Tactics against large ships.

Gemat

G
Hi,

will any fighting guru share his tactics against large ships.

I read about staying behind its engines, but I cannot do it. In most cases I cannot even get close enough. When I boost targeting behind the larger ship, I either overshoot, or I cannot turn in time to position my ship behind.

I frequently find myself looking the larger ship's nose and not being able to get close before taking LOTS of damage....


I also read about turning on/off FA while in combat. How does this gives an advantage?

I fly an ASP with A thrusters and use HOTAS.
 
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bassman

B
Gemat said:
Hi,

will any fighting guru share his tactics against large ships.

I read about staying behind his engines, but I cannot do it. In most cases I cannot even get close enough. When I boost targeting behind the larger ship, I either overshoot, or I cannot turn in time to position my ship behind.

I frequently find myself looking the larger ship's nose and not being able to get close before taking LOTS of damage....


I also read about turning on/off FA while in combat. How does this gives an advantage?

I fly an ASP with A thrusters and use HOTAS.
Click to expand...

In order for this to work you generally need a very big speed and maneuverability differential over your target so youl be hard pushed to pull it off in an asp unless the enemy is flying naively (i.e. forward thusters only) . You really need a fast ship i.e. clipper/cobra/viper if your going to use this as a primary combat tactic.

Even with the right ship its tricky because you have to boost in from the right distance such that youve decelerated back into the blue zone as you get close to the enemy so you have to take into account the distance and your combined closing speed. If you dont get this bit right then no amount of FAoff trickery is going to help.
 
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Hitsuke

Hitsuke
It essentially comes down to skill and knowing your ship. Against big ships, forget about damaging their hull, it's a futile endeavour. Instead target a vital component such as it's drive or ideally it's power plant. Quite often you can kill an Anaconda or Python while he still has 50% hull, just by popping his powerplant.

Flight assist works well if you want to get in behind someone. Aim above or below your target as you approach each other, turn F/A off and rotate your ship in the direction your target is travelling. Once you can see his engines, hit boost then control your speed. You should get in behind him if you do it right. That's a very rough description of what to do, but it's something that becomes easy, once you know how. You just need to practice and experiment.

You also need to make use of lateral thrust and transversal. If you are having trouble getting on top of your target without taking a tonne of damage, try approaching them in a zig-zag pattern. Make them earn the hits on your ship, rather than flying directly into their fire, making it easier for them.
 

Steve72

S
Pre udate I had a few dangerous pythons and anaconda but have not really found any post. The one I found I struggled it did not help I had eagle attacking me at same time. I fly asp was using d thrusters I think. You need to be in a good position to start. Im findingIif you can keep the pips to engines when positioning and boosting when turning hence needpips to engines. Pips to weapons when needed. Target power. You could also try kiting at edge of range using thrusters. Don'tbe afraid to bail if shields about to go. Hope they get joint bounties sorted. 2 on one much easier.
 

kiario

kiario
To get on their back you need to make sure they are vertical to you when head on. Then it is easier to pre-turn and get on their back side.
You need 3 or 4 power to engines to outmanouver them also. Then when behind you should be set.
 

lonewarrior

lonewarrior
I actually have discovered a way to get behind your enemy in almost any
ship fitted for combat

It has worked for me in a viper, cobra and ASP but you will need maximum A class thrusters and generators plus power couplings to pull it off

What you do is head on a collision course with your opponent, full pips to shields to absorb damage and just as their nose touchs the edge of your screen out all pips in engines and do full reverse thrust (default is S)and hold R and turn towards the direction they are headed

Next count to 2 and hit boost (you should be halfway through a turn by now and the boost speeds up the turn)

If you do this too soon you end up not facing them in time and if done too late the same can happen
But when times correctly it allows you to face them atound 1-2 seconds before they do which can eiether give you a chance to let off a couple of free shots or use the same manouvore again and get on their tail

Doesnt always work but because most players boost as soon as you pass them they end up running out of boost before they can face you

It's worked for me and instead of getting behind them I suggest you get underneath and target their power plant as once those shields fail it's a weak point under most big ships (anaconda at least)
 

Gemat

G
Thanks for the tips!

I am in a phase where I own a 20M worth ASP and 3-4M to spare, bored with trading, bored with USS chasing Eagles and Cobras.
I need SEVERAL MILLION credits more to get a better ship, so I started taking assasination missions. I do the job usually after a lot of effort and taking advantage of the presence of cops, but it takes time. I am just trying to figure out ways to avoid taking damage, because at the end I get the 150k+ bounty, but I spend most of it for repairs.......
 

Kotovsky

K
So what are you supposed to do in a Viper if a Python starts FSDing out on shields down? My bursts and multicannons only took down 27% off it's FSD.
 

Dr Roly

Dr Roly
The Asp is unfortunately not the best ship for taking down Pythons and Anacondas. The main problem is it's large enough to make an easy target for big ships, but does not carry the firepower or shielding of the big boys.
-
Also you need at least 35mil to outfit an Asp that can take on Pythons and Anacondas. Mine is worth 36mil and I can take down the Elites, but it's not easy and usually end up using all 5 shield cells. An Asp with less good equipment is likely to systain hull damage, which will work out more than any mission reward or bounty.
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One of the key things to staying behind an enemy, in their blind spot, is acceleration in lateral and vertical movement. Having low acceleration, even if you have a high top speed, will make it impossible to react to your target quickly enough. The Asp is again not very good in this respect so you will have a hard time staying behind your target. The Viper has much better acceleration, but I haven't tested it vs big ships in 1.1 so don't know how well it would cope.
tl;dr - you can take down the big ships in an Asp, but it is not the best choice and you will need to spend a lot of cr on equipment.
 

Einhander

Einhander
Totally agree with Dr Roly.
The power generator is the key (versus Anaconda Elite, a good discharge of cannons does his work well).
 
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Gemat

G
Dr Roly said:
The Asp is unfortunately not the best ship for taking down Pythons and Anacondas. The main problem is it's large enough to make an easy target for big ships, but does not carry the firepower or shielding of the big boys.
-
Also you need at least 35mil to outfit an Asp that can take on Pythons and Anacondas. Mine is worth 36mil and I can take down the Elites, but it's not easy and usually end up using all 5 shield cells. An Asp with less good equipment is likely to systain hull damage, which will work out more than any mission reward or bounty.
-
One of the key things to staying behind an enemy, in their blind spot, is acceleration in lateral and vertical movement. Having low acceleration, even if you have a high top speed, will make it impossible to react to your target quickly enough. The Asp is again not very good in this respect so you will have a hard time staying behind your target. The Viper has much better acceleration, but I haven't tested it vs big ships in 1.1 so don't know how well it would cope.
tl;dr - you can take down the big ships in an Asp, but it is not the best choice and you will need to spend a lot of cr on equipment.
Click to expand...
Why so much credits to outfit the Asp?
I already have 2 gimballed Beams, 4 gimballed cannons, A thrusters, A dustributor, 6C shield, 5A and 3A banks.
I dont see any upgrade besides the shield making any difference....
 

ChubbyBunneh

ChubbyBunneh
Sometimes you don't need to get behind them. The AI can be really dumb in the big ships.

Try flying out to 3km and putting your ship in reverse. Match speed with them so your distance doesn't change. The AI has a tendency to just halfheartedly follow you around.

Take down his shields and then target power plant. It will take a while but you'll suffer almost no damage. The biggest danger is accidentally backing into the nav beacon. I pecked a Dangerous NPC Anaconda to death with a pair of class 1 fixed beam lasers this way.

If you have plasma accelerators or cannons this method goes much faster since those projectiles don't drop damage over distance as bad as lasers do. This is what I do in Anaconda vs Anaconda fights.
 
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