Wolf vs sim Heavy Rocket Dominator, as case study for getting behind the enemy.
- Wolf can only win by doing so.
- This Dominator variant is the easiest and safest ship to get behind in whole sim.
- Even in a large fleet fight, getting isolated and killed from rear is how enemy Dominators quite often die. So it wouldn't be wise to ignore as 1v1 only tactic.
Wolf Build:Player-piloted:I went in very cautious, avoiding to shoot Reapers right before Burn drive or when all Vulcans are active.
Slow approach with shield up, without exploiting Burn Drive (still good enough):
AI steady:It almost got CR timeout.
AI with Eliminate order:What AI does wrong:
- Retreating too far to vent/dissipate after it already got behind the Dominator. Once you are there, Dominator literally can't turn fast enough to use frontal guns, so their range is irrelevant for considering where it is safe to vent. Correct spot in this case is right outside of rear Vulcan range.
- Repeated (and repealed) frontal approaches - these do nothing beside wasting CR. Best way to get behind Dominator is by keeping shield down for zero flux boost combined with skimmer. This Dominater build doesn't have any fast tracking guns that could inflict serious damage during such approach. But as second piloted video shows, even waltzing in with shields up works, you just need to commit to trading flux for positional advantage.
- Reaper targeting is way too risky (both land only 1 of 2), but I guess this part may be intentional.
Also, I'd say this connects to more general topic of awareness of enemy weapon arcs/ranges and hull's turn rate, it's very much possible to design a ship with vulnerable spot other than rear (Paragon often ends up exactly that without trying, sim one is easiest to attack from rear-side angle).