Can someone critique my Galleon setup?

[ErichVonSturmovik]

Me and 4 friends just got the game (like 2 days ago), and we try to play together some I'm rarely with randoms. Anyway I came up with this configuration for my favorite ship:
Stern gun: Gatling
Main deck gun: Harpoon
Left mediums: Manticores
Right mediums: Heavy Flak and Heavy Carronade

Top deck crew: Pilot (canister, moonshine, claw, scanner, greased) and Engineer (scanner, mallet, chemical spray, greased)
Bottom deck crew: Gunner (lesmok, charged, heatsink, mallet) and Engineer (extinguisher, scanner, dynabuff, heatsink)

So basically, the pilot can fix the balloon/man the gatling if need be
The using the harpoon combined with moonshine is basically to stabilize an enemy ship to hit with our left broadside of manticores
The right side is more versatile with the range of the flak and the balloon popping carronade
I figure the gunner can also switch to heatsink on the flak so they explode at close range if need be.

I'm wondering:
-Is the harpoon really worth it, or should I swap for mortar/flak/gatling?
-Should I just go 4 manticores?
-Should I swap the heavy flak for a lumberjack and make the right side maximum balloon popping?
-Do the crew loadouts make sense?

It seems to work pretty well, usually nets a lot of kills and rare deaths, but I think we've been mostly playing against bad players. Thoughts? Advice is much appreciated

[Sammy B. T.]

I would have your below deck crew both have pipe wrenches. If you find yourself in a situtation where multiple components go offline downstairs, you will need the ability for them both to rebuild.

Harpoons don't really work too well IMO. You would be better served with a gatling gun on the side. Stripping the armor with it before the Hwachas fire would be devastitng.

Your right side is versatile in that you have one gun that can only work in close range and the other that only works at long. I generally like the galleon broadside to be two complimentary weapons. I'd say either drop the manticore for a lumberjack if you want one side to be a sniping side or drop the flak for a hwacha for a close range side.

Drop the charged rounds in favor of heavy clip. Heavy clip is the godsend ammo type for the Hwacha making the fire pretty damn accurate. Also I think you are confusing heat sink with incendiary. Regardless have the engineers bring heavy. It is a good standard ammo type for most guns.

[N-Sunderland]

I spent ten minutes typing an extensive reply that covered every single aspect of this with explanations of what works/doesn't and why, and what should be used instead.

Then my phone lost its Wi-Fi signal right before I hit "post".

[Captain Smollett]

So much to reply to here.

Definitely pipe wrench for gunners and pilots since it's a much more versatile tool and heavy clip for engineers as it greatly increases the accuracy of many guns, notably in this case Gattling and Manticore.  Also in many cases Kerosene can replace the use of Moonshine and Pheonix claw giving you space to take tar barrel.

If you want to build a close range Galleon then a chaingun on the port side is a great compliment.

On the starboard side I would lose the flak entirely and replace it with a heavy carronade giving you much more disabling power in case they get on your weak side.

That being said, one of the most powerful style of Galleons are used in long range builds, and as you and your friends improve and find more reliable teammates you'll definitely want to consider this.  The best long range Galleons typically have a Lumberjack, Mercury Field Gun and a Heavy Flak on the port side guns.  This can devastate any ship with a well timed and accurate volley.

Hope this helps you and your friends dominate the skies.

[ErichVonSturmovik]

Thanks for the responses. @Sammy, I might try the pipe wrenches and see how that works, also the gatling sounds good but I was just wondering, isn't it easy to flank the galleon and avoid his broadside? I figured harpoon would lessen that weakness. Also, I figured that -30% velocity, 3 shot magazine of heatsink is better than -50% velocity, 1 shot per magazine of incinedary, but that's just my opinion I guess. @N-Sunderland if you could take the trouble to re-write/summarize I would greatly appreciate it but you don't have to @Smollet Thanks for the advice, but about the Moonshine: I like the Moonshine more for the stability than the engine power, as I want to keep my left side pointed at the enemy as long as possible (due to the fact that it gives -10,000% angular stability) also I don't think I'm a good enough pilot to use the tar correctly.

[Moo]

Top deck crew: Pilot (canister, moonshine, claw, scanner, greased) and Engineer (scanner, mallet, chemical spray, greased)
Bottom deck crew: Gunner (lesmok, charged, heatsink, mallet) and Engineer (extinguisher, scanner, dynabuff, heatsink)

Scanner?
I expect you mean "spanner"

[HamsterIV]

The side mounted light gun is one of the most important guns on the ship. There is no medium gun that is a dedicated armor stripper so that roll must be filled by the light gun on the top deck. If you can keep the fight at range, go field gun, otherwise go chain gun. The Manticore is a good all around weapon I like having one on each side due to very high possibility that my gunner can't shoot the more difficult weapon. Some of the more competitive teams use a specialized long range builds, but I find planning for the worst case scenario (crew skill wise) has won me more games than trying to optimize for the best case scenario.

[ErichVonSturmovik]

Top deck crew: Pilot (canister, moonshine, claw, scanner, greased) and Engineer (scanner, mallet, chemical spray, greased)
Bottom deck crew: Gunner (lesmok, charged, heatsink, mallet) and Engineer (extinguisher, scanner, dynabuff, heatsink)

Scanner?
I expect you mean "spanner"

No I actually meant "screwdriver" simple spelling mistake on my part 

[teweedo]

This thread and its answers, have been very informative so far.

I play mainly the Galleon (my favourite ) and often go for the most practical set up because I don't have a regular crew so I'm not sure how reliable they will be.

So I just go for 2 manticore+gatling one side and flak+carronage the other side with a flamethrower on the rear.

Any advice for someone who doesn't have a regular crew (I just have a regular engineer from time to time)? I also don't mean to hijack the thread either so feel free to ignore my request of advice

[Ofiach]

replace one of the left side manticores with a lumberjack and learn the markings on your left indicate the guns firing arc, you would be surprised how effective it can be to have a gunner hop on and rail an enemies balloon with a few shots while they're trying to close the distance.

Also what I mean by learn the markings is pretty simple. When you look left from the helm learn which post, flag, lamp, railing etcetc is an easy landmark for you to key off of and keep the enemy ship on your left side on that landmark.