Ship Types: A "Quick" Rundown

Brief description of ships and their weapons, strenghts and weaknesses, and tips on how to best use them.

There are 8 classes of ships that will become available to you over the course of the campaign.

All pictures used in this guide will be from in game screen clips and the starhammer wiki, linked here: http://blacklabgames.com.au/starhammerwiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

WEAPONS

There is no ship customization; your ships and weaponry are fixed, but you can choose which ships to use and how to use them. However, it is important you maintain a decent balance of weapon types, as too many high damage, low accuracy weapons within your strike force will mean smaller enemies will easily be able to swarm your fleet without being shot down.

SMALL LASERS are the weakest weapon but fire the quickest and most accurately. They are best used against small, fast targets. You will not want to use these against large targets unless you are focusing fire, as the damage will be negligible most of the time. They are found on swordfish raiders and nemo corvettes.

MEDIUM LASERS are the bread and butter of many of the ships within a fleet. They have good damage, accuracy, and tracking with moderate refire rate. They can still be used against smaller targets but effectiveness will suffer; they are best used against mid to large size targets. They tend to miss a lot the closer a target is and extremely fast targets will almost always avoid them, however. They are found on the nemo corvette, albotross frigate, triton battlecruiser, kraken dreadnought, and the manta light cruiser.

HEAVY LASERS are heavy hitting but highly inaccurate against all but the largest of targets and can miss even mid size targets at times. They do not fire very often but they play an important role against large targets. You will need to be wary with these as you get larger ships, as friendly fire can be devestating. They are found on the destroyer and kraken dreadnought. These are best used when you cannot use a LASER BEAM up close and against large targets at close to mid range.

LASER BEAMS are exclusive to the destoryer. They are easily the most powerful weapon in the game as they deal 3x more damage than heavy lasers and have 95% accuracy. They do not have a very long range, however, and they cannot be used too close to a target either, making them a bit unweildy. Full power to weapons, a pair of destroyers focusing fire on a leviathan with their laser beams can kill it extremely quickly. Because it has 95% accuracy a focus fire mode does not need to be issued specifically for it to gain increased accuracy. They have an extremely long recylce time, so the heavy lasers will deal more DPS-- BUT the beam laser IGNORES 100% of shields and seems to bypass some enemies' armored areas to some degree.

MISSILES deal 25 direct flat damage no matter your power allocation. They absolutely can hit friendly ships and can launch at unpredictible angles; be sure you have a clear line of fire or you will deal massive damage to friendly ships and potentially kill smaller ships instantly (RIP swordfish never forget mistakes were made). Use these at mid to long range as they deal high splash damage as well. They are found on the nemo corvette and manta light cruiser. They have limited uses, so be sparing, unless you have taken a defensive warscore. Their tracking is very strong but be wary shooting them at small targets. They can dodge them and sometimes cause them to double back around and hit one of your own ships instead.

TORPEDOES are the battlecruiser's call to glory. They deal 15 flat damage each and have very limited tracking ability. They can be fired 6 at a time so used correctly they can do some serious damage. They do have splash damage so be wary, but the raduis is smaller than the missile's. Do not use them on smaller targets, it's an absolute waste. They are easy to miss with, even against larger targets, so you will need to predict which targets will move in a straight line or focus on targets that cannot maneuver out of the way fast enough. Because 50 are carried by the battlecruiser, with full warscore you will be able to spam these pretty liberally. Fun stuff.

DRONES are exclusive to the dreadnought. They have a limited amount of fuel so you will need to recall them before they run out. When docked they refuel and repair completely in 1-2 turns. They seem to have 1 small laser each, but with 6 of them the damage adds up quickly. Any destoryed drones are replaced between missions. They can be ordered to defend the dreadnaught or engage in a search and destroy protool against specific targets. They fly themselves and seem to be more than capable of avoiding collisions, so you will not need to plan their flight path. There are two squads of 6 drones.

COUNTERMEASURES are not really a weapon, but are a defensive sentry array. They have a sphere of influence in which any passing enemy ships are slowed down. As soon as an enemy missile passes through the sphere it will destroy itself and the missile. They need to be set up beforehand, as there is a delay between deploying them and their ability to shoot down missiles. They are found on the albotross frigate and the manta light cruiser. There are a limited amount of countermeasures.

STUN LASERS deal no damage but have 95% accuracy and will incapacitate a target, rendering their weapons useless and ability to move impossible. They will still maintain any momentum they had so be careful of colliding with stunned targets. Larger targets seem to be resistant (but not immune) to this effect. The stun laser is probably the most infuriating and difficult tool to use because it is only found on the albotross, where it has very limited manuverability. It has a very short range and the albotross itself can only deal damage to targets on its side. Truely, I rue the devs for putting this weapon on a ship that cannot use it too well, but I also respect just how powerful making a leviathan do absolutely nothing for 2-5 turns is as well. It won't fire very often but it will not shoot the same stunned target over and over so it will try to stun multiple targets in its arc.

RAIDER/SWORDFISH

The swordfish has only two small lasers that are forward mounted. It has very limited shields but they recharge quickly. Do not be tricked into using these as fighters; their cone of fire is absolute crap up close. Use them at mid to long range, where their arc covers a large area and they are relatively safe from return fire. They are highly manueverable and fast so they are the best choice for setting up crossfires with. Do not let them get swarmed by smaller foes; they will die and won't be able to shoot back. Contradictory to this, their best use is shooting down smaller targets and aiding in the destruction of medium size targets if no small targets are available. Mid to large size enemeis will have trouble hitting them. Enemy missiles and torpedoes can cripple, if not outright kill them on a direct hit, so be careful and pay attention to when you need to slam on the engine and avoid them. Leveling up a swordfish increases its turning speed/raduis and top speed, making them more maneuverable. I recommend focusing on weapons as they should not be taking a lot of fire so you squeeze as much damage as you can out of their small weapons, and recharging shields when you are repositioning them to set up a new crossfire or having them retreat from aggro/regroup with larger ships when they are getting swarmed. Their turrets can hit targets from extreme differences in planes so they make the best ship for exploiting weak points on enemies and it makes them able to dominate the higher planes with crossfires.

NEMO CORVETTE

The nemo corvette has two medium lasers forward mounted and two small lasers rear mounted. It's worth noting that the cone of fire for the small lasers in the rear is much wider than the swordfish's; you can safely use them up close. They also come with 12 missiles. They have moderate shielding and so you need to ensure they do not get focused too hard, especially by swarms-- they are absolutely screwed if a target is hitting them from the side or a large target is hitting their rear, where they have almost 0 shielding. They are best used to set up corssfires with swordfish and being used as a flexible ship for hunting specific targets and aiding larger ships of the fleet. They have moderate maneuverability and high speed. They get slightly stronger weapons and shielding as they level up as well as increased top speed. I recommend always having at least one of them in your fleet, possibly two if you are taking the aggressive warscore given their lower cost. Keep them at mid to close range and ensure they have plenty of room when they fire missiles; they can be devesating if they hit a friendly. Keep them on the lower planes of a battle as their turrets have trouble hitting targets more than 1 plane below them since they are atop the ship.

ALBATROSS FRIGATE

The albatross frigate is the defensive backbone of any strike force you create and command. They are one of two ships to carry countermeasures, and have a MUCH higher (5x more) amount of uses than the alternative manta light cruiser. Hands down, take two of these if you are playing defensively. Always have at least one of them regardless even if you hate their maneuverability because having 20 countermeasures is worth putting up with it. They have four medium lasers, two on each side, and a stun laser up front; the firing arcs are very wide. They set up good defensive crossfires but I recommend you keep them in the "middle" of the plane of elevation, as they have trouble hitting targets high above and far below them. They have extremely high shields and recharge rate, which only increases as they level up, so they are forgiving of using power to engines often to position them and they make a good "no, YOU go first" ship. They can be awkward to use because they favor broadside engagement but have a powerful tool up front, but they are easily one of the most powerful ships in the game used correctly.

HAMMERHEAD DESTROYER

You want it dead? This is the ship for the job. While they do not avoid much fire given their size and have weak shielding, they carry the biggest and baddest weapons in the game. A beam laser up front and two heavy lasers on the broadsides ensure it dishes out heavy handed force against other large targets. The beam laser, as mentioned, has near 100% accuracy. Go wild with it. Just be mindful, their hull seems to be weaker than average as well and their low power shielding does not recharge very quickly unless you have gone full power to shields. They are usually the first ships to go down when focused, so make sure they have something beefy to escort them or a corvette and raider covering them. And absolutely, be mindful if you are running tight formations; the hold fire command HAS to be used to get the heavy lasers not to shoot your friendlies every now and then, as much as that sucks. Be sure to have them focus targets that their heavy lasers are shooting at to make sure they can actually hit it thanks to the accuracy bonus of doing so. As they level up they will deal even more damage. Their heavy lasers will have trouble hitting targets below them but the beam laser does not.

TRITON BATTLECRUISER

The main selling point of these are the tropedoes. They have 8 medium lasers, 2 on the front, rear, and sides, which while handy in the heat of battle, isn't all that special. Plus this thing is probably the most guilty ship of friendly fire if you stick it in the middle of your formation. It's also stupidly large and won't avoid any damage, which mitigates how useful the large shield pool is. This ship will collide with anything and everything if you're not careful; krill, asteriods, friendly raiders, your ablabtrosses.. yeah. I like it but I also don't. It's an important ship though. Give it a bit of space and focus on shields more than engines and weapons, since it will draw a lot of aggro. If you look closely you'll find all of the turrets are up top with none below; put it as low as you can without jeapordizing it in an engagement to ensure maxiumum effectiveness and minimum FF. Shoot torpedoes only at large targets they can't possibly miss and sometimes medium size targets that you know will continue their current path. As they level up their torpedoes will do more damge, but honestly this is not a significant boost until level 4 (max level).

KRAKEN DREADNOUGHT

The kraken is the only ship to have drones, which are very powerful tools. It can only laucnh 1 squad a turn and it takes 1-2 for drones to dock, so be careful with their fuel supply, as if they run out while outside they are lost for the rest of the battle (but not chapter). It has 4 heavy lasers, 2 on each side, and 2 medium lasers, 1 in the front and rear.The idea is to have them broadside large targets as a single medium laser is pretty darn pathetic for a firing arc; they're basically there to take potshots at the passing krill. Have them approach nose first, as they are extremely long but not very tall or wide; they'll take less hits on a direct apprach than in an angled one. They boast the highest hull strength in the game, which only gets stronger as it levels up; it's difficult to get one of these killed so feel free to have it play pinata. Just don't get too close to enemies with it, because docking drones can be blocked from the drone bays on the sides. Be mindful of just how long the ship is, as the slightest angle adjustments can make the front and rear of the ship collide with stuff. It's not nearly as bad as the battlecruiser about collisions, though! The turrets are able to hit 2 planes above and below without difficulty on all sides.

Manta Light Cruiser

With only a single medium laser up front, terrible shielding (on par with a raider at the size of a destroyer -_- ), only 4 countermeasures but 16 missile uses, this thing is.. basically a ship you purposely send in to die. I absolutely do not recommend getting one in a defensive warscale unless you are using mostly smaller ships, and even then only as a reinforcement to replace anything that dies in a battle. It's fat, slow, and dare I say ugly. They're good for aggressive warscore given their main use is "go die so I can get something better here in a moment" but even then it's a stretch. Easily the worst ship in the game if you intend to, you know, not throw ships away. If you do use this ship, keep it in the lower planes of battle, as the itty bitty turret cannot shoot anywhere below the ship 90% of the time.

[Jedi_007_]

Great write up, thanks

[Mantaray]

The manta offends me.

[Beastwolf1]

Figured the manta was shit.