Snowblind - Pre-raid speculative tips

Some more details on the Snowblind raid have been released.  

There was some "official" info released on the Battle Vortex showing:
- Dates: 14 August - 19 20 August (5 6 day event assuming it starts at the usual time on 8/14 & ends at that time on 8/19) (Corrected)
- Hull Store
- Kodiak Hull (cool looking hull)

 


- Savage Kodiak Flagship Hull (VERY COOL looking hull)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPkYPoAzdF0&t=34m50s
(and thanks to PRICEisWRONG at BV for the pictures)

The unofficial info at xnih's BP Information suggests there will also be a new missile weapon called the Achilles, which incorporates armor bypass:
http://bp-information.blogspot.com/2014/08/5th-august-update.html

Kixeye Teaser Video here: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWhQV8xjPYk#t=22

If you haven't seen Robot's tips post on the Kixeye Forums, read it here:  https://www.kixeye.com/forum/discussion/488333

It seems there will be some open water fleets, then hitting those fleets will unlock a campaign-style relay with base-like targets to hit.

A few tidbits from the forum post include: 

• Campaign targets will be "base oriented"
• "navigate through Ice-floes"
• "...look out for Long Range Missile and Mortar Turrets..."
• "...other nasty surprises...have something with Sonar available to you." (with a picture of mines... go see the forum post)

So when I look over that information, here's what I think about these bases:

• You want a fleet that is good at hitting bases (instead of a FvF fleet).
• You may want a fleet that is maneuverable to avoid pinch points (Ice floes).
• You will want Countermeasures.
• You will want sonar.
• I bet Kixeye has something planned to negate decoy subs.

So what am I doing for this raid?  My last two serious fleet builds were a 4 ship, Highlander-led, Nuclear Cruiser fleet, and a 4 ship Harlock Carrier fleet.  Both of these fleets are decent at bases. The Harlocks have Speed System so they are maneuverable, but the Nuclear Cruisers use Strike System.  The Harlocks are light on countermeasures, and the Nukes have none. Neither fleet has sonar.

What to do about Countermeasures:
I never got around to a Countermeasure Triton, which would be a real nice replacement in a 4 ship fleet.  Something like: 

would be ideal, but this is a nearly 13 day build, and you have less than a week left until the raid.

Unfortunately, if you don't have a CM ship already, you really don't have time to build something like that.  Something quicker would be a CM ship based on a Mercury hull:

This build won't be as effective as the Triton, but it is only a 5 day build (with Hailstorm Bs and Phalanx 2).  Note the Strike System was chosen  for its lack of accuracy penalty - the Mercury has better turning than the Triton.
  
What to do about Sonar:
Your best quick option is to build a Battlecruiser like: 

And add it to your 4 ship fleet.  Note that it is only a 3 ton ship with total build time: 1 day 7 hours.

I designed it with the Engine 1 so it stays slower than the other ships in the fleet and builds quickly.  My BC is R5 so I have 90 sonar range and 16.9 combat speed on this build.  If your BC is not retrofitted, you may want a better engine.  Look at the speed of your fleet that you want to pair the BC with, and pick an engine special so that you are almost, but not quite as fast as the rest of your fleet.  
If you let this ship sail after clicking on a target, it will close into Thud range, so make sure to stop it before that happens - with only 815 armor, this ship needs to stay behind your main fleet.

One other option - if you are building (or refitting) something like the CM Mercury above, use Sonar instead of the D5X, and you will have a ship with 65 sonar range.

Here's a Huggy link for the CM Triton, Sonar BC, and 3 Harlock Carriers:
http://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!705U01N1N1N0W1S2L5H4L1S1S1O1O1O1O1O05U01N1N1N0W1S2L5H4L1S1S1O1O1O1O1O05U01N1N1N0W1S2L5H4L1S1S1O1O1O1O1O04040L0L0L0U0U2B5B1S4N4N4N4N4N4N1O1B1B1B0H650000000G001400000001

The CM Mercury:
http://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!704C00U0U0U2B5B1U1A1A4P4M4M4M0ZZ0ZZ0ZZ0ZZ

I could also use 3 of my Nuclear Cruisers instead of the 3 Harlocks... We'll see what works.  Of course, all this info is based on a lot of speculation, so I could be completely wrong. 

Good Luck pirates!