Tactics: Shaltari Tribes

Popular Styles: Long range Sniping, High Mobility, Signature Management General Characteristics: * With active shields

Shaltari are a tricky faction with lots of special rules and as such can be difficult to master.

Most of their ships and weapons have special rules that the other factions rarely have access to. They are fast with small signatures and good point defense, but lower than average Hull and Armour values - that is, until they raise their shields. Their great scan ranges translate into better threat ranges for their close action weapons as well. Shaltari also have the most maneuverable ships in the game, with top-notch Thrust and several ships with the Vectored rule.

When a Shaltari ship raises its shields, it loses all Point Defense and its signature increases dramatically (roughly equivalent to a major spike). The shields however provide a passive countermeasure save that functions against critical hits, which most players consider a fair trade. The increased signature however means that you must be careful when you decide to raise your shields and allow the enemy to lock onto you from massive distances. Of note, all ships in a battlegroup must choose to raise their shields at the same time, which is at the start of their activation. You also cannot use Silent Running to eliminate the sharp increase to your ship's Signature.

Other things to remember are that while the ship’s point defense might drop to 0, you can still improve your Point Defense with fighters. Weapons with Scald can reduce the Armour value provided by the shields, as per usual.

Shields work very well against small numbers of regular attacks, or against attacks that can easily cause critical hits. Against massed volleys of close action attacks with bad lock values, the additional point defence is more useful than raised shields. One of the major elements of playing Shaltari is knowing (or gambling) when to raise shields, as it's better to take some damage in exchange for keeping out of the crosshairs of bigger guns that can't find a targeting solution.

The other big difference to other fleets are the Shaltari motherships and voidgates. Motherships tend to avoid the frontlines and act as your strike carrier equivalents - they can deploy Ground Assets to sectors that are within range of friendly voidgates, meaning that even if a voidgate is killed, you don't really lose any drop capacity. Voidgates meanwhile can be chained from one to another, dramatically increasing the safe distance your motherships can play at or allowing you to redeploy Ground Assets from one sector to another if they're close enough. As mandatory parts of your game, motherships are VIP targets for enemies and so must be kept safe. Voidgates meanwhile pay for their flexibility with fragility.

The Shaltari have ready access to Particle and Mauler weapons, which are the bane of ships with good armor values: the latter uses the armor of the target as its Lock value, flipping the odds against heavily armored ships, while the former always crits, preventing saves altogether. Some Particle weapons also have Fusillade, giving you extra shots on a Weapons Free order. While it can be tricky to line up shots like this, it is extremely satisfying when you pull it off.

Shaltari Bombardment weapons all have an alternate firing mode, giving them flexibility beyond being dedicated to the role. They also have sole access (for now) to Impel weapons, which while unreliable can potentially mess with your opponents movement and turn dangerous weapons away from your ships. You also have weapons that can disable special orders, giving you great ability to mess with enemy capital ships instead of outright killing them.

With so much else going on in the faction, it's little wonder Shaltari launch assets don't get the attention they deserve. While your bombers are mediocre at best, Shaltari fighters are top notch and can grant bonus Point Defense even after your shields have been raised. This means fighters are your preferred launch of choice, with bombers being deployed only when the opportunity presents itself, or out of necessity.

Plutonium - Dreadnought
Role: Description of what the ship does

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Uranium - Dreadnought
Role: Description of what the ship does

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Diamond - Battleship
The Doom Laser - Particle Lance Triad plus two Disintegrator Banks

The Particle Lance triad is a beautiful, dangerous thing. You trade sheer damage for reliability and the crippling bonus. Remember this. The Diamond simply can't compete the sheer damage output of the Mercury or Granite. Taking a Diamond really means you are looking for that lucky cripple. When it happens and you ruin the enemy flagship before it's even gotten a chance to act, that's a good day. When you just give it a spike... not so much. Sadly with Bloom on the Particle Lances, you're going to end your activation with a minor spike for at least 10" of signature. Keeping the Diamond in reserve can give you a chance to keep it safe after it's first shot, but it simply can't stay hidden forever if you want to get your points out of it. Going WF is only ever worth it if you are F(N) lined up, but a SR15 ship has a pretty hard time with that. Good practice is to take at least one other threatening group that also likes to line up for WF so that you can create a potential trap for your enemies. The advantage there is that the Diamond can accomplish it's main goal on standard orders if it ends up not getting it's target - the extra shots are a bonus, but when you're after the cripple they don't matter as much.

If you go WF or are going to reach major spike, might as well raise shields. Otherwise carefully gauge what things are in threat range.

Curiously comes with an extra gate. Launch it if you already have a major spike, but it shouldn't be worth it otherwise.

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Platinum - Battleship
The Super Carrier - 7x Launch Assets plus plus two Disintegrator Banks and boosted Harpoons

A very handy ship. Without the need to get in scan range of enemies, you are not nearly as pressed to manage spikes as on the Diamond. But the better comparison is the Basalt, after all it is your only other source of strike craft. For a comparable points value you get one less craft and lose 2" of speed but gain better weapons and a bonus gate. Crucially you can sit back and strafe the battlefield with the side arc, rather than requiring to get up close, and the Harpoon Deluge can be a nasty surprise to light ships that get too close.When it comes to providing a backfield battery of fighters for defensive purposes, the Platinum does an admirable job, and with it's fat SR can prevent backfield critical locations from being easily stolen. If you launch assets, then launching the gate is a moot point since you already have the spike, so you can look at the Platinum as a bonus gate.

The Platinum really shouldn't be directly compared to the Diamond as they do different things, but the Platinum is just more reliable and simpler to play.

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Ruby/Adamant - Battlecruiser
The Hybrid - double Particle Lance and two side mounted Dis ntegrator batteries

The Ruby is very close to an Amber and a Granite glued together, with the small addition that it can fire two particle lances on standard, instead of one, for a small discount. The Ruby is a tradeoff for the sheer damage potential of the Granite Duo (same cost) for the flexibility that you get from two disintegrator batteries. However, you still need to be lined up with your opponent in order to get what you want out of a WF with the Ruby, as otherwise you are missing the 4 particle lance shots and are essentially an overly expensive Amber. This makes it hard to recommend the Ruby as if you’re going to setup a F(N) WF you might as well get a lot out of it with a 2x Granite. The disintegrators let you pick your shots on the turns prior to the WF setup and pick away at light targets without screwing up your line up, but if you take a Ruby, it would be a waste not to try to set it up for WF.

The Ruby can do one thing far better than the Granites, which is be useful after they’ve shot their shot. It’s not too hard to get both disintegrators on target after your initial lineup target is destroyed, but it’s fairly impossible with the Granites. Try to keep this in mind when you use the Ruby, and approach from an angle such that your will have targets remaining in front arc after your initial pick is destroyed, so that you can safely go WF the remaining turns of the game and get out your 8 shots. What you do not want to do is fire your 4 lance shots and then only get to fire 2 lances, or worse a single distinegrator, on subsequent turns.

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Sapphire/Palladium - Battlecruiser
The Identity Crisis - one ion weapon. one Grav coil.

What a weird ship. The ion weapon and gravity coils are completely different purposes of specialist weapon and here they are on the same ship. Bizarre. What you can do is fire both it’s guns on standard, which is good for a battle cruiser. You can fly straight at an enemy ship and turn it away from you such that it can’t respond effectively while shooting it with ion weapons, or you can use the ion weapons to strafe weak targets while going for an ion turn on a priority target. Both of those strategies really rely on the ion turn, as the damage output is too low. The problem is that you need both shots to damage, and for a ship of this cost, the odds just aren’t good enough. The core strategy of the ship being that unreliable is tough. In theory you can joust with enemy ships, turning them such that they can’t WF back at you and heckling them with your beam, all while doing whatever orders you want as you can fire both it’s guns on course change or station keeping. That itself is fairly valuable. In practice, you need to kill things with a battle cruiser, and the Sapphire has a low damage output for something it’s size, plus the ion weapons will disappoint you at key junctions if taken on a single ship. Let turning things come from the Aquamarine. That’s it’s job, and its far more efficient at it. When it comes to bombardment, it’s a nice utility to have, but buy a dedicated turquoise first, and then evaluate whether your second bombard weapon can be a Sapphire. The inability to fire the bombard weapon and grav coil at the same time on non-WF orders is a big minus.

The thing to do with the Sapphire is to heavily abuse the ability to fire both guns on mobility orders to make sure you never miss a turn of max shooting. You can sit in front of one target with station keeping or use course changes to wind yourself around, trying to use enemy arc limitations to stay alive. Going standard forces you to move 5” which can make it hard to get both targets firing, given the F(N) and scan limitations you have to meet, but its possible. It’s likely that once you make contact you’ll want to raise shields, as being close and likely getting special orders spikes means you’re going to get shot at anyways.

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Hematite - Battlecruiser
The UberChrome - Mega Thermal Lance

As of writing, the Hematite is in a class of it’s own. It mounts a weapon similar to the thermal lances on the chromium, but multiplied by 4. It is perhaps the most reliable, easy damage dealer in the game, dealing massive amounts of crits on average with an absurd threat range, for the lone drawback of single target restriction. It can get the full potential of it’s weapon on standard, meaning the F(N) is not a huge drawback until you get to close quarters combat, and it can take advantage of Shaltari signature to stay undetected. This thing will deal most of it's damage in crits, so point it at an enemy capital ship and watch it melt.

Because you don’t need to be lined up, you don’t care so much about having to do golast-gofirst granite-esque tactics, but if you can use that to line up a near guaranteed enemy kill without risk of counterfire, go for it. The main thing to consider is if you are taking away those slots from the particle lance ships that do need them, should you have some of those in your list.

The problem with the Hematite obviously is that it can only fire at one target at a time. Not that it’s a reason NOT to take it. Leave the sweeper duties to your lights and mediums. Even the Onyx is going to have a hard time if it gets flanked by a swarm of corvettes or frigates – so don’t worry about a lack of sweeping ability in your heavy slot.

Staying on standard orders with F(N) will result in flying towards the enemy, so your consideration besides target priority should be mapping out your path through the board to ensure you don’t have a turn where your gun isn’t firing at a key target. What you don’t want to happen is to have a key turn 5 or turn 6 shot go into something minor like a frigate for lack of targets in your turning arc. Start far away from the action and put this ship in the second wave to ensure that you are firing at things on base signature to best give yourself the advantage of distance. This will maximize the number of turns you can stay shields down and keep more targets in your front arc.

Quantifying the threat – you have 22” minimum (likely 28” with sig) threat range with an average of 9 crits per shot that doesn’t need any setup. That’s utterly deadly and a major headache for your opponent that forces counterplay. Expect nerfs.

Consider that the average damage on these is only slightly worse than the Granite duo against heavily armored targets AND doesn't require any setup AND is the same cost.

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Goethite - Battlecruiser
Borrowed Scourge ship - Hyperwave Cannon + 4 strike craft

The Goethite has an interesting gun that on top of having a great damage output has corruptor. The front arc means you can keep this ship on standard orders much of the time, and get in some good opening shots with decent damage. The Shaltari threat range presents an opportunity to get multiple corruptor stacks ticking very early, and since corruptor (like fire) now deals damage before damage control rolls, you are looking at some nice bonus damage.

The bonus of an entire Basalt worth of strike craft is huge, as it means you can have a front or midline ship providing fighters and shooting a good gun instead of sheepishly hanging at the back. Just remember that your shields have to be raised when you start your activation, and launching gives you a spike at the end of the turn, so if you intend to launch and are worried about what next turn might get you, plan ahead regarding your shield usage. This presents a big challenge in using it effectively. Because it is more likely to be close to enemies, the possibility of a bomber wave is more likely, but it's entirely likely it is another point defence battery.

Without the massive critical damage of the Hematite you aren't going to be headshotting enemy heavies, but you can very flexibly put damage on enemy mediums and then bully nearby frigates with bombers or pull back your fighters for defensive use. Don't use the main gun on lights unless they really must die. Remember that each crit is 2 damage plus at least one at the end of the turn, so really a crit is 3 damage with these. This can turn a good roll into a one turn cripple/kill on medium cruisers.

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Onyx - Heavy Cruiser
The Dakka boat - 3x Disintegrator Batteries

The Onyx is the most direct ‘tack on’ heavy because it is literally the Amber with an additional Distintegrator bank. There is no linking of any kind so you only get the extra gun on WF, and to add insult to injury the additional gun is only front arc meaning you don’t have the flexibility of side strafing the battlefield with extra shots on WF.

Curiously, the Onyx has the exact same points efficiency per shot on WF as the Amber, but lacks any boost to it’s standard orders, or any other capability, so it is around 50% more expensive on standard orders, while also lacking any boost to CAW. Being a heavy cruiser, you also pay more per hull point. Even more simple math shows that the Onyx is in the exact middle of buying one Amber and buying two Ambers, both in terms of points cost and primary gun shots.

The primary strength of the Amber is being able to fire sideways on low signature with speed and accuracy. Everything that is true about the Amber on WF is true about the Onyx – you have outstanding threat range with the flexibility of front arc so even with the no-turn restriction you can ensure you have your firepower brought to bear and do it before your enemy has a chance to shoot. An Onyx has much better odds of getting a cripple result on a cruiser than a single Amber, and can really rip up those nasty scourge cruisers that don’t have much in the way of armor.

Overall, an Onyx is not a bad choice if you just want an alpha striking dice chucker that is going to get hit hard in return, it’s just disappointing that it loses the skirmishing efficiency of the Amber for nothing in return. It’s 1.5x of the firepower an amber but only 1.0x the flexibility.

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Obsidian - Heavy Cruiser
Plus Sized Granite - Three Particle Lances

After going down 20 points in the balance pass - the Obsidian now has roughly the same point efficiency for damage as the Granite - making it a true Granite and a half. Compare to buying two Granites you get an extra shot on standard for much cheaper, but lose 2" of movement, as well as the extra hull points. Being able to put out 12 armor piercing damage at this points price is a good deal - the obsidian is a relatively cheap, good damage dealer. In terms of damage potential for SR in bigger games, you'll want to go with the Haematite or Granite pair, but the Obsidian can be used as a secondary lance group in bigger games or as a budget option in smaller ones.

The obsidian is exactly equivalent to the Granite in play style. Put it last against a group over SR10 and line it up, preferably while getting your first two shots off. Then WF the next turn to deal an average of 8 armor piercing damage. It will probably die or be unable to find good targets after that, so pick your targets carefully.

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Jet - Heavy Cruiser
The Premium Turquoise - Ion Weapon Combo plus a Disintegrator

The Jet is an odd one. It’s a front arc disintegrator glued onto a Turquoise. Because it’s beam is close action, it can fire both the beam and disintegration on standard for D6+7 shots in the front against targets in scan range. However, once you get close you risk losing the ability to fire front arc without station keeping, and going WF for 4 distintegrator shots if you want to also fire bombardment will rarely be worth it. It is good to have a Turquoise that can do something while it’s floating up the board if targets are available, but is that possibility worth the 50 extra points? Throwing out an average of 11.5 3+ shots on standard orders is quite something, but needing to be in scan range for full effect means if it needs to raise shields, it’s lost it’s primary benefit, and an Onyx could be doing it’s job somewhat better.

It must be said though, that while it’s not a level comparison on points, 2x Turquoise is the same SR and plays the objective better. The Jet overpays for the same bombardment ability, and it’s much easier to justify/afford taking two Turqs than two Jets if you care mostly about the bombard. The Jet actually is more efficient when it comes to anti-ship firepower however.

To get full benefit, try to keep the Jet’s shields down until absolutely necessary, as it does a great job of bullying enemy light groups without becoming visible. You have better tools for fighting big scary enemy capital ships, so the Jet is more suited to things it can kill that won’t be able to hit back hard enough to justify raising shields. If you can pull this off you can have an incredibly powerful, hard to target threat on the flanks that can also swoop in to hit enemy sectors.

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Amber - Cruiser
The Gunship - Two Distintegrators, one on each side with a common front arc. Slightly more expensive than average for a cruiser.

The Amber can throw out high accuracy shots sideways while using it's superior scan range and signature to avoid return fire. Go WF for double the shots at something you're pointed at. The Amber is a solid ship with good damage output, but going WF with it and giving up your low profile for an extra 4 shots is tough to stomach. If you just need to throw out shots, there are cheaper ways of getting Disintegrators pointed at the enemy. Best for working flanks where it can quickly move as needed, blast light ships and double up when needed.

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Granite - Cruiser
The Sniper - two particle lances.

The Granite exists to go weapons free. On standard orders it has a low damage output, and no reason to take it over the Amber. The goal is to setup your F(N) weapons on a target and go weapons free. With both lances firing with fusillade activated, you go up to a potential 8 damage ignoring all saves. Shaltari speed and scan range means it can stay back at the edge of the board and line up it's WF safely, then zoom forward and devastate whatever it's pointed at. The SR5 means this is a threat against any heavy ship, negating the armor of the human heavies and acting before they do. Having a granite group has implications for your entire army however, as guaranteeing the F(N) WF means you other groups in your fleet that want to go first will have to fight for priority. Think carefully about what your other ships are doing before including a Granite, and keep in mind that once you get off your WF, it's unlikely the opponent will let you do it again, so the game of a Granite is often leading up to one activation. If playing with cards, keep an espionage or two handy when the moment comes.

When you fire, the WF will make you visible enough anyways that raising shields is probably warranted.

Taking two in a group is optimal for battleship hunting. One in a group with destroyers is better for other targets. If you want to mess with dreadnoughts, you may consider something a bit heavier, though an average of 10 damage is nothing to sneeze at and will get the first cripple result.

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Turquoise - Cruiser
The Assault Ship- combo bombardment/close action beam, with 360 firing arc.

The Turquoise is an odd one. It is your only real option for bombardment, and can also moonlight as a close combat ship, with D6+3 shots within close action range that hit on 3+. Compared to the Rio, The Turq isn't as cheap and brutally effective, and it's also not a 'true' close combat ship like the Wyvern in damage output. An average of 6.5 shots on 3+ can certainly melt light ships, but isn't really up to the task of actually fighting in the center of the board. If the Turquoise needs to fight, it is best to do so by jumping behind the enemy and using the rear arc gun to avoid counter fire as it just doesn't have the firepower to take things out. The good news is that it's faster than other things with good bombardment, so getting to backfield targets and hitting multiple areas is easier, plus given it's mobility, firepower and the capacity to do everything it wants on standard orders, you can send it off on it's own to a degree.

Unless you have pulled off a careful joust with minimal potential of counter fire, probably better to raise shields as soon as you get in beam range because most anything will be able to hit you the turn after you hit them.

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Basalt - Fleet Carrier
The Fleet Carrier - one Disruptor, 4x Strike Craft.

The Basalt has problems other carriers don't. It really doesn't want to get shot at so the minor spikes from launching means position and activation order are critical. It's gun is exclusively front facing, and for a fragile expensive ship, being pointed at the enemy is NOT what you want. Has the worst armament of it's carrier peers by far. The sole purpose of the Basalt is to sit back and deploy fighters to defend your shielded ships. Thankfully with 4x fighters, Pd5 each at 24", it's damn good at it. Taking multiple and launching big bomber waves isn't necessarily bad, but launching fighters is almost always better and you have more efficient ways of killing things. This is why taking a Basalt is essentially a 'tax' on Shaltari fleets to provide fighter cover. The Disruptor is often not worth firing compared to going sideways across the backfield, and should only be aimed when you are confident the enemy is unable to strike back, but remember that you have it.

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Emerald - Mothership
The mommy Mothership - one Disruptor, 3x Gates.

You practically have to take these, so the only question is how to use them. The Mothership gets the spike when it teleport troops, not the Void Gates, so you have to be careful about it's positioning given that Motherships will have enemy ships beelining for them. Lose your Motherships too early in the game and you have essentially lost. Like the Basalt - the Disruptor is not really good enough to prioritize using over positioning. Don't be afraid to lose drop for one turn by going on max thrust or silent running if it gets you out of immediate danger - a drop next turn is better than potentially dying this turn, especially in situations where a turn 6 troop drop can swing the game. Be very careful with shields - if you know you cannot move far enough to get out of range, turn shields shields on and turn somewhere that will hopefully be safer next turn. If you can get far enough away, double check enemy threat ranges, but not getting shot at all is better than a 4+ invulnerable save.

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Aquamarine - Light Cruiser
The Cool One

Allows you to ruin people's day by taking their perfectly lined up F(N) weapons free and moving it somewhere else. Or by making them fly into a debris field.. or ... it's a good tool. Use vectored to dart around and then come out of cover and ruin someone's plans Take 3 if they are an integral part of your strategy to get the reliable spin since you need 2 damage on a single weapon in order to activate spinning. If your targets don't have anything that needs a F(N) weapons free, look for situations to make them useful, like running up the board and turning a key enemy ship away from it's intended target, making the enemy choose between going where they want and keeping on low spike.

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Azurite - Light Cruiser
The Other Light Cruiser

Disruptors weren't good on any of the other ships they were on. They aren't good here either. Against all targets you have less average damage than the Aqua, and your hyper maneuverable ship has to fly straight at the enemy in order to do it. Occasionally this ship can surprise you on a good roll against lightly armored targets, but not only is the Aqua hyper reliable and better against all targets on average, it's gun has a cool side effect. The only side effect of the Azurite is sadness that you didn't buy an Aqua instead. Even if you have the 'reroll hits' card in hand, you want to use it on something critical. To add insult to injury it's the same exact price as the Aqua.

The thing the Azureite can do is use present an early threat to enemy support ships, or other ships that your enemy is expecting to be out of range. The 4+ lock hurts so try to target things with 4+ armor or worse. Lima and Galileo are prime targets. Use max thrust on the turn it deploys in order to get up the board and use vectored plus debris to make sure you don't get caught out turn 1 or early turn 2. The points investment is big for what you're getting, and you're certainly sending them to their deaths, but eliminating a key enemy support ship earlier than expected and having ships dancing on their half of the board can disrupt plans and sometimes cause an over reaction.

If the guns just had side arc, this would be a very interesting and worthwhile ship. But they don't. Probably not worth taking when the Aquamarine is around.

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Topaz - Frigate
The Gun Jockey - Half Sized Disintegrator (2 shots front arc only)

Very cheap for it's massive reach across the board, and the ability to put up a 4+ invuln shield for only 37 points. Has better firepower efficiency than the Amber does on standard orders, and unlike it's competitors it doesn't need to go WF to do it's best. Hang back safely and pour in reliable shots against targets engaged with other things, with the potential to zoom up the board to finish off weakened targets. Can also work as a superb suicide rusher, able to hit the enemy on turn 2 and send some strike carriers down in flames, likely tempting the enemy to over-react, this is particular great as even way up the board, the Topaz is hard to hit given most enemies need to be within ~8" to hit it, which can disrupt enemy plans. Also the cheapest way to put an annoying blob of shields in front of the enemy if they do not have spam weapons that can efficiently break your shields.Remember two key things:


 * Your gun is front arc only
 * You have a minimum movement of 6"

Getting into a position where you have to station keep means the ship is going to be visible and thus you might as well put shields up and hope to occupy as much enemy attention as you can.

The Topaz has lost some of it's luster since the destroyers and the Helium have come out. The destroyers are better at actually killing things and the Helium is both more capable and efficient of a skirmisher. This means that the Topaz is much more relegated to the 'reserve firepower' or 'distractions' roles.

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Jade - Frigate
Single Particle Lance

The Jade has received a significant glow up in the balance pass, and for the first time since release is now a viable ship, likely a good one. With 1 particle shot doing 2 damage, it now has better damage efficiency against armored (4+ or better) targets than the Jade and with a single average roll can cripple a frigate or strike cruiser. While it is limited to F(N), it can get its full damage on standard orders - so its now a flexible, relatively cheap alpha striker. You have two use scenarios for the Jade - alpha striking high value light targets (think anti-atmo destroyers, striker carriers, detectors) or using low sig to try and keep up a trickle of AP shot on anything that needs killing. In the latter, keep in mind your F(N) limitation but the lack of need to WF makes things easy most of the time.

For reference - The jade is now more point efficient for damage than the chromium ( on standard), but far worse than the Caesium against light targets.

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Amethyst - Frigate
The Zapper - Close Action Beam Weapon with random(2-4) shots, Lock 3+

The bravest little ship. Assume law of averages and it is going to give you one more shot than the Topaz and 360 arc in exchange for limitation to scan range.. Now is that worth being 29% more expensive than the Topaz? Probably not. Plus the Amethyst is barely more efficient at shooting than the Turquoise and doesn't come with the bombardment utility.

What it can do well is jump behind enemy ships and then shoot them with rear arc guns. If you do this in a place where there is nothing behind waiting to shoot you, this can either make the enemy let you jump around pestering ships or stop and deal with your annoying skirmisher. It is worth nothing that in terms of firepower it is actually slightly more efficient than the Topaz, and with a complete firing arc. However, Shaltari are still not a brawling faction, and you should not treat this as a knife fighter but rather a flexible hit and run ship.

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Opal - Frigate
The Shield Booster - No Primary Weapon

For a brief shining moment you can laugh at PHR players as you shrug off 75% of damage with a shielded ship. Each opal allows you to reroll shield saves for one enemy group firing, with two Opals needed for Super Heavy ships. Note that the FAQ allows you to decide whether or not to use the Opal until AFTER you roll, which allows you to judge the luck of the enemy shooting and your initial rolls before you spend your charge for the turn.

Opals are very much worth taking if you have a super heavy ship - 60 points is a small price to pay for potentially quashing a huge attack on a high value asset. A smart enemy will try to bait out the shield usage and play a mindgame with you before actually using the big threat on something else vulnerable so that your shields are never used. There is only so much you can do to limit threats with a shielded SH, so just think carefully about the big assets your enemy has and consider what each might shoot at if it doesn't target the super heavy. Of course with a boost range of 4", the Opals are vulnerable once your SH gets into the thick of it, so don't count on them surviving the battle.

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Chromium - Destroyer
The Burnthrough Guest Appearance - Thermal Lance plus Disintegrator

The Chromium has one of the best overlaps of threat and reliability in the game. The ability to hit something at a minimum of 24" away with 2+ lock on a BTL is fantastic, and can easily put out 2 or more crits per laser on an enemy target. These are great for suicide attacks against light targets that you really need dead. A broad strategy is to put them last on turn 2 and drive them close enough to the enemy to shoot, then put them on top of the deck turn 3 to go first and get your bonus disruption shots in from WF. Their lasers are best at sawing well armored but low hull targets, but if they put their fire together you can assassinate troop ships as well. The F(N) makes it harder to flank play with these so they really are suited to aggressive assassination plays, but like any Shaltari ship they can skirmish very well if played conservatively.

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Mercury - Frigate
The Armor Cracker - Mauler plus Distintegrator

Similar to the Chrome but front arc with the scan range limitation make this more of a patient hunter, although in the end it still does boil down to flying at something you want to kill and frying it. The Mercury is an outstanding option for destroying enemy heavy ships, and a group of three of them can do terrible things to the UCM/PHR dreadnoughts or resistance capital ships. They do suffer against Scourge and heavily against other Shaltari, but given that they will be good against all the human heavy ships, they are definitely worth taking. If you don't like lances, these are your best other option for taking down those tough 3+ armor ships.

Damage from mauler CAN be canceled by fighters. Watch out for overlapping aegis fields and try to get multiple enemy targets in threat range such that they can't cover a single target with fighter spam. Can be a viable threat to pull off the threat of PHR or scourge bombers. Make sure to keep the target of your Mercuries in mind when considering the fighter/bomber balance of the game, and where your targets are in relation to enemy carriers.

Curiously does not have harpoons BUT remember that they can fire both their guns on standard as Maulers are close action. The Mercury is an auto-include against any human faction, only situationally useful against scourge and borderline useless against other Shaltari. Keep this in mind as going too heavily into Mercury against a friendly opponent playing resistance would just be mean - while if you are playing a tournament with a large Alien presence, relying on them too heavily will punish you.

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Cobalt - Homeship
The other Mothership - Disintegrator

Plus Side:


 * Faster than Emerald
 * Better guns than Emerald by far
 * More Hull efficient than Emerald
 * Can only launch from the ships you want to keep the others spikeless

Down Side:


 * Can be lost to chain detonation


 * 36% more points per gate than Emerald

What is neither a pro or a con is that they are in the Light slot, as opposed to Medium, giving you a bit more flexibility when list building. If you have a plan in mind for the Cobalts, then they are a definitely a good pick, but you should not rely on Cobatl's for ALL of your drop, just because it's too damn expensive. Keep them separate from your Emerald's and use your speed to try and stay safe, or deliver to far flung void gates that are out of your teleportation network. Remember that they are going to be tough to keep safe once they are spiked from launching.

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Voidgate
Where the game is won. Voidgates are your primary means of delivering troops are are excellent at it. High speed, cheap cost and the teleport network all work together very well. It will rarely be worth raising shields, so even the dreaded Kiev will have to get within 7" to get shots on you. In the meantime, your cheap gate can hit on 5s in Atmo with no possibility of Pd blocking your shots, giving you somewhat of an edge in a slap fight with strike carriers. Always remember that Voidgates give a chance of mishap to any dropship or bulk lander trying to land in nearby clusters. This is a huge advantage that can help you gain ground superiority, and can make perking some voidgates near a cluster a good tactic even if you don't planning on dropping there yet. They are vulnerable at 2 hull and will die very quickly if seen not in atmo, which poses a major problem in space station games. Absurd Pd for a corvette means enemy corvettes will be taking their chances if they only put one weapon per voidgate which can help preserve your drop capacity.

It's very wise to take more voidgates than you actually need or can drop with in order to do teleport chaining or just for redundancy. With their low cost, your main sacrifice is the light slots. Always max out the voidgates in every light group unless you have a realy good reason for not doing so.

Always remember the Charged Air rule! Getting a voidate near a cluster reduces the odds of enemy assets landing. It's a key part of the balance vs. other factions so don't forget to roll for those bulk landers and dropships.

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Glass - Corvette
Strike Carrier Assassin

The Glass is the only way Shaltari have of killing things in atmosphere. Given that, it's disappointing that it's not up to par with other corvettes. Having 1 hull and 5+ armor means you fully expect them to die off if there are things with plentiful guns above them, so be mindful of what ships are within scan range of them. They also lack squadron, which is an important tool the other corvettes have for ensuring strike carriers go down. Although they have a slightly better per-ship damage than other corvettes, the Glass also suffers from not having rear arc weapons. The few points cheaper the Glass is than other corvettes doesn't justify how much worse it is, which is especially painful because Shaltari do not have a destroyer that can shoot things in atmosphere - this is your only way to kill enemy strike carriers.

At least you still have the signature Shaltari scan and thrust stats allowing you to hang back and then drop in to ruin a strike carriers day. You generally want a group of these to make sure you can choose 1 key cluster to wipe strike carriers from. Later in the game, the low signature and high movement can help them get from one cluster to another if needed, but frequently these will only get to work on one cluster, or two that are close together, so keep that in mind when choosing where to attack. Their attack is pretty bad at non-atmospheric targets, so only attack things in orbit if desperate or if no other targets are available.

If the enemy only has one group of strike carriers, catching and destroying them with your Glass swarm can be preferable to denying one or two drops. Remember to consider the larger game when deciding where to commit your Glass swarm and what to - as killing one or two strike carriers just to get the cluster overwhelmed by bulk landers a turn later isn't good. If the enemy doesn't have atmospheric weapons and is relying on corvettes, it may be worth losing a couple of voidgates to ensure that the Glass swarm gets first shot and can make the rest of your voidgates safe.

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Helium - Voidflyer
A very odd ship, able to use the voidgate teleportation network instead of it;s normal movement. Plus it's normal movement has vectored. Combined with an astounding 16" thrust and you have the most maneuverable ship in the game, that can get just about anywhere it wants. It's got good guns too - great damage output for their cost with the ability to fire in side arcs that is so sorely lacking on the Topaz. You can use these as either supreme flankers that try to stay behind enemies and assassinate key lights (Calypso, Havana, Lima etc) or you can do the great leap. Put them in a battle group with voidgates and have them hang back next to one of your reserve voidgates. Then send one of the the same battle group voidgates forward on max thrust (24") before teleporting out (+6") the Heliums and then you have 8" of scan to work with if needed. Given that is is likely to happen on turn 2, you can practically hit anywhere on the board as the scout voidgate can advance on turn 1 to cover another 12".

The swing factor and low total output means they aren't to be relied on, but having some of these means that nowhere is safe. Remember that you come out of the voidgate within one layer of the level it was on, so you can totally use voidgates as threat extension zones to anything that may pass over them in low orbit.

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Selenium - Heavy Voidgate
Backfield Voidgate - Escape Velocity Pop Gun

The Heavy Voidgate finally brings you other options than the humble Voidgate for holding ground. Off the bat, it’s low speed makes it obvious you can’t use it like you can with Voidgates, it’s also too fragile to use as a pseudo-troopship. This puts you firmly in the realm of a backfield ground holder. The reason to take these over Voidgates for that role are the better shields/armor and weapons. The weapons are a good point, as you can turn your otherwise toothless objective campers into effective firepower putting out long range shots from atmosphere. They won’t do a lot, but it’s better than nothing. The A2A charged air is also a plus as for the same price as two Voidgates you get an extra shot. This isn’t really much but it’s something. You also have a net lower SR for one monitor versus two Voidgates.

When it comes to durability, even though you pay for the two points of extra hull, you may not be able to use them given the crippling damage table. If the enemy has Kiev’s or other no-close action atmospheric weapons, leave your shields down. Otherwise. Shields up is generally better, as if you are getting hit by a big wave of corvettes, the saves against crits is better than an average of 2 prevented damage. The presence of shields actually enables better, if not good, durability against the corvette wave. Overall, in missions where you have homefield clusters to guard, or something that the Heavy can reach by Turn 3, the Silicon is a solid choice. Otherwise it’s not of much use. Buying two can spare up voidgates for more aggressive actions up the board and give you a bit more flexible firepower than you would otherwise have.

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Silicon - Monitor
The Stun Locker - Ion Cannons

The Silicon is wholly unimpressive except for the Ion stun rule. At more than a frigate it has less reliable firepower with the same (low) durability. The Ion stun rule is very impressive though – as it can utterly ruin people’s plans of executing a WF order, neutering many scary ships. It’s important to remember that the Energy Surge has to be repaired to go away, meaning there is a good chance that enemy ships are going to be neutered for more than one turn. Even more good news is that unlike gravity coils, Ion weapons only need 2 hits for an entire group. Given the benefits, you shouldn’t get greedy and try to disable multiple targets. With a minimum group of ships you are looking at a 68% success rate. With 3 you bump up to 89%.

Even while slower than other ships, the slight boost to scan range gives you decent threat range of 20”. If a Silicon group comes on the board turn 1, it can start turn 3 at the 12” line, meaning it will be able to hit up to 34” up the board on turn 3 when the major shooting starts. This means that you shouldn’t be worried about being in range of things – but you should be worried about being in range of things before they get to shoot. You can either suicide the Silicon up the board and make sure that you stun the scary thing, or you can have it hang back and keep very safe with low signature and stunlock things once they start racking up signature. With the latter strategy, you may not be able to stop the first WF. Just remember that repairs rolls are made at the end of the turn, so if the Silicon goes after the target ship and surges it, but the target then makes it’s repair role – you have essentially wasted your ion shots.

Remember that WF isn’t the only order this stops – it also stops course changes and station keeping, sometimes allowing you to force enemies away from the action, or to float off of critical locations. A big investment, but combining with Gravity Coils can result in really funny things happening. All in all, the ability to stop a big WF on the enemy flagship is incredibly powerful, and too good to pass up.

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Caesium - Cutter
Role: Description of what the ship does

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups

Gallium - Corrupter Cutter
Role: Description of what the ship does

Matchups


 * UCM: the ship against UCM
 * Scourge: the ship against Scourge
 * PHR: the ship against PHR
 * Shaltari: the ship against Shaltari
 * Resistance: the ship against Resistance

Synergies: ships that work well with this ship, typical battlegroups