Welcome to the comprehensive brief for Hazel Terminus, a fleet consisting of the Hazel Terminus, a full 450mm gun Solomon-class battleship and the Tempered Shell, a Raines-class escort frigate.

This item is intended to be a plug-and-play fleet for newer Nebulous players looking to learn to play a relatively standard Solomon-class battleship in standard 3k point ANS vs OSP multiplayer.

Fleet: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3449570427
(click subscribe and it should be in your fleet editor the next time you launch the game. Save your own copy to edit if you wish)

First, when should you use the Hazel?

Single escorted battleships are intended to be a side grade to the popular Axford pair fleet archetype (TF Oak is a prime example), providing more comprehensive defences and increased survivability in exchange for some firepower and the limitation of only being a single capital ship. If your team is lacking a frontline entirely (fleets including 450mm Axfords and 450mm Solomons) it’s a good time to pull out the Hazel. If there are already 2 frontline fleets on the team, consider running a backline support or capture point fleet or discussing options with your teammates.

Now, on to an introduction to the ships:
The Hazel Terminus is a battleship designed to dominate open-space cannon exchanges in the 8.5 to 11 km range band. The Hazel is quad-drive, with a large Raider and small Raider drive, which makes it very fast for a battleship and allows it to orbit dodge/raider dodge (more on this later). Like most modern Solomon-class designs, the Hazel is intended to be a bow tanking build, pointing its nose into enemy fire to present highly sloped armour and a small cross-section, allowing it to survive even under heavy bombardment. Its compartment and offensive weapon setup both explicitly support this playstyle: all guns are capable of firing across the bow and the front of the ship is stacked with high HP, high Damage Threshold compartments to maximise effective survivability. It mounts a full softkill suite to deflect most enemy missiles, supplemented by a few 20mm turrets to catch any leakers and several instant-staging command-guided hybrid anti-bomber ACMs to kill strike packages that break through allied ASF flights. With only 13 DC teams and 8 restores, the Hazel is on the lower end of battleship DC volume, but these teams are buffed by 2 small workshops and 2 DCCs which allow them to rapidly repair incoming chip damage and maintain flank speed for longer.

The Tempered Shell is an escort that provides several defensive and utility functions to the Hazel. Firstly, it mounts a long-range Spyglass radar to provide situational awareness to both the player and the team with its 11.5km range. Secondly, the Shell mounts a pair of long-range Sarissa PDTs, primarily intended to whittle down incoming cruise missile strikes. Lastly, it carries 28 Naginata SDMs, designed for standoff anti-craft defence and to assist allied craft in dogfights.

The Hazel Terminus mounts 8 barrels of 450mm cannons as its primary (and only) armament. These weapons are extremely potent against all OSP ships except the Ferryman-class clipper. Although these guns have a maximum range of 11.2km, they are best used in conjunction with a fire-control lock, meaning that its most effective range is between 8.5 to 9.5km, where your Bullseye FCR can hold a lock while you maintain outside the range of OSP's 250mm and armour-shredding plasma weapons. For most targets, fire HE rounds, saving your AP for bow-on Ocello-class command cruisers and Flathead-class monitors that are at an angle to you. Prioritise remaining bow-on to your targets at all times maximise your survivability.

The Hazel depends on softkill for its primary missile defence, spoofing missile seekers rather than destroying the missiles themselves. The VLS-2 on MT 6 contains your complement of the potent and limited EA99 Conure Active Decoys, which are effective on most OSP cruise seeker combinations. The antenna on MT7 is intended as a backup for the often-destroyed integrated antenna on the Solomon-class. Lastly, the Interruption jammer on MT10 deafens incoming Command-guided missiles while the VLS-1 on MT11 contains chaff decoys (less effective but cheaper than Conures) and a ceremonial arming missile (Psychological Damage) that should never be fired. The Hazel also mounts a Floodlight on MT14 which can be used for self-illumination, but is better left for when you are more familiar with the fleet's gameplay.

If under missile attack follow the softkill checklist ASAP:
1. ALLSTOP (default shift + Spacebar)
2. EMCON (right click > EMCON)
2.1 Remember to EMCON on both ships
3. Activate Interruption jammer (right click > EW > MT10 "Interruption")
4. Chaff x2 (default shift + Z twice)
5. Fire a Conure Active Decoy (right click > EW > EA99 Active Decoy)
6. (Optional) Illuminate chaff (right click on chaff > EW > MT14 "Floodlight")
if done properly, you will survive all but the most dedicated missile attacks relatively unscathed


The Hazel has 4 Defender PDTs mounted with good lines of sight to hardkill any missiles that make it through the softkill defences. The Hazel also mounts a vls-3 on its backpack loaded with a limited complement of bomber-killing Fruitfly S3h ACMs, which are manual fired. For maximum effectiveness, manually prioritise incoming bombers at 4-5km by z-clicking them, and the single hybrid will hopefully clean up 3-4 bombers, allowing your Defenders to deflect the rest of the incoming strike.

The Hazel's damage control (DC) suite is geared towards repairing chip damage and critical events very fast, sacrificing some ability to recover from crippling strikes. You only have 8 restores. Use them wisely. Your damage control priority list is as follows, in order of both suite and component priority:
1. DC systems (Large DC Lockers with 2/2 remaining restores) only if not actively taking damage. This is known as chain-restoring.
2. Command systems (Reinforced CIC) Restore a CIC if all are grey. Don't restore Aux steerings
3. Drive systems (Large Raider, large Dragonfly) restore one large drive if all are grey
4. Softkill suite (VLS-2, VLS-1, Interruption) Restore ASAP if an enemy missileer exists. Prioritise components earlier in the list
5. Offensive suite (Parallax radar, reinforced magazine, Bullseye, Mk66/68 cannons, bulk magazine, Floodlight) Prioritise components higher in the list. Only restore the floodlight if you encounter enemy jamming
6. Energy systems (FR3300 Micro reactor) only if lacking power for full use of softkill suite and radar.
7. Radar panels (FTR/FTL, FBR/FBL) only if spare restores are available and less than 2/8 panels are left
8. Don't bother restoring dead ammo elevators, small workshops or DCCs.

The Tempered Shell has a single reinforced DC locker, usually to restore the CIC or FR4800 Reactor, a Spyglass radar for situational awareness and 2 Sarissa PDTs to force craft and cruise missiles to dodge while approaching as well as 28 Naginata SDM to assist your cv player. Set PDMSL Fire Mode to MAN at the beginning of the match and switch to DCTRN if there is a craft engagement within 6km of the Shell

SGM-122 Psychological Harm: Arming missile. DO NOT FIRE
SGM-233 I Remain a Menace to Society: Arming missile. DO NOT FIRE
SGM-H-324 Fruitfly IR6-CW-GM: Manual hybrid ACMs that one-shot Sturgeon bombers and can potentially multikill between 3-5 bombers in a flight
SDM-221 Naginata M9R-XC: Automatic ACMs that one-shot Barracuda fighters

The arming missiles allow for both ships to still count as armed even if they aren't mounting any weapons (Tempered Shell) or if magazines and weapons get disabled (Hazel Aftertaste)

The Fruitflies need to be manually fired at bombers with the Z-prio method (not the WEP option). They are command-guided and require decent track quality and functioning comms on the Hazel to use. Ideally, you will target the centermost bomber at between 4-5km for maximum effect.

The Naginatas are fire-and-forget weapons best unloaded en-masse to disrupt hostile fighter blobs by switching PDMSL from MAN to DCTRN

This battleship acts as the anchor for your team to play around. Your objectives are to project presence, survive as long as possible and deal damage to enemy capitals, in descending order of priority.
Early game, stay at long (10+km) range, bow-tank and orbit dodge while shooting targets of opportunity. Listen to your team and support their advances.
Late game (around when both teams are at 750+ points in a 1000-point game) find an endangered allied or isolated enemy capture point to push, get there ASAP and sit on the point until you die or the game ends.

• single 450mm Marauders when you have a lock
  
• 4 or less Flatheads when the engagement starts at >9km
  
• Single bow-on 450mm Ocello when you have a lock (fiire AP)
  
• Double side-on 450mm Ocellos
  
• Obelisk, plasma+100mm and 250mm Marauders if you start firing at >10km
  
• All non-torpedo Draugrs when you have a lock

(note that due to the nature of ANS 450mm weapons, you will not win any engagements instantly, but will cause massive damage over time)

• 2-3 450mm Marauders when you have a lock and are bow-on
  
• 5-6 Flatheads when the engagement starts at 7-9km
  
• double bow-on 450mm Ocellos when you have a lock

• 3 or more 450mm Marauders if you have no lock, especially if they have split angles on you
  
• double bow-on 450mm Ocellos if you have no lock
  
• 5-6 Flatheads or 250mm Marauders when the engagement starts at <7km
  
• plasma+100mm ships that start the engagement in plasma range

• Any 450mm or plasma+100mm ship that fires into your broadside, topside or underside
  
• Mass torpedo ambushes (Tug groups or a Torpcello)
  
• Strikes of 8 or more R3-carrying Sturgeons
  
• Rocket Shuttles
  
• Container Missiles (CM-4) after you run out of Active Decoys and chaff

Set up an orbit command at around 9.5-10km range from your target. Ensure the orbit path is perpendicular to the line of fire. What should happen now is 450mm shells fired at you should just miss you or bounce off your armor. If 450mm shells are still hitting you, set your orbit point further away and increase speed to FLANK. Start retreating at FLANK if your target reaches 8km range. Raider dodge is similar, but with a single CRS course plotted perpendicular to the line of fire and always at FLANK speed.
(image by cann01181 on discord)

Outmaneuvered: A Guide to Maneuvering Efficiently by PuppyFromHell https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2892430677
Matters on Messing with Modern Missiles by Mathblob https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3137161888
Build Boat Better - A Nebulous: FC Ship Building Crash Course by Vastol