El Muid: Super Secret OVW Files
DISCLAIMER: This build is seriously goofy and will result in lots of death, destruction (a lot of which will be your own), and hilarity. That being said, flying this ship is the most fun I have personally had in GoIO for a long time.
So what is El Muid anyways?
El Muid is taken from the historical figure El Cid, a midieval Spanish badass. It is also a shortening of Mine Squid, and that is what we are talking about here (if you want to read more on El Cid, check out the Wikipedia page).
A mine squid is a squid with a mine launcher on it. Simple enough, right? It is really quirky and fun to fly, and this guide is here to help you figure it out.
Step 1: Guns loadout
Slot 1: Mines
Obviously, since it is called a mine squid there are mines involved. In fact, they are going to be the main armament of your squid, which means a mine launcher on the front, or side, or both. The main thing to remember is that the velocities of the ship and the mine launcher add. So mines on the side can reach more targets and share arcs with more guns, but it makes it far more challenging on your gunner. Squids are highly mobile, so even if your gunner loses arcs on the front, it is usually easy to bring them back into arc. So, usually I would suggest a mine launcher on the front (slot 1) and something else on the side (slot 2).
Slot 2: More Mines, Carronade, or Banshee/Mortar
More mines can be useful, but it is usually hard enough to maneuver with one mine launcher's worth of mines in your way. If you have two crack minelayers, you might want to consider it.
Carronades are fantastic companions to mines, because they restrict mobility (in this case balloons), making it much easier on your mine gunner, because hitting with mines is about predicting where the enemy will be.
Banshees and mortars pair well with mines because mines do a lot of piercing damage, and the explosive damage can make for the fastest kills in the game. In particular, a single lochnagar mine can take a pyramidion's hull armour down in one hit and buffed greased banshee can kill before a single spanner rebuilds that hull armour. Mortar is more damaging than banshee, but the arcs are finicky and mortar is extremely difficult to shoot off the side of a fast-moving squid.
Slot 3: More Mines, Flare, or Whatever
The rear gun is mostly used in conjunction with tar, so mines (or whatever you want to put there with generous-ish sideways arcs) tend to work. Flares can light up the tar, which helps especially if your allies are sniper support ships.
Step 2: Crew Loadouts
I always take the same crew loadouts on this ship regardless of what guns go where. Simply put, crew loadouts are as follows: Mine Gunner (Lesmok/Incendiary/Lochnagar), Main Engineer (Mallet/Spanner/Fire Tool), and Buffgineer (Wrench/Buffkit/Fire Tool).
Buffing focus is the balloon and engines, buffing the hull on a squid is useless and buffing the mine launcher doesn't actually help it. Buffgineers also usually maintain the hull at range once the buffs are done. The Buffgineer also shoots the side gun when the ship is not in danger, so have them bring an ammunition type that is useful for that gun.
Main Engineer takes care of the engines and balloon. It is usually a good idea to have one engineer with a Fire Extinguisher and on with Chemspray for a balance of fire suppression and extinguishing power.
The mine gunner is the key to the whole enterprise of the mine squid. Their job is simple: shoot mines. There are several other fine guides on how to shoot mines on the forums, so I won't go into gory detail here. Just remember one thing, that the velocity of the ship adds to the mine that you launch, so you can launch mines wayyyyy farther on a full speed squid than you can on a munker.
Step 3: Pilot Loadout
Tar. You need it. Lots of it, in fact. Squids are fast, and highly maneuverable, so you can usually put that tar cloud right where an enemy ship is. It is also really helpful when you are making a tactical retreat (running away), discouraging pursuit.
Kerosene/Moonshine. These adds a lot of range onto your lesmok mines, making the mine launcher a solidly mid-range weapon. This is especially true if you combine bursts of moonshine with stamina when the launcher fires.
Phoenix Claw/Hydrogen. Claw is useful for tarring and turning the front launcher into arc quickly, and turning tight corners. Hydrogen is useful for escaping bad situations, especially when you lose 2 or more engines and cannot dodge laterally.
Step 4: Flying the Mine Squid
This is really more of a loose guide, and while I mention a few specific cases, the general ideas behind it are more important than the examples.
Stealth and Speed: Play Your Strengths
This squid, like any squid, will never win a slugging match with another ship. Every other ship in the game has more firepower, and is harder to kill to boot. All hope is not lost, however. The squid's secret weapons? Stealth and Speed. A full speed squid is virtually impossible to fully disable at range, and squids can go places other ships have a hard time reaching, as well as being harder to see due to the small silhouette.
Stick to clouds, stay in cover, and do everything in your power to not be seen by the enemy team until you engage. This usually means you have to do some unorthodox approaches to fights, giving the main action a wide berth and sticking to the sides of the map. Another useful stealth tactic, especially in a squid, is to fly close to the ground where even small obstructions can hide you from prying enemy eyes. Also try to conserve your stamina during this phase, as you will need it later.
(Three examples of these types of approaches are going around the far western edge of Northern Fjords, going west under the big rock in Red Sepulcher, and going west around the Leviathan in Dunes and cruising in on cloud cover.)
Now, once you have gotten to a direction your enemy isn't expecting you to come from, you have to strike fast. Full throttle, moonshine/kerosene (save your stamina), and minelauncher going as fast as it can cycle. Pick a target, pull up to it and tell your buff engi to prepare the side gun and give your mine gunner a chance to drop a loch mine or two, then GET OUT regardless of whether you killed the enemy.
The getting out part is crucial because while squids have the second-most permahull in the game, you are still really squishy and those surprise mines you just launched have probably angered the opposing team, causing them to want to focus you down. This is when you just go crazy with the stamina, the tar, and all the piloting abilities. You might want the gunner to camp the hull if they don't have targets, otherwise more mines are usually best just for sowing additional chaos amongst the enemy.
Which brings me to the last point, which is this: your purpose in life as a mine squid is to harrass, disable, and generally confusticate the enemy team while your team kills things. If you can stay alive long enough to trade two kills for your death, then you have done your job. If you feel you are going to have to carry the team and you desparately care about winning, this isn't the ship for you. If you like mines and tar, this is absolutely the ship for you, and you should at least give it a go.
Practice!
As with any ship, this one takes practice, especially for the combination of gunner and pilot, because of the way that the velocities of the mine projectile and the ship combine, it takes a while for the gunner to get a feel for how the pilot flies, and it takes a while for the pilot to get a feel for how the gunner shoots.
A Note on Counters:
You can try to fight a hwachafish with this, but unless you have a VERY good mine gunner, I would not recommend it. Most other ships in the game can be at least stalemated with varying difficulties, hwacha galleons are probably the second most annoying after hwachafish.
