After playing a (tiny) bit of 0.95a. I rapidly felt like spicing things up a little bit with mods, but not too much so i could still try the newest vanilla additions. On top of the standard QOL mods, i wanted to add ArmaA on top of it. Because big robots.
I didn't played very far into the campaign, but still enough for me to get a feel of the faction. My fleet started off as a mix of vanilla/ArmaA ships, until i translated into a full mecha warband. That's when i realized ArmaA isn't meant to be played as faction like Diable or Shadowyard. They have too many holes in their roster to fullfill every required roles. ArmaA offers a mix of support and striker mechs, but they have to rely on ships from other factions to perform optimally. Early and mid game proved easy enough, but late game was painful.
During this campaign,
the Garegga was the first ArmaA craft i used. It proved to be a top of the line frigate/mech. A close range brawler that can even go toe to toe against destroyers.
By itself, it would be a pretty decent frigate, but what makes the Garegga really good is its SILVERSWORD system that further boost it's rate of fire, mobility and accuracy. It's a Safety Override switch an command. And just like SO, it comes at the cost of ripping through its peak performance when used. Hardened subsystems is pretty much mandatory for the Garegga once there's more than a few enemy ships to deal with.
Still, it was my fleet workhorse for the whole campaign. The built-in Mutilators's monstrous DPS allows the Garegga to be a threat to nearly anything, even during late game. The SILVERSWORD's speed buff also makes it to easily engage and disengage a specific target, making it very difficult to pin down. On top of it, the build-in SILVERSWORD hullmod (yes, it's named like the ship system) is pretty much an Integrated Point Defense AI, as such the Garegga is more than capable of defending itself against fighters and missile swarms.
On the other hand, it's as expensive to deploy as most destroyers, and like any ArmaA craft, it have virtually no cargo space whatsoever. It's made purely for fighting. And while it's an impressive combat tool, it won't win the battle by itself and will need support to crack open the strongest shields and armors.
There's also the Tri-Tachyon high-tech variant, the Trihänder. It does come with built-in Flux Coil Adjunct and custom, more efficient pulse lasers. I don't like it as much as its original version though. The pulser lasers have worse tracking and rate of fire than the mutilators, making them less useful at shooting down fighters and missiles. And i prefer the composite turrets over the synergy ones. Still, it works, but not as well in my opinion.
I also got my hands on
an Aleste. The frigate mech, not the fighter one (yeah, ArmaA tends to call multiple things with the same name). It's a small glass cannon of a ship. It can dish out quite a lot of damage, but is absolutely not qualified for a frontal assault, even on a frigate. The tiny flux capacity means the Aleste can easily overload under pressure, and because of its low hull and flimsy armor, it rarely gets a second chance in battle.
Instead of rushing in, the Aleste prefers to flank or go for an already pressured targets. I like the use my Alestes as quick objectives cappers, then ordering them to escort frontliners like Gareggas. When they're not the focused by an enemy, the Aleste can make use of its variety of built-in weapons to do its job. Flamers, grenade launcher, laser blades... It got quite a few options. The loadout won't change its role much, but it adds some variety at how it'll poke holes through the enemy's hull. While it can be used by the AI with respectable results, it's clearly intended to be used as a flagship, where the player can push the craft in a way the AI wouldn't. It's no Hyperion, it won't win the battle by itself, far from it. But it's fun, it's really fun to fly. One annoying thing i spotted when used by the AI, it tends to waste its Heavy Rifle shots on fighters. Come on, that's a 700 energy shot! Keep that for the big ships! It should have the "strike" tag to avoid that.
One thing to note, the Aleste appears as a frigate but is technically a strike craft. It needs carriers on the battlefield to repair and resupply. Having an aggressive carrier, or a ship with converted hangar close to the frontline is an easy way for a quick pit stop in the middle of the battle.
Similar to the Aleste is
the Einhänder strike craft/frigate. Faster, tougher but also much more expensive. Unlike the Aleste, the Einhänder can survive a direct confrontation with bigger opponents. Not really with tanking, but more with dodging. Thanks to its time dilatation enhanced maneuverability, it can juke through projectiles with surprising ease. I used my Einhänders as oversized Thunders interceptors. Their incredible mobility allows them to even circumvent omni-shields, and deliver massive EMP damage with their Juno MK.I.
Add some homing lasers to handle fighters, the Glaive cannon to punch through armor and the dreaded Pilas drones, the Einhänder can do a little bit of everything. Juggling through all the guns can get confusing in battle, so i prefer to let the AI use this ship instead, especially since it can pilot it reliably. The Pilas drone can also be customized with their synergy hardpoint. Ion cannons seemed to be the safe loadout in my experience, everything that can hamper the enemy's ability to fight back is extremely useful for ArmaA crafts. But for more aggressive variants, a Needler or a Rift Lance are very strong options, especially since the Pilas do share the same time-dilatation effect as their parent ship.
Unfortunately, its small size and limited weaponry limits its influence on the battlefield. Just like the Aleste, it's here to help, but it won't win the battle for you.
In the heavyweight category comes
the Altagrave. A very expensive destroyer mech with decent stats for its price. But you don't get one of those for its raw stats, you get it for the utility it provides to your fleet. The Altagrave shine in a support role, covering allied ships with its K.A.R.M.A system that can redirect missiles and absorb projectiles only to spit them back as its own missiles. It's an extremely powerful defensive system particularly useful against the hardest hitters. The missile blowback effect can be quite impressive against swarms of Piranhas bombers.
Alas, the Altagrave is a capricious beast in battle. Making it behave the way you want often require extensive testing in the simulator before being combat ready. The few weapon mounts limit the customisation possibilities, even more so if you take in account range-matching with the built-in Vajra cannon. From my experience, it tends to behave with extreme aggressiveness, with little regard for its own safety. Which works very well when your fleet is steamrolling the enemy, but not so much against opponents that can hold their own.
I found that tethering my Altagraves to other ships with an escort order, like the Garegga, rein in their aggressivity to more manageable levels. On the other hand, their limited weaponry hampers their capabilities at medium to long range. Finding the right balance between longer range survivability and close range efficiency can be a difficult thing. Altagraves tends to either overperform for a short period of time before prematurely exploding, or survive with little contribution to the battle. I was ready to retire my unreliable big mechs until i got my hands on a command variant that changed everything.
That variant, the
the Altagrave(C) is a bit different from the standard version in that it's a purely support build. It trades the direct fire Vajra for the Syrinx MRM launcher. Its K.A.R.M.A variant still do absorbs projectiles, but instead of spitting back missiles, it instead create a time dilation AOE for friendlies around it. It's only a 1000 range bubble though, so it doesn't want to sit too far from the frontline so its allies can benefit from it. What really changed the (C) variant for me though is the built-in Operation Center.
ArmaA crafts tends to be offensive based with very little in the way of defense, and often need to be closely managed. With OPcenter, you can now micro your fleet to vastly improve their effectiveness. ArmaA mechs are fairly limited in peak performance, and don't want to be mired in an endurance battle. With regenerating command points, timing eliminate/avoid/rally orders to quickly take down specific targets becomes a huge advantage. Those reckless Altagraves you carefully set to escort duty? You can now remove the leash and let them go wild just long enough to burst down that capital ship. Frigate capturing your objective? Ask that Einhänder to quickly take care of it. Altagrave trying to suplex an Onslaught in the middle of the enemy's fleet? Come back here buddy. The back and forth ordering ensue your mechs are performing to their best capacities while limiting the risks. In that way, the Altragave(C) was the biggest game changer in my campaign. My fleet could now properly take on end-game fleets without catastrophic losses. This new way of playing also allowed me to build my standard Altagraves the way they are supposed to be (at least to me) by focusing on close range builds with high flux capacity and dissipation.
The (C) variant isn't just a mobile command center though. The Syrinx launcher is a nasty weapon, and downright brutal with missile specialization. Because most of the weapons i used on it didn't generated flux, i used my mech as a front line shield tank/torpedo boat. To keep the enemy busy and finishing off those in difficulty.
The third variant is
the Altagrave(G), (G) standing for grenadier. Unlike the other two, this one lacks the K.A.R.M.A system, instead relying on plasma jets and a slightly upsized weapon layout. It's fast, and better armed. Its role is clearly being a hunter killer, the one you give an eliminate order to and watch the firework. The Exceliza grenade launcher is unfortunately quite unreliable, my ship will often flail around with its gun, relying on spray and pray rather than proper aiming. Properly setting the launcher to be linked with a more reliable gun in the weapon groups makes it a bit better. Still, a lot of grenades bouncing around, fired in inexplicably wide arcs, is a common sight with the Altagrave(G). It's probably the least useful of its siblings. It works, but at 18 deployment points, i expected a bit more from it. I wish it had customizable Pila drones instead of its standard hunter-killer ones.
There's also a fourth variant, the (EX) version, but it's a boss ship and i haven't tried it in this campaign.
I also did use the fighters, although i didn't looked into them as deeply as i did with the ships. From my experience they were... Okay. I guess? I think it's because ArmaA fighters do not work very well as part of an ArmaA exclusive fleet. Most couldn't fill the roles i needed at the moment, and those that could, could only in theory but not really in practice. The
R9 Gallant is a prime exemple. A long range kinetic beam bomber. Pretty useful in theory. On the battlefield however, they tend to miss a lot. By comparison, its immediate competitor, the Longbow, is cheaper, more reliable, deal hard flux and is even armed with PD.
It's possible that my brain haven't yet moved on from Starsector 0.8.1 when the carriers were all powerful. So take my opinion on the fighters with a grain of salt. It's possible i expected more of them than i should have.
My campaign ended relatively early. A pure ArmaA fleet only got me so far. I struggled against Remnants, and got thoroughly trounced by Omega. A mixed fleet would have worked much better i think. Their limited roster prevent them from filling every roles they need. In this version, it's easy to make them work, but difficult to make them excel. ArmaA mechs require to be carefully managed if they want to win a battle in late game.
It was still very fun to play, although i couldn't shake off that feeling of jankiness when using the mod. Strange AI behavior and some other oddity happening here and there. Nothing game breaking, aside perhaps from a recurring issue where the battle wouldn't finish without using the EndCombat command. I did played with Secrets of the Frontier though, so maybe it comes from there?
There's also some little things to iron out. A few missing descriptions here and there : the Syrinx launcher, the AMWS-G. The sword slash particles looks weird,
and can glitch pretty hard when there's numerous Valken-X on the battlefield. The overload sound also do repeat itself on the Aleste and Einhänder, which can get pretty grating.
One thing i really wish to see in a future version is the fighter's weapon stats being shown in the stats card. Diable Avionics did that if i remember correctly, and it would greatly benefit ArmaA too since their fighters mostly use custom weapons.
