Beeblebrox's thread about an OP mission got me thinking: How do you fly an Orion ship?
-There don't seem to be nearly as many tactics on the web for the Pirates. The only I could find were Tourney tactics for SFB, where there were option mounts.
-Also, they seem to be really underclassed compared to the Empires. For example, an Orion war cruiser might have 25 or 27 engine power, while an Empire CW will have anywhere from 31-38 power and the same movement cost. Orions seem to be ships that would use finesse tactics, so how would one go fast enough and keep the range open?
-The only advantage I can find for the Jolly Roger is that the ships are usually dirt cheap, BPV wise. In a point-balanced matchup they could be the heavyweight ships.
-Does flying as an Orion depend on using Engine Doubling?
Thanks for the help,
Rob
Flying as a pirate definitely depends in large part on engine doubling. However it also depends on rigorous power management and critical timing of weapon fire. Obviously engine doubling can't be used full-time so it is imperative to have a plan laid in ahead of time as to when you will allow your engineer to do it. Two key uses are for attack runs on heavily armed opponents (in order to reinforce the shields) or for making well protected high-speed getaways after a close range strike (for speed and shield reinforcement). Another handy use is to quickly refill the phaser capacitor and then shut down engine doubling, using the excess power (from no longer needing to recharge the capacitor) for either speed, shields, or EW.
Firing all weapons to depletion is rarely a good idea for pirates. Because pirate ships are extremely over-armed when compared to available standard power the captain must be extremely tight-fisted with weapons power and weapons fire. Yes, you can hit with an alpha strike that will do heavy damage to that F-CA but realize that suddenly having every weapon on the ship sucking power will completely screw your previous settings for things such as the shields and EW. This, of course, leaves your ship vulnerable to return fire because of suddenly-weakened shields or a sudden lack of EW to confuse the enemy's targeting sensors.
