Best "Blockade Running" Ship?

[TheDujin]

Hi all,

I've seen many posts talking about how a Marauder Fury is the fastest ship in the game; however, it isn't very durable and doesn't have a lot of fuel.

I'm the middle of the FW campaign, so the Republic hates me. If I wanted to, for example, fly to the Deep (to buy Atomic Engines), what ship should I use to do it?

I've tried Bactrian with Atomic 500s, 1 reverse thruster, and max heavy anti-missile, but if I run into 2-3 Carriers with particle cannons, I can't jump because of pushback.

I've tried Blackbird with Atomic 300s, 1 reverse trusther, 4 ramscoops, and max heavy anti-missile, but the same issue with pushback occurs. If I use a scram drive instead, I have to bribe to land too often, which puts a dent in my wallet (also, 2-3 Carriers still shred me).

Assuming that money isn't an issue, what's the best ship for "blockade running"? Preferably durable, fast, with plenty of fuel (or the space to install many fuel pods), and with a decent cargo hold (so I can buy outfits to fly back to my fleet).
Or, is there a better flight path that will help me avoid the bulk of the Republic? I'm currently flying upwards through Wei.

[Ker]

Hauler w/ scram drive, more turning than speed, lots of fuel pods and a ramscoop.

[Ker]

And no, i'm not kidding. Your biggest issue is just getting to and landing on <planet>. You can have a fleet of these runners and buy as much junk as you want.

[✦✧iNSaNiTY✧✦]

It may be better to just accept bounty hunting missions in FW space, this provides a good source of income and if you can get the bounty missions that spawn marauders, you will be able to take the atomics off of them and use them for your own fleet. Though I believe the marauders only have the smaller atomic engines, but hopefully still better than nothing.

[TheDujin]

Originally posted by Kiko:

Hauler w/ scram drive, more turning than speed, lots of fuel pods and a ramscoop.

Will this work with a single ship, or will this only work with a fleet of these ships? A single ship solution is preferable so I don't have to deal with fleet logistics in hostile space (i.e. I don't have to worry about losing ships because of dumb-ish ship AI), and so that I can let my bounty/salary pay for the crew fees so I don't have to worry about losing money by jumping.

Originally posted by ✦✧iNSaNiTY✧✦ =XTC=:

It may be better to just accept bounty hunting missions in FW space, this provides a good source of income and if you can get the bounty missions that spawn marauders, you will be able to take the atomics off of them and use them for your own fleet. Though I believe the marauders only have the smaller atomic engines, but hopefully still better than nothing.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too. But now all my ships have A200s or A300s, and I'm looking to grab some bigger Atomics.

[jafdy]

In all siriousness it might be easier to just finsh the campain.

[22144418]

by chance, do you possess the alien hyperdrive?
may open an alternative fyi

[Ker]

The scram hauler will work both alone and in fleets. Its just small

[Karythrys]

I've actually found that a star barge with a scram drive and 3 fuel pods (don't remember how many outfit expansions that requires, either 1 or 2) works insanely well due to the large fuel capacity and very quick jump time. It works better than a shuttle, surprizingly. Note that I'm about at the same point, minus the bactrian.

Edit: possibly consider a ramscoop (the catalitic one) instead of the fuel pods. IF you still have space left, add more fuel pods again.

[MrPurple33]

a much overlooked ship, which I adore, the Scout !! -- pretty cheap (1.2M Initial buy) -- at @2.6M I usually have a Dwarf Core, A250 and A255 Atomic/Deep engines, 3 Laz weapons, Hai Shielding, upgrade to 70 Cargo Tons and great Passenger Space-- get 5-12 of these synched up with Scrams and watch em' dance across the Galaxy (at 5 jump spaces vs 4 -- can even extend that range) - great Blockade Runners/Smugglers -- Just have to be good at dodging some Pirates and Missles occasionaly

[Luzilyo]

i usually go for tarazed ships (should be able to afford an osprey maybe even a falcon if you haven't wasted too much money on other things) since they are all pretty maneuverable. a bit squishy though, so you may want to be careful about fights. usually i just use superiour speed to just move forward at full speed until i can jump safely before any of the enemies catch up. with good maneuvering and thrust, there is very little issue. i get away quick and i can stop and turn for jumping very quick as well.

[TheDujin]

Thanks all for suggestions! Will try them and see if I find one that works for me.
Also, Blackbird seems to work decently, actually. I was just being an idiot and trying to jump right after entering the system (instead of flying away from the center), which left me at the mercy of literally everything.

[VODD]

I have a Falcon, and am currently running through the Republic with it, I don't know it's stock speed, but I installed Hai atomic engines, (if you install the biggest one you can have a speed of nearly 1,000! I tried that, but it was a bit too fast and so I got the next size up ones, which still let me have a speed of 591, decent turning, I can outrun most missiles and every ship with it) and it is very good. I also sacrificed a little cargo space for some extra fuel, so it has a range of 8 jumps. (6 stock)

A tactic I like is to warp in, and keep going way past anyone there who might fight me. If I am persued, I can run, and warp from way outside the normal star range, and I can pick the terms of engagement. I can let a few ships approach, keep them at any distance I choose and engage 1 at a time. I can thumb my nose as they approach and are picked off 1 by 1. Gunboats become cannon fodder. (and to not deal with fleet logistics, just tell them to hold position. They can rally later and you can sell them for ~1,000,000 each)

It only has 70 cargo space after my modifications though (but if you didn't mind a range of 6 you could have 90cs) and the modifications are expensive and require going to Hai space, but I like it!

[iie-kyo]

Hate to threadjack, but I always wondered what would make for a good Blockade Runner type ship in this game; this game gives you the ability to outfit your ship to make it incredibly fast but unless it's a Tier 3 ship, you often lose out on a lot of other things - cargo capacity, etc.

There was an Escape Velocity Classic mod called EV: Rebel Alliance that replicated the Star Wars Millenium Falcon so that it was a freighter that could fly incredibly fast and actually handle dogfights against pirates and TIE Fighters/Interceptors provided it doesn't get surrounded with them. Absolutely loved that ship because it really felt like the real Falcon - crazy fast speed and turning, decent armament, looks like a piece of junk, but flew as fast as a fighter could. It could easily outrun capital ships too.

In fact, that mod did a bit of "power creep" by making most ships extremely manuverable. X-Wings, A-Wings, and TIE Fighters all were heavily equipped with loads of ammo and flew at incredibly fast speeds while capital ships were huge lumbering masses of shields and armor. Even had the Corellian Corvette in it.

I was hoping the Corvette in this game would have been something like the Corvette in EV Classic - I used to use that for blockade running because it could take a beating and was quite manueverable. I could outfit the ES Corvette to be something like the EV Corvette in terms of combat effectiveness and manuverability but all these capacity, heat, and energy limits mean that I'd have to sacrifice cargo capacity. The EV Corvette was pretty good as a heavily armed light freighter too.