Another look at the Aegis

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Two more notes related the the Forsaken Arena Tournament:

• Dredges are spawning NOW, and will continue to spawn through the weekend:  https://www.kixeye.com/forum/discussion/550623
• You do not get bonus points for a killstreak if you are using repair insurance: https://helpcenter.kixeye.com/hc/en-us/articles/205529018-Forsaken-Arena-Tournament-Why-am-I-not-getting-killstreaks-

I'm sorry that my last article had incorrect information, but Kixeye doesn't give me any info any earlier or of any higher quality than anyone else.

The Aegis blueprint information has been updated twice since it was announced, once to add a field effect that provides defensive and anti-fire patch capability, and again to add additional countermeasure capabilities, and also to swap the 4 weapon / 6 armor slot configuration for a 6 weapon / 4 armor slot configuration.  Here is the latest iteration:



As a defensive ship, this hull at least starts to make sense, and the reasoning behind the 9+ day hull build time is becoming clear.  Can the Aegis be "Defender of the Fleet" for you?

A couple more updates:

- Yes: The Aegis field will stack with itself or any other defensive bonus
- Yes: The Aegis field affects its own ship
- No: The Aegis field will not trigger resonance battery

See this Forum thread:
https://www.kixeye.com/forum/discussion/550621

Since the Aegis field affects itself, I have updated the defensive resistance values in the charts below from the initial publishing.

The closest comparison to this hull would be the Frostburn Interceptor, for its field capabilities, but I also looked to the BC R10 as another comparison.  I'm not going to do a "bare hull" statistics comparison, but instead I'll look at builds of these ships that I've seen used, and compare how they look with an Aegis.

The most popular high end build I've seen for Frostburns uses it as a defensive tank only, usually with a single Cutlass 1 to provide spotting for ships with Remote Targeting.  The Aegis can be built like this as well, however it has only 3 special slots, so using a missile would require SFB to be taking up a special slot, or use of Strike System which would leave it with very poor turn capability (12).  I used a single launcher instead.

Huggy hasn't added the new hull yet, so I'm using some Reaver hulls to stand in for the Aegis....

https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!70MI01R1R401R5B1S68170L0000000000000006M01R1R1R405B1S684W00000000000ZZ0ZZ0ZZdB

All comparison stats below are with components at R0.  For build times, I am assuming the 9 day+ build time shown in the forum is the "no officer" build time, since the Hellblazer has the identical statistic:

Statistic	Frostburn	Aegis
Weight (Shipyard 2)	3,549	4,184
Armor	19,271	17,697
Combat Speed	24.0	20.8
Turn Speed	44.0	26.4
Evade	73.4%	55.6%
Ballistic Defense	53%	60%
Explosive Defense	53%	72%
Penetrative Defense	53%	72%
Concussive Defense	40%	40%
Radioactive Defense	62%	68%
Build Time w/off	15d 4h	19d 2h
Repair Modifier	100%	100%
Stun/Slow Resist	0%	50%
Spotting Range	96.2	91.0
Sonar Range	80	50
Thermal Range	90	80
Field Effect	Fire Extinguish, Slow, Bypass	Fire Extinguish, 40% Resistance
Field Range	65	40

The weight could be closer if you give up the spotting capability, but with lower resistances, evade, armor, and speed, the higher build time of the Aegis is not justified when trying to use it as a lead tank ship or as a Mastodon spotter.  Stick with the Frostburn.  With the Aegis field improving the Aegis' own defenses, it is sort of a tough call as to which ship will be more effective.  The higher Frostburn Evade will make up for its lower ballistic & radioactive defense (against Javelin and Launchers), and against missiles I'll call it about even.  The higher resistances will really help against splash weapons that ignore evade.  You'll need to decide if the resistances are worth the weight & speed. 

Less common, but one of my favorite uses for a Battlecruiser is for a countermeasure escort ship.  I have one similar to the build below (and another similar, but with Hailstorms).  The Phalanx version is useful to bring against PvE targets like strongholds, and certain Reaver targets (heavy UAV) in the last few raids.

https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!60H6A0U0U0U2B1V0C1B1B1B1B06M00U0U0U0U2B1V0C1B1B1B1B1B1B05CA0U0U0U2B1V0C1B1B1B1B1B1B000ZZ0ZZdB

Statistic	BC R10	Aegis	Vindicator R10
Weight (Shipyard 2)	2,895	4,239	4,034
Armor	3,065	7,200	3,065
Combat Speed	20.8	20.8	24.0
Turn Speed	20.0	12.0	30.0
Evade	66.8%	56.1%	62.1%
Ballistic Defense	40%	40%	0%
Explosive Defense	20%	58%	35%
Penetrative Defense	57%	72%	57%
Concussive Defense	40%	40%	0%
Radioactive Defense	30%	58%	50%
Build Time w/off	5d 15h	14d 21h	11d 8h
Repair Modifier	100%	100%	100%
Stun/Slow Resist	0%	50%	40%
Sonar Range	65	50	0
Thermal Range	75	80	0
Phalanx Accuracy	108%	96%	108%

For a countermeaure ship, the Aegis brings its field to defend your fleet. Although it is not as accurate with countermeasures as the Battlecruiser or Vindicator, the field adds a strong defense that you may not have previously had, and the Aegis boost does make it much more durable.

Let's talk about a high risk/high reward build... If you have a four ship fleet (even if you have a limited flagship), you might be able to insert the Aegis if you keep it light.  When you equip it with a Thud 1, no armor, Speed System 3, Guidance Scrambler 3, and D5X Compound, the combo would weigh 87 tons.  If it can keep up with (but slightly behind) the rest of your fleet, you can use that 40% protection to great advantage... just don't get your Aegis shot at.  This design is probably not useful when you expect to be playing against a "live" player who would target the Aegis (or against a base with any defenses that use Priority Targeting/Smart Warheads).  But it is at least a relatively quick build - under 10 days.

https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!706M0000000005B1S0C0000010000000ZZ0ZZ0ZZ0ZZdB

For matching speeds of various fleets, look at combining lower versions of Speed System, Engine Upgrade, Reaver Scout Engine, and/or Heavy Plating to get the speed you are looking for.  Try to keep your speed slightly lower than the rest of your fleet.  Don't forget to include retrofit levels when trying to match speeds in Huggy's.  

For example, if you are running Crusaders or SCX, you have a base hull speed of 13, which is the same as the Aegis.  Adding Speed System 3 and Nuclear Accelerators gives you an 80% speed boost (unretrofitted total).  Engine 3 would match that 80% speed boost, but if your Compound Engine Systems are retrofitted to R10, and your (regular) engine system is R2 (for example), the Crusader ends up at 25.43 speed and the Aegis would be at 23.99.  Using Speed 3 + 4 B torpedos gives 24.92 (probably close enough), but another option would be Magnus Drive (which retrofits with Compound Engine Systems), giving a perfect speed match at 25.43 (although leaving lower turn speed).


From the comparisons, we can see that it really doesn't do the "lead tank" job as well as a Frostburn, and it doesn't do the "countermeasure ship" job as efficiently as a R10 Battlecruiser.  So if I had this hull, how would I actually build it?

I would try to take advantage of the field defense effect, but keep it protected by running it with high armor and behind my other ships.  If I were to try to build it to go with my 3 Crusaders in that role (instead of my Frostburn), I might end up with something like:

https://www.dahippo.com/bp/ship/#!706M0400W401R1S5B681B4H1B4H1B4HP6G01R1R1R40685B1S6A23232323514L0000P6G01R1R1R40685B1S6A23232323514L0000P6G01R1R1R40685B1S6A23232323514L00000ZZdB

You'll have to pretend that Bypass 3 is actually 3 D63-B torpedos to get the speed close to, but slower than the Crusaders.  I put the armor combo on there (2 Bulkhead, 1 D5-E, 1xD4E) to try to keep my total armor higher than the Crusaders (for Priority/Smart weapons).  So then the question is.. would I want to devote almost 21 days of shipyard time for that ship to get the 40% defense field?  To protect 3 Crusaders that took 23+ days each to build, yeah maybe.

One more twist to think about is that the "friendly" Aegis field should serve to activate a Resonance Battery (a Frostburn field is "hostile" and will not activate your own RB).  That special is used rarely, since the RB bonus usually isn't worth the weight of the field used to activate it.  A fleet designed to take advantage of this could be effective as well.

My take on the Aegis is that it won't make any of your other ships obsolete.  It certainly won't stand on its own.  But when built right, it might help another fleet survive a lot longer.  Good luck pirates!