Cadet II/Combat nan

Combat nan

So you're here for a lesson on the finer points of being a Combat Nan. Well listen up closely because I'm only going to say this once: The best way to learn how to Combat Nan is to get out there and do it.

Now having said that, here's a few pointers to get you started:

I - Preparing your ship.

There are a range of possible configurations, depending on exactly what you're trying to achieve. In general, you want Nan, Prox, Dumbs. RP/Beacons if available. Sometimes carrying extra fuel/ammo can be useful. Particularly for those long outings behind enemy lines. - Tip: Watch your weight, Too much prox and your scout will become unwieldy.

II - Pulling it off.

1- 1 on 1s

So you've chosen a buddy and you're following him around planning to nan him up when he gets into any fights. But you keep getting obliterated in the first pass without even getting to fire a single blue doughnut of love.

You've come to right place. I have several techniques when it comes to Combat Nanning. The first is acting as the lure. To do this sit out of normal scan range. Then mount missiles and shields to get eye. Wait until someone goes 'ooooh scout! Let's go pad my KB!' and comes boosting after you. Then lead him back to your buddy before dropping shields and missiles and nanning him up. Rinse and Repeat.

Then there's the option of staying low-sig the entire time and staying far enough away from the fight to not be eyed while close enough to nan your buddy.

The final option is to stay well away until the fight is engaged. Then come swooping in and nan your buddy up in the final stages of the fight. If you're too early the enemy will have enough time to notice you and switch targets. Too late and your buddy will pop before you arrive.

Final handy hint. Help your buddy get to the fight quicker by pushing him. (Same as pushing a bomber) This is particularly useful for long trips to their miners early in the game.

2 - GunShips Baby

Defense

I like to go low-sig, Sit tightly behind the gunship and drop prox as the bad guys approach and then reverse as the gunship does. The gunship should reverse through your prox as it activates and as the bad guys plow through it in their rush to get into gun range. You should have been uneyed, so the prox should catch them completely off guard. Stay out of the way just in range with your nan and repair the gunship.

Attack

You're going into hostile sectors looking for miners. Chances are there is going to be a base there to eye you. So mount your shields and missiles. (Dumbfires) Go in at the same time as the gunship. Keep it between you and any hostiles. Try and watch how the gunship pilot is flying and drop your prox so the hostiles will fly through it in their efforts to reach the gunship. Pump your dumbfires into any miners or cons when the opportunity arises. Or any hostiles silly enough to approach you head on. Stay close enough to the gunship so that you're covered by its turrets.

3 - Camping

The Red Door

Stay behind the ints/figs that are camping as you don't want to be the 'Target closest' person. Nan them up. When the bomber or HTT launches to start its run, Move in and prox that red door. Any defenders will be launching soon...

Getting to the Red Door

In order to camp the Red Door you first have to get there... Sounds easy right? This situation most often develops in contested sectors. There's normally a 'cloud' of interceptors from both teams attempting to establish dominance in the sector and establish a camp on the other side's base. Hopefully you'll have some clued-up Vets on your team in Ints working together. Your goal is to stay behind them as they advance slowly on the enemy base. If not then your best bet is to find the best Int jockey on your team and Nan him. High-sig or Low-Sig is your choice, I normally launch with everything on then drop missiles/shields if I think I can lurk around without getting eyed.

III - Conclusion

Being a good combat nan isn't so much about nanning as it is about staying alive under fire. You're no good to anyone in a Pod. As you've probably gathered my preferred method of staying alive is to not be seen.

If you can't manage that then you'll need to learn how to evade fire in a dogfight. Which is a much harder proposal. Keep moving. Try to keep your nan gun on target while keeping your sidethrusters at max. Switching to forward thrust whenever your target starts getting too far away. If they switch to shooting you, forget about nanning anyone. Full forward thrust and run. I normally use a corkscrew pattern when running. You get to build up speed while still not traveling in a straight line. (Full forward thrust and move your joystick in lazy circles)

IV - Extra for experts

• Nan a buddy as he gets 5 kills in a row without docking and with neither of you dying.
• Get a prox kill without being eyed.

Nanning a stealthy assault

The most devastating offensive techniques in Allegiance are the ones that are pulled off without being eyed. If the enemy can't see you coming, they can't form an effective defense in time. In general, any offensive run that is spotted after it enters your sector will succeed.

There are three main types of offensive maneuvers in Allegiance that involve being stealthy:

1) HTT (Heavy Troop Transport) 2) Stealth Bombers 3) Assault Ships

...and to a lesser degree,

4) Regular bomb runs

Nanning these runs require a scout to have a sig that needs to be close to the ship it is guarding. This means you'll be going without your shield and a dumbfire in cargo. Why the missile? We'll tell you.

But first,

Faction Specific Tactics

1) Belters

With the exception of regular interceptors, every Belter ship can mount a nan. Belter scouts, stealth and heavy bombers can all boost! This is a tremendous advantage. A fighter or a heavy int with a nan has multiple times higher hull than a scout. Use them to your advantage.

Do remember that fighters and ints have less energy than a scout - you won't be able to nan as long with those. Manage your energy.

Remember that Adv. SFs have humongous energy reserves - cloak and nan - better yet - boost while cloaked and nanning.

Heavy ints make for excellent rammers - you can get your bomber to 150+ constant speeds with them. Experienced players can hit 200+. A Belter bucket-o-bolts going 150 is a tough thing to stop (except if it gets proxed - once again, the venerable scout saves the day!). Fighters aren't shabby either.

2) BIOS

BIOS bundles a cloak slot free with almost all of their ships. This makes every BIOS ship a stealth ship when properly equipped. A heavy cloak can sink the sig of a fully loaded scout to 13%. That's near invisible for a precious few seconds - enough to keep you out of a pod, open space prox an entire bomb run, or get another 1k closer to the enemy base in an HTT. It's invaluable. Know when to cloak, how long it lasts and you'll love it.

1)HTT

Stage One : Getting into position.

Usually, some player will purchase the HTT and call for nans in a specific sector - he'll also mention that he needs said nans at low-sig. What he means is that your ship must be configured to be stealthy. This means stowing your shield and missiles. You will need to provide forward scout coverage for him and deprobe his proposed route. If you cannot find what is eying you (and will eye your charge when he reaches your position), you will need to find an alternate vector for him. This is the time when having a signature as close as possible to your charge helps - this helps you find out whether he will be eyed if he is in your position.

Keep doing this and help get his ship in position. If you are eyed and an enemy ship chases you, lead him AWAY from your charge. You do not want to lead enemies to your HTT - this will earn you a swift boot and the ire of the pilot of the HTT.

Stage Two : Before the run.

Once the HTT is in position, you'll need to wait for the run to be greelighted. You can once again fly through his path to the enemy base's green door and clear probes, but you must be careful not to get yourself eyed - any commander worth his salt will instantly connect the dots and deduce that you have an HTT in his sector and will most probably calculate a vector to the HTT based on your own vector. Remember the signature of the base you're up against stay out of it's sweep. If you must kill a probe that will eye the HTT prematurely, use a low-sig missile like a dumbfire to take out probes from afar.

Use tricks like keeping your back to the enemy base so you don't give eye to enemy defenders and thereby let them triangulate your position. Skilled pilots can find your position if you give them eye using smart signature management and some high-school geometry.

Stage Three: "Capturing base, get ready to launch!"

Most of the time, the run will wait for a distraction like a bomb run somewhere else or a major miner offense. In any case, once the run is given the green light, you'll need to escort the HTT into the green door. Until you are eyed and within 1000-1500m of the green door, you will be RAMMING the HTT. Once you are close to the door, cease ramming. Once you are eyed, load shields. If you ram a perfect run off center, you'll be ridiculed and sworn at for a long long time. So don't do it.

If you are BIOS, your HTT pilot will hit cloak for the extra time he'll get before defense launches. Make sure you hit your cloak too or you'll give away the run.

If you made it and docked, congratulations! If not, well, there is always next time.

Stage Four: Post capturing.

If the enemy has HTTs as well, there will most certainly will be a recap run - this is an enemy HTT launching from the base just before it gets capped to capture it back almost immediately. To prevent this, you can do two things.

1) Dock, relaunch. 2) Don't dock and camp the green door.

Depending on how much time you have, you'll have to choose. You can keep the enemy HTT from recapturing their base by either ramming him off his line, proxing the green door and/or his path or simply shooting him down.

If he does make it, your team's HTT must have launched ten seconds before for a re-re-cap. Go nan him again.

2) Stealth Bombers

Nanning SBs is a recently developed concept and works well with Belters. This is because Belter SBs have non-trivial hull, boosters, and can maintain their full hitpoints while remaining stealthy. Their entire hitpoints are nannable as well. The most suitable candidate for the nan is a Belter Stealth Fighter. Armed with powerful sensors, hunters, snipers and a nan in cargo, this stealthy machine makes the ideal escort.

The stages of operation are fairly the same as an HTT, except you are destroying a base instead of capturing it (Nerve Gas SBs are an exception). You'll need to scout ahead, eliminate possible ships that will eye your friend, clear probes and get him into his sector and recharge position.

Once he is recharged and has begun his run, you can cloak, boost ram him once he closes to the base (if you have Sig Cloak 3. Doing this extends the range of the SB's ABs by a large margin) and keep him alive for a reload (which is something normal SB runs never achieve). Advanced SFs with their enormous energy reserves can maintain cloak while nanning, which makes them quite invisible to defenders if the SB is firing from range.

If you are good enough and lucky enough, you can lurk around to pick up the pods from after the run.

3) Assault Ships

Assault ships are pilotable full rip receivers. They can rip in anything from a scout to a mighty battleship. This makes them extremely dangerous. With the ability to cloak, an assault ship can bring an end to a game swiftly and decisively.

The main rules to flying with ASSs is to never rip to them before they are in position. When cloaked, their sig hits rock bottom and even a fully stealthed scout will have a higher sig.

Other than the tidbit above, follow all the rules from the HTT section, but stay clear when the ASS is cloaked and your sig is above it's own.

Once an ASS is in position, it will recharge (each ship ripping in will take a portion of it's energy reserve) and then call for the run. Your team will may rip in anything from a regular bomb run to a massive capital ship to deliver the end to your enemy. You'll need to keep the ASS alive by nannage (standard tactics like proxing the path of the enemies boosting in, orbiting, using the ship as a shield all apply here) and once the run has ripped in, you can either proceed to help the ASS get out of the hot zone or join up with whatever ripped in and roll to the enemy base.

4) Regular bomb runs.

Uneyed bomb runs will turn the tide to an otherwise lost game. You might have heard the phrase "You can't bomb against heavy ints.". What they forgot to tell you is that "You can't bomb eyed against heavy ints.". If the enemy expansion complex is close to a certain aleph and you get an uneyed bomb run in there, the enemy can kiss goodbye to their precious death ships.

You'll need to fly ahead in stealth mode and kill probes and any ship that might eye your run (remember that fighters and interceptors are practically blind without scout support) and pray that a stray newbie won't blow your plan in your face. Once in sector, load up your shields and ram your bomber.

General Nanning Tactics

0) Cross nanning (or X nan) 1) Orbiting 2) Using your friend as a shield 3) Smart proxing 4) Smart ramming

Cross nanning wins games. Nan your fellow nans and they will be nigh invincible and the enemy will tear their hair out in frustration. But don't get too caught up in nanning other nans and end up losing the bomber/HTT/whatever.

Use your sidethrusters so your vector is always changing. Keep your flightpath in a rough sphere in range of whatever you are nanning.

When the majority of enemies are coming at you from a single direction, you can be behind whatever you are nanning and you will survive their first pass. The rest depends on your fellow nans keeping you alive.

Drop prox so whoever is boosting at you turns into pixie dust. Remember that proxmines are the single most damaging weapon in the game. Remember that proxes drop opposite to your vector.

Do you know the best way to keep a bomber at constant 150+ speeds? Ram like a relay team. Gather speed, ram the bomber and sidethrust out of the way. This lets the scout next in line come in clear and ram and then proceed to thrust out of the way. Four scouts doing this in co-ordination will give you a bomber as fast as the scouts that accompany it. Of course, anything with boosters is just icing on the cake (this one is not a lie folks, cross my black belter pirate heart).

v1.0

Acting as a nan for forced bomber and HTT runs

I'm sure you have seen quite a lot of force bombing and capturing getting done during your time here. I'm also certain, that you have nanned your share of bombers and transports. For those reasons I am assuming you know the basics. This article will refer to what the forced runs will most likely look like in Squad Games, and that is a whole different story than pickup games. To the point then:

I - Preparing your ship

To prepare your ship appropriately for the task, you have to be aware of the type of threats you are going to encounter on your way. That means knowing what techpath the enemy has taken. There are some general rules though, that are valid for every situation:

Never pack any guns in cargo, they will only take up space for mission critical equipment. 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. That extra second it buys you might mean the run's failure or success. Always unmount your countermeasures if bombing against Technoflux or Rixian. They weigh quite a bit, so removing them will increase your maneuverability. The rest of the loadout is dependent on what you're up against and what faction are you flying.

II - Actual run

1. 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, 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. Note, that the above list applies only to missile-enabled factions. If you are bombing against Technoflux or Rixian, your loadout will not include Countermeasures, which you would swap for extra prox or missiles.

You have your ship prepped, it's time to head off and get that Tac blown. There are a few things to remember while bombing or capturing against Tactical: There is little chance that your run will be uneyed. Stealths can and will be all over your sectors, either looking for some utility hull to chew on or just doing recon sweeps. That means they will be ready for you when you come. That means also one more thing: they will hit you before you even enter 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, put your fingers on those sidethruster buttons. Take a good look around and locate the missile. It will be fired from afar, as the stealth's pilot will not engage at close range in fear of either the bomber's turrets or the HTT's armed escort. This should give you time to maneuver, so that the defended craft is placed between you and the missile. 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. 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. At this stage of the run, you shouldn't be given any trouble by Technoflux stealths - they would have to get too close to hurt you and they will most likely not risk it.

Dropping rescue probe near the enemy aleph is a good idea if you have one.

Phase two - entering target sector

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. The reason for this is named LRM Killer - this missile can be very effectively used to damage spike medium hull craft on entry, before nans can get a fix on its position to repair it. To avoid that, nans should enter just before the defended craft and fix their nan guns on it. Firing the nan for a few seconds on it (even if it's not damaged) can help avoid the situation in which the bomber gets blown from under your nan due to slow reaction. Once you are out in the open and moving fast, Killers are far less effective due to their poor tracking.

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 the base assault craft has to be pushed, and pushed fast. If you have boosters, boost-ram the hell out of whatever you are defending. If you are not on ramming duty, keep track of who calls for repairs or whose hull is dropping. At this stage, the rammers should be the ones who keep the HTT or bomber alive with their nans. Your job is to keep them 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 viable target, try and turn towards it, without losing your current vector. Use sidethrusters to maintain your heading. If you have Seekers mounted, try and get some lock, if you have quickfires mounted, you could even skip the rotating part. 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 bomber or HTT against Rixian stealths is risky. Those 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 for either to get it's job done, so you have to make it as easy for its 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.

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 trying 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.

2. Nanning against Supremacy and Expansion

If you are up against interceptors or fighters, your loadout should contain:

• Prox. Lots of prox.
• Some missiles mounted, for deprobing purposes mostly.

Phase one - preparation

Bombing against 'brute force' ships requires the element of surprise. That means you have to get rid of the eye. Launch before the ship you are to defend does and scout the route to the target aleph. Kill any probes that might eye the bomber or HTT, but leave those too far away from the flight path to do any harm. This might work to your advantage, as the sector might pass as 'probed' from F3 view. If you have pulse probes, use them. If you think you'll have enough time (or are given enough time) to deprobe and go back to base to rearm, loadout your scout for deprobing. Once it's clear, give the bomber or HTT pilot a green light while rushing to base to rearm. You'll catch up with him soon enough.

Phase two - 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. This way it will be able to detect probes before they can spot the bomber (there's always a chance that the initial deprobing missed something or the sector was reprobed or deprobing didn't happen at all, 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, turn your ship about and rush towards the safety of the bomber's turrets or the HTT's escort. Let them handle this. Once the threat is gone, get back to your forward position. Remember not to stray too far away from what you're defending.

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 three - at the target aleph and beyond

If you were flying point, you'll get to the aleph first. If your run is uneyed, don't go in yet, since your presence in the sector might alert the defense. Stop by the aleph and prox it. If your run is eyed, don't go in, as a camp has formed on the other side and you will die pointlessly. Stop by the aleph and prox it. Either way, if you are in possession of a rescue probe of some sort, place it behind the aleph.

Once the bomber or HTT is ready to enter, there are two scenarios: If there was no eye, go through the aleph when the bomber/HTT is about 800m away from it. Immediately call out 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 on the other hand, stick very very close to the bomber or 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 a camped aleph. Ever.

Phase four - 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.

Your bomber or HTT is merrily trotting towards the enemy base, what should you be doing though? There are quite a few methods, in which you can aid the run.

Firstly, you could be ramming the bomber or HTT, but only if its pilot asks for it. Remember, fighters carry minepacks and if they have ints, they most likely have prox 2 also. 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 might take. Most likely they will not fall for this, but if you shield the bomber or HTT nicely with prox, defenders will be far less likely to ram it, which is a good thing.

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 frown upon.

Fourthly, you could be in the tail of the nan train (or cloud), 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 when needed of course). Proxing for overboosting defenders is not a bad idea either.

Phase five - at the base

Phew, you've finally arrived in missiles 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. Don't ram it, ever. You might make an Anti Base missile miss or you might ram the finally aligned transport off its approach path. Both are obviously unwanted events.

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 six - aftermath

If you have successfully bombed a base, make sure the bomber gets the hell out of there, alternatively keep it alive till the gunners eliminate any remaining threats, so you can roll on. Never rip out before the bomber. In case 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 will most likely 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. That cripples their ability to camp alephs greatly, and that is something that you can and should exploit. Get that bomber rammed up nicely. The faster it goes through that aleph against Technoflux, the better! Speed is your friend in this scenario, Just keep in mind, that Technoflux scouts can pick up prox mines from dead scouts and use them. That hurts should it happen, but it's usually worth the risk.

3. Nanning Capital ships

In general, nanning Capital ships is very similar to nanning bombers (with one exceptions 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 gap between the mass of a scout and a Capital is just too big. Don't waste your time and piss off the big boat's crew, it just won't work.

While defending a Capital ship, you have to keep in mind, that the Nanite Gun is significantly less effective when used on Capital ships' heavy (repairs damage 25% slower) and super-heavy (repairs damage 50% slower) hulls, compared to a bomber's medium hull. That 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.

Otherwise, on a Capship run, you should behave just like you would on a bomber run.

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, that pressing 'R' without designating a destination might just cause you to rip to it. Try to avoid that and just order yourself to where you want to go (yes, even if you are chased by 21 Rixian Hvy Interceptors and just HAVE to get out ASAP. You are most likely far more disposable than that Assault Ship).

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'.