Working up to galleon as new pilot?

[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!

[VomAct]

As for Galleon piloting tools, I would suggest taking phoenix claw and moonshine for little maneuvers and drogue chute for when you get blended.  Many pilots disregard the back gun, but putting a mine launcher there can save you from blenderfish and squids (they loooooove to hang out back there). A particularly effective close range build is a gatling/hwacha/h. flak on the port side.  If you want to go long range, I would suggest putting a hades instead of a mercury on the top, as it works better with the LJ arcs up close.  Biggest weakness of a galleon is that it cannot control engagement range, so try to stay out in the open with long lines of sight and an ally with a flare gun.

[Arturo Sanchez]

sounds like you're already on your way. Thought I don't encourage ship favouritism. Many ships hold many different uses for several given situations. A galleon has key limitations that won't help make it useful on every game

e.g. ships that easily counter a gally or a crew that can't handle maintaining a gally.

[ShadedExalt]

If you're not playing seriously, bring moonshine and a harpoon on the aft; if someone is foolish enough to go behind you, 'poon them so they can't escape, and then turn on 'shine and ram them.  Squids have a tendency to just smoosh against your rear.

[Pind]

Is that rear gun something that is manned by the pilot usually?

Also, whats your opinion on the range finder in a long-range setup?

[Alistair MacBain]

The rear gun is either managed by the top engi or the pilot. This thing is more of a utility or emergency tool. A flare or a mine or something along those lines. You will never want to actually activly use it.

The rangefinder isnt useful.
An experienced gunner/gungineer wont need it for lj and hflak and a new player cant utilize it as he doesnt know which dot refers to which range.

[ShadedExalt]

Hell, I indeed don't know how the hell rangefinder works, and I'm still a decent shot with the LJ.  I can get range down within roughly 1/2 to 3/4 of a clip and be good for the rest of the match.  Back gun should be flare or mine, yes.  It's funny when a blender or a squid is parked back there and you flare their balloon/main gun, and if they don't know what 'side guns' mean, you're safe until the engi gets over to the gun.  And if it's a mine, well they freak out pretty hard, wondering where the hell that burst of damage came from.

[Alistair MacBain]

Another important thing for the galleon ...
Play as a team. Your ally is your best defense. A Galleon isnt a tank that forces its way through a whole team. Its a ship that needs to be babysitted to not get outmaneuvered and blended to death. Yes you have alot of heavy firepower and you can take quite a beating. But all of this doesnt matter if a squid or goldfish or even a carro/flamer pyra sits above you and blends you to death. A Galleon on its own is dead meat.
Get a nice position with your ally nearby and then kill anything foolish enough approaching you. If they ever come close enough you will want your ally to give you the time to get to your closerange side. Without this youre gonna cry.
Another thing ... dont stack guns. More than one lj or hflak or even hcarro is just a waste of potential. Even 2 hwachas arent good on their own. Its fine when you use them up close with a gat or hades. Then you can disable->shred armor-> and you the second hwacha to kill them when they are inside hfllak arming.
Outside of this I would never suggest stacking guns. One hflak can oneclip kill most ships. A lj just needs 2-3 hits on a balloon to kill it. A hcarro just needs oneclip aswell. And we all know that 2 hwachas volleys wont disable more than the whole ship .

[HamsterIV]

The rear gun can be shot by the pilot, but be careful not to loose arcs on the side guns while you are away from the helm. Here are some situations in which a rear mine launcher is helpful:
1) Running between points on Crazy king and there is an enemy ship behind you.
2) Laying a preparatory mine field while waiting for enemy ships to arrive on point.
3) When your side guns are on a target and there is annother one approaching from the rear.
4) When your components are constantly being destroyed, flame locked, or out of arc due to balloon destruction.

In the last situation you may want to order your entire crew to the top deck to double/triple team the rebuilds. Even with both turning engines out you can fly forward which should move the enemy to your rear for a desperation mine shot out the back by the gunner. It doesn't work all the time but it beats slowly grinding to death on he ground.

[Alistair Marlowe]

Keep in mind your galleon's silhouette as well.  In a medium-to-long ranged shootout, you can use your balloon or hull (based on what kind of shells are coming in) to bodyblock damage and give your ally a breather so they can repair up and get back into the fight.  In my experience the galleon plays best as the shield in a shield and sword combo despite your heavy weapons.  You dictate the terms of engagement by picking your position and fire lanes, but you are best served by an ally who can physically knock an enemy out of his or her threat arcs and into yours.  All this talk about a rear-mounted minelayer is nice, but it won't prevent an enemy from settling on your 12 o clock high and grinding you out.  Thus, I prefer to play the galleon if I have at least one goldfish or pyramidion in my fleet who can sit either off to the side under cover or behind my hull, ready to go aggressive at a moment's notice and ram close-ranged bogeys away.

Of course, this requires several things.  Primarily, it will require your allies to grant you command authority and respect your shot calls.  Secondly, it'll require you to make those shot calls; so brush up on your situational awareness, captain!  Last but not least, it will also require your allies to be able to respond to your calls.  I generally only fly galleon either in large games where the law of averages will usually provide at least one tractable ally (determined during pre-game lobby) or with captains I know already or clan mates.  Your best bet is to dive in, fly it, learn it, and build up your connections with other captains.  Few feelings in this game are better than winning an engagement from a de facto fleet command position and being the driving force behind that teamwork, and I hope you can enjoy that feeling soon.  Cheers, and see you in the skies!

[Pind]

Wow! Even more awesome advice, loving this community!

Really good advice about teamwork, and the weakness to balloon busting close range enemies. I got the chance today to play a ton with a constant crew and allied captain, and after going 5 wins straight we switched to galleon. It was the first time it worked for me (gatling/hwacha/flak setup) and with the whole crew on guns shooting at the same time- taking fire but giving much more back- we started getting kills.

The most satisfying moment was in a 4v4, with two crews filled with players I'm now familiar with. We delayed 3 ships while our allies killed the 4th, and started picking off the others one by one. We saved an ally by disabling the guns on the two ships that were after him. And we pulled off a badass ram/broadside that completely crushed a spire. Really really satisfying after many failed attempts at galleon earlier!

After flying for several matches, I think the most important thing I've learned is to keep firing. That means always make sure you are in arc (dragon claw = must), don't move the ship too much for the sake of your gunners, and prioritizing shooting over everything else for crew. Telling your teammates to keep shooting and repair guns only was, I found, the best call in many many situations. That included hull down, engines down, and all sorts of stuff on fire. The solution to every problem was shooting it, and the times where we died was when we had no shot.

Will keep flying, and look forward to seeing some of you in game eventually!