Edit: I'm starting to realize some of my initial testing impressions aren't holding up as well as I thought in a fleet context. I'm going to wait until after the tournament for further feedback, and I'm probably going to revise some of the below in that context.
End of Edit.
I realize this is a giant dump of feedback, but its somewhat based on testing experiences trying to find a fleet that will work for the tournament. These of course are my own opinions, and it wouldn't surprise me if others point out problems with my suggestions.
I'm also only slightly sad that some of the recent nerfs made some of my anvil test fleets from a few days ago not really succeed anymore against the provided test fleets. Oh well.
Going through the Anvil ships, I feel many of them have too few OPs to meet their weapon loadouts. I'm constantly finding myself leaving a good fraction of mounts empty, unlike most (but not all) vanilla ships.
I assume a small slot implies 5 OP, medium implies 10 OP, and large is 20 OP.
In general, 1 large slot is worth 2 mediums or 4 smalls.
I know there is an old post in the modding section advocating an addition 15/30/45/75 OP based on size however vanilla ships don't seem to follow this anymore. In the following I look at a low tech, mid-line and high tech ship in each category and look at how many OP it has relative to its weapons loadout.
Lasher, 4 DP: 7 smalls (35+15=50, has 55)
Centurion, 4 DP: 7 smalls (35+15=50, has 55 OP)
Wolf, 5 DP: 5 smalls, 1 medium (25+10+15=50, has 55)
This implies to me most combat frigates should have base 20 OP, plus weapons.
Enforcer, 9 DP: 5 mediums, 4 smalls (50+20+30=100, has 110 OP)
Hammerhead, 10 DP: 2 mediums, 6 smalls (20+30+30=80, has 95 OP)
Medusa, 12 DP: 2 mediums, 7 smalls (20+35+30=85, has 95 OP)
This implies to me most combat destroyers should have base 40 OP, plus OP for weapons.
Dominator, 25 DP: 2 large, 5 medium, 9 smalls (40+50+45+45=180, has 190 OP)
Eagle, 22 DP: 6 medium, 7 smalls (60+35+45=140, has 155 OP)
Apogee, 18 DP: 2 large, 2 medium, 5 smalls (40+20+25+45=130, has 140 OP)
This implies to me most combat cruisers should have base 50 OP, plus OP for weapons.
Onslaught, 40 DP: 3 large, 13 medium, 6 smalls (60+130+30+75= 295, has 360)
Conquest, 40 DP: 6 large, 8 medium, 8 smalls (120+80+40+75=315, has 315 + 40 from balistics integration for a net 355)
Paragon, 60 DP: 4 large, 6 medium, 13 smalls (80+60+65+75=280, has 370)
This implies to me most combat capitals should have a base OP of 115 to 165. It has the most variability, and think is used to tune ships the most at this tier.
OP can be used as a balancing point if the ship has something out of the ordinary that it brings to the table. However, many of the Anvil ships are pretty straight forward in design, and I think should be fairly close to vanilla OP values given their weapons loadouts. DP can then be determined after that, but a majority of anvil ships feel like they are OP starved.
So following is my take on the Anvil combat frigates through destroyers.
Flail, 4 DP: 4 smalls, has 40 OP, which is what I'd expect. The only real issue I have with this ship is its actually quite vulnerable to fighters, because of the narrow shield arcs. Its not actually that good with dealing with them. A pair of thunders will take its engine out in short order. Otherwise, its good for keeping flanks clear of other frigates and maybe distracting a destroyer.
Flamberge, 4 DP: 5 smalls, has 40 OP. This is a bit light, I would expect this to have 45 for a vanilla ship. One might argue its a balancing point for its speed, but on the other hand its already got fairly low health and flux stats.
Axe, 4 DP: 1 Medium, 3 smalls, has 45 OP, which is what I'd expect. It is a shieldless frigate on the slow side? As soon as a destroyer or large shows up, this goes pop very quickly. I suppose in a 1 on 1 frigate fight its okay, but this doesn't have much redeeming value in fleet fights.
Mutt, 6 DP: 2 Medium, 2 smalls, has 50 OP, which is what I'd expect. Its interesting, in the fact that its fast, and can mount a medium ballistic, so nominally hard flux out to 1000 units. Plus a medium missile mount. It makes for an okay sniper frigate. Good dissipation, but lower end base flux pool.
Sparrow, 5 DP: 2 Medium, 1 small, has 35 OP. I would have expected 45 OP. Nearest vanilla comparison is Vigilance, with 2 mediums, also fast missile racks, and has 45 OP (so its even a bit higher than 20 + weapons), and most people don't consider the vigilance to be great. This could probably benefit from bumping to 45 OP. As it is, with speed 55, its a very slow missile spammer, unable to kite which is what'd you want from salamander or pilum spammer. It has good armor and hull for a frigate, but terrible flux stats so not much in the way of shield. It goes pop as soon as something gets close. To be honest, you could raise the speed to 90 or 100, it would still be slower than most combat frigates, but at least it wouldn't be slower than some capitals. You've already got a 165 speed medium missile mount plus medium ballistic in the form of the Mutt.
Hatchet, 4 DP: 1 Medium, 4 smalls, has 45 OP. I would have expected 50. Its slow for a frigate, but its also approaching destroyer levels of health, and has a medium ballistic slot, so that seems like a fair trade off.
Rapier, 12 DP: 1 Medium, 9 smalls, has 85 OP. I would have expected 95. I like the concept. Faster destroyer but with only smalls means it can't take advantage of the medium ballisitics range advantage to kite, which helps balance it. Dissipation is a bit low for a midline-ish 12 DP destroyer though. Maybe that is okay given its speed, armor and health? Personally I'd probably bump the dissipation to 250 as well, given there are mid-line vanilla frigates with that much dissipation (Brawler comes to mind with 250 dissipation and 450 armor).
Cielo, 10 DP: 2 Medium, 3 smalls, has 65 OP. I would have expected 75 OP. This feels like a dedicate support ship that doesn't survive on its own. I think you were going for a omen vibe, based on the drones, as well as a support ship based on the ability. The problem is it doesn't really mesh well.
Omens work because of their small size, high speed, good 360 degree shields, and flux free EMP ability all work to compliment to keep the ship alive.
Here you've got a typical sized destroyer, with cruiser tier speed, and normal midline shield stats. It wants to get up to nearly point blank to actually use its range 0 EMP drones. Its only real weapons are energy weapons, which normally assume fast and high flux capacity (or alternatively, a really good shield ship with potentially a range boost). And doesn't really have the flux or OP to mount decent weapons. So all you're really bringing the ship for is the Afflictor system. Which, is a good system, but given how fragile this ship is compared to an elusive afflictor, I feel like the whole package doesn't quite work. Especially when relying on the AI to pick targets. If nobody else is shooting the target it picks, the +50% damage bonus is essentially unused. Compare to a hammerhead using its ship system. Basically a +100% damage bonus for a destroyer's worth of damage.
First thing I'd do would be raise the base OP to 75. Beyond that there a couple different things you could try, probably not all at once.
Option 1) Raise the drone range to 1800 or 2000 (roughly the range of the afflictor system). This allows it to better support without getting to point blank range with a slow chassis.
Option 2) Push more towards being like the Apogee. Compare an Apogee (18 DP) to say, a Falcon (15 DP). Nearly twice the flux pool (12000 vs 7000) and twice the flux dissipation (350 vs 700). So compare this to a Hammerhead. Bump the flux pool to maybe 6000 and dissipation to 350, or maybe flux pool to 7000 and dissipation to 300. Give it the option to mount something other than graviton beams.
Option 3) Increase speed to destroyer baseline of 90 or maybe 100 (high tech destroyer speed). Which lets it actually run away from cruisers after getting close.
If you don't like any of the above options, I'd probably drop the deployment points to 8 or 9. Its not worth as much as a Hammerhead as it is, whose self-support system probably will provide better returns and is more likely to survive. In fleet tests, mixing in 1 or 2 doesn't help the fleet much, as it needs to be able to hold the line as well as support, since its taking a destroyer slot, and just collapses too quickly.
Cudgel, 20 DP: 6 Mediums, has 85 OP. I'd expect 100 OP given the weapons. However, I'm not really sure what this ship is trying to do. Its ship system actively interferes with the ability to phase. It costs 20 DP, but loses head to head with a 10 DP baseline simulator hammerhead, unless I go expanded missile racks and just spam missiles. Which doesn't need a phase system to do, and runs out quickly. It doesn't have the flux stats to sustain 4 ballistic weapons - certainly not after phasing in close.
It lacks even token PD, which means a few fighters will take it down in short order, once they get through the armor. I get that its tough, with twice the hitpoints of a Harbinger, but the majority of a phase ship's defense is in its speed and ability to position, not its raw hit points. Also, a good portion of vanilla phase ship value is in its ship system. Doom is not near worth 35 points without its mine system for example.
I guess its one redeeming feature is it can carry two medium mounts worth of missiles? In that case, I'd almost say fast missile racks would be a better system for this ship. I'm assuming you made the missiles point off centerline to prevent double reapers? Which limits it to seeking missiles like harpoons or starburst. But to be honest, the sparrow, a 5 DP ship, pulls it all of much better for 1/4 of the cost.
I guess I'd like to hear what you'd like this phase ship to do in most fights? Missile spam? Snipe from range? And how it does it in a way that makes it worth two hammerheads.
Culvern, 14 DP, colorful: 3 Mediums, 7 smalls, has 95 OP. I would expect 105 OP. Feels over costed at 14 DP with its current flux stats, speed and OP. Especially against any type of ship with some reasonable PD. At 14 DP, it is hard not compare it to the pirate Falcon for only 1 DP more. Falcon (P) is faster with its ship system, base faster with the built in Unstable injector, and can carry roughly twice as many missiles, and doesn't need fast racks with 4 medium missile mounts. Plus has much beter flux stats, armor, and health. I'd probably drop it to 10 DP to be honest. An Enforcer can pull off a similar initial missile salvo, and still has a solid base of guns to use afterwards, and only costs 9 DP. Alternatively, you could try upping stats, maybe give it expanded missile racks built in or a few other things to make it actually be worth the 14 deployment points.
Morgenstern, 13 DP: 2 Mediums, 10 smalls, 110 OP, which is what I'd expect. I really like this ship. Even if I'm still fitting it with half the weapon slots empty. Its fairly flexible in how you can outfit it. Straight in safety overrides, long range sniper, anti-matter blasters, ion cannons, potentially a fair bit of point defense if you want it. Its unfortunately, on the pricey side for the tournament though. Massed cheaper destroyers tend to do better, although in a campaign I could imagine using this as your command ship during the destroyer phase. It feels a tad slow for a 13 DP high tech destroyer, but perhaps that is for the best given the two medium ballistics it has. And it does have a mobility system, so its fine for pursuit.