Cadet I/Nanning

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Basic Nanning

A ship equipped with a Nanite Repair Gun is the most important ship in Allegiance. Without it, many a game would be lost. Presented here are just summaries of different tips and tactics to get you started. This is one of the most important skills and knowledge you will need to play this game, so we will go a bit indepth.

Nans are exceedingly important protection ships. They repair the hull of any ship or station. They are used in bomber runs, in heavy troop transport runs, to protect constructors and miners, and to repair damaged stations. Certain ships (usually the scout) can mount the EW Nanite Repair System as a weapon, which repairs damaged hulls of ships and stations.

Note The nan has no effects on shields. Do not waste your energy if the ship you are repairing still has full hull but damaged shields. Wait until the hull has taken damage.

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Regular nanning - Bomb runs

Scouts equipped with the nanite repair system are referred to as Nans. They usually fly behind or beside the bomber and repair its hull as it gets damaged by defenders. The scouts generally fill their cargos with either prox or mine packs which they drop when things get hectic, to delay and damage defenders. Loading an extra round of countermeasures is best against a team relying on missiles.

Bbr nans play many different roles:

1) Unprobing

When a probe is spotted it must be taken out as soon as possible before the bomber gets spotted. The bomber stops all thrusters while one of the Nans or another escorting ship destroys the probe. It is important to keep a scout ranging ahead to spot probes before it's too late. Of course it's very possible that the bomber has already been detected in which case the turret gunners can handle the probes.

2) Aleph scouting

Before entering alephs it is always good to know what lies on the other side. It is up to one of the Nans to enter the aleph shortly before the bomber and report any mine/drone/camp (also called "peeking"). If a probe is close to the aleph the bomber must be notified to stop until the probe is destroyed. Of course, if there is indeed a camp, chances are that the Nan won't survive. The bomber may still have to go in because the run is crucial and the camp is small. In this case, you have to understand that a Nan going through to the other side of the aleph is often a sacrifice.

Tip: If you're podded by a camp wait for the bbr to come through and then fly into him for a pickup. He's big and slow so shouldn't be hard to miss. Not only will it save you a 5 minute pod ride, your pod will continue to eye the enemy camp for your teammates.

3) Forward mine laying

When the bomber has been spotted and defending ships are rushing to it, one or two Nans may go in front of the bomber into the defenders' flight path and lay mines, to disrupt their activities and possibly damage/destroy their ships. The Nan must ensure that he doesn't get so far ahead he is unable to assist with repairs, nor that he gets separated and picked off.

Note This is a dangerous maneuver as you will become "Nearest Enemy" to any defenders launching from base.

4) Nanning

The Nans work in large groups. The more there are, the more time it will take the defenders to destroy them before they can inflict significant damage to the bomber. Nans have one purpose: delay the bomber's destruction enough so that the target station is destroyed. If possible, they must ensure the bomber's survival while it is ripcording out of the sector, either before (failure of the bomber run: the enemy forces are clearly superior and attackers have decided to retreat) or after (success of the bomber run) a station is destroyed. It will however occur very often that the bomber will be destroyed before the nans or the target is destroyed. Try and hide your scout to rescue the pods later.

In order for the Nans to remain alive as long as possible they must use their sidethrusters (and boosters for Belter Nans) to avoid enemy fire, whilst using countermeasures to flee from missiles and mines to destroy enemy ships and disrupt their defending activities. Remember, you must have the the ship targeted to effectively repair it.

5) Pushing

Nans are scouts and can therefore go much faster than the bomber. As a result they can make their extra speed useful by pushing the bomber. They keep a good distance, accelerate, ram the bomber from behind, and sidethrust to allow another scout to push. A good Nan team can get a bbr going from its stately 60mps to an average 90mps. If ships equipped with boosters are around they may boost and push the bomber to give it even more speed. Pushing can be tricky.

First of all the bomber must NOT be on autopilot because the autopilot will automatically sidethrust to avoid collisions with other ships (i.e. the Nans trying to ram it) making pushing it nearly impossible.

Secondly you must ram it straight which requires you to #1 hit the bbr from directly behind and #2 hit the "sweet spot". Certain ships require a push in the center, while others may be pushed on a wing on their top for the push to be most effective. Usually, try to push on a part of the ship that seems closest to its center of gravity.

Third, Nans must alternate in their pushing. You get a lot of speed, you push, then you sidethrust out of the way to allow another ship to push with all the speed it has accumulated. If you remain constantly right behind the bomber you can push it slowly, while all the other Nans will try to but only run into you. Staying right behind the bomber doesn't allow you to get enough speed to push the bomber efficiently. Nans must take turns in pushing the bomber.

Note A single experienced scout can remain behind the bomber, keeping it at a steady 90 MPS or more, which is also excellent.

Fourth, there are times when it is mandatory that you DO NOT RAM:

• Before entering an aleph, unless it was recently confirmed that the aleph is perfectly cleared.
• While the bomber is firing its anti-base missiles. As covered in the Dogfighting section, anti-base firing requires the ship to fly directly toward it's target. Pushing may result in the bomber going a bit off course and miss the target which is extremely costly to your whole team.
• When the enemy has defending crafts that can lay minefields. There can easily be minefields directly ahead that have not been detected yet and thus your pushing may doom the bomber into taking a giant mouthful of mines at high speed.

6) Post-run rescue

Whether a bomb run fails or succeeds, there generally will be a lot of ships destroyed on both sides. If you manage to save your ship make sure that you don't leave. Hide behind an asteroid, away from enemy sensors, and order friendly pods to come to you for rescue. This provides a huge advantage to your team by avoiding a long ride home that could incapacitate your team for a long time. Of course, defenders are aware of this, and will chase down any ship that may rescue the pods, even exploring further in space, on your side of an aleph, and behind rocks, to try and find possible rescue attempts. Make sure you hide well, including unmounting your shields and missiles.

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Stealth Nanning

We are not talking about nanning stealth bombers. We are mean nanning stealthily.

Some ships, such as BIOS bombers, heavy troop transports and assault ships will try and enter the enemy sector without getting spotted. Therefore as a Nan you must also remain unseen, as the enemy will become suspicious about a group of scouts hanging around in the same spot in their sector, and will investigate resulting in highly probable failure of your assault. You must therefore put some forethought into your loadout before launch.

First put your shields in cargo. They raise your signature quite a lot and you need to be not seen until you proceed to the offensive. Keep them in cargo until the ship you are escorting mounts its own shields, which generally indicates it has been eyed itself.

Note Bios attack ships will use their hvy cloak and then mount their shields. They are an exception to the above rule in that although their shields are up they haven't been eyed yet. Do not mount your own shields until either they use the voice chat "Oh they see me, I've been spotted" or you seen a mass of defenders launch

Second put your missiles in cargo. Once again they raise your signature quite a lot. They can be quite useful to destroy probes - do so from max range to avoid being eyed.

If you are BIOS it is very important that you bring a heavy cloak, which you will use at the same time as the ship you are protecting (i.e. when passing through alephs and while you are attacking). However, make sure you don't cloak when you need to Nan because cloaking rapidly depletes the energy needed for the Nan.

Emergency Nanning

When a miner or constructor gets attacked it is important to destroy the attacker, but it is also very important to repair the miner or constructor. Indeed, it is very likely that you can repair the hull quicker than it gets damaged, or at least considerably slow it down. This will delay the ship's death and give much more time for the other defenders to destroy or drive off the attackers.

Countless miners and constructors have been lost because the defenders launched in fighters or interceptors instead of nans. With no nans there is nothing to delay the attacker, and the time it takes to kill an attacker is often greater than the time it takes for that pilot to destroy your miner or constructor. Thus, always nan to buy time and rely on your teammates to use this time intelligently.

A situation common with GigaCorp's light stations, but also applicable with most factions: Galv runs. Galv runs are where fighters equipped with a Galvonic Blaster attempt to swarm a minor station and destroy it with the relatively weak galv.

When a light station is being galved, it is useful to Nan it since it has very little hull (although much more than that of a ship). Repairing it will delay its destruction slightly which might result in saving the structure. The difficulty is that every pilot nanning the structure is one less pilot shooting down the galvers.

Tip: Technoflux scouts can concentrate on nanning while they spam plasgens which will automatically shoot down the attackers. With their advanced scouts being able to mount two nans, stations can be saved without a single offensive craft launching.

Station repair(for docking stations, teleports, refineries)

This also applies to what was said at the last paragraph. Whenever a station needs to be repaired it is best to repair it as quickly as possible. Equip a nan and launch. As soon as you gain control of your ship turn around and start repairing the station. Meanwhile, use your sidethrusters to move toward a green door and stand in front of it. As soon as your energy is depleted you may dock and relaunch immediately; your energy will have completely regenerated. This is much faster than waiting for the energy to recharge itself.

Optional: Interestingly, the concept of the Nanite Repair System came from real nano mechanical technology.

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