Pyramidion Side Guns

[DJ Logicalia]

I've been trying to figure out how to make the Pyra's side guns actually useful. On basically every build I have, on 3 I have a flamer for emergencies (i.e. we get surprised on port side) and a Flare on 4. But the goal, even if side guns are temporarily usable, is to get the front guns back on target.  The best I've come up with is a dual gat and a flak/mortar on the side, but that basically turns it into a slightly more risky MetaMidon. Is there anyone who runs a Pyra with useful side guns, or are 3 & 4 doomed to forever be emergency Flamer and Flare holders?

[GeoRmr]

Hey there, I thought about this a few months ago when I realised that the number 4 weapon slot on the pyramidion is probably the least used weapon slot on any ship in the game - so I decided to make a build where it was the primary gun:

1 2 3 4 carronade artemis artemis hades

Got yourself a standard carrot pyramidion with the carronade artemis up front with strong disable and enough kill potential to be a seriously threatening build in its own right. Mid to long range, run your gunner on the aft hades and then fly it sideways like a junker for double artemis hades trifecta. That's right, it has good arc with all 3 guns! The ship pairs well with a twin-ship, metajunker, galleon, or metamidion ally.

Edit: You want your gunner to take lesmok and greased for the hades and heavy-clip/incendiary for the carronade (+they can also use the greased rounds) depending on the map and ally you can keep tempo and be aggressive, using the heavy-clip carronade to disable guns as well as the artemis, or sit back and midrange snipe.

[Mezhu]

.stuff

This actually sounds legit as fuck. I've never paid any attention to gun 4 other than it being a utility flare slot, and I generally dislike 'dual' pyra builds consisting of long and short range faces. This build however sounds easy to pull off, with a proper gun combination and all the vital parts of the ship being easily accessible by the engineers.

I have to try this now! Although I guess I'd rather use a banshee on 3 for the faster turning and shooting and permahull dpc, and of course for the sound effect.

[GeoRmr]

Here are the lateral gun arcs if you're interested ^^





_{Thanks [Rydr] Extirminator for graphing them.}

[Crafeksterty]

Is it really that difficult?

It depends on how you focus your effeciency in battle.


For example. Lets say your front guns is short range. Maybe add in some kind of quick to use long range for situations that you know cannot help on your current range. So instead jump on side guns to  help as much as you can.

On another note. Have your side be the MAIN but only use the front for the approach. In this case.
My pyra and the only pyra i have is Double Mercury Front (For the effect of approaching and giving off pressure)
My side guns is Gat mortar. (By the time they are pressurised by double merc, im in with a ram or giving in gat mortar from the side)

But there will always be drawbacks.
Gat mort on side cannot chase.

Long range on side can be hard to decide when to use it depending on map.


In most cases having a disabling combination on the side is the way to go because you will want to ram slightly to the right so when you miss your side guns are on target for the side guns to be used as you try to turn for your front again. In this case, a Carronade/Flamer + Flair is the best because at that spurt of moment, you wont be able to have 2 guys on both side guns.

[CheeseAlmighty]

The Mighty Roqufort has an hades artemis front, metamidion side. It's good to finish off that pesky squids after butt-ramming them. :3

Also, gatling and artemis have overlapping arcs, so you can keep your balloon running, if those carronades want your buns. Also, it's a junker in disguise(that, if you have a banshee instead of a mortar.). Fun times. Fun times.

[HamsterIV]

One of the big advantages of the pyramidion is that the forward facing guns are close enough together that a single buff engineer can keep them both buffed. In my case I sometimes run buff pilot and let my main engineer fly the ship while we are at long range. I like putting the long range guns on the front so my side guns end up being gat morter or cannonade flame. If my crew is very good I give them mine launchers.

The main idea is to be so threatening at long range that you force the enemy to charge you at which point you enter a gat/morter duel against a weakened foe.

Make sure to give the transition order 4 secconds before you need the side guns shooting to give the top deck gunners time to get to their side mounts. I have been using the command "One more clip then go to side guns" that way I time the transition to when their last round fires.

[Richard LeMoon]

My original Pyra build (Forty Five Special) has an Art/Merc front, Flak/Banshee side. Was and still is pretty effective as a control and destroy ship. Break everything with Merc and Art, swing to a specific angle once in range while the gunner drops to Banshee. Art continues disable while the other guns finish them off. Fun ship to fly.

[macmacnick]

Side mines are a fabulous choice for a pyre's sides, especially if your main engi is good with them. (You can have it so if an enemy is close, you have your top deck engi repair and the main mine, works fabulously.)

[VomAct]

Mines or Banshee also work fantastically in 3, Flares in 4.

Mines have some of the widest arcs of any gun in the game, and it can be really useful to have a main engi with incendiary or lochnagar rounds to follow up a left-deflecting ram with a mine, it can knock your enemy back into arc of your front gun.

Generally banshee is nice as well, for wide arcs and little more killing power, plus it is easier to use.  Another good idea is to have your main engineer bring heatsink for the extra turning speed and the third shot in your flare gun.

Which reminds me, flares are fantastic in slot 4 because if your gunners can't see the enemy ship, they probably can't hit consistently even if you have the spot.

[Squidslinger Gilder]

Put your most experienced miner on main enginee with mines at 3...they'll turn the tide of battles every time. If they know their ranges, angles, and timing of deployment, very little can touch on that flank so long as you set it up.

IMO 3 should be for weapons that are quick fire or short usage. 90% of the time it is the main enginee who is manning them. They don't have time to leave the hull for long. They'll have time for 1-2 shots before they have to split. By that time, your top deck crew will have migrated down to lower deck to pick up the slack. 4 on the otherhand, can vary a lot. It takes a bit of time for people to get to the mount.

Sniper boats are options. You either go with dual merc on bow or dual merc on side. Then theres Merc/Art mixtures. Both have strengths and weaknesses. Weakness of side merc is lateral movement and larger area exposed while sniping. But if your merc gunners are top notch, they'll be able to adjust for it. We won sky tourney with this back when Mercs were more powerful. Side mounts allow the forward mounts to be kill mounts which gives the Pyra greater ability should foes come CQC.

Forward merc Pyras are stronger on pressing attacks but tend to be weaker when the fight is brought to them as the upper deck has to be emptied and it often takes too long for a crew to react to switch from range to kill side. Also Gats are very problematic with lateral movement. This is where having a carro/flame side can be beneficial as it gets results faster than a kill side and you don't have to worry about the gat ray casting messing up.

[Dutch Vanya]

I almost always have a mine launcher on the side there. And i love having a good miner on it. Throughout the game, perfectly timed mines just show up. Usually unexpected since i don't intentionally turn for it much.

[Kamoba]

Merc / Artemis, or Hades / Flak as front guns, with side guns of Gatling and Mortar, I've found a couple of instances where I've been able to use the side in close quarters, but you need to have a pretty aware crew for it to work.

Otherwise I'll have gat mort front, artemis on the side and use three arcs, the rear I'll put Bacon* Flare or mine or flamer, and it'll spend most the match in dis-repair

[sparklerfish]

Mines or flares are awesome for the main engi to pop off quickly at opportune times.  Best to have a gun they don't have to stay on too long.  A well-placed mine can turn around an engagement, and 20 stacks from flares (or 30 if you have heatsink) can be a great distraction.

[nanoduckling]

You want a load out that works or one that is just fun to fly? Because yeah the Pyra poop deck usually gets relegated to utility weapon (still really important, especially in bigger matches where a flare gun is very important), and the main deck is usually a backup, but if you are willing to offer up effectiveness on the altar of fun there are a few interesting things to try.

1) Artemis / Artemis / Artemis / Artemis
Before you take this make sure you play around in the blast yard so you know where to put things, and you will need moonshine (and probably drogue chute) to ensure you can make the ship stay nice and still. All four guns can have arc at one time giving ranged killing power and disable ability. Main engi takes the poop deck, you grab the main deck gun. You want something like heatsink for the added turning because you will need to run back and forth, everyone else wants burst or lesmok or something similar. You will also need someone else to break the armour for you. Make sure you have crew members target different components so they don't waste shots. When I've used it it sort of works, there were a couple of occasions when all four guns on the pyra were firing at the same time and lots of components broke repeatedly. It is hard to fly, the arcs hardly overlap and it is a chunk of work. The ship still functions okay in close combat, you can use the front Artemis to take out an enemies engines and then either bolt it or if they cant face you just grind them down. The lack of ability to break armour, the small arc overlap, the need for constant communication and good targeting make this a suboptimal build, and a good crew is going to just sneak up on you and make you miserable, but when it works it is fun.

2) Carro / Flamer / Banshee / ?
Lots of people have pointed this out, but a Banshee at 3 is great. Especially for the Carro / Flamer Pyra. Rams can be unreliable (especially when I'm driving) and when you have someone pinned and burning a way to speed up death is nice, and the Banshee does the job without you needing to turn too far or lose arc on the front guns. I actually think this is better than a flamer. If the enemy is good, they have chem spray and all that emergency gun has done is help them with their marshmallow roasting project. If the crew is bad then them being behind you and to the left isn't an emergency, it's why you brought Pheonix Claw. If I'm worried about needing my side guns for that kind of situation I bring a carro and aim for balloon or engines and hit hydrogen / kerosene.

3) Banshee / Gat / Banshee / ?
Top Banshee and Gat can be swapped but it slightly reduces arc overlap. This is one to take when you notice your enemy doesn't have adequate fire fighting capabilities but darn you are just bored of flamers. Also nice to bring with a less experienced crew, they can all fire wildly and effectiveness only drops a bit. Experienced crew is going to eat you for breakfast with proper fire fighting and a flak or mortar. It aint good, but it is viable and pretty fun to use. Some novice crews probably use this more effectively than the meta.

4) Carro / Carro /Carro / ?
The enemy squid really starting to get on your nerves? Sure you are going to struggle against good crews, but at least that squid will stop moving, then stop flying, then being attached to itself. Make sure you know the arcs and that each person knows what they should be shooting, you want one on balloon, one on engines and one on guns for most ships. If it is a squid you want one on engines, one on engines and seriously stop moving you pain in the backside!

Out of these the only one I would say 'works' in the sense of being comparable in power to one of the more meta loads is (2) (and really it is a meta load, carro / flamer, just adapted to use the side gun). Having rapid fire explosive damage your main engi can use without you having to take main guns off the target is very useful. Everything else, try for the lolz. If you get a weak pick up crew still trying to learn the difference between a mallet and a buff hammer (3) probably wont do you any harm.