What are your favourite blockade running ships and loadouts? Pirates and blockaders, what are the most effective tactics against you?
The recent smuggling Community Goal in Epsilon Indi has got me playing with blockade runner loadouts. Since CGs do get blockaded, traders and smugglers operating in these systems need to ensure they have defences against their attackers, who have developed effective 'high-alpha' tactics. Yet many pilots, especially in less expensive ships, do not seem to have put much effort into counter-tactics (other than switching to Solo mode or pulling the plug). Instead, they prefer to outfit their craft for a maximum of hauling capacity, putting their entire investment at risk.
Having been on all sides of the equation -- blockader, pirate and smuggler -- here are my thoughts on blockade running ships.
The most important characteristics are:
1. Evasiveness - speed and manoeuvrability keep your ship out of their sights and let you outpace them.
2. Strength - shields and armour absorb their blows while your frameshift drive loads.
3. Cargo - a good blockade runner must still carry enough goods to make it worthwhile.
4. Range - it is more profitable to make the trip in as few jumps as possible
The ideal blockade runner can avoid damage, carry decent amounts of cargo, and ideally low-wake away, or at least high-wake. Given that your attackers have hyper-specialised their craft for combat, it's generally not worth trying to fight back.
Here are some of my favourite blockade running ships with loadouts, focusing on smaller ships.
Cobra MkIII (loadout). The classic blockade runner. When you drop out of supercruise, activate silent running, drop a heat sink, and boost past your attacker and away. You will be an unresolved blip 1.5 kilometers away before they even turn around and locate you. Never bother with shields, despite the flimsy hull. This build runs very cool. The only disadvantage is the modest cargo capability.
Evasiveness: 5/5
Strength: 1/5
Cargo: 2/5
Range: 3/5
Keelback (loadout). I include this unpopular ship because your attackers are humiliated when you get away. The low cargo space means it's only appropriate for rare goods community goals. The decent-sized power plant means you can operate an OK shield with two 3A shield cell banks operating in tandem, but the weak drives mean you are a sitting duck.
Evasiveness: 1/5
Strength: 2/5
Cargo: 1/5
Range: 3/5
Type-6 (loadout). The T6 is a surprisingly tough little ship when you put a bit of effort into it. It is maneuverable and fast enough to avoid fire in the hands of a good pilot. At the cost of a few cargo spaces, you get some shield and armour - size 3 shields are inadequate, so spent the cargo space on size 4 ones. The ship is held back by its small power plant.
Evasiveness: 4/5
Strength: 2/5
Cargo: 4/5
Range: 3/5
Asp Explorer (loadout). The AspE is a decent overall blockade runner - the real standout strength is the range, but the cargo space and shield/hull strength are good too. In this configuration, it can also fire 8 torpedoes - expensive, but if you are lucky enough to come up against an unshielded FAS or FdL, that might be enough to cripple or even kill them.
Evasiveness: 3/5
Strength: 3/5
Cargo: 4/5
Range: 5/5
Type-9 (loadout). An experiment! I've never had the credits for this - would it work? Heavy shields and 2x 4A shield cell banks give it defensive strength, but with the terrible manoeuvrability, could it survive being jumped by more than one ship?
Evasiveness: 0/5
Strength: 4/5
Cargo: 5/5
Range: 1/5
The recent smuggling Community Goal in Epsilon Indi has got me playing with blockade runner loadouts. Since CGs do get blockaded, traders and smugglers operating in these systems need to ensure they have defences against their attackers, who have developed effective 'high-alpha' tactics. Yet many pilots, especially in less expensive ships, do not seem to have put much effort into counter-tactics (other than switching to Solo mode or pulling the plug). Instead, they prefer to outfit their craft for a maximum of hauling capacity, putting their entire investment at risk.
Having been on all sides of the equation -- blockader, pirate and smuggler -- here are my thoughts on blockade running ships.
The most important characteristics are:
1. Evasiveness - speed and manoeuvrability keep your ship out of their sights and let you outpace them.
2. Strength - shields and armour absorb their blows while your frameshift drive loads.
3. Cargo - a good blockade runner must still carry enough goods to make it worthwhile.
4. Range - it is more profitable to make the trip in as few jumps as possible
The ideal blockade runner can avoid damage, carry decent amounts of cargo, and ideally low-wake away, or at least high-wake. Given that your attackers have hyper-specialised their craft for combat, it's generally not worth trying to fight back.
Here are some of my favourite blockade running ships with loadouts, focusing on smaller ships.
Cobra MkIII (loadout). The classic blockade runner. When you drop out of supercruise, activate silent running, drop a heat sink, and boost past your attacker and away. You will be an unresolved blip 1.5 kilometers away before they even turn around and locate you. Never bother with shields, despite the flimsy hull. This build runs very cool. The only disadvantage is the modest cargo capability.
Evasiveness: 5/5
Strength: 1/5
Cargo: 2/5
Range: 3/5
Keelback (loadout). I include this unpopular ship because your attackers are humiliated when you get away. The low cargo space means it's only appropriate for rare goods community goals. The decent-sized power plant means you can operate an OK shield with two 3A shield cell banks operating in tandem, but the weak drives mean you are a sitting duck.
Evasiveness: 1/5
Strength: 2/5
Cargo: 1/5
Range: 3/5
Type-6 (loadout). The T6 is a surprisingly tough little ship when you put a bit of effort into it. It is maneuverable and fast enough to avoid fire in the hands of a good pilot. At the cost of a few cargo spaces, you get some shield and armour - size 3 shields are inadequate, so spent the cargo space on size 4 ones. The ship is held back by its small power plant.
Evasiveness: 4/5
Strength: 2/5
Cargo: 4/5
Range: 3/5
Asp Explorer (loadout). The AspE is a decent overall blockade runner - the real standout strength is the range, but the cargo space and shield/hull strength are good too. In this configuration, it can also fire 8 torpedoes - expensive, but if you are lucky enough to come up against an unshielded FAS or FdL, that might be enough to cripple or even kill them.
Evasiveness: 3/5
Strength: 3/5
Cargo: 4/5
Range: 5/5
Type-9 (loadout). An experiment! I've never had the credits for this - would it work? Heavy shields and 2x 4A shield cell banks give it defensive strength, but with the terrible manoeuvrability, could it survive being jumped by more than one ship?
Evasiveness: 0/5
Strength: 4/5
Cargo: 5/5
Range: 1/5
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