Starter Fleet Guide:Sycamore
TF Sycamore
Difficulty: Hard
Strengths at a Glance
* Variety of deadly Missiles * Good Electronic Warfare * Fast and stealthy
Limitations at a Glance
* Very very bad against OSPN Monitor Balls * Quite vulnerable without Jamming * Cannot quite penetrate Ocello point defense.
Community Maintainer: Cik
Sprinter Bombers: Far Traveler, Nebula Shepherd, Hooded Rider, Diving Hawk, & Outer Guide
Sycamore is a typical "Sprinter Bomber Ball" aimed to run around, lob tons of missiles and then run away under the cover of jamming.
Sprinters have one of the lowest radar signature of any ship even when their search radars are on, and when their radars are off, they get stealthier.
As such, a silent, fast group of corvettes armed with deadly missiles is a fantastic way to run down vulnerable backline warships or ambush isolated battlegroups.
Sycamore leans into this stealthy ranged build with a few tools. First of which is it's ES22 'Pinard' Electronic Support Module which can track the direction of search radar signatures and crossfix multiple ELINT LOBs. While not nearly as accurate as a radar track, the benefit to a Pinard is that the ship's radar doesn't have to be on to pick up an ELINT signature.
This means that Sycamore can position itself into line of fire to an enemy battlegroup, not be seen due to its stealth and not be detected, or indicate to the enemy they are detected. Once in position, Sycamore can then use their RF101 'Bullseye' Radars to lock onto an enemy target by right-clicking and locking onto the ELINT track.
After which, then the fun begins.
Once Sycamore has locked on, they can fire Tombstone missiles in salvos at the target. The Tombstone is the fleet's primary Size 2 Hybrid missile to be fired at Bullseye-Locked targets. While not as high damaging as Size 3 Hybrids, they can really do some nasty damage to OSPN ships in volume.
If the target is heavier and needs further softening, Sycamore can put them into the grave by firing Gravestone Size 2 Hybrid missiles which have the HE Kinetic Penetrator warhead. These are best fired bow on so they can travel through the enemy warship, exploding as they go.
Finally, for targets that have good softkill, or for when you are not able to achieve a lock on the enemy, Sepulchre Size 2 Hybrids can be fired, with their Radar seekers validated by an Electro-optical validator able to strike the trickiest targets.
Now, if Sycamore is jammed, Thundercloud Size 2 Missiles can be employed. These are Radar-seeking counter-jamming missiles that will be particularly useful against OSPN Multi-Mission Tugs who usually have J15 'Bellbird' Radar Jammers.
Of course, Sycamore cannot just sit in the open forever. It does have to run. When the fleet needs to make space, Sycamore has four E90 'Blanket' Radar Jammers and two E71 'Hangup' Communications Jammers to cloak the sprinters as they make themselves scarce.
While clearly designed to do lots of damage and get away, Sycamore has a few weaknesses. It is not intended to engage enemies in a frontal fight. In particular, Sycamore is really bad when caught out by OSP Monitor fleets such as Garnet Squadron who usually sport 600mm Bomb Shell rounds that can punish blobbed up groups of thinly armored ships, even from around corners. However, monitors are very slow, which means Sycamore can run away from them.
That being said, through the use of stealth, speed and its many many missiles, Sycamore can metaphorically "bomb" enemy OSP warships and run away to live the tale. Get into the enemy backline, target vulnerable warships and sow chaos. That is the Sycamore way.
Missiles
SGM-H-210 Tombstone
A SGM-H-200 Cyclone Hybrid Missile with with Command Receiver/(Fixed Semi Active Radar Seeker), Boosted Self-Screening Jammer, and a size 6 HE Impact warhead.
SGM-H-210 Gravestone
A SGM-H-200 Cyclone Hybrid Missile with with Command Receiver/(Fixed Semi Active Radar Seeker), Boosted Self-Screening Jammer, and a size 6 HE Kinetic Penetrator warhead.
SGM-260 Thundercloud
A SGM-2 Tempest Missile with Fixed Anti-Radiation Seeker/(Fixed Active Radar Seeker), and a size 6 HE Impact warhead.
SGM-H-220 Sepulchre
A SGM-H-200 Cyclone Hybrid Missile with Fixed Active Radar Seeker!/[Electro-Optical Seeker], and a size 6 HE Impact warhead.
This is a Straight-runner missile due to the reject setting on its primary seeker, indicated here by the "!" symbol. Combined with the Electro-Optical Validator, this ensures no false returns induced by radar jamming or decoys[1] will be considered valid targets by the missile, and it will continue to run straight as it waits for a valid target to present itself. When the Electro-Optical validator itself is jammed, the Fixed Active Radar Seeker will be unable to consider anything it sees as valid due to the reject setting, and it will continue to run straight as it waits for a valid target to present itself. As such, it will not stage under these conditions. Only when both Fixed Active Radar Seeker and Electro-Optical validator are jammed simultaneously will the missile consider itself to be jammed and begin to wiggle wildly.
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
Task Force Sycamore is a wolfpack of standoff missile corvettes primarily armed with deep reserves of hybrid missiles designed to destroy critical enemy targets from afar. Pinard ESMs and Bullseye FCRs allow it to find and lock targets from range, while the heavy electronic warfare complement supports outgoing missile strikes and protects against being spotted by enemy surveillance assets. Sycamore's armament consists of command-guided Tombstones for use against radar-locked targets, EO-validated radar-guided Sepulchres for fire-and-forget usage, specialized Gravestones for the termination of damaged heavy ships, and less-capable Thunderclouds for lightly defended or disabled targets. Keeping to the edge of the battlespace and ruthlessly eliminating enemy sensors to stay off the radar is the name of the game with this fleet.
Example Gameplay
- ↑ expendable small ships will still work :)
