Hull Health: 500 Hull Armor: 650 Balloon Health: 1200 Acceleration: 1.2 m/s² Radial Acceleration: 3.7 deg/s² Vertical Acceleration: 2.9 m/s² Max Speed: 26.5 m/s Max Turn Speed: 12.8 deg/s Max Vertical Speed: 10.5 m/s Mass: 170,000 t Hull Profile: 1377 M² Balloon Profile: 992 M² | (http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121202233804/gunsoficarusonline/images/thumb/5/5b/Spire2.png/1000px-Spire2.png) |
Top Deck:
The Spire's role is somewhat predefined. In close combat, it can act as a support ship with it's multitude of weaponry, but that would be limiting what it can truly achieve a lot. It's not exactly a predator moving around the map, but a sniper hiding between some debris or just at the edge of some clouds. It can't take much damage, and it's too slow to dance around enemy ships and keep them from hitting. Thus, it has to go for long range sniping. If I know that I've got a skilled Spire behind me, I'm not afraid to advance straight on on two enemy ships. Chances are that the Spire will disable one of them even before I'm in reach. Still, there's a rather fine selection of long range weaponry to allow for several viable Spire builds, and especially if you get caught up in close quarters with it your light weaponry will make a huge difference. | (http://i.imgur.com/l4koCoG.jpg) The Spire excels when you have both your front weapons, in this case the Mercury Field Gun and the Typhoon Heavy Flak Cannon pointed at one target. Choose weaponry that can disable different components of the ships on it's own to keep the enemy engineers busy at their posts, or maximize a single damage type to quickly tear away important parts of the enemy ship. ( e.g. ; Step 1, take the armor down with the Mercury Field Gun, Step 2, shoot their unprotected hull to pieces with the Flak) |
(http://i.imgur.com/83K8r6g.jpg) | Top Deck Front Gun: The Mercury Field Gun is able to destroy most armors with 2 concussive shots. Evenly important is it's ability to destroy most other components with 1 to 2 shots as well. You've got a Goldfish approaching you on long range? Aim your Mercury on it and destroy their front gun. A ship's fleeing from you, searching cover? Take out their Engines. Top Deck Starboard Gun: There we've got a Light Carronade for defensive use. It takes down balloons fairly quick, about 2 clips of it should bring the enemy ship in trouble. The reasoning behind putting the Light Carronade on the Top deck is that from this position it'll be able to shoot at enemy ships above and under the Spire, giving the Spire time to get to a little better position while the enemy ship is busy trying not to crash into the ground. Middle Deck Front Gun: That's the tool for finishing the job. The Mercury Field Gun on the top deck softens up the enemy ship either by making them unable to move or attack by shooting their components, or straight chipping away their hull. As the explosive damage of the Flak is especially good against Hull Health, it's a very satisfying combination. Middle Deck Port Gun: A flamer. Not a very good weapon against experienced crews, but I find it still proves a minor distraction any event. The reasoning behind this is that if a ship is that low on us, they've got their front guns aimed at our hull and barely a chance to miss. A carronade could still pop their balloon from here, but I'd sooner try to disable their guns and ships with some flames. A rocket launcher might also work for that, but I don't trust them that much yet. |
Top Deck:
That's where a good part of the action takes place. Here's the Captain, close to his sturdiest maneuvering tool on the Spire, the Balloon. If things aren't too dire, you can usually expect your Captain to take some care of the balloon. However, as the Gunner will usually sit in the Heavy Gun it's usually one of the Engineers firing the Top Front Gun. Make best use of it as long as your ship isn't in trouble, it's very important for the Spire to have both guns firing. If you're in a very good position and don't plan on leaving, chances are that the Captain takes a turn on firing the Top Guns too. If you need to get down to the hull, you can jump down the ladder with some practice. It's possible to get stuck in it at the end though, so watch out! Middle Deck
Whenever I had to be on this deck, things were going bad. We were either under heavy fire and our Heavy Gun destroyed by it, or we had enemies on two sides, which forced me to take Port Light Gun to fend them off. In any case, this deck can be quickly reached by running up the staircase next to the hull. Remember that the Hull of the Spire is quite fragile though, so you might sooner ask another engineer to take care of the guns on the middle deck and stay at the hull. Bottom Deck
| (http://i.imgur.com/KGrIAAb.jpg) |
(http://i.imgur.com/WTVQudI.jpg) | On your left, that's what we call the middle deck. Consisting of the portside gun and the heavy gun, I recommend this to be the best place for the Gunner. The Heavy Gun should be your tool of choice, and if you take care of both the guns on this deck, you'll save the Engineers some trouble. However, down here you'll have to work in unison with whoever mans the front gun at the top of the ship, only then the Spire does the damage it's supposed to do. You'll often see shots coming from the top deck towards what you're aiming at, so you'll perfectly know when your counterpart on the top deck is doing it's job or not. It's very likely that the guns will just be divided - The two on the top deck manned by one Engineer and maybe the Captain, and the two on the middle deck by a Gunner. Your Captain or Crew might have different wishes on this one, so make sure to ask. But generally, just sit in the heaviest gun on the Ship and do what you can do best! Remember that, depending on the Loadout your Captain has chosen, your effectiveness might decrease the closer your target gets. Heavy Flak and Lumberjack have a arming time, if this arming time isn't reached those weapons do less damage. In the event of a enemy ship being very close, and you having a Flak or Lumberjack, it might be a good idea to switch to one of the sidearms until you're in minimum reach again. |
Captaining a Spire can be a relaxed, but also very thrilling experience. Much like a Galleon, it's a game of position and not of speed and maneuverability. You've got a very good position to look around the map from your helm, so always make sure where there's cover to be had or a enemy ship could hide. Generally, you don't want to give the enemy a chance to fire back, because your hull just isn't up to it and you lack the maneuverability to evade and strafe. Spire's are often seen as supporting ships, and while they definitely can take other ships on their own, they're well suited for that role. Having another ship soak the damage and distract your enemies is just great for you; you can follow in it's trail and pick off your targets one by one. Even if your allied Captain isn't any vocal, keep an eye out of him on the map and make sure you make good use of his ship. Personally I like to pick off Spires as a prefered target, because if everything goes fine, they'll be down much faster than other ships and then I can deal with the remaining enemies much easier. If I have a Spire protected by her allied ships, I'm just screwed. When flying it, you'll have to pay special attention to it's draft. Only a Galleon has a higher draft then the Spire, I think, but it might be that the Spire is even worse off with that. Try not to fly too close to the ground, as you could easily with other ships, because you'll ram it much sooner than any other vessel. Instead, cover is your top priority for avoiding enemy fire. Clouds, debris, chunks, allied or enemy vessels that could provide some shelter from attackers. It is possible for the Spire to evade by flying up and down, specially fast with Hydrogen and Chute Vent, but this also makes shooting for her own Gunners much more difficult. A Spire is slow, and you can only marginally help that by using Kerosene or Moonshine, you won't quite catch up to other Ship's speed. This gives you more time to think though - You can't just rush at another ship with the Spire and hope it'll hold out. Take your opponents moves into opinion, where they might hide, if their weaponry is close range or long range, does their Captain have any idea of the game. All in all, I'd say that flying a Spire requires much more thinking from me than flying a Goldfish. It doesn't forgive mistakes that easily or grant you a second chance, but it also makes quick process with enemies that get into its scope. Make sure you know the positions of all the guns on your Spire. It turns incredibly fast, so you have the chance to get the right weapon pointing at the right enemy at most times, if you're well aware that you've got a flamer on port. Choosing your front weaponry will possibly be an easy task for you, because the selection can be made a little slimmer for the Spire. Start with the Heavy Weapon and then try to complement it. Long Range: Typhoon Heavy Flak, Lumberjack Heavy Mortar. Short to Middle Range: Manticor Heavy Hwacha, Hellhound Heavy Twin Carronade. Remember that a Spire fares better on Long Range, but given a good Crew and tactics, it is possible to bring her into mid range for making use of Carronade and Hwacha. Still, I'd advice you to try long range first. The starboard and portside light guns are a different matter, if you're going for long range you'll likely want them to be defensive. Note that the Spire is one of the few ships that has the space for using the Beacon Light Flare Gun. Best put it on one of the sides, and then quit the hiding any other ship might play on you! | (http://i.imgur.com/jWcbTys.jpg) |
Phoenix ClawNo, you won't need them, I'm sure. A Spire turns faster than any other Ship.
Kyren my good fellow could you please do something like this for my squid and junker? i would be very grateful xxxxxxxxxx
Kyren, been meaning to give you my thoughts on the Squid forever. Hit me up if you want help putting together a squid guide.
How many engineers does it take to effectively fly a spire?
About 500 hundred: one too cordinate work, and the other 499 to rebuild a new spire since the last one got destroyed... again