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[majk]

I have been a bit obsessed with wolfpack for the last few days and i'm curious what other people do with it and if anyone has an idea how to further tweak mine.

So far, the best setup i came up with is:
10LP brawlers (hmg + chaingun + 2x Ion cannon)
12 SO gamma cored glimmers (Ion pulser, 2x pd laser, 2x pulse laser)
3 Herons(no officers) for popping stations. I'm using daggers/cobras and i'm still not 100% sure which is better.
Logistics: 1 Prometheus, 1 Atlas, 1 starliner(built-in insulated engines and respective cargo bonus, normal augmented drive field and sensors 30sensor profile Atlas is funny).
2 Phantoms for that sexy stealth field

Thanks to elite Target Analysis and Wolfpack + EMP damage anything that lowers shields for even a second is dead meat and with +40% damage to capitals and +35% to cruisers, the biggest problems of wolfpack are gone. It's funny how fast they can melt capitals.
Helmsmenship combined with Coordinated Maneuvers gives all ships 200+ speed which is the main reason 99% of fights end up without losing any ships.
Brawlers are the heavy hitters, they melt/disable anything.
Glimmers are the frigate killers. They do less damage than brawlers, but their pd lasers are incredibly useful for dealing with fighters and missiles.
No monitors allowed, i tried it, but they just constantly get in the way.

All officers are reckless(Finding 10 reckless/aggressive officers took AGES, most of them were timid(bleh) or steady)
Officer skills:
Helmsmanship, Combat Endurance, elite Target Analysis(that 100% extra damage to engines/weapons is ridiculous), field modulation, something(reserved for dud skills or system expertise for more Brawler dakka). Same for built-in gamma cores minus last one.

PC skills:
Combat:
Nothing, this tree sucks for big fleets.
Leadership:
Coordinated Maneuvers is what helps you avoid casualties as speed is king and the huge bonus to command points regen is also amazing.
Wolfpack is the whole point of this setup
Crew Training 100% combat readiness gives great bonuses
Officer Management +2 officers(Going for Officer Training for elite field modulation/system expertise might be good too)
Best of the Best +1 built-in mod and mods on frigates refund 75% exp.
Technology:
Navigation and Sensors are required for all my playthroughs, not having them makes traveling soooo sluggish.
Flux Regulation is free flux bonus and flux wins battles
Phase Coil Tuning since i love being sneaky
Automated Ships for glimmers
Industry:
Bulk Transport + augmented drive field = 10burn Atlat/Prometheus nuff said.
Field Repairs for less downtime.
Containment Procedures and Makeshift Equipment for making campaign life easier
Hull Restoration is an incredible QoL skill, avoiding dmods is great.

This setup easily eats anything in the game except something like 4x full remnant fleet since you just run out of CR(I did beat that once but, i ended with 30-40% fleet wide CR).
Having very low profile and 20 max burn makes life way easier.
I am really curious what else i could do to maximize this setup, i just can't think of anything.

!Update!
I swapped 12 gamma glimmers for 9 beta glimmers and 1 lp brawler for XIV onslaught(i found a level 7 officer custom made for one of those).
Giving ais energy weapons mastery thanks to gamma ai extra skills made a huge difference.

[Nettle]

No destroyers?

[Siffrin]

No destroyers?

Without Escort Package they are still just the 0.96 DDs.

[intrinsic_parity]

I'm quite fond of scarabs with wolfpack. I think hyperions are probably still good too.

[eert5rty7u8i9i7u6yrewqdef]

I have been a bit obsessed with wolfpack for the last few days and i'm curious what other people do with it and if anyone has an idea how to further tweak mine.

So far, the best setup i came up with is:
10LP brawlers (hmg + chaingun + 2x Ion cannon)
12 SO gamma cored glimmers (Ion pulser, 2x pd laser, 2x pulse laser)
3 Herons(no officers) for popping stations. I'm using daggers/cobras and i'm still not 100% sure which is better.
Logistics: 1 Prometheus, 1 Atlas, 1 starliner(built-in insulated engines and respective cargo bonus, normal augmented drive field and sensors 30sensor profile Atlas is funny).
2 Phantoms for that sexy stealth field

Thanks to elite Target Analysis and Wolfpack + EMP damage anything that lowers shields for even a second is dead meat and with +40% damage to capitals and +35% to cruisers, the biggest problems of wolfpack are gone. It's funny how fast they can melt capitals.
Helmsmenship combined with Coordinated Maneuvers gives all ships 200+ speed which is the main reason 99% of fights end up without losing any ships.
Brawlers are the heavy hitters, they melt/disable anything.
Glimmers are the frigate killers. They do less damage than brawlers, but their pd lasers are incredibly useful for dealing with fighters and missiles.
No monitors allowed, i tried it, but they just constantly get in the way.

All officers are reckless(Finding 10 reckless/aggressive officers took AGES, most of them were timid(bleh) or steady)
Officer skills:
Helmsmanship, Combat Endurance, elite Target Analysis(that 100% extra damage to engines/weapons is ridiculous), field modulation, something(reserved for dud skills or system expertise for more Brawler dakka). Same for built-in gamma cores minus last one.

PC skills:
Combat:
Nothing, this tree sucks for big fleets.
Leadership:
Coordinated Maneuvers is what helps you avoid casualties as speed is king and the huge bonus to command points regen is also amazing.
Wolfpack is the whole point of this setup
Crew Training 100% combat readiness gives great bonuses
Officer Management +2 officers(Going for Officer Training for elite field modulation/system expertise might be good too)
Best of the Best +1 built-in mod and mods on frigates refund 75% exp.
Technology:
Navigation and Sensors are required for all my playthroughs, not having them makes traveling soooo sluggish.
Flux Regulation is free flux bonus and flux wins battles
Phase Coil Tuning since i love being sneaky
Automated Ships for glimmers
Industry:
Bulk Transport + augmented drive field = 10burn Atlat/Prometheus nuff said.
Field Repairs for less downtime.
Containment Procedures and Makeshift Equipment for making campaign life easier
Hull Restoration is an incredible QoL skill, avoiding dmods is great.

This setup easily eats anything in the game except something like 4x full remnant fleet since you just run out of CR(I did beat that once but, i ended with 30-40% fleet wide CR).
Having very low profile and 20 max burn makes life way easier.
I am really curious what else i could do to maximize this setup, i just can't think of anything.

Support doctrine rather than Automated ships would be a good call. You have 25 combat ships, of which only 22 will see combat. 22 combat width which without dedicated tanks can be hard to push the enemy back to their spawn so your tactical options are mainly stuck to free flow fighting which can lead to ships getting killed by bad AI behaviors/orders.
So, it's a question of what can replace the 12 gimmers in purpose, while being more numerous with SD.
Your options for 4 DP are the normal Brawlers, Wolf, and the Vigilance. Using any of these will bump your combat width from 22 to 25. 12*5=60/4=15-12=3
For 3 DP you have the Centurian, Lasher, and pirate Wolf. This however would push your combat width up to 30, 60/3=20-12=8 Which obviously doesn't work unless you're willing to spend the supplies per month going way above 30 ships.

So, if you want to try something different, the Wolf will be your best bet due to its survivability, with the Brawlers being a close second. For the Wolf, you can give it a phase lance + multiple tac lasers which should allow it to reliably kill Lumens and Glimmers while still being safe and dealing decent damage to everything else.

If you go this route, you'll still have two free spots for support ships.

[Thaago]

Cool! One think I disagree with the assertion that combat skills are bad for a wide fleet, just too many combat skills that cut into the big buffs a fleet can get are. A player piloted phase frigate or elite frigate with combat skills to back it up will be hugely impactful (especially with you already having phase tuning!).

I think that Hull restoration (and industry in general) is a complete dud with this kind of fleet, because frigates are so cheap to restore, even in numbers, compared to larger ships. If you lose a ship and it gets some D mods, just pay like 50k (1/9th of a single alpha core). Especially because you already have 100% CR from crew training+combat endurance, so Hull Restoration loses that value.

Using a phase pack led by you to back up the glimmers and brawlers would be a decisive improvement, and add a lot of kill power. Even without phase frigates, using something like a Hyperion of Scarab with player piloting would be massive.

[majk]

There is no point in replacing glimmers with normal ships as they would not be buffed by wolfpack and while i was a fan of support doctrine, gamma glimmers on wolfpack is far better.
I am already fielding 25 out of 25 ships.
60dp for 12 glimmers
60 dp for 10 lp brawlers
60+ for herons.

As for the tank role, glimmers with 100% CR, elite field modulation and hardened shield are surprisingly tanky. They can take a volley from a Radiant and quickly retreat to drop excess flux.

[Draba]

As mentioned if you are getting crew training anyway for the PPT can just drop industry as Atlas/Prometheus are all that's needed (can also replace them with Revenants, only cruiser sensors though).
Pick up cyber aug and officer training, rest into personal combat(doubles as an extra cyber aug boost) or QoL.
If you don't want to pilot or use your character as an AI officer ground ops can be worth it, small DPS boost but paired with the hit strength it's a decent extra.

[Thaago]

I think taking automated ships instead of cybernetics is a good trade for going for an ultra-wide wolfpack fleet, even if they do end up flying something themselves with ~5 combat skills. It is lower power on the officered ships, but allows it to go very wide while maintaining the other officer bonuses (like wolfpack).

[Ruddygreat]

I think that Hull restoration (and industry in general) is a complete dud with this kind of fleet, because frigates are so cheap to restore, even in numbers, compared to larger ships. If you lose a ship and it gets some D mods, just pay like 50k (1/9th of a single alpha core). Especially because you already have 100% CR from crew training+combat endurance, so Hull Restoration loses that value.

hull restoration is actually pretty good with an automated wolfpack fleet; it gives you a free extra 15% CR which allows you to field a frankly abominable 11 hyperion / 15 alpha'd glimmer fleet with no CR issues.
though that composition probably doesn't fare well against any serious carrier fleets, it is funny to think about.

[Zenaria]

I gotta call it small SO Fleet instead of wolfpack.
they play different.

only thing you can change could be switch from Bomber to interceptor.
main propose is to make clearways for your pack to prey.
lessen time to fought fighter. (mayb they just shrug it off since it's SO+reckless)

[Thaago]

Oh! Right I had completely forgotten that for automated ships you want as much CR as you can get to overcome the oversized penalty.

Hmmm i still don't think it is particularly worth it compared to a player flagship with some skills, but I'll grant that it synergizes with more automated ships.

[Low Settings]

A big weakness of SO fleets are point defense so you might want to incorporate some point defense officers with Locust missiles to get rid of fighter spam. Those can be an issue with the Doritos and carrier heavy bounties.

[Burvjradzite]

okay, i'm doing it
p.s. i'd want to see exactly blueprints of these builds pretty please?

[majk]

I gotta call it small SO Fleet instead of wolfpack.
they play different.

only thing you can change could be switch from Bomber to interceptor.
main propose is to make clearways for your pack to prey.
lessen time to fought fighter. (mayb they just shrug it off since it's SO+reckless)

I think SO for a wolfpack is a requirement, +50base speed for frigates is insane. With so much speed, ships can dodge most incomming shots unless it's a hitscan and when that happens, they can quickly retreat behind other ships making it impossible to concentrate fire with so many tiny buggers flying around.

I tried a wolfpack without SO, but it just fails horribly against anything bigger, without SO, coordinated maneuvers, helmsmanship(+50base, +20%, +15% speed) frigates have a hard time dodging shots.