Hunting Kingfishers

medium ships are always going to be the bane of anyone who likes heavies or light ships... there's much info now on how to take out a nighthawk, and anti-merlin strategies are similar vs other missile ships...

but it seems there is little knowledge floating around on how to take out a kingfisher. well, one that is flown well.

personally i like zapping them with a nighthawk for target practice, which works about as well as everything else i've seen done short of missile spam...

Kingfishers are the strongest all around ship in the game, incredible firepower, shields, boost, and maneuverability. Aside from luring the G5 into a precarious situation or catching one that blew it's boost load in a hankie, the strategy is to hope the pilot is a newb, or at the very least is a lonewolf-every-round-is-SND mentality. Which I'm afraid is about as good a strategy as our congressmen have towards handling the debt (in 'Merca")

i think this ship's maneuverability is its downfall - even though it can drift wonderfully, like the mamba it also chews through boost rapidly. this makes it vulnerable when it is changing directions, or at the least it cannot sustain both speed and agility for long.

the cannon doesn't do quite as much damage as people think, it only seems that way because you have to aim it well to get anywhere (with the same skills you will have more DPS output with a sidewinder).

the way i see it - it is fast enough to outpace heavy ships and keep up with light ships, it has enough firepower to hold its own (but not the #1 in this area by a good stretch), and it has enough armor to survive most encounters at least once. balanced, sure, but where it fails to exceed is where it will hurt the most.

I seem to get shot down in my G5 all the time, so I might have some info to pass along.

The F-3X is the G5s biggest threat. It can outrun and out turn the G5, plus it puts out more damage. Practice in one of these and you will soon make KingFisher pilots cry.

The G5 does not handle groups well. The G5's lower damage output will allow the other members in a group to rip a G5 apart if they try to take on more then one opponent. Flock together with your friends and watch the G5 guy switch ships.

Thats my two cents. Not that most of you need help shooting me down.

seems ive come up with a simple tactic against kingfishers when in a nighthawk...

as the nighthawk has range to play with, the kingfisher is at a disadvantage unless it gets into the nighthawk's personal space. so really, the most important defense / counter should focus on close-range tactics, or how to avoid close range to start with, ie, how to win in a head to head in a nighthawk, vs a kingfisher

when the G5 pilot is flying in, use rockets to eat away a small amount of shields at range. one remote detonated rocket is often enough, and often one is all you get - don't follow the rocket, once you fire you make sure to guess the timing and remote detonate that way, because you immediately need to switch focus to aiming the dual beam cannons at the slightest hesitation of your opponents movements.

and it will happen - 99% of the time a nighthawk's first weapon is the beam cannon with rockets supplementing it, so theres a good chance the G5 pilot will be thrown off for a moment or several. and once the rocket is fired it is virtually all downhill from here regardless...

supposing they are perceptive or experienced (likely both) and they dodge the rocket, they are still thrown off-course. if this happens close enough, but not too late, the G5 will be forced to overshoot their mark, so they lose boost and/or intended positioning, even if briefly... remote detonating the rocket ahead of time at a pre-determined time gives you a timed cue, like firing your own skeet target with the goal of shooting it as quickly as possible afterwards... you're forcing your target into a predictable motion; a few seconds worth, but if you know when to expect a clear shot, you have less to think about when lining one up. it is no guarantee but so far it has given me some good results when attempted this far. if the initial rocket didn't do enough damage, a second remote detonated rocket finishes the job easily.

of course if the first rocket did enough damage, the beams take care of the rest a fraction of a second later (if done right).

it is also possible that im insane, which would be why crazy things like this seem to work for me when i try it...

the-anger wrote:it is also possible that im insane, which would be why crazy things like this seem to work for me when i try it...

well.... seems to be the case, as i'm finding M10's more suited for the task than FM25.

script vs medium (and some heavy) ships with M10 is simply:
fire one beam. remember not to miss
get in close.
fire rockets.
remote det as you fire second beam.
win

doing that im popping medium ships on a pass... even on euro with 300+ ping...

the-anger wrote:

the-anger wrote:it is also possible that im insane, which would be why crazy things like this seem to work for me when i try it...

well.... seems to be the case, as i'm finding M10's more suited for the task than FM25.

script vs medium (and some heavy) ships with M10 is simply:
fire one beam. remember not to miss
get in close.
fire rockets.
remote det as you fire second beam.
win

doing that im popping medium ships on a pass... even on euro with 300+ ping...

This is why I use the M10 on CTF; ganks those G5 flag runners pretty well.