I have tried this hardpoint setup and piloted into combat before resetting my progress.
The crypto scramblers are fantastic at dropping shields. The downside is the fixed mounting that leans into getting too close to the target in a jousting pass. The Mandalay is susceptible to accidental collisions due to its native m/s speed, or the target decides to collide with you. It is a risk factor to consider since collisions can cause the Mandalay to be blown up nearly instantly, which is the reason for the Military grade armor and two Hull reinforcements.
Multi-cannons have the same downside where you need longer time on target to maximize their damage against the target. I have used two on the topside hardpoints, and they work well but you'll want a better fall off distance than 1.5k; This is where I selected the Cannons since their DPS is comparable with less time on targe requirements.
The underwing hardpoints have blind spots even with gimbal hardpoints due to the proximity to the centerline hull and "box" under belly framing of the ship design. Gimbal weapons are more effective here for firing on target from a distance, but the blind spots become apparent when the target closes in less than 700m and whether the target is off centered when this occurs. After some trials and errors testing different hardpoints, I found the turrets provided a greater field on the firing arc that lessens how those blind spot impact the hardpoints.
The direction for using rapid fire pulse lasers versus the crypto scramblers or leaning heavy into using more kinetic damaging weapons was to have sufficient SDPS that will drop shields quickly without dummying my hardpoint down against the hull since crypto scramblers lose damage potential then. The cannons afford a higher per shot DPS against the hull but serve as a more critical defensive component for constant chaff benefits against the target's gimbal and turret hardpoints. And I can use range to land solid hits and exploiting their fall off distance on their hardpoints to reduce the damage against me.
Rapid fire pulse lasers are simply awesome. You can stand on your firing button without tapping out your PD, and concordance sequence is a solid experimental effect for solo and team play. The phasing compensates for the damage loss while using turrets to land absolute damage on the target's hull while their shields are up or have been recovered in combat since that 10% is calculated on the base damage and not the fall off damage. Also. This may be a bug, but the concordance sequence effect treats you as a team of one, in solo play, and you benefit from the increased shield recharge, whereas, in team, the effect helps your teammates: As I do notice a difference between solo and team play on how this effect operates, and I hope Frontier does not change it. IF, I am wrong, I gladly accept my delusion since gameplay experience has shown my shields gain boosts of regeneration that contributes to the ship's shields holding out longer while being focused on in combat.
This is the lengthy explanation for the reasoning behind the hardpoint and engineer blueprints. It was meant to play aggressive with built-in defensive and team play attributes.
