Starter Fleet Guide:Zircon
Zircon Squadron
Difficulty: Moderate
Pros at a Glance
* Deadly Short-Ranged Armament * Able to defeat heavy and light ships
Cons at a Glance
* Limited effective range to 7.2km * Not particularly durable * May require some micro due to lineship rolling * Almost no anti-blob/skirmish capability except when counter-ambushing
Community Maintainer: NekoBoyBlue
Obelisks: Top Towards Enemy & This Side Up
Zircon is a fleet of three ships that relies on ambush tactics to deal damage up close and personal within the 7km range bracket. Their primary armament are turreted T30 100mm cannons and T81 400mm Plasma cannons. A Vertically mounted C53 casemate is used to orient the Liner to the target so the turrets on both sides can fire consistently. Unlike its similarly armed Garnet Squadron, Zircon does not have the same durability as Monitors. However, don’t underestimate these lineships. They can deliver a lot more burst damage than Garnet as they have 16 Class 4 turrets instead of 10; first using the Plasma guns to strip away enemy armor, and then using the 100mm to deal damage.
Against the most heavily armored targets, load 100mm Armor Piercing (AP) first. Then use the heading and roll commands, along with the weapon group commands to point the self-explanatory Top Towards enemy and This Side up Marauder class lineship at the enemy, or use the C53 Vertical cannon to orient the ship. Fire Plasma and 100 AP at the enemy for the first salvo, before transitioning down to 100mm High Explosive High Capacity (HEHC) for the followup salvoes against armor-stripped targets. You may have to duck behind cover, but with CHI 7700 drives specialized for acceleration and turning, the two bulkers can do that easily.
Do note that while Zircon is effective at eliminating both ANS heavy and light ships up close, careful location and judgement need to be used to position the ships to do so. Do not get into a long-ranged pursuit against enemy forces or a stand-off engagement above 7km. Use the Tyrannical Gaze to locate targets and position yourself accordingly using cover to leap out and douse the enemy in flame and cannon-fire.
Trivia: Zircon was originally a T30 equipped lineship with two pure plasma monitors and a scout shuttle.
Tyrannical Gaze
Zircon Squadron includes an Early Warning Radar on a tugboat for locating enemy units. Use this tugboat's EWR to find a target so that you can maneuver your ships into position for an attack.
Missiles
SDM-218 Naginata
A SDM-200 Typhoon Boosted Missile with ACT/(WAKE) and a size 5 Blast Fragmentation warhead.
This SDM-200 Typhoon Boosted Missile uses a Fixed Active Radar Seeker primary seeker, which means the missile is reliable than the CMD/(WAKE) combination when outside the coverage of an Ithaca Bridgemaster Radar's high track quality. It is programmed to intercept Claymore Bombers (One per). Its size 5 Blast Fragmentation warhead is chosen because it can one-shot Claymore Bombers even through ceramic tiling[1] and stands good odds of getting multi-kills with its 102 meter blast radius.
The Wake-Homing Seeker secondary in this version does not overwrite craft evasion of the ACT seeker, but rather servers to add some element of decoy resistance to the missile. If the missile latches onto a craft's countermeasures, the WAKE seeker's wide cone is likely to acquire the craft after the missile flies through said countermeasure.
SGM-156 Guardian
A ACT4BF Anti-Missile Missile with a Steerable Active Radar Seeker and a size 4 Blast Fragmentation warhead.
As only one seeker is made available to SGM1 missiles, a Steerable Active Radar Seeker is chosen for this AMM. Steerable ACT in this case has no extra cost penalty over Fixed ACT, but both lack any form of mid-course guidance if it is launched before the target is in range for the seeker to acquire, which may cause it to take an inefficient path and range-out before it hits. It is seduced by Missile and Bomber launched Decoys, moreover, the lack of backup seeker or reject un-validated targets setting on the seeker means this missile is vulnerable to being blinded by radar jamming, instead of going straight until a the primary seeker gets close enough to burn through the jamming.
This ACT4BF Anti-Missile Missile is a defensive AMM programmed to intercept SGM-200 Tempest Missiles (Two per), SGM-H-200 Cyclone Hybrid Missiles (Two per), SGM-H-300 Atlatl Hybrid Missiles (Two per), Halberd Skiffs & Sundials (2 per), Tanto Interceptors (One per), and Claymore Bombers (Two per[2]). Its size 4 warhead is sufficient to kill any of the listed missiles in one shot, but its basic size 4 Blast Fragmentation warhead is unreliable against small missile targets and often will take 2 or more hits to defeat them, as HE-Frag warheads will deal 0 damage on a failed roll to missiles instead of half-damage as they deal to craft. Its armor penetration is insufficient for defeating SGT-300 Pilum Torpedoes, which make take 5 successful intercepts to defeat, in practice likely to be as many as 10 intercepts.
This tuning is something of a compromise tuning; it retains good agility, making it acceptable as an AMM for intercepting fast and agile Hybrid missiles, and gains 500 meters of range for use as an Anti-Craft Missile. This is enough to for it to assist against close-in attacks, like against SAH S1 based Tanto strikes, or someone trying to bomb you. In this role its size 4 Blast Fragmentation warhead will perform much better, able to reliably one or two-shot a Tanto Interceptor or in 5-6 shots kill a Claymore Bomber.
SGM-1 Ceremonial Arming Missile
A SGM-100 Balestra Missile with a Wake-Homing Seeker and a size 4 HE Impact warhead.
This missile is not intended for offensive usage, or indeed any usage at all during a typical match. Arming missiles exist so that a ship with an arming missile counts as being offensively armed, an important feature in the Control game-mode most multiplayer matches take place within. Thus, firing this missile is not advisable, besides in very niche circumstances.
In Game Description
Zircon Squadron is an ambush fleet capable of exceptional burst damage against heavy targets. The two lineships can unleash a massive volume of plasma, shredding the armor of targets at close to medium range, before following up with a withering hail of 100mm gunfire. However, they will fall apart if caught by sustained fire in open space, and they have a long reload between bursts. To plan its ambushes, the squadron features an EWR tugboat that can provide situational awareness from afar. This fleet benefits from careful management of lineship facing using the HDG and ROL commands and smart ammo type selection: Grapeshot for craft, HE for small ships, AP for medium and large ships, or HE-HC once a target has had its armor shredded by plasma.
