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Working up to galleon as new pilot?

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Pind:
Just got this game a few days ago.

Been playing and I absolutely love it! (minus my lag/disconnects from China)

I tried the roles, and once I tried the pilot role I knew it was for me. Reminds me of leading roams in Eve Online at a smaller, more accessible level.

Now, I LOVE the galleon. I love everything about it from the strategy to the teamwork required. Unfortunately, I'm finding it pretty hard to win in matches unless I have the right crew (especially good gunner).

I want to ask:

* Some tips for piloting the galleon
* If I have a long range setup on my port side, how do I shred armor? (what light gun do I use to shred armor at medium=>long range?)
* Maybe an alternative ship I can fly to get more experience without letting down my allied captains.
So far, for the galleon I know that:

* I need to point my port-side guns at the enemy as much as possible
* My best defense is a ton of offense (repair guns, turning engines before repairing other shit)
* I should try not to move so my gunners have a better shot
* I should help repair the balloon as a pilot so my engineer can shoot more
* I should setup and let the enemy come to me, and get my ally to defend me
* I shouldn't try to run away or chase in most cases
* 4x hwachas doens't always work...
Cheers,
Pin

Replaceable:
The best side for range is the left side, your light gun should be a hades, or a mercury, for hull strip at range, but a Gatling can still be used too. You can issue this with a lumberjack and flak for long range balloon pop and hull kill.

Basically the light gun on the left should be hull strip for the range you want to fight at on your left side, if that makes sense.

nanoduckling:
Galleons have a weird learning curve. You seem to have identified most of the early road blocks to galleon piloting (in my opinion the most important one being minimal intervention, you position the boat and let your crew do the killing). Most of what follows is going to be explanations of why these limitations crop up.

You've observed you need a good gunner, I'm afraid that is just a fact of life as far as galleons go. Using the hwacha (at long range), the lumberjack or the Typhon requires a high degree of skill. Of these the hwacha is probably the most forgiving, which is part of the reason quadruple hwacha builds are popular with newer plays (plus MOAR ROCKETS is fun). One option as far as gunning goes is to roll your own. Gunning is a role lots of folks would like to do and don't get the chance. Make sure you understand the fundamentals (do it yourself for a bit), practice with a lumberjack or Typhon and then find some responsive novice gunner who is keen to learn and give them a heavy mortar and show them the ropes. The first half of their first game they will be really, really crap, but if you are patient and supportive they will get the hang of it. Set reasonable expectations (odds are pretty good you will lose the first match with them gunning), so the standard should be improvement. One option is to go blenderfish so you have an easier time setting the range for them while they get their eye in.

I think the biggest weakness a galleon has is how effectively it is hard countered by blending ships like a squid or a goldfish with a carronade. Most of your guns have arming times or crappy vertical arcs meaning once you are on the ground, you are likely to stay on the ground unless your ally helps you out. If your ally is crap or a ship ill suited to offering you protection you may have to rethink.

Side guns depend on your left side armament. Remember that mid and close range galleons are possible (although the latter are a pig to position correctly). For long range you want a Mercury or a Hades, definitely not a flak or mortar unless you are doing something weird with carronades (and even then). An Artemis is probably a bad idea, but it does give you some disable ability, I could see it maybe working with a lumberjack, but generally you want to go with something to strip enemy hull. A Gatling can be a nice complement to hwachas.

Don't just repair the balloon. At extreme range you often don't need be at the helm at all. Take on the role of the top deck engi, all be it with a spanner or pipe wrench and the need for constant situational awareness. You can buy an extra couple of mercury shots by giving the hull a tap if you have nothing better to do and hull breaks on things like mobulas take people off guns.

HamsterIV:
Remember galleons can not control distance and fight at the same time. So if an enemy is out of range fly strait at them until you are well inside your range then turn. It is common for experienced galleon pilots to ram their way into a brawl, and use the collision bounce to turn their guns on line.

Hadies and Mercury are the best guns for armor strip at long range. However a lesmok Gatling gun can be effective at medium range. (Swap to vanilla rounds at close range). For a close range side Hellhound & Mantiore work well for me. The hell hound does a decent job of stripping hull. If you want an enemy out of your hair for a bit while you deal with his teammate a quick balloon pop is the way to go.

Don't underestimate the utility of the rear gun. Flairs will help spot a blenderfish sneaking up on you or a well placed mine will punt him off his gun arcs. I have even seen a harpoon drag an unsuspecting squid to its death against the back side of the galleon. Don't expect the rear gun to kill anything, but it can save you from getting killed.

Pind:
Thanks a bunch for the great advice guys.

I like the idea of having armor strip + a balloon popper for the light gun on left. And flare in the back sounds ingenious!

Just got out of novice flying a junker and saw a lot of the mistakes I was making while killing galleons, and their weaknesses (get above them and flame them). Am now learning the other roles, and played an engineer on a galleon manning a gat, which is when I noticed armor stripping was a really big deal for getting kills.

I will post my learnings in this thread. Thanks again!

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