Beginning with the Galleon

[CoffeeFetcher]

Hey, I've got a few strategy questions with a ship build, and I was hoping you guys could help!

I got the captain's pack on steam, and me and my friends are wanting to play with the Galleon.  So far, we have set it up with two Hwachas, two Hellhounds, a Gatling on the left, and a Mercury on the back.  Overall strategy is to be a brawler with the back having some defensive ability.  Overall, what is a great way to play with this ship, or should it be changed?

Any advice is welcome!  If this doesn't belong here, sorry for posting in the wrong place.

[N-Sunderland]

First off, how are your heavy guns set up? Do you have double carronades on one side and double hwachas on the other, or one of each gun on each side?

[Shinkurex]

This is actually the better place to put this welcome to the forums.

[CoffeeFetcher]

First off, how are your heavy guns set up? Do you have double carronades on one side and double hwachas on the other, or one of each gun on each side?

I have a Hellhound and Hwacha on each side.

[CoffeeFetcher]

This is actually the better place to put this welcome to the forums.

Also, thank you!   I hope to have plenty of fun with this game!

[N-Sunderland]

Aaaaaand my phone just erased the wall of text I wrote -_-

I'll write up a reply later on when I'm at my computer. I don't trust my phone anymore.

[HamsterIV]

Galleon is not the best pick when learning the ropes of this game. Medium guns have very poor turning arcs, and the galleon is not maneuverable enough to quickly reacquire a target should the enemy get on your very large blind sides. As a pilot you can compensate for this by taking phoenix claw, helium and chute vent. Be warned helium and chute vent are very dangerous items and you should practice with them in sandbox before taking them into a game.

With the exception of the merc on the rear your gun set up is fine. I currently mount a flare gun on the rear of my galleon as it helps with spotting ships in clouds and if an enemy gets on my rear blind spot I can put 20 stack of fire on his balloon. Other good guns for the back slot are the rocket carousel, flamethrower, and light flack. You will want a gun with a fast turn rate, wide angle of fire, and some disabling power. The purpose of the rear gun is not to kill the enemy but to annoy them enough to either back off or wander in front of your more dangerous sides.

If you are running manticore, hellhound, gat as your primary weapons I suggest your gunner take heavy and burst rounds, while your engines stick to heavy. Heavy works well on all three guns for making more shots hit at long range, but you will want one person with burst rounds to get the most damage out of the manticore at close range.

Also welcome to the game.

[CoffeeFetcher]

Galleon is not the best pick when learning the ropes of this game. Medium guns have very poor turning arcs, and the galleon is not maneuverable enough to quickly reacquire a target should the enemy get on your very large blind sides. As a pilot you can compensate for this by taking phoenix claw, helium and chute vent. Be warned helium and chute vent are very dangerous items and you should practice with them in sandbox before taking them into a game.

With the exception of the merc on the rear your gun set up is fine. I currently mount a flare gun on the rear of my galleon as it helps with spotting ships in clouds and if an enemy gets on my rear blind spot I can put 20 stack of fire on his balloon. Other good guns for the back slot are the rocket carousel, flamethrower, and light flack. You will want a gun with a fast turn rate, wide angle of fire, and some disabling power. The purpose of the rear gun is not to kill the enemy but to annoy them enough to either back off or wander in front of your more dangerous sides.

If you are running manticore, hellhound, gat as your primary weapons I suggest your gunner take heavy and burst rounds, while your engines stick to heavy. Heavy works well on all three guns for making more shots hit at long range, but you will want one person with burst rounds to get the most damage out of the manticore at close range.

Also welcome to the game.

Ok, sounds like the Engineer will be busy!
But, other than that, couldn't the ramming bumpers help as well as the parachute in the back?
I guess I'm trying different strategies and seeing if they would work...
And, just a quick question, how would you say would be a good strategy to close the distance with enemies?  I know snipers will be a pain for this ship, so I'm trying to think of a good way to close the distance.

[Captain Smollett]

I'll have to agree that the Galleon is not a great ship for beginners; however if you really want to make it your ship I am happy to offer some advice.

To start off with, I think you should change the way you think about the Galleon.  Although it has tremendous firepower and health the Galleon is not really much of a brawler.  Due to it's lack of forward facing guns and very slow turning rate the Galleon is not a ship that should really blindly charge into battle with.  It's best to fly it in more of a wide circular pattern around the perimeter of your enemy counterclockwise (or backwards clockwise) thereby keeping your port side guns in arc; or holding stationary on a strategically powerful point on the map and rotating towards an approaching enemy.

Most tournament builds use asymmetrical galleons and build long range capabilities on the left side (port) and close range on the right side (starboard).  This usually consists of putting the Lumberjack, Heavy Flak and Mercury field gun on the left and a Hwacha and Carronade on the right side (you are correct in that this is the best close range heavy weapon combo), a flare gun is best for the rear imho since it adds both utility and get off my back power all in one as Hamster pointed out.  Since Galleons do not excel at closing distance with their opponents the left side allows them to assault them with insane dps beyond their enemies optimal ranges and use their right side to finish them if they survive long enough to get close.

When flying a Galleon the most important thing is to have your side guns on enemy for as much time as possible.  Despite having what seems like a lot of health the Galleon has a huge hit box and is less survivable than you might initially presume.  That's why a Galleon's greatest defense is its offense since no ship in the game can outmatch it's raw dps from a port side volley thereby almost always giving the Galleon advantage in a shot for shot fight. 

A pilots goal then is to always venture to keep guns in arc.  For this, Pheonix claw is absolutely imperative since the turning rate increase is often the difference between life and death.  Shots can be lined up fairly easily once you realize that the left and right corners of the banisters line up exactly with the gun arcs for the Galleon when viewed from the helm.  It's also important for the pilot understand that any maneuvering with the ship will impart that movement to the shots.  Keeping the galleon stationary without raising lowering or accelerating is often the best way to help your gunners land crucial shots, especially at range.

Other than that like on all ships; setting clear and distinct roles and positions on the ship is essential.  Luckily on a Galleon it's very straightforward.  A gunner and engineer should man the bottom deck with their focus and priorities always being towards putting in max dps.  This means shooting as much as possible, maintaining gun health to have optimal dps and fixing engines when the enemy is out of arc.  The top deck engineer is responsible for the hull, balloon, main drive engine and side gun.  This much responsibility for the main engineer results in the Galleon more than any other ship benefiting from the pilot pitching in a hand with the engineering.  The pilot can help the engineer maintain the hull and balloon allowing faster rebuilds and permitting the engineer to stay on the gun longer due to his/her proximity to those components.

The Galleon is really a gunner/engineers ship.  The pilots job is to move the guns into arc as quickly as possible for as long as possible but it's survival and success depend far more on the skill of its gunnery than almost any other ship in the game.  Furthermore it's a ship that depends on the coordination of their ally since a galleon can be killed easily if an enemy can get a positional advantage at close range making the support and close coordination of an ally vital to protect against that occurring. 

The Galleon is an amazing ship if you have incredible gunners and reliable and skilled allies, however these are hard to find when just beginning so you may have a bit more difficulty than normal as you start up in GOI.  Hopefully this will help you succeed a bit faster. 

Best of luck and enjoy your future addiction to this game.

[Captain Smollett]

Ok, sounds like the Engineer will be busy!
But, other than that, couldn't the ramming bumpers help as well as the parachute in the back?
I guess I'm trying different strategies and seeing if they would work...
And, just a quick question, how would you say would be a good strategy to close the distance with enemies?  I know snipers will be a pain for this ship, so I'm trying to think of a good way to close the distance.

I actually don't find ramming bumpers to be much of a use for anything as they take up an otherwise more valuable pilots tool slot.  Galleons hardly take any damage from rams so if you're concerned about ships running into you, your best bet would be to take moonshine since it will hold your ship stable and your guns in arc in case of a ship ramming you.  Drogue chute is really only needed situationally like if threatened by lumberjacks or carronades and it's more important to keep your guns in arc in the immediate moment rather than helping to rebuild the balloon.

Snipers are one of the main reasons for having a long range side.  This way you'll only need to really approach to within about 1.2 km.  On many maps you can use terrain and cloud cover to move unseen to within mid range and then unload on the sniper with your brutal firepower hopefully crippling or killing them before they have a chance to snipe out your weapons.  Without a long range side it becomes much more difficult to approach and corner a fleeing group of snipers.

[Imagine]

Ok, sounds like the Engineer will be busy!
But, other than that, couldn't the ramming bumpers help as well as the parachute in the back?
I guess I'm trying different strategies and seeing if they would work...
And, just a quick question, how would you say would be a good strategy to close the distance with enemies?  I know snipers will be a pain for this ship, so I'm trying to think of a good way to close the distance.

I actually don't find ramming bumpers to be much of a use for anything as they take up an otherwise more valuable pilots tool slot.  Galleons hardly take any damage from rams so if you're concerned about ships running into you, your best bet would be to take moonshine since it will hold your ship stable and your guns in arc in case of a ship ramming you.  Drogue chute is really only needed situationally like if threatened by lumberjacks or carronades and it's more important to keep your guns in arc in the immediate moment rather than helping to rebuild the balloon.

I like bumpers if I'm on like a goldfish or spire and playing against a ram happy opponent. But on a galleon, yeah, probably not.

[HamsterIV]

Flying a galleon will teach you how to attack a galleon which is a skill absent in most new players. Also as an addendum to my previous post Moonshine works great on galleons. It help with the galleon's slow acceleration, and help stop your turn if you get a little over zealous with the phoenix claw.

I tell new pilots to think of the galleon like the Siege Tank from starcraft. You drive somewhere, you park and then you blow the crap out of everything in the area. While it is possible to shoot and move in the galleon it is very difficult to do so accurately. With a close range setup like the OP suggests I would either wait in cover for the enemy to approach me, or fly strait at the enemy until I am at optimal range, then turn side guns on them. Skirting the edge of the battle field making occasional hits isn't as effective as dumping your entire broad side into one ship at close range. If the enemy is busy fighting your ally get in close. Many a captain's last words were "Holy *&#^ where did that galleon come from!"

[CoffeeFetcher]

Wow, the build that Captain Smollet posted sounds ingenious!  I'll give that build a try and see how it works.
I'm gonna try to put a flare onto the Galleon and work with it a little to see how it works out.
With the mix of guns, will it affect the Galleon's effectiveness at close range go down since it's most offensive side works to range?
I'm willing to try out different stuff, this really is amazing right now!

[Captain Smollett]

You'll definitely lose a bit of effectiveness at close range with that build on the Galleon however equipping your gunner on the lumberjack with lochnagar rounds can definitely help offset your vulnerability when enemies are within your arming time on port side since you'll still have full effectiveness of your mercury and about 50% effectiveness for your other guns leaving you less powerful but still lethal at close range.

[RomanKar]

And also, if you are in a short distance brawl, the top engineer will most likely be performing repairing duties, whereas, in long to medium distance sniping type exchanges, you will be taking less damage most likely and the engineer will be able to actually use the top deck guns.
And to add to earlier posts, the Galleon is a steep learning curve for newish pilots and crew.  However, if you are able to climb this curve, it will probably help you overcome the other learning curves in the game.

Also, welcome to this wonderful game.  Feel free to find me (as well as the other in this post and elsewhere) in game.  I'd love to help you out and fly with and against you.