Dropfleet Commander/Tactics/Shaltari

Conflict is eternal. No less so am I.

Why Play Shaltari

Reliable damage output

Zippy jousters

Special Abilities

Energy Shields: At the start of a battlegroup's activation, they may choose to raise their shields to grant them a crit-proof save at the cost of a major boost to their Signature and reducing their Point Defense to 0.

Particle: These weapons automatically score Critical Hits, ignoring armor

Motherships/Voidgates:

Ships of the Line

• Light Tonnage:
  • Voidgate: Not actually a ship. Take one for every point of Gate assets in your fleet, then take a few more.
  • Glass-class Corvette: Once the game’s most spammable combat ship, now just a tiny CA glass cannon. pew pew pew pew pew
  • Topaz-class Gun Frigate: Basic Disintegrator jockey. Two shots with Front arc targeting only, but with 3+ Lock it puts out reliable damage (and crits!) at long range.
  • Amethyst-class Close Action Frigate: Thanks to the power of microwaves, this frigate's d3+1 Close Action (Beam) shots cannot be countered by point defenses. Expensive but deadly.
  • Jade-class Lance Frigate: One particle lance. Averages less damage than a Topaz in a smaller arc, so you're best off skipping them in the starter box and building something else.
  • Opal-class Shield Booster Frigate: Allows one nearby vessel each turn to reroll all failed Passive Countermeasures saves against a single group's worth of shots. Use these to keep a valuable target from getting oneshot.

-Destroyers below are under experimental rules as of 4/26/18-

• • Chromium-class Destroyer: The first Shaltari Burnthrough Laser vessel, with a basic BTL(3) profile given Lock 2+. More fragile and expensive than the comparable PHR Pandora, but packing extra weapons and the usual double digit Shaltari Scan and Thrust stats.
  • Mercury-class Destroyer: Another close action brawler. Instead of unblockable microwaves it carries a Pulse Ionizer that makes the first use of the Mauler rule. This is a Close Action Burnthrough attack that uses the target’s Armor as its Lock value with a max damage cap of 4. Note that it is subject to PD rolls!
  • Cobalt-class Homeship: Mini-mothership able to materialize a single asset per turn. Also has a set of basic Disruptors for when your opponent decides to press your lines.

• Medium Tonnage:
  • Aquamarine-class Light Cruiser:
  • Azurite-class Light Cruiser:
  • Emerald-class Mothership: The chewy nougat at the center of every Shaltari fleet. All their ground assets are aboard this ship, but they require Voidgates within range before you can actually deploy.
  • Basalt-class Fleet Carrier:
  • Turquoise-class Cruiser: The smallest Shaltari vessel mounted with their unique bombardment/CA (Beam) Ion weaponry.
  • Granite-class Cruiser: Two particle lances! Has to go Weapons Free and probably miss arc on its intended target to fire both!
  • Amber-class Cruiser: Two Disintegrator Batteries, one in each F/S(x) arc.

• Heavy Tonnage:
  • Jet-class Heavy Cruiser: Essentially a Turquoise with a Disintegrator Bank added up top. The Jet is able to bring all its firepower to bear against other ships without going Weapons Free as long as the Ion weapons are being used in Close Action mode.
  • Obsidian-class Heavy Cruiser: Three particle lances! This time with Linked on two of them, so it can still execute turns and put out a reliable mean of 2.6 unsaveable damage in the same activation.
  • Onyx-class Heavy Cruiser: Three Disintegrator Batteries. The standard "Weapons Free whenever possible" heavy for the Shaltari, though its damage potential isn't too shabby.
  • Sapphire/Palladium-class Battlecruiser: The combination of Gravity Coils and Ion Aura arrays make this an odd ship. It can't put out damage like the Ruby/Adamant, but provides a mix of situational utility.
  • Ruby/Adamant-class Battlecruiser: Particle Cannon Pair + Disruptor Banks = vaporized primitives

• Superheavy Tonnage:
  • Platinum-class Supercarrier:
  • Diamond-class Battleship: Has the distinction of carrying the single most devastating weapon in the game. Prior to the nerf that decoupled the Particle and Crippling rules, its Particle Triad could reliably delete a cruiser every turn with guaranteed cascading crits.

Building a Fleet

Unlike the other races, who have to decide on a balance between strike carriers and troopships, Shaltari are only concerned with how many Motherships they want and how many Voidgates are necessary to absorb casualties while still deploying their Gate cap every turn.

Tactics

Placeholder

Counter-Tactics

Placeholder

Common Playstyles

Placeholder