Awakening 2 days in - A new player joins the field

By Jan

Introduction

Hello everyone, before I start with a little tipps and tricks on the lvl 74 aka blitz target of this years january event I wanted to introduce myself.
My name is Jan and I have been playing Battle Pirates since the black water days when it all started. Apart from a 1 year break I have been playing almost every day and came back a little over a year ago in late december 2015 to pick up from where I had left.
 The idea for writing and sharing ideas outside of my alliance/sector came a few weeks back, when I gave a lenghty reply to one of Specs posts and he encouraged me to write more if I wanted. (Thanks in advance for that Specs).
I consider myself a non coiner, which means apart from sending gifts to other players in order to help them or thank them for helping me I do not spend money. My own account hasnt received gold from me for several years now, so I have to make up for it with using my limited resources as wisely as possible.
With my posts I hope to provide a tactical insight for other non coiners or lower lvl players who do not have all the latest tech equipped/build/ranked during raids, and maybe provide a different view on upcoming releases from a purely players point of view.
Ok without further ado lets start.

The blitz target or "How to get points without lenghty grind/repair"

As specs has covered all viable options for Tier 4 (B-Set) in his earlier post Scourge are back! lets take a look at a target that requires a little higher tech lvl but neither the millenium gun and new special nor the cannoneer.

First of all what you want to have is an ironclad preferably equipped with mauser cannons. In addition to that a generic fleet of punishers/cents equipped with atleast pacs and arbs. Sometime today the B-set was nerfed to make PACs and Arbs sort of usefull and I noticed the damage dealt by the big gun in the 74 has been halfed, so lets make good use of this.
Here is my build idea for the Ironclad, which I used the campaign tokens for, to rank and build it:

(I am currently using GS3 instead of SiegeTargeting 3, changing this might even make it instant repair on the 74)

The idea is the following:  enter at 9 o'clock and hit 5 buildings to maximize bloodthirst. Then move towards the big gun and sit under its fire until it is destroyed. (The down arrow is your friend). Then retreat and use your cents/punishers to clean up the rest. You can avoid all the small range turrets by inching closer carefully (down arrow). In the video I used my cannoneers, but I ran some tests with my punishers, it is possible.

Prepping lvl 74 with ironclad video

Cannoneers in a lvl 74

To step it up a notch here is and idea on how to hit a lvl 74 for instant repair with your cannoneers 

To conclude this post, I thank everyone for reading and hope it helps a little. As this is the first time I am writing in a blog feel free to provide some tipps on how I can improve myself, constructive criticism is always necessary and welcomend. If you have any further questions just comment below and will answer as soon as possible

Scourge are back!

I remember why I did not like them the first time around

By Specialist_AKA_Specs

Raid is in full swing now, and I know many of you are struggling. I would be a liar if I said that I was not having issues. This raid has been the most costly for me since the last Scourge raid, and I am starting to remember why I hated them, to begin with. I want to be clear that the issue with the raid is not the difficulty level, layout, or even the damage dealt. It is the fact that the buildings have so much health that you have to take extra time to take them down. Hopefully the tips I will share will help you the next couple days and to move forward with this raid series. I could go with my cannoneer build, but as I want to help my non-coiners out with my thoughts and I have been so busy the last two days that i have not been available the focus of this article is to make the Centurion the best possible fleet going forward.

Edit - I just ran a Tier 4 with my Centurions, I still have 3 PAC in the fleet as I am not done with the refits. The PAC blast was taking out more than one turret and was doing far more damage than the start of the raid. Thank you for listening to the concerns expressed by the Moderator team over the last few days to those that made this decision. It will help those with the PAC Centurions to at least grind tier 4 this raid.

Video will be coming shortly as soon as it uploads!

Centurions -

Basic Centurion build for Tier 4

Arbalest can do the Tier 4 targets. The problem is that it takes a bit longer than with the Mauser and will lead you having more chance to take damage. You will want at least 20 arbalests in the fleet (5 per ship) to make this a reality. The good news is that this weapon will allow you to snipe most of the towers. The bad news is that it might take you extra time to finish the target. Again the targets are not challenging in the sense of what we have had the last year of raids. We were able to just take the hull and slap any weapon on it that was in the same class as the best weapon for the format and do well. This raid that was changed, and we were not properly prepared for that. This raid you need the weapon more than the hull.

My Basic strategy for Tier 4

Entering from the top helps more than the bottom or the sides. There are a few targets that start you at the same spot no matter where you enter. But, I cannot remember them and just enter from around the 11 clock position as you look at your screen. This entrance sets me up for the most comfortable way for me to approach the targets.

Take your time and move only when you need to move. Combat speed is crucial in the targets. The large radioactive turret can reach the whole map just about so you do have to keep moving. But, paying attention to the rising turrets can have you in jeopardy quickly. While learning a pattern has been the norm in previous raids. Getting to a spot is far more important in this one as you can take the turret out before it gets a chance to fire on you.

Damage to buildings is your friend! The more damage that you can deal with the buildings the quicker you take down the massive health these buildings have. So you will want Siege Battery 3, it is the most significant special. Followed with Siege Loader for the extra reload (increases DPS) and building damage. That leaves you Engine, Resistance and Nuclear Accelerator (or one of the newer specials for ballistic range).

Mauser Build for Centurion

Mauser will make short work of Tier 4 targets. You could even do T5 with this weapon, it would be similar to using arbalest in the T4. The best setup is the Millenium Cannon and the High-velocity rounds that go with it. Why? Because the targets are not really grouped together so, the splash is not needed, but building damage is. And the Millenium is the best gun for this raid.

My Cannoneer Build

Summary

You might disagree with me on the difficulty of the targets, but after testing and spending more on this raid than I have in the last 4 combined I can tell you that the difficulty is not the target themselves, but it is the amount of health the buildings have. That is why when you get a blue blast from the PAC it seems like it is not doing much damage. That 100K damage is like 5% health, and that is a shame because it is such a rare thing to go off that it should not have been negated to novelty status in my opinion.

You will want to get a newer weapon, and I hope that the powers that be, those that decide what gets into the Forsaken Mission or TLC, will give us another chance to get the Millenium or Mauser this month. Barring the release of those weapons to salvage this raid format. I hope they reconsider the ridiculous amount of health on the targets so that those that are unable to spend the money to get the millennium and cannoneer this month, can get the pieces needed next month.

It was a good first step by letting us have the campaign tower camps, it would have been better if we could have gotten the 30 million points through those camps. It is not like we could get through them in a matter of minutes or even an hour or two. The grind factor would have most cursing by the end of the weekend. But it was a great thing to offer the players, and I am happy it is there. The 6 million points or so from that for tiny damage is a welcomed change to those that I help with the game each day.