Understanding Your UNSC Ships

Know Your Ships

The UNSC fleet is composed of multiple diverse and effective vessels, all built to serve different purposes and functions. Understanding the elements available to you will assist you in using them to their full potential.

While the large amount of choices you have in ships may seem daunting, breaking it up into more understandable categories will help discover what you need.

Non-Capital

Nor-Capitals are any ship that does not carry a Capital tag, such as Halberd Destroyers and Paris Frigates. While they are individually weak and fragile, they are extremely cheap and speedy, and much harder to hit. They are mostly used to fill out Build Rating space, however they are still fully capable of augmenting larger ships in their functions and can be used to protect vital ships and supplement MAC volleys and Missile salvos.

Sacrificing a lower damage track and less Missile dice, the Paris Frigates in Arrowhead Formation makes up for in availability and more MAC damage. These are perfect for supplementing MAC volleys for a cheap price and build rating.

The middle of the line non-capital element. The Paris Frigates in Trident Formation don’t excel in any one area, however it has a slightly larger damage track and an even amount of MAC and Missile dice. Perfect for any situation you’d need this ship to slot into. 

Taking twice the cost and building rating as the Paris formations; the Halberd Destroyers in Axe Formation come with much stronger damage track, defensive dice, and a powerful MAC. It’s well worth the cost for a hard to hit damage dealer.

Brawlers

Brawlers are ships that can stick close up to enemy ships, dealing decent damage and soaking up fire. While they shouldn’t be a major focus of your army, having one can really help protect your squishiest ships. 

Of all your ships, the Phoenix-Class Colonial Support Vessel has the best profile for this role. Its large size, damage threshold, and large amount of boarding craft, combined with a unique ability to generate boarding craft, means that it’s best suited to sticking up close to the enemy. Using it to board enemy vessels, while pounding them with a forward facing MAC, as well as Missiles and even a sideways facing MAC. 

Keep in mind that even though it’s tough, it’s not invincible. As well as it’s large size making it much less maneuverable, you’ll need to manage your ship’s position well to make best use of it.

Troops

Troops are your main force and should make up a majority of your fleet. They are your standard elements that are able to adapt to the situation and combat the enemy in any number of roles.

These ships are: the Halcyon Light Cruiser, Marathon Heavy Cruiser, and Autumn Heavy Cruiser. 

The Halcyon Light Cruisers are the cheapest elements in this line, with the smallest damage track and attack dice pools for both the MAC and Missiles. 

The Halcyon has a powerful ability known as Hard Target, that causes an enemy attack dice to be subtracted for every attack dice result of a skull. 

The Halcyon is a lumbering ship, meaning the way it turns and maneuvered is comparable to a large ship instead of its Medium size. Keep that in mind as you drive it across the battlefield.

The Marathon Heavy Cruisers are middle of the line ships, with a decent damage track, a good amount of defensive dice, and a standard sized pool of attack dice. 

The Marathon lacks any unique abilities or a distinct role, but it is versatile and powerful enough to be inserted into any fleet and excel. 

The Autumns are an assault variant of the Marathon, with two ODST Strike Teams on board, as well as the Advanced Targeting ability to reroll skull results and make its MAC shots more accurate. 

It’s better fit for more aggressive use as it has to be much closer to the enemy in order to make use of its two ODST squads. Make sure you pair it with other elements capable of close quarters engagements. 

Gunners

Gunners are the largest damage dealer in your fleet and are a vital part of dealing with tough enemy elements. It’s important to protect these elements from the enemy in order to keep up the offensive pressure. 

The Valiant Super-Heavy Cruisers has the most firepower for its size, with the largest amount of MAC and Missile dice of any standard Medium ship. This class of ships should be your biggest and main damage dealer. 

The Valiant also is one of the toughest ships of the size, with the highest damage tracks of the 2nd line ships and with the largest pool of titanium armor and point defense dice compared to Troop elements. 

This ship also tends to be much more expensive pointwise than other elements in this class, and it is designated as a high value target, giving the enemy extra Victory Points for its destruction. Make sure it’s protected from the enemy.

MAC Platforms are completely unique, being a completely stationary element exclusive to the emplacement battle group. It lacks any secondary weapons and is only allowed to harbor Interceptors. 

They make up for their restriction with an extremely powerful MAC, capable of shearing through light and medium enemy elements. The MAC has an extremely long range, able to target elements from nearly across the board. It is also tough, with high amounts of defensive dice. 

It is a strange element, but if you are able to fit one into your fleet, it will increase your firepower significantly.

Carriers 

Carriers are backline ships, as far away from the main fighting as possible in order to take more and rebuild more Wings into battle. They are large ships with high damage tracks and lots of defensive dice. They also carry a lot of weapon dice, supplementing the firepower of a fleet with their MACs and Missiles. 

The Epoch Heavy Carrier is the best carrier in terms of Wing support. With the largest Hanger numbers and ability to bring large numbers of wings back into the fight. 

Its Light MAC has an amount of attack dice comparable to a Valiant, as well as larger amounts of Missile dice. However, the range leaves something to be desired, and often won’t be able to target ships that aren’t immediately close to it. 

It is durable and able to absorb more punishment than many other ships in your fleet, a tough but tempting target for enemy elements. 

The Orion Assault Carrier is less durable than the other carrier, with a smaller damage track and less defensive dice, as well as less offensive dice, as well as a much reduced carrier ability. However it makes up for it with a cheaper price and smaller build rating, as well as a longer weapon range, makes it a decent carrier to be able to fit into lists if price and build rating is limited.

Keep in mind the different ships open to you when deciding your fleet, as well as what roles each element and battle group should preform in order to be ensure victory over your enemy.