IronClad and Mauser Make a Splash!

And a Second Harlock TideSeeker? Yes! Please!

By Specialist_AKA_Specs

I say take the thing home and worship it! It resembles nothing on the earth, or in the seas or in the skies, so you can't be accused of idolatry.

Today we got to see the much-anticipated IronClad and Mauser Cannon. These two prizes have been the source of much discussion since it was announced that we would have Siege targets for January Event. The Mauser for the update to the current cannons we have, and the IronClad because it has been billed as the TideSeeker for the Siege Targets. Along with these two much-discussed pieces to our arsenal, we have a chance at a second Harlock Tideseeker and an upgrade to our cannon systems. Overall this update was a very exciting one for me as a player.

The IronClad is the hull that will mimic the TIdeseeker for the current raid set to start January 12, 2017. That means it will be auto Tier 4 targets for a coin cost.  This TLC is one that you are going to want to attempt to do if your goal is to auto the raids. The Mauser cannon is a must pick up and matches perfectly with the Cannoneer and The IronClad. The only question we have is Nuclear Accelerator or the Cannon System IV?

IronClad

I will build the Ironclad for testing purposes, my Tide fleet could do Tier 6 by the end of the event on auto, and I suspect that I can reduplicate that success with this fleet.

If we look at the hull a bit closer, we will see that it has all that we expect from a siege class hull. The biggest positive I see is the splash bonus. That will help with taking out the cluster of buildings. Other than the bonus to resistance at max stack, reload and damage will help with auto hitting the targets. The biggest negative I see is the range boost at 30% it will be below the 100 range of the Cannoneer. We saw how important the max range was in the last raid series where you hit the sweet spot for 0 damage or 30 minutes for just inching too close. I fear this will be the same with this hull compared to the Cannoneer.

That is probably why it has 100% stun resistance, and we should expect something to stun our ships while we are attacking these targets. And why this hull is being billed as our Auto hull. 

Mauser vs. Draconian Arbalest/Arbalest vs. Particle Accelerator Cannon

This Mauser cannon is a thing of beauty. Paired with the 200% splash bonus on the Ironclad this cannon will shine. The Arbalest could out DPS it in some instances on single target I think, and this will require some testing. But, I think on the IronClad you would want most of these and maybe one or two Particle Accelerator Cannons for the special it delivers to knock out clusters fast. My sweet spot seems to be 10 PAC per fleet.

By comparing the cannons, the Mauser is king taking out buildings then in order;

• Arbalest
• Crossbow III
• Railgun D-110
• PAC

PAC if you can get the special to go off is nice, but we cannot count on that reliably. I would go for a mix in this case.

I am not sure I will put this on my Current Cannoneer as I am using arbalest and PAC so while I will not be best in the show, the Cannoneer does not have the bonus to splash to make this cannon shine in my opinion. Therefore I will not be spending time in refitting before the raid.

Cannon System IV vs. Nuclear Accelerator

The Cannon System IV tops the Nuclear Accelerator in every way in my honest opinion for the Mauser. It boosts splash, it matches range and increases damage. It is also lighter by 11%. To bad we cannot match it with drum loaders, that would be an excellent combination.

I enjoy the zooming around the map as much as anyone. But, If you get this special then I would definitely go with this over the Nuclear Accelerator. Mostly because in my current build on even the cannoneer I am at max weight without full armor or weapons.

Grab the Harlock Tideseeker

If you have tideseekers you will want to attempt to get the Harlock Tideseeker this time too. It will boost that fleet of three to four tides to be able to auto the level 75 reaver armadas for hours ( was able to go 2 hours and still not have to repair) allowing you the ability to gain Uranium for a days worth of repairs while at work or sleeping.

Bug Fixes -

I could not finish the article without at least mentioning these as one fix was something that was most aggravating for the last week or so.

• Corrected an issue with the calculations being done to determine the movement speed of fleets on the world map. This should address a problem where fleets would appear to reach their destination, then jump back a certain distance and continue traveling to the target.

• Cleaned up some additional cases where stats were incorrectly showing both a plus and minus sign ahead of the bonus value.

While we do not have a fix to the diagonal land tiles yet, we at least got the map speed fixed and of course the confusing +/- signs on some blueprints.