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[Havoc]

Hi what is the "best" platform for pillumspam?
(also with 0.95 mods)
the fleet should be about 20 ships with as much pillums as possible
 + civ ships for cargo,fuel,salvage gantry...
and maybe some sniperships with long range gauss

vigilance? 1 slot + faster rocket racks
venture? 2 slots + faster rocket racks
falcon(p)?
other?

[Sandor057]

I'd say a mix of Low Tech and Midline ships with sufficient Medium Missile/Composite slots, and Kinetic guns, so that the shields can be taken care of. So that would be a few Legions, 5 Pila each, with Gauss Cannons. Then some Dominators, with Mark IX Autocannons and 3 Pila each. If the goal is to spam as many missiles as possible, I'd say Falcons (P) would provide adequate support in that regard, and would have decent survivability as well, thanks to their speed. I don't use Vigilance much, as they are a bit sluggish and delicate to stand on their own and as bigger ships would already bring more missiles I think some Lashers or Wolves should be enough to cover your big ships.

As for destroyers, I don't think there are any particularly good options to be outfitted with Pila. Perhaps Condor, due to the fighter support it also provides, or maybe a beam Shrike?

So I'd use 2 Legions, 2 Dominators, 4-5 Falcons (P), 2-3 Condors, 2-3 Hammerheads, 2-3 Lashers, 1-2 Wolves, 1 Atlas, 1-2 Prometheus. Generally I'd use a lot of ECCM hullmods and fit any ship I can with a Converted Hangar. According to my calculation this would result in more than 32-33 Pilum mounts at least. That would be a decent spam I guess.

Now, I don't know how effective this tactic would be against a fleet which has a few interceptor wings or 1-2 dedicated anti-missile cruisers, but I'd say the above ships would be able to spam the most Pila at any one time.

[Havoc]

I would also like to have as much pillums as possible per deployment points
vigilance is 5 per nearly 2 pillums(not sure if racks is like 2x)
venture 15 per nearly 4 (+additional salamanders)
falcon(p) 15 per 4

legion only 5 per 40 , but additional fighterbays

maybe I should test pillums + fighters instead of gauss sniper

[Sandor057]

I guess one could approach using as many Pila as possible per DP, however, for some extra staying power some sacrifices could be made on that regard.

A Pilum is great once it hits the hull of the enemy, but unless we're talking about derelicts or some Low Tech ships, you'll have to consider taking down shields and occupying PD. I'd say using a few big guns for that purpose (Gauss + Mark IX) should be sufficient. Spamming as many Broadswords as possible would then take care of the PD issues. More eloquent options may be present, but this is all I can think of without some actual in-depth testing.

[Drazhya]

The high-tide from Torchships is a dedicated pilum boat. 20 DP for 4 "Pilum Wave" weapons. Not sure how those compare to standard pilums though, and it's a weak shieldless pirate ship.

[SapphireSage]

You can try checking out some of the carriers, in particular Condors, Herons, Moras, and Astrals are all able to mount at least 1 Pilum and the Moras and Astrals can mount 2 while Condors get the Fast missile Racks system along with 2 fighter wings. They can help give you more pilums for your fleet while also providing fighter cover for them, or Broadsword fighters can be used to help open up shields and distract PD with flares so more of them hit. Though both fighters and missiles will unfortunately crumble if an enemy officer has the Point Defense skill.

In 0.9.1 I had a play-through where I used only carriers. Specifically, I used 1 Astral, 2 Herons, 3 Moras, and 5 Condors and mounted Pilums in every slot I could because the Pilums would generate a cloud of HE chaff that would distract enemy PD from fighters/torpedoes, scare the AI away from the fleet, and for when some of them inevitably did hit something, could deal a decent amount damage by the end to Armor and Hull.

Could also try adding the Buffalo Mk II in there. For all of its unshielded glory, it is a destroyer with a medium missile and 3 small ones for only 4 DP.

[Jackundor]

Falcon (P) or Vigilance i would say. Falcon id the cheapest per pilum by far. vigilance is a bit more expensive per pilum but has fast missile racks so you can swarm your enemy at the start....

though pilum swarming will be made unviable in 0.95.1, apparently... Falcon (P) is getting more expensive and pilum is getting a big change

[IonDragonX]

though pilum swarming will be made unviable in 0.95.1, apparently... pilum is getting a big change

Many, many other changes are happening at the same time so we cannot predict that yet. Actual game play will tell.

[JUDGE! slowpersun]

Is doing a full pilum fleet the acme of tomfoolery, or do we blame Twitch on this one?

[Null Ganymede]

Condor ship system with expanded missile racks sets up battlefield saturation nice and quick. They can also bring fighters that pair well with Pilum spam. Kinetic damage, or EMP weapons to get around Pilum-facing shields.

The Pilum screen's okay at putting out enough pressure for your Condors to not get swarmed, too.

[Locklave]

Falcon (P) or Vigilance i would say. Falcon id the cheapest per pilum by far. vigilance is a bit more expensive per pilum but has fast missile racks so you can swarm your enemy at the start....

though pilum swarming will be made unviable in 0.95.1, apparently... Falcon (P) is getting more expensive and pilum is getting a big change

What specifically in 0.95.1 makes you conclude that? He just said he wants it less excessive.

I for one see no problem with pilum tactics, they aren't overpowered or unbalanced, they are just a interesting fleet build type.