SCE: Weapon Load Out Two: Torpedo Gunship

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Incoming Priority Two Message from Starfleet Command
To: All Starfleet Personnel
From: Starfleet Corps of Engineers, Commander Marcus Tory Greenhaven.
Subject: Weapon lay out briefing two: Torpedo Gunships.
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Greetings fellow Commanding Officers, Commander Greenhaven here with the second in our series of Starfleet Corps of Engineers Briefings on weapon lay outs. Last brief, I brought you the Broadside. Today, I will be discussing a project that Captain Hau and I have been working on jointly for a few weeks now: Torpedo Gunships (referred to as Gunship or Gunboat (GS) from this point.) As we know, the Broadside (BS) is great for slow moving ships with a lot of slots, and huge warp cores. Well what about the smaller ships, such as Escorts or Science vessels? Each have smaller warp cores and fewer weapon slots.

The Gunship (GS) is a great setup for something that is a mix between medium sized ships (such as an admiral level Science vessel, some have turn rates almost as bad as the Big Mack) and a ship without a massive warp core. Whereas Escorts can load Heavy Cannons, a science vessel cannot, and thus, It is my belief that the (GS) can be a great load out for a science vessel. Due to a slightly lower turning rate, a Science Vessel (Sci) can be effectively used as a “Turret.”

To “turret” as a ship means to reduce speed to a maximum of 25% max Vel or lower, and fire from max range. The stronger shields of a (Sci) help you to survive if you should gain some enemy loving. Most energy weapons dissipate over distance, so a “long Range Turret” doesn’t really work for Cannons or Beams, but for a torpedo, distance can be your friend. The farther the target, the longer the torpedo has to travel, and the more skills you can load into the enemy before your “heavy torp” can hit them. At max range, if loaded correctly, you may be able to achieve 3 volleys of torpedoes in the air at any given time.

So lets look at how to load out a (GS.) Our example will be a Discovery Class Long Range Recon Vessel, with 3 Fore and 3 Aft weapon slots. Example ship being used is the U.S.S. Archbishop. Current Weapon load out for the Archie is 2T-1Bb X 3Tu, which in detail, is 2 Quantum Torpedo, 1 Tetryon Beam Bank in the Fore, and 3 Tetryon Turrets in the rear. Now we are going to get into some Nitty-Gritty details pertaining to each of the weapons.

Here is a pic of the Rook with each type of weapon


Which type of torpedo you use is completely up to you. I prefer the Quantum because of the “Big Bang” you get, and the high rate of fire. Plasmas are nice, but since you can shoot down a High Yield, are not effective at long range. Transphasics mitigate 20% damage through the shield, but are only half as effective as a quantum against the hull (and as a GS is designed for Maximum Hull Damage, Transphasics just don’t cut it.) Chronitons are nice to use, but hit only slightly harder than a Transphasic.

Every time you fire a Torpedo, you create two cool downs. One that affects all other torpedo launchers and one that affects the one that fired. When you fire Torp A, Torp B and C go on a 3 second Cool down, whereas Torp A goes on a cool down determined by its type, as noted bellow.
Type Base Dmg at Mark X Recharge (sec)
Photon 2766 (426) 6
Quantum 2894 (340) 8
Plasma 2171 (255) 8
Transphasic 2001 (191) 10
Chroniton 2368(226) 10
Tricobalt 8940 60


We can use this chart to determine the optimal fire rate, and optimal number of torpedo launchers. As you can see, a Photon has a 6 second cool down, but because of the innate Torpedo Cool Down, you can only fire 1 torpedo every 3 seconds. This means the optimal number of Photons is 2, any more and they are wasted (of course this is applies for the bow OR stern of the ship, not both at the same time)

Now because the Quantum has an 8 second cool down, you “could” use 3, and always have 2 on cool down, and always be able to fire one every 3 seconds, but it would only be 89% efficient, as one of the torps would have finished its Fire Cool down before the Innate Cool Down is completed. The best amount to use for Quantum’s is 2. Transphasic and Chroniton work best in triplicates, because of the 10 second cool down.

Aside from the torpedoes, which are the main damage dealer for a (GS) the rest of the weapons should be Tetryon based, to maximize shield depletion, so as to allow your torpedoes to impact the hull faster. Since you will ALWAYS be facing your target (Torpedoes always have a 90 degree firing arc) all of your rear slots should be Tetryon Turrets, allowing for 360 degrees of fire. Your last fore slot is up to you, I prefer a Tetryon Beam Bank as it also has a 90 degree arc, but does more damage than a Beam Array.

Properly utilized, this Gunship load out can dish out damage rivaling that of an escort (even beat them when it comes to hull damage.) This kind of attack can be devastating to the Borg once you take their shields down. If anyone should have any questions, or wishes me to elaborate on anything, please post after this message. I will be editing in Pictures, and links to videos once Xfire starts working in game again. I have a few videos of my last ship in action, as a Gunship I will post soon.

Here are some of my videos, sorry no sound:






I am rather proud of the damage that the (GS) can dish out, and would appreciate any criticism that anyone wishing to test it out may have.

[Big_Dawg]

This is a well thought out strategy, I hope to find more.