Starter Fleet Guide:Kyanite

Kyanite Squadron

Kyanite Squadron is the archetypical 450mm liner fleet featuring a formation of three ships: two very similar Marauder-class line ships: No Other Way and Final Orders, and a Draugr- class Tugboat Until the End. It is the easiest ranked OSP starter fleet equipped with craft.

The primary armament of Kyanite’s Marauder-class line ships is a battery of 450mm casemate guns that fire 8 shells in a salvo before needing to reload. These weapons are good against Alliance Keystone-class destroyers, Vauxhall-class light cruisers, and are the only gun weapons that can kill Alliance Axford-class heavy cruisers and Solomon-class battleships. That being said, the weapons need time to truly kill Alliance heavy ships.

Employing these weapons requires careful control of the lineships heading and roll. I advise setting your heading and roll first right after you start moving; heading should be set so the guns point towards the enemy spawn with the ship's bridge pointing up . Don’t worry too much about the roll being precise, a command to fire your guns will override the roll command, but you do want to make sure the 450mm guns are facing in roughly the right direction.

Even without a Bullseye lock, the shots from Kyanite’s two lineships can be fairly accurate. To do this, players can select the 3rd ship, Until the End and open the EW (Electronic Warfare) box which will bring up the tugboat Until the End’s R400 “Bloodhound” Long Range Tracking Radar. This radar is what enables Kyanite to get fireable radar tracks more than 6.5km away. The moment the Bloodhound brings its blue cone onto a track, it provides your fleet a track with a very high positional accuracy even at extended 10-11km ranges. At close ranges, employ the lineship’s Pinpoint fire control radar to lock onto targets.

With regards to durability, Kyanite’s lineships can take a punch due to its Damage Control Complexes, and Damage Control Lockers. However, it is strongly advised that players judiciously use cover to protect the lineships from concentrated and sustained fire from Alliance heavy units. Kyanite is very similar to Task Force Oak in that range and sight line control are the most important aspects of using the fleet. Players must maintain their map awareness so they don’t end up fighting more than two fleets and getting shot at from the side. Kyanite however, does not have the armor of Task Force Oak, meaning that it cannot simply stand in the open and fight. It must duck in and out of cover and control its range to targets.

For missile defense Kyanite has a full softkill and hard-kill suite. Anti-missile missiles to deplete enemy hybrid salvoes. Chaff and use of emissions control (EMCOM button on the new UI) can be used to “softkill” or decoy Radar and Anti-Radiation missiles, whilst high-end Alliance Electro-Optical (EO) missiles and Command (CMD) missiles can be jammed out by the fleet’s EO Dazzler and the J75 Warblers on the line ships. Two types of decoys are equipped on the fleet, manual fired Killjoy Container decoys equipped with jammers to deal with SAH and ARAD missiles, along with Marauder lineship decoys, which can also be used offensively. If that is not enough, the fleet has multiple Pavisse 20mm point defense turrets.

Kyanite shines in that it has a variety of support elements that extend its capability. T20 100mm Dual Purpose Secondaries on both liners are an excellent way to deal with light flanking targets as they can hammer Sprinters, Frigates, Destroyers and Vauxhalls with a range of munitions. The T20s also have 100mm Grape rounds that can be fired to help attrition approaching fighters.

Kyanite furthermore has a set of backpack Halberd Skiffs equipped with an 4km radars, and two 35mm flechette guns. These are good for point defense, and anti-bomber work, though, it is recommended you manually task them against large missile salvoes. You can also use these skiffs to scout around corners for ambushes. To guarantee the deletion bombers, the fleet has SDM-200 SAM missiles that are recommended to be manually fired using the Z key against ANS claymores.

It is highly recommended that if you, players, want to experiment modifying Kyanite, you really should. As with all starter fleets, these fleets are just to help you get into the game. You can totally replace parts and tinker with them.

In summary, Kyanite can hurt any fleet that gets on the wrong side of its cannons, but the fleet has limited armament on one side, and requires cover to preserve its lineships. Manage what threats you are facing and what you are shooting at. Support your team. Think a step ahead before you use the fleet's superior mobility to move its ships, and you’ll do just fine.