NEBULOUS: Fleet Command Missile Defence A.k.a: how not to die

ANS: Surviving Size 2 Missile Spam

A common OSP tactic is the use of Fast and Manoeuvrable, yet cheap Size 2 missiles to overwhelm your Point defence!

Typical Fleets can mount anywhere from 150 to 300 missile per 3,000 point fleet with the added bonus that you can expect volley sizes of over 32 missiles every time!

The best way to defend yourself from this is using a combination of Flak and soft kill options like Chaff, flairs and Active Decoys.

The Trade off for that number of missiles often means cheaper seekers like active Radar or Wake,

As well as a lack of any Anti PD counter measures like Missile Decoys.

Note:

Pre-Spamming your Chaff if you realize there's missiles imcoming can be a life saver as the Automatic flairs only fire 1 soft kill per Ship, the more fake targets their are better chance they get locked on and not your actual ships!

Awareness of Time on target is important, Missiles around Corners of asteroids will lower the time your PD has to kill the Missiles. So be aware of your Positioning

ANS: Dealing With Container Missiles

Generally OSP Uses "Expensive" parts like EO Seekers(can't be softkilled) and Anti-PD items like Decoy flairs for their containers missiles. Or some other combination that makes these missiles effectively impossible to soft kill.

Thus as a ANS player your best counter is though the use Of a Mixed PD of using Flak PD to kill the Decoys and 20mm Defender PD to kill the container missiles themselves. They are large slow targets with high HP that are rather easy for 20mm with it's High DPS to kill.

Same goes for the rare Torpedo spam a 1-3 20mm guns covering an approach vector makes quick work of both Trops and Containers.

Note: Awareness of Time on target is important, Missiles around Corners of asteroids will lower the time your PD has to kill the Missiles. So be aware of your Positioning

ANS: Countering Rocket Spam

Rocket Shuttles spam uses fast ships to Deliver close range Rocket attacks to pen PD, Generally 1 shuttle's worth of Missiles can Cripple anything under a Vauxual should the full Volley hit.

Axfords and Battleships can tank 2-3 shuttles worth of fire, but best to Deny any damage at all.

Here your counter relies mainly on Positioning, scouting and use of Flak PD.

Outside of 1-2km range a few stonewall PD guns with Turret Gyros can easily turn in time and Deny any damage from Rockets.

Use of Forward scouts can Reveal Hiding Shuttles and allow you to avoid being ambushed.

Should you catch a Rocket shuttle use of 120mm or 250mm RPF Can easily mobility kill them letting HE shells finish them off easily.

Alternatively S2 Missiles can deal with a no PD Shuttle quite easily.

On the off chance they Do have PD S3H HE missiles also make for good shuttle killers!

ANS: Extra Pointers

4 Sarissa PD Mounted on a Rains Class Frigate with whiplash drives makes for a VERY good support ship, it's fast and can move it's PD anywhere it needs to be.

Easily turns a 8km part of the map into a no go zone for containers AND can thin out S2 Strikes well.

Just be mindful of positioning.

The Keystone Hull has 4 medium weapon mounts that if used for stonewalls mean the hull has no PD blind spots, as well as mounting 2 smaller gun mounts, under the spinal mount, on top the engine.

Keystones if built right have the best PD coverage of any 1 Hull that ANS has.

ANS should avoid use of Anti-Missile Missiles when ever possible, Due to massed S2 Missile strikes and containers having a large HP pool AMMs are effectively useless. Better to take more soft kill in your VLS 1 instead.

NEVER rely on 120mm RPF as your only PD, especially for Battleships and Axford side mounts better to have More Stonewall flak. Auroras as also effectively useless due to high HP of Containers and massed S2 swarms.

OSP: Dealing With Size 3 Hybrid Missiles.

The most Premium option for dealing with these Missiles is the Ocello Class Command Cruiser!

It can mount the Aurora for Killing Staged Hybrids and Sarissa for stopping Missiles at long range.

Avoid take 20mm, Flak, or grazers if you have the option of escorts, as OSP's cheaper hulls mean you get more mounts for these other PD.

While Ocello is the 2nd most expensive hull and is the ONLY hull that gets Aurora and Sarissa, so don't waste mounts on anything else.

2nd option is using a combination of AMMs and Grazer PD. Most starter fleets use this concept, AMMs take out missiles at range while Grazers Handle anything that leaks though the PD.

Note:

OSP can Use a EO jammier, Omni directional Radar and COMS jammer(Ocello only) So soft kill is on the table too.

OSP: S2H And ANS Missile Spam In General

Common tactic used by many ANS mains is to use massed S2 Hybrid missile strikes to counter the Ocellos that Spec purely into Arouras and Sarrissa PD as these can only handle Low volume of missiles.

The simple answer is Flak spam, OSP's cheaper hulls means more mounts and more hulls to run flak for countering missiles spam.

Here AMMs still have their place as trading an AMM for a S2H is still a postive trade for the defending OSP, However Decoys and softkill also become even more useful here as to achieve high volume of missiles means that their seekers might be lacking

OSP: Extra Pointers

OSP's cheapest Hull the shuttle can make for an good PD Ship as it can mount 2 large VLS 1 and 1 small VLS 1 Missile systems, in other words you haev the perfect hull for Spamming AMMs to help out your PD network!

Configuring The Ocello can actually run 4 Sarrissas, the 2 side mounts and 1 under the rear engine.

Although the Mount behind the bridge has bad forward coverage it still covers anything behind the Ocello. This can allow you to screen missiles in a 8km zone and help to cover your teammates.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2996554401

Missile Defence A.k.a: how not to die