What if I want to kill something bigger? Is it possible for a non META Chieftain guy with the reflexes of a sloth?
I recently dove into Cyclops hunting and while there is a learning curve, I managed to turn it into a relatively routine thing now with my sloth reflexes. Once you understand what happens at what points of the fight, a lot of the damage is very avoidable, and there isn't a hurry to do anything. It can be very slow paced combat if you chose.
Also should I use a combination of turreted and fixed or fixed only weapons?
Turreted is nice for scouts, for Interceptors you really need to be able to hit stuff with the Guardian Guass. The big guys don't zip around too fast, and landing precise shots on the hearts isn't too difficult.
What about weapon limitations? IIRC there was some limit for AX weapons, does that include the guardian stuff?
The 4 weapon limit applies to any combination of both AX and Guardian weapons, but not to the remote release flak launcher. With the flak launcher you hold the trigger when you fire, then when the ordinance is within range there are visual and audio cues that signal you to release the trigger to detonate. Mastering it on the swarms has been my biggest challenge, but I am seeing improvement.
While the Chieftain is certainly my preferred medium combat ship, when I plunged into Cyclops hunting I ended up with the
Challenger for the main reason of those 3 medium hardpoints giving me a better chance at swarms with that triple flak (the guides I've seen usually have 1 flak launcher, so this obviously isn't necessary for better pilots). It still handles respectably and can FA flip very fast, has enough speed to outrun the bugs, and 3 smalls guass that line up perfectly with the large hard point will one shot Cyclops hearts.
I don't have much shields on it because for the most part I can control the times I'm taking damage and if the shields don't hold, I'm usually back out of harms way not long after they've dropped and it is a very fast reboot on them. An AMFU to repair weapons/MRPs as you boost away waiting for shield rebuild is a nice thing to have. Unless I do something really stupid (pretty often) I can come out of a Cyclops fight 85-90% hull. Anywho, I'm rambling now, but my linked Challenger build could pretty easily be swapped over to your Chieftain with minor changes. I'm certainly no master of Thargoid combat, and not the best pilot out there by a long shot, but this has worked for me for Cyclops kills.
