loadout for ai fighters?

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Post by fireanddream » Fri, 5. Jan 18, 10:04

There's none. Firing PSG manually is the only answer to missile barrages.

Fighters have no way to handle flail, none.

MDM is particularly susceptible to missiles with a blast radius; the destruction of one hammer torpedo can take out other mosquitoes around it but leave its fellow torpedoes unharmed. So even M7Ms won't be able to rely on MDM to defend themselves.

It's a bit frustrating to jump out your entire fleet once an M8 show up at the other end of the map. But hey, that's vanilla for you.

pasmon
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Post by pasmon » Fri, 5. Jan 18, 16:22

How about mosquito missile defence and PRGs?

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Post by fireanddream » Fri, 5. Jan 18, 17:18

pasmon wrote:How about mosquito missile defence and PRGs?
I commented on MDM (mosquito defense system) in my original reply. It works moderately well if you fire them manually, but it will require your full attention and some will still go through. Fast weapons like PRGs work great in TC where missiles have like 1 hp, weapons like PBE ensure that no missile can reach you in TC, but can't really defend you against heavier missiles in AP.

pasmon
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Post by pasmon » Fri, 12. Jan 18, 20:26

I observed that a Panther(with IBLS, ISR and flaks) and with a squad of eclipse(4-6) can take out another lone M7(Terran or Xenon) protected by a small group of fighters more easily as compared to tiger.

In theory, a destroyer with a wing of fighters should easily dispatch another lone destroyer. Like Split M2+ or a Boreas guarded with panther or Demios.

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Post by Hemmingfish » Fri, 12. Jan 18, 20:47

pasmon wrote:What is the best loadout for a group of eclipse targeting an M8, M7 or M7C including antifighter missile protection?
PBG in all slots and PAC on the turrets

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Post by fireanddream » Sat, 13. Jan 18, 17:45

pasmon wrote:I observed that a Panther(with IBLS, ISR and flaks) and with a squad of eclipse(4-6) can take out another lone M7(Terran or Xenon) protected by a small group of fighters more easily as compared to tiger.

In theory, a destroyer with a wing of fighters should easily dispatch another lone destroyer. Like Split M2+ or a Boreas guarded with panther or Demios.
True. But you have to spend money and go through all the chores to replace/repair your fighters, while your enemies just spawn theirs from thin air.

If you're looking forward to some carrier action I highly recommend the CODEA mod. The vanilla carrier commands are just not built for daily uses.

pasmon
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Post by pasmon » Fri, 2. Feb 18, 11:58

I am currently flying Ariadne with fighters transferred from my panther. I purchased it for mining nividium regarding HQ plot as it can carry a TS to UFJD sectors.

Well this Ariadne using its TS cargo and 24 m3 fighters can seriously cripple a capital ship fleet with tornado missiles in theory.

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