Alliance Chieftain, Talk To Me

Mcleansc

M
Recently purchased an Alliance Chieftain in my new save. My go to Haz RES bounty hunter in my old save was a slightly engineered Vulture (PD, thrusters and beams). It decimated everything I came across. It easily avoided the fire of most ships and the shields very rarely dropped.

Given the Chieftain is known to be very manoeuvreable I bought one. Admittedly only the PD has been engineered but I'm not super impressed. It seems to 'skid' through space, making it very difficult to stay out of the line of fire of even an Anaconda. Given the shields are quite poor im getting absolutely hammered against ships and NPC ranks my Vulture would have eaten for breakfast. I'm still easily winning but my shields are dropping far more frequently than I'd like (and that's with decent pip management).

Does my flying style just suit smaller ships? Or does the Chieftain just have very weak lateral thrusters? I believe the FDL and Mamba use the same PD (so I can swap it over) but before I give up, any tips for using the ship to its fullest potential?
 

Mcleansc

M
Vardaugas said:
The strength of the Chieftain is to pick a single target and then evaporate them in a few seconds. I have mine fitted like this and it does a good job in a HazRes. Just avoid big wings.
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Would you say it needs engineering to really see it's full potential? I did have Cyto's in the 3 small hardpoints like you have done, but found with the ship 'skidding' about and the jitter of the Cyto's it was difficult to lay down effective fire for an extended period. I've had more luck with 3 small and 1 medium gimballed beams. I have 2 large multis and did think of using either 2 PA's (used them a lot on my Vulture and loved them) or 2 frag cannons, but in all honesty I just can't see them being that effective on this ship as I struggle to get in close. Unless I just resort to jousting, but that sucks. I prefer trying to 'dogfight' as it were.

It's probably me, im trying to fly a medium ship like a small ship.
 

Icyskies

I
You have to fly the chief in FA off for see it's truly potential. There isnt a better ship than a volture in FA on and this is why u see other ships be sluggish and not manoeuvreable... Watch some anti-xeno video with the chieftain and you will see how good it is
 

Cmdr. Numa

Cmdr. Numa
The Chief is meant to turn, not to use laterals. And it's a hulltank, meanng you need to invest heavily in HRPs and MRPs, at least two MRPs, because the drives are so exposed. For shields it works best with a small highly resistant biweave that pops on and off multiple times during combat, slowing down the hull decrease as combat progresses.
 

Cmdr Snuffler

Cmdr Snuffler
What others have said...and yes engineer the thrusters to G5. Engineering makes a huge difference to any ship.
You're also coming from a Vulture, one of the most nimble ships in the game, so you're going to see a big difference in handling regardless of what medium ship you fly.
 

Vardaugas

Vardaugas
Mcleansc said:
Would you say it needs engineering to really see it's full potential? I did have Cyto's in the 3 small hardpoints like you have done, but found with the ship 'skidding' about and the jitter of the Cyto's it was difficult to lay down effective fire for an extended period. I've had more luck with 3 small and 1 medium gimballed beams. I have 2 large multis and did think of using either 2 PA's (used them a lot on my Vulture and loved them) or 2 frag cannons, but in all honesty I just can't see them being that effective on this ship as I struggle to get in close. Unless I just resort to jousting, but that sucks. I prefer trying to 'dogfight' as it were.

It's probably me, im trying to fly a medium ship like a small ship.
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Fly it like a shark. Prowl the HazRes until you find prey, then approach it from the back and bite it dead. The more agile targets get a draghound on them which makes staying close while biting them easier. Favourite prey are Anacondas and Pythons. Kraits, too, though they usually come in wings. Point is to make the fight short, so your shields don't get breached or only for a short time.
 

Kenneth McGrew

Kenneth McGrew
Mcleansc said:
Recently purchased an Alliance Chieftain in my new save. My go to Haz RES bounty hunter in my old save was a slightly engineered Vulture (PD, thrusters and beams). It decimated everything I came across. It easily avoided the fire of most ships and the shields very rarely dropped.

Given the Chieftain is known to be very manoeuvreable I bought one. Admittedly only the PD has been engineered but I'm not super impressed. It seems to 'skid' through space, making it very difficult to stay out of the line of fire of even an Anaconda. Given the shields are quite poor im getting absolutely hammered against ships and NPC ranks my Vulture would have eaten for breakfast. I'm still easily winning but my shields are dropping far more frequently than I'd like (and that's with decent pip management).

Does my flying style just suit smaller ships? Or does the Chieftain just have very weak lateral thrusters? I believe the FDL and Mamba use the same PD (so I can swap it over) but before I give up, any tips for using the ship to its fullest potential?
Click to expand...

your hitbox is larger, and the chieftain has shields made from the leaves of an iceberg lettuce, this can be improved by stacking your ship full of engineered shields and boosters and guardian boosters to make it invincible vs NPCs with at least 15kmJ of shield power without even trying.

hull tanking isnt great against NPCs as they magically can snipe modules that dont even face them! even with MRPs fitted they will whittle your ship useless long before you run out of hull, so you will need to repair quite frequently to avoid module malfunctions
 

goemon

goemon
... and the vulture is probably the most easy to pilot combat ship. afaik it doesn't loose much flown without pip management for exampel in terms of agility, you can fly it with lateral thrusters or without, it has perfect hardpoint placement etc. it is - imho - not a good ship to prepare for any other ship than the vulture.

a good preparation for the alliance ships is a dbs imho, a good prep for the fdl is eagle and courier.

or you stay with the vulture. amazing boat.
 

Brother Sabathius

Brother Sabathius
Mcleansc said:
Does my flying style just suit smaller ships? Or does the Chieftain just have very weak lateral thrusters? I believe the FDL and Mamba use the same PD (so I can swap it over) but before I give up, any tips for using the ship to its fullest potential?
Click to expand...
It flies very different to the Vulture.

The Chief has strong lateral and vertical thrusters and a long boost cycle. Where the Vulture is the nimble dogfighter, the Chief is the big bruising brawler. It improves massively with engineering and is one of my favourite combat ships along with the FDL. Try to not be tempted to boost around a lot with the Chief, that long boost will push you far away very quickly.

For HazRes, I go with this: https://s.orbis.zone/eduw

For Thargoid combat, it's this: https://s.orbis.zone/eduz
 

here_it_comes

here_it_comes
Chieftain rules as a brawler. You want to stay as close as possible and never let up the pressure

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
s.orbis.zone s.orbis.zone

If you're comfy with PAs, or want to be, swap the Pacs for SRB PAs with Dispersal Field. It doesn't match the sheer power of the Pacs, but the Dispersal does net you a real defense boost.

Don't worry about shields, ships simply will not be able to stay close to you and live. Target FSD/PP first and they won't find themselves much time to work on your hull.

I find Weapon Focused PDs work best with ships like this. Because your Weapon cap is large enough, you can run 3/2/1 to keep your defense strong without sacrificing agility. Without having your damage output falter. Always keep the heat on in a Chieftain/Crusader/Challenger.

Brother Sabasius is right. Boosting in fights will just get you out of the fight. Chieftains boost when they are chasing a fleeing victim. 😎
 
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Amanojaku

Amanojaku
If you want to see the Chieftain at it's true potential, you'll have to engineer more than the PD (which btw... Is probably the only thing on your ship that doesn't need engineered).

Dirty drives. Biweaves with fast charge and a whole bunch of hull reinforcements (with 2 module reinforcements in the class 2 slots). For weapons you can use the meta - which is PAs, and rails in the Class 1 hardpoints - but I actually prefer all frags. I like to stick to my opponents like glue. If you break from close range your're risking your drives getting sniped, which is the main weakness of all Alliance ships. Frags absolutely melt everything when you have so many of them.
 

Cmdr. Numa

Cmdr. Numa
Amanojaku said:
If you want to see the Chieftain at it's true potential, you'll have to engineer more than the PD (which btw... Is probably the only thing on your ship that doesn't need engineered).
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Say what now ? The distributor is one of the most important things to engineer. More powerful weapons can be fitted and fire longer, permaboost, less pips in systems needed to keep a Biweave shield fed.
 

Mcleansc

M
Thanks for all the tips some great info. It should be noted due to starting afresh I dont have access to most Engineers (or mats) which is why I've engineered the PD only.

I've ditched the SCB and replaced it with a Hull Reinforcement package, I already had the other optionals packed with those and 2 Module Reinforcements. The unengineered bi-weaves are absolute garbage but they drop and come back up quickly like someone said on here, now I'm used to that it's fine.

I ditched the 2 Large Multicannons in favour of Frag Cannons and it's a massive improvement. The PD handles 3 small and 1 medium beams quite well with good pip management, strips the shields then I hit hard with the frags.

I'm still essentially jousting. I've tried not boosting. Boosting. Using lateral thrusters while boosting to slow the boost, toggling landing gear out, a bit of FA off but I always just end up jousting. The ship is very manoeuvreable, but it continues on its trajectory as you pitch or bank making it really difficult to even get consistently close to a target. Again I've no doubts it's me and not the ship, just need to get a good grip of it.

Has to be said though, great work from FD to make the ships handle so dramatically differently. Really gives a sense of achievement when you start mastering a ship.
 

goemon

goemon
Mcleansc said:
I'm still essentially jousting. I've tried not boosting. Boosting. Using lateral thrusters while boosting to slow the boost, toggling landing gear out, a bit of FA off but I always just end up jousting. The ship is very manoeuvreable, but it continues on its trajectory as you pitch or bank making it really difficult to even get consistently close to a target. Again I've no doubts it's me and not the ship, just need to get a good grip of it.
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as i'm often flying a DBE in comflictzones and such - the trick for not-boosting is thinking ahead, flying where the opponent is going to.
 
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