Cadet I/Nanning

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Cadet I · Week Two Index · Edit

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← The scout

Scout guide →

Basic Nanning

nanite repair gun

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. Ships (usually a scout) can mount the EW Nanite Repair System as a weapon, which repairs damaged hulls of ships and stations, and has no effects on shields. Do not waste your energy if the ship you are repairing still has full hull but may be losing shields. Wait until the hull has taken damage.

Tip: Phoenix piloted ships (Nix) can NOT be repaired by a nanite gun! Their shield technology makes up for it on their piloted ships. Don't waste your time with a nanite gun. Do accompany the bomber on its run so you can push it and drop mines. You can use a nanite gun on unpiloted Phoenix ships (miners, cons).

Regular nanning - Bomb runs

Scouts equipped with the nanite repair system are referred to as Nans. They usually fly behind the bomber, and repair its hull as it gets damaged by defenders. The scouts have their cargos filled with mines (either proximity mines or mine packs), which they drop along their way, to annoy and damage defenders. Loading an extra round of countermeasures is best against a team relying on missiles. 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 flies away and destroys the probe. It also is important to keep a scout 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 the Nan's job to enter the aleph shortly before the bomber, and report any mine/drone/camp. Also, if a probe is close to the aleph, the bomber must be notified to stop until the probe is destroyed. Note that if there is indeed a camp, chances are the Nan won't survive, and the bomber may still have to go in because the run is so crucial, and it seems reasonable that it may succeed. In this case, you have to understand that a Nan going on the other side of the aleph is often a sacrifice.

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, in the defenders' flight path, and lay mines, to disrupt their activities and possibly damage/destroy their ships. The Nan must then return to the bomber and assist to its repair. Note that smart defenders will have no trouble taking out a Nan flying a bit too far from the bomber, so don't do this too often, and get back to the bomber as soon as possible.

4) Nanning

The Nans work in large groups. The more there are, the more time it will take the defenders to destroy most of 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. 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, while using countermeasures to flee from missiles and mines to destroy enemy ships and disrupt their defending activities.

It will however occur very often that the bomber will be destroyed before the target is destroyed. Try and hide your scout to rescue the pods later. Remember, you must have the the ship targeted to effectively repair it.

5) Pushing

Nans are scouts, and therefore can 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, then accelerate, and push the bomber to give it up to 40 extra MPS, and move on the side to allow another scout to push. If ships equipped with boosters are around (Belter scouts or other factions' fighting ships), 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, since the autopilot will automatically sidethrust to avoid collisions with Nans, making pushing nearly impossible and wasting velocity.

Second, you must push on specific parts of the bombers. 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, only you can push, while other Nans will try to but only run into you instead. 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, however, that 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 places where it is mandatory that you DO NOT PUSH. Before entering an aleph, you must never push, unless it was recently confirmed that the aleph is perfectly cleared. Also, DO NOT PUSH 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. Also, DO NOT PUSH 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 by making it go very fast into a minefield, destroying the bomber.

6) Post-run rescue

As a general rule, a bomber run that either succeeds or fails results in a lot of ships destroyed, and thus a lot of eject pods flying around, including many friendlies. As such, 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 other sides of alephs, and behind rocks, to try and find possible rescue attempts. Make sure you hide well, including unmounting your shields and missiles.

Stealth Nanning

Some ships, such as BIOS bombers, heavy troop transports and assault ships will try and enter the enemy sector without getting spotted (Nans never accompany a stealth bomber). Therefore, as a Nan, you must also remain unseen, or else the enemy will be very suspicious about scouts hanging around in a sector, and will investigate, resulting in highly probable failure of your assault. You must therefore equip special equipment.

First, do not equip (mount) your shields and missiles. You will not need missiles. Also, you are supposed to remain unseen until you attack, so the shields aren't needed until you proceed to the offensive. Keeping the shields in cargo is a good idea, and keeping 2 missiles in cargo as well can prove useful if a probe threatens to betray your ship's position. You will have enough room in cargo, because you will need much less mines (only drop mines during the short assault against the target station).

If you are BIOS, it is obvious and very important that you bring a heavy cloak, which you will use at the same time as the ship you are protecting (when entering alephs and while you are attacking). However, make sure you don't cloak when you need to Nan, because cloaking 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 down its decent. This will delay the ship's death, and give much more time for the other defenders to destroy the attackers, saving the miner or constructor. If you fail to repair the miner or constructor, it is highly likely that you will lose it, despite the many defense ships present, because the time it takes to kill a fleeing ship is often greater than the time it takes for the fleeing ship to destroy your utility ship, the miner or constructor.

A situation most common with GigaCorp stations, but also applicable with most factions: Galv runs (Fighters equipped with a Galvonic Blaster). When a light station is being galved, it is useful to Nan. it, since it has very little hull (still much more than that of a ship). Repairing it will delay its destruction slightly, which might result in saving the structure. This applies mostly to outposts and teleport receivers. The difficulty is that many Nans are needed, and many more pilots are required to take out the Galvers, which makes this a team task that drains most of the pilots.

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 nanite repair system, 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 Nanite is based on a real nano mechanical technology.