Cadet I/Nanning II

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How to successfully nan a Bomb Run

As you know from the STFN lesson nans are essential to a bomb run's success. This lessons deals with what you can do to increase both the bomber's (and your own) chances of survival. In Allegiance you will encounter two kinds of bomb runs:

• The "Loud" ones, normally organised by the commander. These ones demand a lot of nans (usually with CAPITAL LETTERS) and attempt to destroy an enemy base through sheer weight of numbers. These bomb runs are often referred to as "Bomb trains".
• The "Quiet" ones, normally a vet working on their own initiative. Think of these as small raiding parties - the bomber pilot may have noticed a base which is easy to bomb, or hopes to bomb while the majority of your team distracts the enemy elsewhere. Often they will only have 1 or zero turret gunners and minimal nans. These bomb runs are often referred to as "Suicide runs".

As a beginner pilot you should focus on the Loud runs, and thus so does this article.

Pre-launch

The commander will tell the team which base he wants bombed (sometimes even before bbrs have finished researching). The bomber pilot will use the "Need Scouts!" and/or "Need Repairs!" voice chat to indicate he needs nans. When these calls for nans start it's time to get ready!

If you have time it can pay to launch from the base before the bomber and determine if the enemy has probed it and/or the route to the aleph. Kill the probes if possible.

Getting to the target

Failing that, when your bomber launches he might be eyed or uneyed. An uneyed bbr is a devastating tool, it catches the defenders unprepared and can break an otherwise lengthy stalemate. Most bbr pilots that find they're uneyed will call out very loudly that is the case and demand nans to capitalise on the situation.

The point is, if your bomber is uneyed you need to keep it uneyed. If it is eyed you need to find what's eying it and kill it. Review the previous lesson on deprobing if needed. It is important to keep a scout ranging ahead to spot probes before it's too late.

If you are eyed for quite some time before you reach your target sector you can expect a camp - but you can never be sure. When you reach the aleph to the target sector the bomber pilot will ask for someone to "peek". This means he wants a single scout to fly through and gauge the size of the camp on the other side. You, the peeking scout, should go in at a slow velocity so you don't explode on mines and then call out what you see:

• ~im "The aleph is mined!"
• ~id "The aleph is mined and droned!"
• Clear! ~no (need bombers!)
• Small camp, heavy camp, etc.

You may die, but the information is worth it. If you are podded, stay by the aleph and use your pod's scan range to identify as much of the camp as you can.

Tip: Deploy your RP before you peek so even if you die you don't have to float far.

Clearing the camp

The hardest part of any bomb run is clearing the camp. A common mistake nans make is waiting for the bomber to disappear through the aleph before following. Doing this you will often find that the bbr is dead before you even exit, and yourself easy pickings for the defenders. Instead you want to fly alongside the bbr's nose, so you both enter the aleph at the same time, perhaps even enter a second before the bbr. In saying that, you don't want to enter too early or you will end up the same as the peeker! Enter slowly because it may be mined, and mines do damage based on speed.

Once through the aleph you can expect a lot of confusion. The bbr will no longer be in the centre of your screen, explosions from minefields will be filling your screen, missile lock warnings will fill your speakers, your HUD will be cluttered with enemy icons, gunfire will be bearing down on you from every angle.

The most important thing is to target the bbr before you enter the aleph; that way when you come out the other side you will have a nice big red arrow in the centre of your HUD telling you which way to spin your ship to get the bbr back in your crosshairs. Start giving him the nan-loving before he dies! Drop some prox to clutter the aleph even more and wait for things to get a bit calmer before you start thinking about ramming or cross-nanning.

Crossing the enemy sector

Once the bomber clears the camp you'll need to keep it alive till it destroys the base. A good way to avoid enemy fire is to corkscrew around the bomber by using your sidethrusters. A good nan will even use the bbr to soak up enemy fire, while repairing it from said fire!

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.

Tip: If you are ever podded ahead of the bbr, aim for him for a pick up. He's big and slow and hard to miss.

If possible nans must ensure the bomber's survival even while it is ripcording out of the sector; be it after a successful attack or before it (aborting due to too many defenders).

Post-run rescue

Whether or not a bomb run succeeds there will be a lot of ships destroyed on both sides. If you somehow are one of the survivors don't immediately ripcord out. If possible hide from enemy sensors (perhaps behind an asteroid) and order friendly pods to come to you for rescue. Rescuing a dozen friendly pilots will provide a huge advantage to your team.

Of course, defenders are aware of this and will chase down ship attempting a rescue effort, even going so far as to follow behind pods to learn where they're headed. Make sure you hide well, including unmounting your shields and missiles.

Ramming

Allegiance allows you to impart momentum from your ship to another ship when you collide. This allows faster ships to "boost" slower ships by ramming them from directly behind. Every ship has a different "sweet spot" for ramming. You'll find these out from experience. Remember to side-strafe to allow others to ram. Four or five scouts ramming like this can take bombers to extremely high velocities. Belter heavy bombers have been sent to speeds higher than 200mps by boost ramming interceptors!

Note If friendly fire is on (normally it isn't) then both ships will take damage from the ram - hit the bbr too hard and your scout will explode!

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.

A nice overhead view (F3) of a nan train and bomb run crossing a sector. Notice the bomber pilot asking NOT to get rammed into the aleph (OMFG)! Also note that the bomber is "eyed" in the upper right corner of the HUD. The screenshot was taken from a turret of the bomber.

Click on the image to view a larger version.

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