Cadet II/Force nan
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| ← Stealth nan | Situational awareness → |
Force nanning
| Nan me up and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine |
Back in Cadet I we covered nanning bomb runs in the Nanning II lesson. Since then I'm certain that you've nanned your share of bombers and troop transports. For those reasons I am going to assume you know the basics. This article will deal with what forced runs are like in squad games, and that's a whole different kettle of fish,
Preparing your ship
To prepare your ship optimally you need to know what kind of threats you are going to encounter along the way. That means foreknowledge of what techpath the enemy have taken and what activities they're currently engaged in. There are some general rules though, that are valid for every situation:
- Always try asking commander for Rescue Probe, Sanctuary or Beacon, if those are available to your faction. Just in case something goes wrong.
- Always have your shield mounted for forced runs. Under heavy fire they only last a second, but that extra second it buys you might mean the difference between the run succeeding or failing.
- Always unmount your countermeasures if bombing against Technoflux or Rixian. It's a negligble mass gain, but hey extra maneuverability is always good.
Nanning against tactical
If the enemy went pure Tactical, you'd better pack the following items:
- At least one extra rack of countermeasures. For most factions tactical is a missile-based techpath and you don't want to run out of countermeasures too soon.
- One or two prox mines. They are always handy.
- If you have pulse probes available, take them over prox mines.
- If you are on a bomb run, the turrets will have to see targets to hit them.
- If you are on an HTT run, the int escort is blind and will need some light.
- A spare rack of Seekers or Quickfires - the same mounted in missile slot. They will come in handy.
- If you happen to have booster on your scout, take a spare can of fuel. Or two.
There are a few things to remember when bombing or capturing against Tactical: A well-organised Tac team knows that there only chance of defence is to eye the enemy early. Thus here is little chance that your run will be uneyed. Furthermore they are likely to try attacking the bomb train before it reaches the target sector.
Phase one - en route
At this stage, enemy stealth fighters are not likely to launch coordinated attacks. They will be few in number and they will only try to keep an eye on your movements and maybe pick off some nans. The basic rule is: do not ever, under any circumstances, get away from the craft you are defending. You will die for nothing. Let me explain:
If you hear the missile lock signal, don't jump to the chaff button - you need to conserve your countermeasures. Instead put your fingers on those sidethruster buttons and take a good look around to locate the missile. It will be fired from range, as the stealth pilot will not engage at close range in fear of either the bomber's turrets or the HTT's armed escort. Use this time to maneuver into your friends shadow and use him as physical cover. If you manage this, congratulations! You just made the SF waste one of its precious missiles without wasting a Countermeasure. Now, nan up the bomber or HTT if needed and keep an eye out for more missiles. Note that this method also works for Rixian Combat Drones.
If you however fail to hide or spoof the missile, call out for repairs immediately ~-nx. This will alert your fellow nans so they can target you and keep you alive long enough for you to hide behind whatever you are defending.
Dropping rescue probe near the enemy aleph is a good idea if you have one.
Phase two - through the aleph
Once you arrive at the aleph to the target sector your escort will go in ahead of you to kill off proxers and defenders that strayed too close to the aleph. Once they are in, it's your turn. Against missile-enabled factions it is crucial that you go in just before the bomber or HTT. Hidden SFs can spike bombers with Hunters and Snipers To avoid this scenario nans should enter just before the defended craft and turn around to face the aleph in preperation for the craft's entry. Firing the nan for a few seconds on it (even if it's not damaged) can avoid the bomber being blown out from under your slow reactions.
If nothing of the sort happens, take a quick look around your HUD (you should have radar mode set to 'All') and see if any of your buddies need a quick donut-loving while the bomber or HTT clears any mines.
Always drop a prox after going through that aleph, as most likely there are enemy stealths following you through the aleph. Make their life miserable and either force them wait for the prox to disappear or die.
Phase three - towards the target
At this stage speed is your friend. That means that your friend has to be pushed, and pushed fast. If you have boosters, boost-ram the hell out of whatever you are defending while you nan it. If you're not ramming then concentrate your nan on the people that are. The rammers keep the ship alive, you keep the rammers alive. Remember not to be a stationary target and remember to use those counters, you brought plenty for a reason and now is the time to spam them if you hear those missiles coming.
If you have some missiles you might try and use them. Use the 'target nearest enemy' key to check if any of the stealths are in missile range. If there is a target which you can quickly spin and lock on to, try it. But it's important not to lose your forward momentum or forget your nanning duties! If you have Seekers mounted, try and get some lock, if you have quickfires mounted, you could even skip facing your target. You will probably not hit the enemy craft, but you might cause him to panic - drop his missiles and retreat. That's a very good thing: he's not shooting anybody on your run for at least 7-10s. That's a long time for the run. Remember though, that protecting the bomber or HTT is way more important than lobbing missiles. Do that only if things seem quite calm or if you happen to have a good shot at something without losing focus on your teammates.
Note Ramming vs Rixian stealths is risky because they can deploy prox mines in your path while cloaked. A fast moving bomber or HTT will have no chance to avoid such a prox and could die to it, even with all the nannage in the world on it. Use your judgment on this one.
Phase four - at the base
You have managed to deliver the bomber or HTT to its destination. It will take a while to get it's job done so you have to make it as easy for the pilot as possible. Try to avoid ramming the ship you are escorting: you might make an AB miss if you ram a bomber or ram the HTT away from its approach path towards the green door, which is bad in either case.
Now is also the time to use any prox you brought. Place them so the HTT or bomber is in the middle of your minefield or so that the mines shield it from the side you expect most enemies to come from. This is the desperate stage for the tactical team. They will attempt suicidal attacks to pick off you nans and eventually the bomber or ram the HTT off the green door. There is no reason to make it easy for them, thus the prox.
If you see a rammer inbound to the HTT that is trying to dock and you are in position to get in his way, do it. You will likely die, but the chances of HTT pilot successfully capturing the base will increase immensely.
As for nanning priorities: you should be focused on the bomber or HTT you are escorting. Crossnaning time is over, the nans are expendable at this point.
Phase five - aftermath
The base is captured or destroyed, lots of cheering is going on, but the party isn't really over yet.
If the base was destroyed, there are likely many pods to be picked up. If there were no rescue probes available, it should be your priority to run and hide to get pods or, if that is not a viable option, rip the hell out of there and get to the pods on their way back. Keep in mind that there will be enemy stealth pilots doing exactly the same thing.
If the base was captured, dock at once, relaunch with fresh load of Quickfires or Seekers and get that base's hull repaired. Chances are that there is a bunch of stealth bombers out there ready to take your prize away from you. Nan the base, use missiles on approaching stealth bombers if need be.
Supplement - something, somewhere went terribly wrong
If the craft you are escorting died along the way for some reason (Killer spiked, proxed to death, etc.) and you happen to be still alive, DON'T BE A HERO. Get out of there. Fast. If you can, lose eye and pick up your teammates. If you can't do that, rip the hell out. Do anything not to die pointlessly as this would be hurting your team. Getting those pods ASAP is your priority now.
Nanning against Supremacy or Expansion
If you are up against interceptors or fighters, your loadout should contain:
- Prox. Lots of prox.
- A single rack of missiles - don't expect to hit any enemy with them though.
Bombing against 'brute force' ships requires the element of surprise. That means you have to deprobe.
Refresher
Cadet I lesson on deprobing
Phase one - en route
Keeping in mind that the element of surprise is crucial to your run's success at least one of the nans should be flying about 1.5-2k in front of the bomber's path. There's always a chance that the initial deprobing missed something or the sector was reprobed, or even that deprobing didn't happen at all because as time was of essence.
If you happen to spot an enemy craft while flying point DON'T BE A HERO and do something stupid like engage the enemy. Remember, that your scout has next to no combat capabilities right now and dying is the last thing you should be doing right now. Instead run away. Turning around to get back to the safety of your buddies is great and all, but not if it means you're a sitting duck while you do a 180. Sometimes the best way to avoid someone is to run straight at them (and zoom past). Once the threat is gone, get back to your forward position. Remember not to stray too far away from what you're defending.
Tip: There is one exception of this rule: if the enemy haven't yet spotted the bomber, try to engage and lead the enemy away from the run. You'll most likely die, but that's a cheap price to pay for maintaining the element of surprise.
Phase two - through the aleph
If you were flying point you'll get to the aleph first. If your run is uneyed don't go in yet since even the presence of a single scout may alert the defense. Stop by the aleph and prox it to kill any random scout that might otherwise pop through and eye your run. If your run is already eyed don't go in because a camp has formed on the other side and you will die pointlessly. Stop by the aleph and prox it.
Tip: If you are in possession of a rescue probe of some sort, place it behind or beside the aleph.
Once the bomber or HTT is ready to enter, there are two scenarios:
- If your run is uneyed go through the aleph while the bomber/htt is still 800m short. Quickly call if it's clear to go full speed or not. This will give the pilot the time to floor it and the pushers to give him a nice entry velocity.
- If the run was eyed stick very close to the bomber/HTT and go in very very slow just before it does. Turn to face where you expect the ship you are defending to pop out from and be ready to nan it. Dropping prox now is not a bad idea (some defenders might want to boost-ram the bomber or HTT through the prox their scouts layed on the aleph). Keep the big boat alive at all costs at this stage, no crossnaning, no missile lobbing, just nanning the big guy.
Remember - never ever ram anything (especially stuff that costs money) through an unscouted aleph. Ever.
Phase three - towards the target
Once you clear the camp or just smoothly pour into the target sector, there's some stuff to be done. If any of your fellow nans took damage, heal them up now. Calling for repairs if you're low on hull is not a bad idea either during the short breather you get. But what else should you be doing?
Firstly, you could be ramming the bomber/HTT. Remember though that sup has mine packs and exp has prox 2 - both hurt at high speeds.
Secondly, you could be flying in front of the bomber and dropping prox on the most likely approach path the defenders will take. If it's a squad game chances are they will not fall for this, but at least you are preventing them getting a direct ram.
Thirdly, you could be orbiting the bomber or HTT at around 250m radius, nan fixed on it, making yourself as hard to hit as humanly possible and proxing at random. Saying a little prayer for your fellow nans to notice you getting hit and repair you is not frowned upon.
Fourthly, you could be in the tail of the nan train keeping an eye on your nanmates and providing them with a donut or two when needed (not forgetting to get the nan love to bomber/HTT as a priority). Proxing for overboosting defenders is not a bad idea either.
Phase four - at the base
Phew, you've finally arrived in missile range. Now, your bomber has to unload a rack or two on the base, your HTT has to find that green door and get to it. Help it do that.
Either you are nanning bomber or HTT, you will want to create a prox cloud around it, so it doesn't get rammed from under your nan or away from the green door. With a bomber, you do that as soon as it starts to slow down to avoid hitting the base. Prox preferably on the red door side.
With an HTT though, make sure to save some prox for the furball at the green door. It will probably be proxed by enemy scouts, so the transport will have to slowly plow through tons of mines. Mix yours in there and you are quite likely to make some incoming rammer explode in an eye-pleasing manner.
In both cases, stop crossnaning or whatever else you were doing and point that nan on the HTT or bomber. They will need the donuts as they become sitting ducks. You and your fellow nans have just climbed the final step on the ladder of expendability. You can die, the HTT has to dock, the bomber has to fire that last missile. Simple as that.
Phase five - aftermath
If you have successfully bombed a base make sure the bomber gets the hell out of there. It'll either rip or roll on to the next enemy station. In either case, YOU are not ripping out before it does. If the bomber dies, you know what to do: run. Try to zoom out of the slaughter and hide or just hit that R button. Try not to die, those pods will not pick themselves up you know.
If the base was captured however there is a high probability that either an enemy HTT is out there to recapture the base or a bomber was launched to take your newly acquired real estate away. In the first scenario, your re-recap HTT should be launched. Dock as soon as you can and launch immediately to nan it. Repeat till the base is firmly in your team's grasp.
If a bomber was launched however, dock as soon as you can, grab something with guns (lots of guns is better than few guns in that case, mind you) and help kill the threat.
Supplement A - something, somewhere went terribly wrong
If the craft you are escorting died along the way for some reason (Killer spiked, proxed to death, etc.) and you happen to be still alive, DON'T BE A HERO. Get out of there. Fast. If you can, lose eye and pick up your teammates. If you can't do that, rip the hell out. Do anything not to die pointlessly as this would be hurting your team. Getting those pods ASAP is your priority now.
Supplement B - 'we are up against Technoflux!'
Ah yes, you are force-capturing or bombing against Technoflux. This is the only faction that doesn't have prox mines. This cripples their ability to camp alephs greatly and is something that you should exploit. Get that bomber rammed up nicely. The faster it goes through that aleph against Technoflux, the less time it spends in gun range! Speed is your friend in this scenario.
Tip: Just because TF doesn't have prox mines doesn't stop their scouts from finding it in space and mounting it. It's unlikely to happen, but will hurt a lot if it does.
Nanning Capital ships
In general nanning Capital ships follows the same rules as nanning bombers (with one exception being the Assault Ship). Capital ships though are bigger than bombers which makes putting them between you and the attacker much easier. Remember that and try to use this technique as often as possible.
Another difference is that you can't ram a Cap to make it fly faster. The difference in mass between you and it is just too great. All you'll achieve is annoying the crew and making the gunners aim bounce around.
Finally, keep in mind that the Nanite Gun is significantly less effective when used on Capital ships. A nan is only 75% effective against heavy hull, and 50% vs super-heavy. This means that every donut counts. Don't waste your energy. Start nanning only when you are positive that the Cap is getting hull damage. On the plus side Capitals are so huge that you shouldn't be missing any of those donuts.
Supplement - The Assault Ship
The Assault Ship is a very special type of Capital ship. It has the ability to act as a teleport receiver even for medium and large class crafts. That means bombers, HTTs and other Capital ships can rip to it. Think of it as a very big and beefed up Rixian SR scout, or a flying TP2 probe.
To be effective, an Assault Ship has to be stealthy. That's the reason it has low signature (for a Cap ship that is) and the ability to mount Heavy Cloak. The pilot's objective is to sneak into an enemy sector, then set up - just like a TP2 dropper would - and call for vessels capable of destroying or capturing the base to rip in when the time is right.
You should also remember one thing: never, ever rip to an Assault Ship that is hiding in enemy sector unless specifically told to do so. That means you have to be aware that the Ass is out there and keep in mind, whatever you're doing whether it be probing low or dogfighting mid-hi, that pressing R without designating a destination first might just cause you to rip to the ass. So don't do this. Even if you're being chased by 21 Rixian hvy ints, take the extra time to click on a non-ass ship sector on the minimap.
Sometimes the Ass Ship will need nan/deprober to come with him. In that case you should behave as you would if you are nanning a stealthy HTT. You can read more about how to do that in a post named 'Nanning stealth runs'.
| ← Stealth nan | Situational awareness → |
