Armament to Zoning, a Comprehensive Manual on OSPN

Foreword

When a nation possesses overwhelming conventional force, they are considered to be a leviathan. A domineering power without peer. In the 18th and early 19th century, that was the French, who dominated Europe with the Grande Armée. Afterwards, it was the British, whose informal empire reached half the globe. Then came America, whose forces could reach across the globe in a matter of days. In the time period of Nebulous, that Leviathan is the Shelter Alliance, with its mighty Alliance Navy. Its sophisticated navy has repelled far larger conventional foes for centuries with the strength of its armor, missiles and guns. It possesses cutting edge radar, stealth, and more. Centuries of steady funding have built a professional navy second to none.

The Outlying Systems Protectorate must beat them in order to win their independence. But they know they cannot match them gun-for-gun, capital-by-capital. They recognize that they are truly outdone and outclassed by the Alliance Navy. And so, they opened their history books, and looked to see how generations prior beat such foes. The Spanish, when faced with the might of Napoleon's armies, turned to irregular tactics, bogging down French forces so badly it impacted their ability to deploy across Europe. Afghans faced professional British soldiers, conducting hit and run attacks and straining their logistics before pushing them out all together. The Vietnamese leveraged asymmetric capabilities against the United States, using guerrilla tactics, proxy militias, and foreign advisors to bleed the US until they no longer wanted to fight.

The OSP realizes that they must embrace all of this and more, if they wish to defeat the Alliance. Those who wish to build OSPN fleets must understand this core tenant of their strategy.

The Outer Systems Protectorate Navy

OSPN as a faction is an asymmetric force facing a leviathan, the ANS. As such, when designing a fleet, one should discard any notion of a head-to-head or 'fair' fight. OSPN must, by necessity of design, abuse every advantage at their disposal. For instance, OSPN fields three "frontline" ships able to brawl. This is the Ocello, the Monitor, and the Lineship.

The Ocello is a fairly good ship all things considered. 30cm of armour combined with a long prow and low profile make it able to stay into a fight for a long time. It can mount a generous array of PD, EWR, and sensors. It can mount conventional 450mm turrets, the only OSPN ship able to do so. It's direct comparison, the Axford, outclasses it in every metric. The Axford has 40cm of armour, a similar profile, and better characteristics pertaining to getting into a gunfight. It can mount all of the same tools the Ocello can, and them some, as it has more mounts and space to fit things. It also has a mount capable of mounting the mk. 68, a 450mm turret superior to what the Ocello can bring. Moving onto the monitor.

The monitor has 50cm of armor, the ability to mount a special 600mm cannon, which has several unique shells. It has plenty of internal space for ordinance, making it an ideal platform for missiles. Once again, comparable to the Axford. The Axford while being less armored, can still take much, much more damage. In addition, the Axford can output far more damage, far faster. While the Axford is slow, the Monitor quite literally has the aerodynamic properties of a brick in flight. That is to say, once it gets going, good luck getting it to reverse. Its forward thrusters are also mounted in such a way that a handful of volleys of 450 will knock almost all of them out. Now the lineship.

The lineship has 20cm of armour, which is very close to ANS's smallest ship, the Sprinter. It can mount 450, plasma, and 100mm in good numbers, and is very fast in comparison to many classes of warship. Its large internal volume means it can take a good amount of punishment. A vauxhall can fufill many of the same requirements. But it has 26cm of armor. It can mount 250mm, 120mm, and various missiles, giving it the potential to do equivalent amounts of damage. It is also much, much smaller, and can maneuver around the same speed while having a higher overall thrust to weight. It take equivalent amount of damage, but largely remain more functional through the process.

Everything OSPN has is much like this. Not always matching up hull-per-hull, ton-per-ton, but able to utilize asymmetric advantages to engage and defeat a superior foe.

All of this is not to denigrate these warships, as they are all quite effective and serve their purposes. It is merely to illuminate a point; OSPN warships cannot go toe - to - toe against their ANS equivalent without some kind of asymmetric advantage. The Ocello for instance, has more forward facing guns, and a smaller RCS than the Axford, meaning you can more reliably use jamming and maneuver to avoid Axford locks and gunfire. The Monitor, while inferior to an Axford 1 on 1, is around half the cost, meaning a clever player can bring many more monitors to bear against a single target. The lineship, while less armored than a Vauxhall, can bring plasma weaponry, which can remove the vauxhaulls armor, exposing its much more squishy internals.

Projectile And Energy-Based Weapons (Part 1)

OSPN poses a wide range of both conventional and unconventional weapons in their arsenal. This includes everything from repurposed civilian tech, to casemate 450mm. As such, it is best to break down these weapons, one type at a time.

100mm:

100mm is the OSPN's answer to ANS's prolific use of 120mm. While a smaller caliber, auto loader design philosophy means that a OSPN ships can put a dozen rounds down range while an ANS ship has maybe fired three. 100mm also has a massive variety of ammunition types, making it extremely adaptable and able to engage a wide variety of targets, from craft to heavy cruisers and then some. 100mm is employed in three different weapons, the T20, T30, and C30.

The T20 is the smallest 100mm turret, with a modest auto loader magazine of 4 rounds. While not typically very effective, the T20 is somewhat reliable in a dual-purpose PD role, able to rapidly cycle to 100mm grapeshot or 100mm flak to target enemy missiles or craft.

The T30 is a much larger turret, possessing 4 times the auto loader capacity of the T20, this is the primary beat stick of many OSPN fleets. When massed, an OSPN fleet is capable of firing hundreds of rounds of 100mm in seconds. Thanks to the turreted design, this weapon is also capable of being mounted in unique configurations on liners, allowing one to bring a theoretical maximum of 8 to bear on any given target.

The C30 is much like the T30, but with an even larger auto loader capacity, 24. While each case mate can bring to bear compared to C30, their attack angles mean you can only bring 4 to bear on any target compared to 8 T30s. Their are of course design considerations to consider across this. C30s can be augmented by T20s to increase firepower to being comparable to massed T30s. Being broadside on gives the player a smaller profile, and more overall durability to the line ship, though it is likely to be more expensive overall, and able to carry less PD.

With all that being said, it is also worthwhile to briefly cover 100mm shells, and their different effects, in order to show when and where to use them.

100mm AP is overall very weak, but is able to penetrate and damage both the Axford and frontal Vauxhall armor. Once again, if massed, the damage able to be output is certainly effective, at least against the Vauxhall.

100mm Flak is a long distance option to engage ANS missiles and craft long before they are a danger. Generally not good to be fired out of the C30 due to geometry problems, but very effective out of the T20 and T30. While not able to do much on a shell-per-shell basis. That hardly matters when well over a hundred can be fired at a moment's notice.

100mm Grape is a high velocity option with extended range. It is largely useless against anything larger than a frigate, but can in a pinch deal standoff range damage against targets stripped of armor. Its high speed means that it can reliable hit sprinters, even at flank speed. A burst of about 100 rounds will reliably kill or cripple a sprinter.

100mm HE is the mainstay of many OSPN fleets. Its generous armor penetration makes it a reliable killer of anything smaller than a Vauxhall, while also being able to damage said Vauxhall on side shots. For a while, it was also the most reliable counter to beam keystones, with about 500 rounds or so of HE being able to knock out a full health beam from outside of beam range. It does struggle against fast moving small targets, making its effectiveness reduced against such targets.

100mm HE-HC is the primary killer in plasma-based fleets. It is not able to penetrate any ANS warship on its own, but can exploit holes opened up by larger weapons to deal lots of damage. This is typically plasma, but can also be used to follow up massed missile and rocket attacks fairly reliably. When using this caliber, make sure that their are large sections of a ship missing armor before firing, or the round will fail to damage intended targets.

250mm:

250mm is a shared caliber with ANS, but OSPN implements it in a very different way. In particular, OSPN has not turreted way to fire 250 outside of the Ocello, meaning that the 250mm is largely deployed via the Casemate C53 and 56 cannons. Like 100mm, OSPN relies autoloaders to mass fire. Unlike with 100mm, the 250mm casemates have very long reload times, making them much more of a hit-and-run burst weapon compared to 100mm. In addition, 250mm only has two calibers, HE and AP, which are very underwhelming for OSPN. Most notably, 250mm armor pen is quite messy.

250mm HE overpens Sprinters, meaning that the effective targets for it are Frigates, Keystones, and Vauxhalls. This strike range means that 250mm is best effective against the least common ships in the ANS lineup, missing the prolific Sprinter, and the quite common Axford and Battleships. Though AP does ameliorate this issue partially.

250mm AP allows the caliber to barely strike Axfords and Battleships. While it can more reliably pen the Axford for instance, it lacks the penetration depth to strike any of it's more protected modules, meaning it must be shot at a ship's broadside. As for the battleship, well their is no choice. The extreme sloping of a battleship's armor means 250mm AP must be shot side-on to be effective.

300mm Railgun:

300mm is largely an ANS caliber, though it can also be found on the OSPN's Ocello. This weapon is used primarily to punish bow-tanking enemy capitals, or cripple smaller ships. 300mm is often paired up with 500mm to provide both debuffs and steady module damage onto an enemy ship.

300mm does have a number of drawbacks for OSPN though. Due to only having access to 300mm turrets, OSPN can only field it via the Mk. 81. As such, OSPN can only field the weapon in a burst-debuff niche, rather than the steady degradation ANS's Keystone provides via the Mk550.

400mm(Plasma):

400mm Plasma is an enabling weapon. With the much higher armor ratings of the Alliance capitals, Plasma is a critical tool in OSPN's arsenal. When massed, Plasma can strip the armor off a capital ship in one salvo. This enables OSPN to use some of their smaller weapons against capital ships. Most notably this is 100mm, though plasma also benefits 250mm, 450mm, 500mm, and smaller rockets like the R-1 and R-2. Simply put, Plasma allows any caliber's more deadly ammunition types to have a higher level of effectiveness on target. That being said, Plasma has several serious drawbacks that need to be accounted for. For one, Plasma's range is limited, and is most effective in knife fight range. 7800m means a careful Vauxhall player can out range and destroy a plasma liner for instance. Then there is an effectiveness drop off at range. This means that plasma is at its most effective, well into effective beam range. Finally, the accuracy of plasma is abysmal. So abysmal, that a stock T81 Plasma turret will miss many shots against a Solomon at 5km. If these problems can be overcome in a design, there is still the problem that now a different weapon will need to be trained on the target in order to actually deal damage.

Projectile And Energy-Based Weapons (Part 2)

450mm:

450mm is the mainstay and primary caliber of ANS and OSPN capital ships. The shells are able to effectively penetrate and damage capitals and every smaller ship, including the Sprinter, Raines, Keystone, and Vauxhall. Its low velocity and poor accuracy means that the shell struggles to hit even moderately quick ships. OSPN in specific also has many important considerations to make when deploying 450mm.

That consideration is enemy hull class. 450mm HE simply lacks the penetration depth to hurt the more protected internals of a bow-tanking Axford or Solomon. This means that 450mm AP must be used against such targets. AP in general has a much lower damage due to lack of explosive payload, meaning that it can take ~300-400 rounds to kill an Axford, and ~400-600 for a Solomon. Now add in other considerations, fire rate, maneuver, distance, track quality, gun accuracy. Combine all of this with the fact that 450mm shells take up a lot of magazine space, and this can quickly lead to a situation where one of these capitals is simply unkillable in a conventional gun fight. Thankfully, the C65 casemate is able to address this issue. With the ability to fire 8 shells per casemate, and with 4 per liner broadside, A freighter can fire 32 rounds of AP in seconds. With a revolver configuration, a liner can reach an impressive ~60 or so rounds of 450 a minute.

Thankfully 450mm HE is still quite useful for OSPN. It can be deployed effectively against Vauxhalls, Keystones, and Frigates in particular, able to kill these types of ships is relatively short order. Though again, its usefulness is limited in scenarios where the enemy is fielding capital ships.

500mm (Mass Driver):

500mm is a high dps round that is able to deal lots of damage, but lacks killing potential. It is useful for softening enemy armor, redlining enemy modules, or exploiting hulls stripped of armor.

600mm:

600mm is the largest conventional gun caliber in the game, and unique to the Flathead hull. It should be noted that 600mm is incapable of out damaging an equivalent amount of 450, but its unique ammunition types allow a monitor to have good versatility otherwise inaccessible to the class.

600mm HESH allows the Flathead to deal meaningful damage to capital scale ships without dumping hundreds of rounds down range, or opening it up with plasma. It uniquely deals damage akin to HEI missile warheads. However, its penetration depth is only slightly better than 450 HE, meaning it cannot reach modules the same way 450mm AP can.

600mm Bombshell is another very unique round that has excellent anti-craft and anti-swarm capability. Firing these into a mass of sprinters or frigates is the most effective way to kill them. Against massed fighters and bombers, these weapons are even more effective, allowing one shot capability against them.

Missiles And Rockets And You

OSPN may have less fancy missiles compared to their ANS brethren, but they more than make up for it with sheer volume. It is more than possible for a single OSPN player to lob 80 S2 missiles in a single salvo. Every type of OSPN Missile and Rocket plays much the same way, relying on quantity where quality is lacking.

S1 Missiles and Rockets:

Offensive S1 missiles are usually found on craft, though from time-to-time some OSPN ships will mount them as well. Typically, this is done to achieve a penetrator or 'saturation' effect, permeating a defense net with cheap missiles, to be followed up with something much more potent. Sometimes it is used on its own. It is more than possible to launch hundreds of S1s at an opponent over a matter of minutes, completely overwhelming any possible defense and destroying a ship through sheer volume. They can also be used sparingly as cheap anti-sprinter weapons, able to deal just enough damage to kill or cripple. They are also exceptionally common on craft, where they are typically used for all of these scenarios.

S1 missiles also have a niche use as a sidearm on container liners. Due to the hull properties of container liners, which grant them a base 6 missile programming channels, S1 missiles can be launched in large amounts to hit light assets. This is useful against ambushing Sprinters/Raines and grants the container liner more ability to contest points in the late game. They can also be used in general if you have run out of containers. Use mostly SAH due to price, but bring along some ACT S1s if your illuminators are destroyed, out of power, or not in position.

The R-1 'Perch' Rocket is unique to OSPN, and is able to deliver a small, but effective payload en masse to a target. This is extremely effective against smaller ANS warships, and is fairly effective against Sprinters, Raines, and Levyies. It could also be used in theory to exploit patches in a warships armor, or directly target and potentially destroy vulnerable portions of an enemy warship, such as sensors.

S2 Missiles and Rockets:

S2 is a form of missile threat that has more recently fallen out of favor, but is still potent nonetheless. S2 warheads are fast, maneuverable, and able to adapt to a wide array of threats and PD nets. They can also be fielded in staggering quantities, and often for very little. While they are quite vulnerable to flak, their effect is undeniable. The most common form of S2 fire comes from the MLS-2 roll-off system. This can allow OSPN to fire 4 missiles per launcher per salvo, meaning even a small number of ships can bring a deceptively high volume. More recently, the SALS-2 and TALS-2 are able to fire S2s as well, though they are constrained by limitations on programming channels and programming speed, like ANS.

S2s are also quite effective on OSPN craft, as a Sturgeon bomber can bring 4 in addition to either torpedos, R-3 rockets, or Torpedos.

Of additional note is the frequent use of SAH for S2 strikes, as it can be hard to counter reliable unless using more micro heavy techniques.

The R-2 'Piranha' rocket is a mainstay of OSPN forces, and fielded on various vessels, mostly ferrymen, via the RL18 and RL36 launchers. These weapons are fast but vulnerable, and usually deployed to ambush vulnerable back line units or damaged warships stripped of armor or pd. With sheer volume, it is more than possible to kill even battleships with massed R-2s.

They are also quite common on OSPN Barracudas and Sturgeons, offering a cheap, high-volume solution to various light ships common in ANS line-ups, like the Keystone-class destroyer. They can also be found in container submunition missiles.

Conventional S3 missiles and Rockets:

OSPN is able to bring a volume-centric approach to Torpedos once again thanks to their MLS roll-off systems, and the impressive carrying capacity of the Sturgeon bomber. The MLS-3 allows two loaded torpedos to be fired instantly, while the Sturgeon itself can carry two.

This approach is somewhat limited though, as closing range with an ANS warship can be a dicey proposition thanks to their prolific use of Beam weaponry.

It should also be mentioned that OSPN also has a 'wild-card' torpedo carrier in the Ocello, which is able to carry 48 torpedos, and fire them in rapid succession, more in line with ANS doctrine.

The R-3 'Spearfish' Rocket is an extremely capable rocket that is cheap, fast, well-armored and extremely devastating on target. They have damage and health values nearing the level of a torpedo, for a fraction of the cost. As a downside to all of this capability, they can only be mounted on bombers, are very inaccurate at all but the closes ranges, and lack any kind of defensive maneuvers, making them vulnerable to defender spam unless massed in large numbers. They can also be found in container submunition missiles.

Container Missiles:

The addition of submunitions to container gameplay adds a lot of new options, but regular HEI containers still have a place. Submunition containers can almost be thought of as OSP’s version of hybrid missiles - in that case, HEI containers can be thought of as long-ranged torpedos. These high-damage missiles are counteracted by the fact that they are easy to softkill, so container play still requires smart salvo planning and patience. This makes the Moorline container liner arguably the highest skill floor but highest potential ship archetype in the game.

For a conventional missile, HEI containers have some of the highest damage potential in the game, although they cannot break the damage threshold. Once a salvo of decoyed HEI containers lock onto an Axford or Solomon that has not properly been able to counter with softkill, that ship is more than likely crippled.

Alongside HEI containers, submunition containers grant a variety of options, with R-2 containers being great to hit light assets and R-3 containers great for heavy assets.

R-2 containers are brutal against light assets, even Vauxhalls. While the container liner has the potential to heavily damage and destroy ANS capital ships such as the Axford and Solomon, good container play oftentimes features the hunting of light assets and cappers, oftentimes done with R-2 containers.

The R-3, as mentioned earlier, gives the ability to deal a large amount of damage, akin to a torpedo, for a fraction of the price.

The support container is a version of the container missile which can mount support modules. The most important of the support modules is the decoy launcher. Container missiles have one of the best PD penetration in the game, for one reason, and that is their ability to launch massed decoys, overwhelming enemy PD.

It should also be noted that the submunition dispenser is also capable of carrying mines, which can allows a player to place strategic and tactical minefields from a distance, making the battlefield more difficult for ANS.

Before the Carrier Update, mine containers had a niche use as a finisher, due to being one of the munitions in the game which could break the “damage threshold”, making them great for killing wounded ANS capitals. Now, that role is better fulfilled by the bomb container, which deals similar levels of damage.

On ships which are not Moorlines, OSP can bring container bank launchers, carrying 2 containers each. On Marauder lineships, these are especially useful to bring lineship decoy liners, which work great as an OSP active decoy. These can also be used to make your team seem bigger than they really are or make ANS respond to assets that don’t exist, making them both great utility on container liners and other OSP ships.

A container liner can orient itself towards one of these types of containers, such as bringing only HEI containers or only R-2 submunition containers. It may be a good idea to bring a variety, as the container liner works great as a multi-tool hull.

Mines

Mines do not really fit into any category of OSPN weapon. Perhaps the best way to describe them would be 'loitering munitions', Which would make them unique across Nebulous, perhaps the only other thing coming close being strike craft.

Mines:

OSPN has access to three different mines: The M-30 'Mattock', the M-30-N 'Mattock' Cooperative, and the M-50 'Augur' Sprint Mine. These mines can be deployed in a wide number of ways, and will be covered individually.

M-30 'Mattock':

The M-30 'Mattock' is the cheapest mine, and best used in mass. Its merit is in numbers, as even a few can get through if the enemy has been sufficiently weakened. Aside from that, the M-30 can be used in Strategic minefields (60+ mines), to obscure and hide more dangerous mines. An enemy looking into a large field will often fail to see the more dangerous mines in the field for that reason alone. Aside from that, they can act as a form of 'decoy', overwhelming enemy PD, while more sophisticated mines or munitions breakthrough and damage the enemy. In turn, once such munitions have penetrated, the likely hood of the much cheaper mattock getting through also goes up dramatically, leading to a 'virtuous cycle' of explosions.

The M-30 can also be deployed via container missiles relatively cheaply, making it a mediocre candidate for small tactical (5-10 mines) minefields. Simply put, containers can allow M-30s to be deployed in unconventional locations, forcing the enemy team to slow down and be more cautious when aware that they may be 'somewhere'. Or, catching PD-less ships when unaware.

M-30-N 'Mattock' Cooperative:

The M-30-N is a niche within a niche. They lack the speed of the more dangerous Augur, and they are not as cheap as a stock M-30. What they do have, is a reliable kill mechanism against the enemy. Simply put, one mine can pull any other mine within burn distance with Line-Of-Sight onto a ship. For instance, say the team wants to insure that an enemy Sprinter will not be able to flank a certain pathway. They deploy 10 mines, all facing that spot, with LOS. If the enemy does flank that spot, all 10 mines will trigger and fire on the target. Only two will need to hit to ensure a kill. These mines are also a little more resistant to chaff, as their networking capability means the mines can be in many different positions, and still trigger on the same position, reducing the directional impact chaff can have in fooling seekers.

These mines are a little more expensive, but also quite effective when deployed from containers. Once again, the nature of the minefield, and it's ability to be deployed in unconventional points makes it hard for the enemy to be certain of where it is safe to maneuver. The networking capability is also fairly useful here, as it insures that all mines are likely to pull onto target, making the chance of successful hits much higher.

M-50 'Augur':

The Augur is the main killing power behind Minefields, as its high speed makes it hard to fool with chaff, or react-to on the fly. Typically, only a handful of these are ever deployed in Strategic minefields, as the cost is too prohibitive. They are also very effective in the tactical minefield role, as 5 hidden Augur mines are almost impossible to stop, only being reliably stopped with some combination of jamming, chaff, Defenders, and careful maneuvering.

Minefields also have a unique relationship with craft, which OSPN has an advantage in. Mines do not trigger on craft. This means that a fighter or bomber wing can safely maneuver in and around a minefield, making it harder for the enemy to gauge the size of the minefield, and all within it. It also provides the fighters with some degree of protection from things likes Anti-Craft Munitions, as they can potentially pull them off targets and onto the minefield itself. Minefields also provide good spots to force enemy craft to engage in a dogfight, as craft are one of the safest and most reliable methods of clearing them.

As such, a well placed minefield, can force the enemy into a dis-favorable trade, while restricting their choice in munitions. To top this off, OSPN craft can carry things like rockets and jamming pods, allowing them to flex into defending the minefield in a pinch, as they can jam the enemy, damage sensors, and saturate enemy PD at a critical moment.

With all that being said, it is important to remember that minefields have several disadvantages, that can make them ineffective. Most notably, they only have a basic ACT seeker, making them extremely vulnerable to jamming and chaff. In addition to this, their sensors have a limited range of 1,750M, which is exactly the maximum distance at which a defender will open fire. In addition to this, RPF can quickly shred exposed minefields. All of this means that one must be extremely careful and deliberate in placement of a minefield, either placing a large quantity that cannot be easily removed, or hiding a small number where the enemy will struggle to find it.

There are also extreme restrictions on deploying mines. Every ML-9 Launcher deployed on a ship increases the overall cost dramatically, meaning that a minefield must be placed a very slow pace, and then spend an additional 1:30 to arm. All of this time leaves a mine ship vulnerable to enemy action, should they be more aggressive than anticipated. In addition, container-based mines are prohibitively expensive, with two 10 points mines costing 14 points to launch via container.

EWar, Sensor, Communications, And Flight Support Mounts

With primary weapons covered, it is time to look into supplementary mounts that carry non-weapon options, such as EWar.

Communications Mounts:

This section comprises the CR10 and CR70 antenna. Only the Ocello can mount the CR70, though it already has a backup comm integrated. As such, the CR10 tends to be much more relevant in OSPN gameplay. This is primarily due to all OSPN warships save the Ocello lacking a backup antenna. This means that a few lucky shots can cripple a warship with ease. Losing comms can also cause a minefield to trigger on a friendly vessel, usually resulting in an instant ship kill. A loss of comms can also hurt OSPN vessels due to their reliance on tracking ships, such as Ocellos or LRT tugs. All of these reasons means a cheap, 5 point backup comm should never be ruled out as an option.

EWar:

The E15 'Masquerade' is an ANS module also mountable on the Ocello. Unfortunately, it is completely useless for OSPN, as it cannot mimic any unique OSPN hull signatures.

The E20 'Lighthouse' Illuminator is OSPN's sole choice for illumination outside of an Ocello. Its range is worse, and has lower radiated than the ANS E55 'Spotlight', making it slightly worse than spotting, but it otherwise completely adequate. It reaches perfectly to the maximum of standard direct fire range - 10 km. It also has lower power draw, making it more useful for power-constrained OSPN ships. This tool is necessary for guiding SAH missiles, making it somewhat common on Nebulous battlefields.

If power constraint is less of an issues, the E55 'Spotlight', may serve more use. With a longer range, the E55 could allow an Ocello to engage an enemy ship near maximum LRT range, allowing for some unique strike opportunities.

Also constrained to the Ocello, the E57 'Floodlight' is an ANS beam that has a wide beam, and a high radiated power. This gives it marginal anti-jam, and spotting boosts. This tool is also at the core of the common anti-jamming loop both factions use, Point Floodlight, Burn through with a Parallax Radar, then lock with a bullseye. Unfortunately, it has a massive power draw, making it difficult to field a large number without straining power supply. It is a common enough problem that some players simply let their power supply run lower than total demand, turning off other systems before enabling the Floodlight.

The E70 'Interruption' Jammer plays an important role in OSPN soft-kill defenses. Mounted onto an Ocello, the Interruption Jammer provides a 4km bubble of protection against most CMD guided missiles. While other OSPN ships can field a smaller, stronger CMD jammer, the 4km bubble on the Ocello gives more room for soft-killed missiles to be disrupted and fly off course.

The E71 'Hangup' Jammer is a less powerful offensive comms jammer. It is not very useful for OSPN thanks to the prevalence of CR75 integrated cables on ANS capital ships. Though it can serve a niche purpose in denying scout tracks to said capital ships. It is further limited by being restricted to the Ocello.

The E90 'Blanket' Jammer is quite effective as a jammer, and can serve as a good cycle augment to the standard OSPN jammer, as it has a much longer burst duration, meaning it is viable to cycle between those two types of jammers to keep it running nigh indefinitely. Once again, limited to the Ocello, making its use among OSPN rare. It is also of note that while it runs longer, it is weaker in overall power over the standard jammer.

The J15 'Bellbird' Jammer is the standard jammer for OSPN. It is quite lacklustre is several ways, with half the fire-time of it's ANS cousin, while at the same time having an equivalent cooldown time. It also has a much higher chance to be damaged from battle-short, meaning it can be run for a much shorter period of time overall. It compensates for this by being 25% more powerful. This is quite relevant, as each stacking jammer gives a diminishing return, becoming practically useless after a 6th is tasked onto a target. This means that overall, OSPN can radiate more total jamming power over their ANS counterpart.

J360 'Lyrebird' Jammer is a faction-unique radar screening jammer for OSPN. It provide a 4km zone of jamming, allowing a player to have a passive counter to ACT-based missiles. It also can be used for point blank ambushes, throwing off enemy PD-nets before engaging with rockets.

The J75 'Warbler' Jammer is an inferior OSPN comms jammer. It has a short burst time, and a dangerously small bubble. It does however, give OSPN ships an option to potentially soft kill enemy torpedos.

The L50 'Blackjack' Laser Dazzler is an EO jammer specifically meant to counter EO seekers. It auto targets on any missile fired within 8km of the ship in-question mounting it.

Flight Support Mounts:

The flight support decks available to OSPN are the same as ANS, with the exception of the Container Bank Hangar, which is limited to the Moorline. Most notably, it allows for the storage of a large number of craft, as well as one large launch pad, and two small launch pads per bank. When mounted in a pure CV configuration, this gives OSPN unmatched launch capability.

Sensor Mounts:

OSPN sensor mounts primarily focus on giving OSPN long range tracking options. This is notably done via the R400 'Bloodhound' LRT Radar and R550 Early Warning Radar. These two are often paired together, and it is the longest range scanning option in the game.

The 'Bloodhound' has a maximum range of 14 km, and is capable of firing a barely fireable track. It also struggles to pick up small targets at max range due to ANS's much smaller radar signature. Because of these limitations, it is highly recommended to use a mixture of adaptive radar receivers and track correlators. Unfortunately the Dragur, the most common LRT mount, has little space to mount such amenities. As such, it may be worthwhile to mount it on a larger platform like the Flathead, that has ample space for these things.

The Early Warning Radar(EWR) has 18 km range, and can produces tracks completely unfirable. This platform is purely useful for finding and identifying targets at range. Adaptive Radar Receivers allow the EWR to pick up small targets like frigates and sprinters even at range.

The last option in this category is far removed from the previous two. It is the RF44 'Pinpoint' Fire Control System(FCS) radar. It is restricted to a meagre 6.5km range, but is highly resistant to jamming, and gives ships other than the Ocello a way to establish locks.

OSPN PD And You

OSPN has a fairly difficult set of missile threats to deal with. Hybrids can outrun most things shooting it, Torpedoes can ignore flak, and S2h spam can tax even the most high-volume sensor nets. Soft kill plays an important part in stopping some of this, but this section will be mostly covering hard kill options, as the others are already covered elsewhere.

It should also be noted that the Ocello has access to a wide variety of ANS pd measures. Most notable, the Sarissas and Aurora are considered to be extremely important for countering hybrid threats.

Weapons - Missiles Mounts:

The SALS-2 and TALS-2 launchers are S2 launchers primarily used to launch anti-craft missiles. They give OSPN ships the option to hit fast moving craft. They can also use more amm style s2s for countering hybrids and other missile threats. Unlike other options, they can also be used to fire offensive options in a pinch.

The last PD option in this category is the VLS-1-23 and 46. These two options are the primary method of fielding AMMs and ACMs. The sheer capacity of the tube, 23 and 46 respectively, allows a a player to bring a selections of S1s tailor-made for the threats at hand, as well as some soft kill options, like chaff and flares.

Weapons - Point Defense Mounts:

The majority of pd options OSPN has is found in this field, a fleet should always have several of the options below mounted in order to assure fleet integrity.

The P11 'Pavise' PDT is a defender-like weapon that is noticeably more inaccurate than it's ANS counterpart. It makes up for this with twice the overall fire rate, and a slightly lower cost. Because of it's inaccuracy, it is more vulnerable to jamming-induced inaccuracy.

The P20 'Bastion' PDT is a strong flak option that is cheap and effective. In terms of it's ANS counterpart, it is only slightly worse than the 40 point stonewall. This weapon is largely effective against ANS hybrids and basic missiles thanks to their weak armour, and its own high rate-of-fire.

The P60 'Grazer' PDT is an expensive, energy-intensive point defense option that can stop all but the highest quality hybrids, and containers. This option when massed can stop all but the most serious spam. With such a massive power draw, Grazers often take up most of the power any system in question can bring. Price also makes them largely prohibitive, as it can take hundreds of points worth of grazers to make a good PD net. The last thing of notes is the unique fire control system. Grazers cannot be jammed, as they use an EO seeker to track targets.

Weapons - Projectile Mounts:

The remaining options for hard kill fall under the dual-purpose category. These are projectiles that are somewhat unreliable, but able to target missiles or craft in a pinch.

100mm has two calibers able to be fired in a defensive manner. These being flak and grape shot. Flak is highly effective against craft and missiles, able to create a 7 km buffer zone where craft will be forced to evade to avoid hits. Grape shot is similar, but its high velocity round is better at hitting targets only lightly maneuvering, or approaching in a straight vector. Notably, it is also able to engage targets from further, having a range of 8 km.

600mm bombshell is also usable in a dual purpose configuration, though it is much harder. Its large splash radius can stop craft easy, though it has a hard time against any type of missile due to its terribly velocity. It is also easy to maneuver around a monitor with such a weapons, as the whole ship has to turn to fire the weapons, and Flatheads are slow.

Compartments

OSPN's large number of very squishy ships has meant a focus on hardened modules. Typically, these modules are mounted into the unique 6x3x8 modules common in many OSPN ships, a natural product of their civilian freight heritage. This allows ships like the liner to be deceptively durable, able to absorb a large amount of punishment before going down for good. This section will also go over standardized modules, and how they tend to be used in the OSPN context.

Command Compartments:

OSPN has all of the same modules as ANS. Auxiliary Steering, Basic CICs, and Reinforced CICs are the most common and utilized command modules for the OSPN. OSPN rarely uses the Citadel CIC, as it is largely irrelevant outside of due to massed ANS 450, and little to no ship depth. It is nonetheless used from time to time on Ocellos, Marauders, and Flathead to increase overall tankiness.

Damage Control Compartments:

OSPN has all of the standard repair modules ANS has, and then some. Stock DC items, such as the Damage Control Central, Large DC Locker, Reinforced DC Locker, Small DC Locker, and Small Workshop are commonly employed on Ocellos, Flatheads, and Marauders, as these are the primary front line assets for OSPN. Rapid DC Lockers are also very common on these ships, though they are primarily used on the Ferryman and Dragur, as these ships lack the module space for a good DC spread. The more unique modules OSPN has are reserved for their refit front line ships.

The Large DC Storage is a DC option meant to counteract the frequent damage OSPN takes compared to more durable OSPN warships. This module trades number of DC teams for a larger number of restores. This can be extremely valuable if internal space is a premium, like the Flathead. It also has more health than a large DC locker, reducing its chance of being shot out.

The Damage Control Complex is the gold standard of OSPN DC. While pricey, it has a whooping 600 HP, 40 DT, 2 restores, 3 DC teams, and small buffs to repair team move speed, repair speed, and max repair. This can allow a monitor that would be wiped to the man to potentially recover and restore enough critical components to get back into the fight. The only unfortunate downside is that it has a scaling cost, meaning it is not realistic to but more than one of these per ship.

Engineering Compartments:

Their is only one engineering module, the Plant Control Center. It is fairly useful for OSPN, as many of their common weapons and sensors are very power hungry. That is about it.

Flight Support Compartments:

The Flathead, Journeyman, Ocello, Marauder, and Moorline all have access to these modules. A small exception to this being that the Ocello cannot mount the Bulk Internal Hangar.

The Bulk Internal Hangar allows the Marauder, Flathead, Journeyman, and Moorline to bring extra craft to bear in a fight. This could allow front line fleets to in theory bring extra PD, Sensor ships, and alternative tracking options.

The Deck Gear Locker is a niche tool rarely used outside of dedicated carriers. These speed up the deployment of fighters, giving the carriers the ability to rapidly process and generate sorties. Simply put, these allow carriers to get and keep more planes in the air at any given time.

The Spacecraft Repair Station is also a niche option, though it may be worthwhile for non-carrier ships with craft detachments, as they do not have the ability to repair craft. It is also usually helpful for a carrier to have 1-2, as they can help process a damaged sortie that successfully returned, reducing flight turn around time.

The Spacecrat Strikedown Station is an expensive but extremely useful force multiplier. They do not differentiate between size 1 and 2 craft, meaning that they can be used to increase the number of bombers ready per sortie.

Intelligence Compartments:

There are two intelligence modules, the Analysis Annex and the Intelligence Center. As of now, these modules are not very useful for OSPN. A 20 point Pike shuttle with the EO tracker can do the job of ~200 points worth of intel. This means that so long as you can get a craft within 8km of an enemy asset, you can see it. If a player cannot do this, then intel is worthwhile.

Powerplant Compartments:

OSPN is the only faction with a powerplant module. The Jury-Rigged Reactor is direly needed to help offset the intense power demands of OSPN weapons and sensors. It also opens up many opportunities for unique builds, letting hulls like the Flathead more easily use a dual drive. It is often also mounted on plasma thronglers, as they give said ships enough power to fire their mass-plasma salvos. Unfortunately, the penalty for energy reload times means that it is not a solution for powering Mass Driver based liners.

Storage Compartments:

Storage modules are the prolific Bulk Magazine and Reinforced Magazine. There is also the OSPN unique Citadel Magazine.

OSPN missile weaponry and craft are deeply dependent on magazine depth. As such, bulk magazines are used frequently on ships dedicated to missile spam. Reinforced magazines are also placed in large slots for similar reasons, as well as deployed on smaller ships like the Draugr and Ferryman to increase ship protection. The Citadel Magazine is the mainstay of frontline gun-based ships such as the Marauder and Flathead. Its impressive amount of health and DT means it is rarely ever shot out, letting even light-skinned ships keep their magazine's intact during fights.

Weapon Support Compartments:

The prolific Gun Plotting Center and Strike Planning Center are shared modules, and of some use to OSPN. The Gun Plotting Center is notably useful for OSPN, due to their reliance on massed fires. They can help offset the notorious inaccuracy of 450mm, and plasma. They are also helpful for increasing hit rate with things like 100mm and 500mm mass drivers.

Strike Planning Centers are less useful, as OSPN uses roll-off launchers that don't rely on programming time, using ammo elevators instead. They do have some use for Moorlines running containers, and any ship using the TALS-2 and SALS-2 launchers offensively. While being useful to Moorlines, the Container Datalink Array is generally more useful for such matters.

The Container Datalink Array is most often used in Container missile based Moorlines, commonly referred to as CLNs. With the advent of the SALS-2 and TALS-2, the module can help increase its fire rate in an offensive capacity. Though this is largely pointless, as the roll-off launchers can fire 4 without the need for a 200 point modules. If unable to pay the price, a Moorline can also lean on Time-on-Target salvos to increase the amount of missiles on target.

Modules (Part 1)

This section will be very similar to the compartment section, covering stock modules as relevant in a factional context, while focusing more on unique modules. It should be noted that in the realm of modules, OSPN has a lot of very different modules compared to ANS. Most notably, they have their own generators and radars, with different capabilities and downsides in comparison to ANS.

Communications Modules:

There is only one communications module between both factions, the Supplementary Radio Amplifiers. These increase the signal strength a ship emits information to friendly ships. One of these can in theory overpower one comms jammer, though in practice it does not seem to work out that way. At the very least, it can be said that the modules will allow a ship transmitting data to get that data out a little further when under comms jamming suppression. This capability is at least moderately useful to OSPN, as all but one OSPN ship has comms weak to jamming.

Damage Control Modules:

Once again, there is only one module under this category, the Fire Suppression System. This module is useful for front line ships under threat of rail attack, as they increase the ship's ability to repair fires. It also reduces the chance to have a magazine or cell launcher cook off.

Engineering Modules:

There are three modules under this category. These modules are ubiquitous and simple, able to provide fair benefits for a low points costs.

Redundant Reactor Failsafes help reduce the chance of reactor catastrophes, while also increasing overall repair speed against such events. This module may be worthwhile in ships running Boosted Reactors, as they have a strong chance of going critical.

The Reinforced Thruster Modules are useful on ships that spend most of the match on flank speed, as they reduce the chance of that speed mode damaging thrusters. This can in theory free up more damage repair teams to handle damage related to combat, while also allowing a player to use flank speed more aggressively.

The Small Reactor Booster is a cheap way to increase power output on a ship, especially useful if power is still in demand, but all 3x3x3 slots have been used up. the radar signature penalty can be annoying on stealth craft, but is overall quite negligible.

EWar Modules

Once again, this modules has but one option, the Signature Scrambler. This option can be particularly useful for delaying enemy reaction time. An enemy may see a contact incoming, but delay or take false action until the track is properly identified. For example, player 1 is running a rocket liner. Player 2 is running a vauxhall. With a fast moving object inbound, but no positive identification, player 2 shoot RPF at the liner, thinking it must be a shuttle. This gives player 1 enough time to close the gap, delivering their payload of rockets before player 2 can realize their mistake, and meaningfully damage the liner.

flight Support Modules:

Another one module category, this section is home to the Flight Deck Traversal System. This module is really important to increasing turn around time on carriers. With enough stacked, it is possible to take the Deck Traversal Time for a craft from 40s to 5s.

Powerplant Support Modules:

This category is home to 3 unique OSPN reactors, with the Ocello alone having access to the safer ANS reactors. These three reactors are the Boosted Reactor, Civilian Reactor, and the Light Civilian Reactor.

The Boosted Reactor is a vital crutch for OPSN. It is able to generate a whopping 5000 kW, making it the highest output reactor in the game. It is offset by its high chance of exploding under fire. This however, can be mitigated by careful power micro, using emergency reactor cycles as necessary to keep it from turning the ship into a dirty star.

The Civilian Reactor is a more stable, though less powerful reactor that goes in the same slot as the Boosted. It is generally advised to put these in place of Boosted Reactors if you do not need the power draw, as they are less likely to explode when shot. It should also be noted that this reactor is objectively worse than it's direct ANS equivalent, FR4800, producing less power than it.

The Light Civilian Reactor is a power module able to be fit into a 3x3x3 slot, and is the OSPN equivalent to the ANS FR3300 Micro Reactor. Once again, this module is directly inferior in power output in comparison to its ANS counterpart.

It is worthwhile to briefly note that the Ocello has access to ANS power systems, meaning that players may need to consider which factional reactors make sense to slot into the Ocello based off of demand/ build in question. Generally though, the power-hungry Ocellos tend to run Boosted Reactors and FR3300 Micro Reactors.

Propulsion Modules:

OSPN has nine unique engines able to be placed on crafts. Once again, all but the Ocello are constrained to these drives. It should also be noted that several OSPN drives have no direct comparison to an ANS counterpart, or that if there is a comparison, it is usually not a straight apples-to-apples comparison.

The BW800 is a simple engine unit often mounted on smaller warships. It is standard on he Ferryman, Draugr, Flathead, and Journyeman. It is not particularly impressive in any respect, but it is cheap. It is essentially a direct equivalent to the ANS FM200, though it notably produces a meagre 300kW of power of the 200's 500 kW.

The BW800-R is a direct upgrade to the BW800. It still has the 300 kW of power, a common amount for OSPN, but 150 more hit points, and has 10 more DT, Mounted on a ferryman, or other small ship, the BW800-R will insure a ship is more likely to be wiped out conventionally before the drive is ever shot out. When compared to the FM200R, its direct equivalent, it is unfortunately inferior in every way, with 100 les HP, and 10 less DT.

The CHI-777 Yard Drive is a maneuver focused drive. Keeping the stock HP and DT of the BW800, the Yard Drive trades 7.5% of a ships speed for a 45% faster turn rate, and 40% more angular thrust. It also gives a 15% bonus to linear thrust. This is comparable to the FM240 'Dragonfly' Drive. This drive is generally worse than the yard drive in every way. For the same speed sacrifice, this drive only offers a 40% turn rate bonus, and 30% more angular thrust. The drive also has no bonus to linear thrust, meaning a second drive will be necessary to achieve a similar performance. This means that OSPN warships with this drive can accelerate faster, and turn harder than their counterparts.

The Sundrive Racing Pro is a drive designed to emphasize speed. A 25% speed bonus paired with a -20% flank damage insures a ship equipped with this can go maximum speed easily for a long time. Is does however, increase wake signature, as well as reduce angular thrust, making ships with such bonuses slightly more clumsy than otherwise. It also offers a worst-in-class energy output, 200 kW. It also has a worst in class health, having 200 HP and 30 DT, making it worse than a stock BW800 in that aspect. This drive is comparable to the FM230 'Whiplash' Drive. In the speed and flank damage chance department, the Whiplash is worse with a 20% and -15% bonus respectively. However, it has a best-in-class power output of 650 kW, and HP and DT equivalent to the BW800 and FM200. This comes at a cost, as this drive has a penalty of 20% to angular thrust, and a 15% penalty to turn rate. It should also be of note that the speed difference is a big deal when it comes to clipper -type hulls. The OSPN Sundrive on a Ferryman means that it can get to an impressive 65.63m/s, compared to the ANS Sprinter's 63 m/s with a whip. This gives OSPN a slight advantage in the early cap game. This is the last of the small-scale drives, the remaining drives are only mountable on large warships, such as the Marauder, Moorline, and Ocello.

Modules (Part 2)

The BW1500 Drive is the stock drive for larger ships. Like the BW800, it offers no bonuses, though its health is much larger than the smaller drives, with 700 HP and 40 DT. Also like it's smaller cousin, the BW1500 is objectively inferior to its ANS counterpart, the FM500, which has 1000 HP and 70 DT. Power draw is once again also lacking, a the BW1500 only generates 300 kW, while the FM500 generates 1000 kW. The only noticeable advantage is price, as the FM500 costs 5 points more.

The BW1500-R is certainly a bit better. With 1400 HP and 70 DT, the 1500-R is able to shrug off a lot of fire, insuring that fragile ships like the liner do no need to worry about their drives being shot out in combat. Once again power draw is worse than it's counterpart, the FM500R, which also has 1500 HP and 80 DT.

The BW2000 is a truly unique drive, and has not direct comparison in ANS inventory. This drive trades speed, linear thrust, and angular thrust for a best-in-class power output of 2000 kW. This drive is able to fulfill niches where power demand is prioritized over maneuver. Most notably, this drive allows for a quad mass driver MD to be usable, and is also useful to mount on Moorlines if the player is looking to free up the 6x6x6 reactor slot for more utility.

The CHI-7700 Drive is the large-scale version of the CHI-777 Yard Drive. With HP and DT equal to the BW1500, this drive trades more speed for even more maneuver. Notable, it also gives bonuses to to linear thrust as well, giving it traits covered by two individual ANS drives. It penalizes speed by 15%, but increases linear thrust by 30%, turn rate by 40%, and angular thrust by 35%. It does however, increase Wake signature by 30%. This drive pairs very well with a secondary Sundrive, letting a large ship accelerate and maintain impressive speeds.

The CHI-9100 Long Haul Drive is a more durable Sundrive, albeit with more trade-offs and negatives to account for better durability. The drive offers a 20% bonus to speed, at the cost of -25% flank damage probability, and -10% angular thrust. This drive is inferior to the Sundrive in terms of performance, though it is useful in a front line role due to the increased durability. Once again, this drive has no direct equivalent, having penalties and buffs akin to both the FM530 'Whiplash' Drive, and FM580 'Raider' Drive. It is noteworthy however, that its speed bonus is 5% greater than the 530 whip, allowing OSPN to once again be just a tad faster.

Sensor Modules:

Like ANS, OSPN has access to, Adaptive Radar Receivers, the ES32 'Scryer' Missile ID System, Strobe Correlators, and Track Correlators. These modules are designed to enhance and support passive radar systems in a number of different ways. However, before these are addressed, a quick word about passive radar.

Passive radar is the most common form of radar in-game. Just about every ship mounts it. These systems are designed to pick up radar signals from any object created in the game, whether that be a chaff cloud, void craft, or Solomon-class battleship. However, radars do not detect everything at their apparent maximum range. That is dependent both on the sensitivity of the radar, and the radar cross section(RCS) of the target. Simply put, the size of the object and the strength of the radar determine detection range. With that out of the way, back to Sensor Modules.

The Adaptive Radar Receiver is the primary method to increase radar sensitivity, as it quite literally just increases it. This can be extremely useful for allowing long range radars to pick up small ships closer to their maximum detection range. However, the increased sensitivity also comes as the cost of accuracy, with slight penalties to a track's positional and velocity margin of error. This cost is usually fairly insignificant, and can be negated completely with a supplemental track correlator.

The ES32 'Scryer' is a system designed to rapidly analyze the type of missile being fired. This is vital, as knowledge of the seeker being fired can allow a player to take appropriate evasive maneuvers, and potentially negate entire salvos of missiles. Its supplemental effect on defensive nets is also critical, as OSPN in particular is heavily dependent on AMMs to counter various missiles and craft based threats, and it can reduce the amount of resources necessary to counter a specific threat.

The Strobe Correlator is a niche tool used in counter-jamming. If a player is hit with jamming, the Strobe can help give an accurate rough heading of its source. This can give enough wiggle room to fire of accurate HOJ missiles, or fire back with counter-jamming. it should be noted though, that all of this is mostly possible without the help of a strobe correlator.

The Track Correlator is fairly common on more inaccurate radar systems. These can help enhance the track it gives, which in turn increases accuracy for guns and CMD/direct fire based weapons. The 'Bloodhound' Longe Range Tracking Radar in particular greatly benefits from this, giving fire able tracks from upwards of 14 km away from the target. With all of this out of the way, it is time to talk about OSPN's unique passive radar modules.

OSPN has two passive radars that belong in the module category. These are the Bulwark Huntress and the Ithica Bridgemaster.

These radars are frankly... lacklustre. The Bulwark Huntress is a longer range, less accurate radar, able to find targets from upwards of 10 km. Its burnthrough capabilities means that at minimum, a rough mark or LOB can be detected at max range. Other than that, this radar is incapable of producing fire-able tracks. It also is markedly worse than its ANS cousin, the Spyglass. Not only is the Spyglass 5 points cheaper, but it's maximum range is 11.5km. It should be noted though that the Spyglass both has a much higher power draw, and no burnthrough capability. Because of this, the Huntress can also be used in light counter-jamming roles, though it will fail against any serious jamming. Finally, its lighter power draw means it can be mounted on the lowly Ferryman for a minuscule price, giving OSPN access to a cheap, fast, albeit inferior, scout.

The Ithica Bridgemaster is frankly much worse. It is slightly more accurate than it's ANS cousin, the RS35 'Frontline' has less power draw, and 500m more range, but that is where good things about it end. For starters, it lacks burnthrough capability, meaning it can be jammed, and nothing can be done about it. Another problem is general lack of sensitivity. A stock ANS sprinter can close within 6 km of a ship equipped with this tool, not with jamming or stealth, but simply by driving in a straight line. 1200 kW of power may not sound like a lot, but again, considering OSPN's power problems, smaller ships simply cannot afford to reliably run EWar or other demanding systems without great sacrifice. For these reasons alone, veteran captains have dubbed it "The ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥", and it has been the bane of many crews.

Weapon Support Modules:

Weapon Support Modules are ubiquitous across both factions. As such, this portion of the guide will focus exclusively on OSPN usage of them.

With a shorter active time, and a worse chance of burn out out when battle shorted, the Actively Cooled Amplifier is a must for any OSPN player serious about EWar. OSPN's unique radar jammers are stronger than ANS's meaning that OSPN can stack a higher level of jamming, but are more likely to suffer from burn out when forced beyond their normal operating time. 1-2 of these amplifiers can dramatically increase their firing time while also reducing cool down time and damage chance when battleshorted.

The ubiquitous ammo elevator is a must for any frontline or VLS-based missile fleet. While rapid cycle cradles play a more prominent role in some common OSPN weapons, large ones like the 450mm and 600mm still favors the ammo elevator over rapid cycle cradles, at least most of the time.

Modules (Part 3)

Both the Small and normal Energy Regulator are fairly useful for a wide number of OSPN weaponry. Most notably, the C81 Plasma Cannon, and the TE45 Mass Driver. It is also helpful for the T81 Plasma Turret, though that is typically configured for hit and run attacks, where emptying the auto-loader quickly is more important than a long reload time.

The Focused Particle Accelerator is a byproduct of the ubiquitous list, and is not actually useful for anything in the OSPN lineup.

The Missile Parallel Interface is of niche importance to OSPN. It is useful to some degree for Container-based Moorlines, and offensive use of the SALS and TALS-2, but otherwise useless. For other missile based solutions like the VLS systems, the ammo elevator is the primary expedient.

Mount Gyros are also of niche use to OSPN. Casemate guns tend to have quick traverse rates already, and so do not have much use for them. A small spread reduction is usually quite useful, though the gun plotting center does it better. This tendency means that these weapons are usually reserved for Ocellos, which tend to favor ANS doctrine for weapons.

The Rapid-Cycle Cradle is extremely important for OSPN. Their ambush tactics and auto loader weapons tend to favor rapid fire followed by a swift retreat. Rapid-Cycle Cradles are commonly mounted on everything from T81 Turrets to C65 cannons. Notably, the 450mm and 250mm revolver liner concepts near entirely hinge on the employment of this weapon.

Hulls (Part 1)

The OSP Navy is comprised primarily of refit civilian vessels, with a small core of obsolete purpose-built craft. As stated earlier, many of these craft cannot match up one for one with their ANS counterparts, but with unique OSPN tech and careful planning, even the lowliest of vessels can humble an enemy battle group.

Ferryman:

That low is the Ferryman. It is a small, fast vessel that is able to adapt into a variety of roles for OSPN. Most notably, Ferryman are capable of mounting the R-18 rocket pod, giving a group of ferrymen the capability to kill even battleships if they can get close enough. Other common battlefield sights include capping Ferrymen, as they are the fastest vessel in the game when fitted appropriately. They can also carry jammers, long-range radars and more. Ultimately, the Ferrymen is an excellent utility craft, and often for a very reasonable price.

That is not to say they do not have weaknesses. The Ferryman has many. It is the most fragile vessel in the game, with a scant two small modules available. It also has a mere 5 cm of armor. This makes it vulnerable to even craft-grade weaponry, with 35mm slugs being able to damage shuttles with ease. It is vulnerable to RPF rounds, 250mm, missiles, etc.

Draugr:

The Draugr is a large Clipper Class vessel, the largest of the Clipper Class vessels in game. This comes with several notable trade-offs and capabilities. Most notably, it has more compartment and mount space, allowing for more firepower and PD than the sprinter. It also has access to a full size reactor, allowing the Draugr to mount a wide variety of Sensors and EWar options.

With these excellent capabilities, comes several trade-offs. The Draugr has a slower speed than either the Ferryman or Sprinter, with a stock speed on-par with the ANS Vauxhall, making it vulnerable to being run down by a much larger warship. It also has a scant 5 cm of armor, making it also vulnerable to 35mm slugs. The Draugr's minimal mounts makes it vulnerable to hybrid-based weapons. It should also be of note that the Draugr is just the right size to allow 450mm HE to detonate in a head on manner.

Flathead:

The Flathead is the smallest warship in the OSPN lineup that is able to be employed in a frontline capacity. 48 cm of armor combined with high-HP modules allows the Flathead to absorb a large amount of fire. The Flathead can also mount various useful weapons such as 400mm plasma, 250mm, 450mm, 100mm, and the versatile 600mm. Flatheads are also cheap, allowing a careful player to bring 4-6 fairly easily, insuring that they can continue to output fire, even after taking a fair amount of punishment.

With all that said, Flatheads have several disadvantages. The first relates to their size. With such a small amount of internal space, monitors are vulnerable to 450mm, which in either form can effectively damage the monitor very well. Flatheads are also quite slow, having a flank speed on par with the ANS Axford. Flatheads also have a large frontal thruster area, making them likely to quickly lose maneuver when in combat. Flatheads also have a fairly small amount of mounts, meaning that any loadout will need to be carefully considered to strike a balance between PD and killing power.

Journeyman:

The Journeyman is a useful, value-efficient utility platform for OSPN. It can allow OSPN to bring access to craft able to strike everything from capital ships, to sprinters. With a speed of 33m/s, the Journeyman can also relocate quickly, to avoid being squashed by hybrids.

While useful, the Journeyman is not a substitute in any way to the Moorline. In fact, the Journeyman costs half of the cost of the Moorline, while having 1/3 of the lift capacity. As such, it is only sensical to bring when complimenting other support systems, or cappers.

Ocello:

The Ocello is the only true conventional warship in the OSPN lineup. It is also the only ship in the OSPN lineup to have access to ANS weapons, including their PD. With three engine/power plan slots, the Ocello can also be configured to operate in a good variety of roles, whether that be a missile platform, sensor platform, dueling warship, or more. While the importance of it's pd is lessened because of fighters, the Ocello is still the only reliable counter-jam platform, whether that be for comms or radar. In addition to all of this, the Ocello is a sturdy 450mm platform, able to use bow tanking and maneuverability engage in stand-off duels with enemy capital ships.

With all that goodness, comes many bad trade-offs. For starters, the Ocello has a meagre 30 cm of armor, making it extremely vulnerable to both 450mm AP and HE. In addition, the Ocello is power hungry, forcing most common Ocello configurations spend lots of points on reactors to power its various PD options. Aside from that, the Ocello has fairly poor maneuver speed, meaning it can be shredded easily if an enemy ship can slip past the bow tank. Said speed also severely limits weapon options, with anything other than 450mm turrets considered useless for most situations. Ocellos also have very limited magazine depth, owing to their ANS heritage. This means that the Ocello is typically forced to run bulk magazines to be able to have sustainable firepower, which in turn is shot out very easily. Even then, it is not able to field OSPN magazine-based systems easily, such as the MLS launchers.

Marauder:

The Marauder is a merchant ship pressed into service. It is a solid frontline ship that is able to move into utility and backline support roles as needed. In many respects, the Marauder is the swiss army knife of the OSPN lineup. The Marauder can fill the role of close-range, medium-range, and long-range frontline roles by choosing between 100mm, 250mm, or 450mm. The Marauder can also mount a large number of plasma, in a configuration commonly referred to as a 'throngler'. Aside from that, abundant compartment space makes the Liner a good candidate for S2 spam, S3 spam, and light craft options. It is also deceptively fast, and creative module allocation can allow a player to outrun enemy capitals, and be more maneuverable. On top of this, the sheer size of the liner can make it hard to put down, as the enemy will need to spread damage through every section of the ship to ensure a kill.

With all that flexibility, comes several serious drawbacks. Firstly, the Marauder really struggles to manage power. With only one full-sized reactor slot, and a meagre amount of modules, it can be a struggle to power better radars, jammers, and more. This is exacerbated even more with dual-drive setups, and MD setups. The next big issue is armor, most notably, its lack thereof. A scant 20 cm of armor means that every ANS caliber can reliably penetrate and damage it. In addition, the Marauder can be structure broken very easily, which in turn invalidates the protective benefits of robust compartments like the Damage Control Complex, or Reinforced/Citadel CICs. The marauder is also limited in radar choices, with the only standard radar available to give fire able tracks being the Ithica Bridgemaster. This means the the Marauder is either forced to get close enough to use a 'Pinpoint', mount a power-intensive Bloodhound LRT, or rely on another ship or craft for track. When considering the Marauder's lack of armor, this give the marauder very little staying power in most scenarios.

Hulls (Part 2)

Moorline:

The Moorline is another refit civilian vessel. It is a very strong utility/back line support asset. The Moorline can field the OSPN unique container missile en masse, able to provide a never-ending salvo of extremely potent, capital-crippling warheads. With carrier mounts, the Moorline can also field the most craft of any fleet-type in the game. This means the Moorline can be built and adapted to fit almost any support option OSPN needs.

The Moorline is perhaps the most difficult OSPN craft to run. As a container liner, the Moorline can sometimes be built to below 3 thousand points, but otherwise, a Moorline is usually takes up the entirety of the points allocated to a fleet. With one ship containing 3 thousand points, the Moorline is a large number of fragile eggs in a basket of paper. If the enemy finds a Moorline, that is typically game over for said Moorline. The sheer expense of the Moorline also means that it can be difficult to afford adequate PD or DC to reverse damage. In addition, if the player in question has built their container missiles poorly, have bad targeting skills, or poor craft micro, they will be completely useless.

Void Craft

With a swathe of craft mounting options, OSPN is able to bring and use a large number of craft, across a wide variety of fleets.

RS-35 Halberd:

The RS-35 Halberd is a durable utility platform for OSPN. A variety of mission packages allow the Halberd to serve as a radar scout, engine-seeker, or PD/Anti-craft role. On top of this, the Halberd can mount upwards of two 35 mm turrets, giving it options for anti-craft, anti-missile, and anti-ship. A total of 4 S1s can be mounted as well, giving flexible options to hit various things.

The Halberd is rather slow though, and can be lacking when forced to do extended HBRN time. It is also lacking in maneuver, making it vulnerable in a dogfight. It also means that it has little to no chance to outrun enemy missiles, making head-on engagements the only viable counter-missile option.

PF-386 Barracuda:

The Barracuda is a dedicated Void Fighter, with a large number of mount slots. This allows the fighter to bring various tools for various problems. The downside is the type of targets able to be struck, as the fighter is not able to reliably hurt anything larger than a Vauxhall, and only then in a limited capacity.

RF-286 Pike:

The Pike is a massively useful Utility platform for OSPN. With a max speed nearing 130 m/s, the Pike is able to rapidly maneuver around the battlefield, and identify targets. The EO Targeting Ball is an extremely powerful tool to identify and provide tracks to the team, while also being able to provide the best intel of any system in the game. The Pike is able to also bring an extremely tight-beam illuminator, making SAH missiles much harder to be softkilled. A player ought to be mindful of fuel limitations though, as the Pike will need to refuel and supply frequently.

B-45 Sturgeon:

The Sturgeon is a bomber able to carry a wide number of heavy munitions. Rockets such as the R-3 allow the Sturgeon to cheaply and efficiently kill/cripple enemy carrier. 100mm gun pods allow the Sturgeon to reliably destroy a variety of small ANS ships, such as the Sprinter.

Filling A Team Composition, Roles And Teamwork

When playing OSPN, it is important to be mindful of the various roles a team needs to have filled in order to have a successful match. A 'standard' composition will be covered below, but it should be noted that there are many capable compositions an OSPN team can bring to bear.

Frontline:

Frontline is a the primary beat stick and line-holder for the team. Typically two to three frontline fleets will be needed to keep the enemy from pushing in and destroying the team's back line. Typically, this takes the form of Plas/100, or 450.

Backline/Support:

Back line fleets are critical to keep the team in the fight and handle unexpected, or overwhelming enemy force. These typically take the form of missile spam, carriers, or Mass Drivers/Rails. These fleets will often need protection from the enemy though, as they are often too fragile to absorb fire.

Capping:

Capping is a necessary function for any team. Putting capital ships on cap points is downright suicidal, as the enemy is given a free and tangible point to base the aiming of missiles. They are also quite slow. This is where capping ships come in. These fleets utilize small, fast assets to quickly cap and control points, while minimizing risk to more points-intensive systems.

When to work together:

OSPN ships are hyper specialized due to various restrictions in their capabilities. This means that teamwork is extremely important for any OPSN team. For instance, 450 Marauders or Ocellos lack serious killing power against enemy Sprinters due to over penetration. This means that another player will need to pick up the slack, or the Liners/Ocellos will have to take a very time inefficient engagement. Another example would be the Ocello - Marauders/Flathead relationship. Ocello have good PD and Radar, but are otherwise lacklustre over ANS options. Marauders and Flatheads have either good DPS or Armor, but bad radar and bad PD. As such, it is extremely common for Ocello players to pair with Marauder and Flathead players to make a much stronger unit.

Aside from this, there is more subtle teamwork that is often overlooked. For instance, one player might have a LRT, and another struggling to get a long range track. In that scenario, it makes sense for the two players to pair up to insure that a fireable track is available for use. Frontline players will often ask for Bomber/Missile support when fights are going badly, or if the enemy is slipping away. The list goes on and on. OSPN as a team wins together, or dies together, and failure to talk with the team, even in the lobby, will cause all sorts of problems and knock-on effects throughout the game.

Frontline In-Depth

OSPN frontline often has the most difficult job on the team. They need to successfully engage the enemy, who was a qualitative advantage in range, armor, and radar in most instances. As such, they need to be extremely careful in order to win the day.

Engagement Range:

Engagement range is perhaps the single most important factor to any frontline player. Every weapon, radar, and missile has an effective range. Plasma for instance has a maximum engagement range if 7800 meters. That means they can fire outside of beam and 120mm range, but need to be weary of 250mm, 450mm, and 300mm Railgun. A 450mm liner with LRT can engage up to 11,250, but needs to avoid the enemy closing under 9.5km, less they get a target lock. This focus on range, in-turn drives a demand for maneuverability.

Manueverability:

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/37820279720129549/C57B694DD7E8C2D99CC4463C40397E186770F59B/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

This Ocello has drives built with this principle in mind. Seeking to avoid target lock, the drives were built to outrun any Comparative-sized ship fielded by ANS, such as the Axford and Solomon. This same design style can be applied to any other match up of ship as well, such as Vaux vs Liner, and more. Though if maneuver fails, having an appropriate caliber may be the best option.

Caliber:

When everything else fails, it is often down to a slugging match. This is when caliber and ammo choice matters the most. 100mm can easily beat Sprinters, Raines, Keystones, and potentially Vauxes. 250mm is most effective against Raines, Keystones, and Vauxhalls. 450mm, Raines, Keystones, Vauxhalls, Axfords, and Solomons. Of course, with a comparative disadvantage in armor, it is also necessary to build strong internals.

Reinforcing Ships:

So long as a ship is not structure broken, reinforced modules provide an excellent level of protection, making it harder for the enemy to destroy a ship. Reinforced modules also provide a strong amount of protection against HEI missiles, as they cannot kill these types of modules typically. Certain reinforced modules, such as the Citadel CIC also provide excellent protection from smaller calibers, often needing large volumes of 450 to knock out.

If these basic principles can be mastered, a frontline fleet is able to pose a serious threat to just about everything on the battlefield, though the chaos of the game means that is far from a guarantee.

Backline Support In Depth

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/37820279720159149/C74B4AC9846306C0736F93412E9F35FFB820FB1A/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

Backline fleets are inherently support fleets. Unable to absorb punishment directly, they need to keep distance to be most effective. With that being said, it is important for the Backline to support the Frontline with as much speed and utility as possible. A bombing run 10 minutes into the game is often worth much less than one 5 minutes into the game. A backline fleet needs to be able to fulfill its points value before the majority of the game has passed. Otherwise, it is also smart to conserve munitions so you still impact the lategame.

It is also important that back line players bring more than just lethal damage. Too often, teams get rolled over because the back line refuses to bring recon craft, long range sensors, and more. As such, backline players must accept and compromise their fleet to some degree in order to ensure the team as a whole is more effective.

For instance, a Moorline CLN player is dead set on bringing as much ordinance as possible. They neglect any kind of radar, recon, or intelligence as a result, outside of cheap scouting containers. The rest of the team brings standard fleets. Without that support, the team is at the mercy of the frontline to hold any kind of track, which is often extremely dangerous and fleeting against a team fielding jamming. The CLN is unable to get a solid track long enough to line up a ToT strike, and now that player's 3 thousand points in entirely useless.

Now, lets say the player did bring radar, recon, and intel. Once the jamming goes up, the player uses scouts to provide offsets and locks for the team, letting them have a chance to keep firing. This gives the Moorline player a more reliable track to base their ToT off of, and they land a few missiles. The Moorline is able to effectively keep the team in the fight while enabling more effective use of their assets, even if they are worse as a whole.

Capping In Depth

The OSPN Cap game is a war of attrition. The Ferryman, the primary capper for OSPN, is quite literally killable by every weapon in the game. As such, many considerations need to go into capping to ensure success.

Building a Ferryman:

The Ferryman is limited in mounts, armor, compartments, and modules. As such, it is neccessary to bring only what is needed to accomplish the task of capping.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/37820279720090167/67EAC0A669251C69940E3E026B293542C39D7547/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

Above is a capping-focused Ferrymen. It has enough softkill to counter most possible missile threats. It has a Sundrive, allowing it to outmaneuver and out-cap anything else ANS can field. It has just enough DC and internal strength to survive a salvo or two of enemy fire, and it can 'contest' armed cappers with the use of a Wake S1.

It cannot win any kind of fight, but it can live more than long enough to achieve its goal. If the player needs to bring something that can more reliably take and hold points, a Dragr 'heavy' capper may be more helpful.

Building a Draugr:

The Dragr is in essence a 'heavy clipper', able to move with speed, while providing enough onboard power and mounts to bring some stronger weapons to bear. While not able to arrive quickly to a cap, the Draugr is often just fast enough to arrive behind whatever held the point first. This means it can swiftly slide into a holding roll, engaging any enemy cappers, and keeping them away.

Supporting a Cap Fleet:

While a Capper fleet is needed to take points, it cannot do it alone. They are often to fragile, or under gunned to hurt more serious threats. As such, it is important to mutual support a capping player. Just as they might provide the frontline with recon and tracks, the frontline will need to 'return the favor', and clear any potential attacks facing the capping player. When both players are able to adapt accordingly, the game tends to go much smoother.

Closing Notes

Though OSPN has come a long days from being the ANS punching bag they were, OSPN still requires a much steeper level of understanding, game sense, and micro to pull off. Where an ANS warship might just right click to get a lock, OSPN might have to launch a craft, get it into range, and keep it alive while it holds a lock the rest of the fleet uses. Take great care when facing the all-rounders the mighty Leviathan Wields. And remember, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

A Note Of Thanks

I would like to thank some people for helping me put all of this together, and filling gaps in my knowledge.

Aewon - Thanks for putting up with my pestering, especially as this project ballooned beyond initial size projections.

Chereamie - For lending her expertise on CLNs to me. I am in no way an expert on the matter, and her assistance was very helpful in covering all things related to it. Make sure to check out her existing workshop guides on the 'Ultra hot' Moorline Build, and her workshop fleet of the same name.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3417865144

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3411618653

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3411093923					

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