NEBULOUS: Fleet Command Legends of Reach HALO Mod Overview

Introduction

Authored by Dargaribdus, edited by KillSmith

"Per Mare, Per Terras, Per Constellatum" - UNSC Motto

Greetings, Commander. Welcome to the United Nations Space Command. The UNSC vessels and their armament are quite different from their ANS counterparts, but still fall into similar archetypes. The core concepts should be familiar, even though the execution will be alien. Therefore, We’ve thrown together an armada primer for ANS-officers-on-loan. We won't be getting into specific ship design here, as those change with the tides of the naval office, but this primer should cover everything you need to know to get into the fight. This primer is broken up into sections by vessel and then sub sections of general overview and specific information/advice on using the hull. It is book ended by the unique armament of the UNSC and URF forces.

Unique Weapons Information

"Whoa" - Common reaction to MAC fire

All MACs are linear weapons, and all hulls can equip at least one kind of MAC. They’re devastating, but tricky to use. Command highly recommends experimenting with getting nose-to-target in our patented vs AI simulator before going into a real fight. The vessels who carry these weapons do not move like the ones you are used to.

Light MAC (LMAC) Rounds fire fast, but have relatively low damage. Good for sustained damage against anything and fighting small, agile vessels that may dodge a few shots.

Heavy MAC (HMAC) Rounds do absurd damage and are extremely effective at killing pretty much anything. However, they have colossal reload times, so you better make sure you hit whatever you’re shooting at. Best used against locked large priority targets. They destroy small ships too, but that tends to be inefficient. Both munitions dramatically increase the radar signature of the firing ship.

MAC - gingerly places the physical manifestation of death inside spaceships. Probably the main reason you’re here. Can fire LMAC and HMAC rounds.

Dual MAC - Two barrels of Mass Accelerator Cannon. Absolutely devastating against large targets. Effectively doubles the fire rate of the standard MAC, but you pay for it out the nose. Can fire LMAC and HMAC rounds.

Light MAC - Cheaper on points and energy than the standard MAC. Can only fire LMAC rounds.

The Marathon

Legends of Reach HALO Mod Overview image 13

"Hammer. Anvil."

Ship Motto, UNSC Canberra

Marathon OverviewThe Marathon is the anchor of the UNSC armada. It is most comparable to an Axford, but has both more advantages and more drawbacks. It rewards the judicious but brutally punishes the hasty. Not only can it control space through immense firepower and heavy armor, it can provide a wide variety of support tools to its team. The large volume of mountings, compartments, and modules make for a vessel with immense nuance. Though it can only fill a couple of archetypes, MAC-centric (MACathon), Cannon-centric (Gunathon), and Command and Control, there is much build diversity within those general archetypes. A Marathon can be long range or medium range, depending on load out, which in turn informs positioning and what fleet you want to build around the anchor. The Marathon also provides much needed strategic support to the mobile and powerful Paris and Halberd hulls. It's currently the only UNSC ship that can fit an intel center, and with the massive reload time on Heavy MAC rounds, knowing exactly what OPFOR has so you can properly target MACs is integral to the faction. The Marathon is an expensive investment and often requires the entire 3k be built around it. Not every fleet needs a marathon, but any team can benefit from one.

Marathon SpecificsMACathons generally want to have strong point defense, stay out of gun range and rain hellish HMAC rounds onto priority targets. As combat draws to a close, taking a nearly fresh Marathon with a Dual MAC and some gun turrets into the front lines to secure a control point can win a close game. It’s powerful, but is vulnerable to flanking vessels that slip through the UNSC radar net. Gunathons can bring a frightening volume of 450 and 250 barrels to bear, but have to outsource their PD to the vulnerable Paris to do so. They want to be on the front lines, fighting like hell and controlling space, but the low mobility and (relative for its size) fragility of the hull are magnified on the front lines and can become serious problems for a Marathon that gets outflanked or out positioned. Both of which are much easier to do when the Marathon is fighting close-in. Command and Control should really be a subtype folded into either of these main archetypes if you want it. Commanders can easily sacrifice some damage control or firepower for better radar or intel, but are not advised to make dedicated CnC vessels due to their vulnerability and price.

The Halberd

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"BANG! and you're dead."

Unknown Halberd Captain

Halberd OverviewThe Halberd is a powerful vessel for exerting pressure on your opponent. It can do this through long range firepower as a MAC delivery system or controlling capture points as an armored combat scout. Though those are opposing roles, they are mutually supporting. It can also be a cheap reinforced cap ship or radar scout in a pinch. The halberd may not be as fast as a sprinter or as lethal as a rocket shuttle, but it makes up for this in its combination of decent firepower, armor, stealth, and agility for its size and cost. The Halberd is integral to taking capture points, but isn’t as easily sacrificed as a Shuttle or Sprinter might be. You also can’t often afford to send capping Halberd teams out in wolfpacks due to the cost of the main armament of the halberd being the MAC. It’s an expensive ship and must be used with care, but when used well it can outperform the hell out of the other small vessels.

Halberd SpecificsThe points-optimal platform for raw HMAC throughput is the Halberd. Straight up. You want to increase the amount of tungsten inside of your enemies, this is the vessel for you. However, when built as a dedicated HMAC ship, unlike similarly rolled rail Keystones, it is severely lacking in the support and safety departments. It will need support ships for PD and scouting. Like any long range vessel archetype, it will also need other vessels to force enemies into fireable positions, to get locks, and to control caps. Which is the perfect job for…. The Halberd! That’s right, you can make a technically well rounded fleet with nothin’ but Halberds! LMACs, 120s, offensive S1s, S2s, S3s, you can kit these things out in a wide variety of ways, but if they can fight and hold caps, they’ll be fairly vulnerable to missiles and EWAR, so beware. They’re great, cheap pinard/spyglass offset scouts as well, but those get torn to shreds if they aren’t kept in safe, secure positions. If they are designed to fight, bring an LMAC or MAC in the nose. The ship can use them incredibly well, and the nose gun is about half of its potential armament.

The Paris

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[Gunnery officer]: "Some Covies think they can outsmart us. Maybe, maybe. I have yet to meet one who can outsmart bullet!"

[All]: "HUA"

Pre-battle ritual. Overheard aboard the UNSC Saratoga moments before the battle over Reach

Paris OverviewThe Paris is the most fragile but most versatile hull we can field, the caulk of the UNSC armada. Though it can do most everything, it needs to specialize to truly excel in anything. In addition, since the Marathon and Halberd have natural roles that they excel in, using the Paris as a gap-filler, especially for EWAR is highly effective. The Paris is the premier missile boat of the UNSC. Other notable jobs include gunship, scout killer, jammer, anti-jammer, and PD escort. These support roles are often best served shoring up the weaknesses of a marathon-centric fleet so that it can take the field and fight directly.

Paris SpecificsThe Paris has a MAC in the nose, 4 turret slots on the neck that can face forward, one on bottom that can face anywhere, and the agility to use all of these effectively. The ability of the Paris to aim its nose at something and do whatever it is designed to do is matched only by the Vauxhall. Unlike the Vauxhall, it is points-efficient to fill those neck mounts up with something other than guns. Guns are good for killing things, of course, but the Paris can also mount a large volume of forward firing EWAR, or PD for covering specific angles, or locking radars. It’s an incredible hull that can do whatever you need it to do while also presenting its most survivable angle to its opponent. It’s also great at bringing support/finisher missiles or being a dedicated cruise missile boat. Just be careful with them. They will die and die fast to 250 and 100mm fire. In addition, they’re just big enough to have trouble dodging 450 at medium and close range.

United Rebel Front

"Paris? I hardly know her!"

"Um sir, that doesn't-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Shut up and shoot."

Intercepted URF Communications file 867-5309

The URF has OSP vessels, but the Ocello is swapped out for the Paris, and there are no plasma weapons. This combined with UNSC’s fundamentally different playstyle from the ANS makes the URF play quite differently compared to the OSP. The OSP generally is reactive against the ANS. They grab an early lead with fast ships, then have to defend their points or, more commonly play on-the-run; constantly in a fighting retreat while yoinking points that have been abandoned by the ANS. Since UNSC specializes in devastating first-strike and long range firepower thanks to the MAC type weapons, URF must be proactive. If they don’t try to push their advantage, if they don’t try to flank the UNSC firebase and close the gap, they will be slowly ripped apart by MAC fire.

URF wants to get in close and kill ships fast. They don’t want to take duels in open space. Not having to worry about hybrids or hybrid defenses means the URF can afford to be much, much more aggressive, which further encourages that playstyle. Killing the UNSC scouts and spotters should be the number one priority for any URF team, as it forces the long range MAC platforms to come onto the map and fight close-in. The URF has much easier access to jamming and anti-jamming tools in the Paris than the OSP has in the Ocello, as there is no anti-hybrid PD tax that must be paid, which will help greatly with the vision game.

Bye

"See you in the battlespace" - John Nebulous, et al

Why are you still here? That's everything you need to get building and exploding. If you have any questions about fleet design and gaming with the HALO mod, ask around on the Legends of Reach discord, or the Modulous channel on the main Nebulous discord.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3027691224

Legends of Reach HALO Mod Overview