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Hidden Claw Squadron - SAM Torpcello

Role: Ambush - Scouting - Capping | Difficulty: HARD

This is the classic 'Torpcello and friends' Ambush/Hunter-Killer build that deals rapid & massive damage in close quarter combat, this time with a small twist.

Comparing to regular torpcellos, the Keris forgoes some point-defense capability for two VLS-2 launchers filled with ACM missiles, practically turning it into a mobile SAM site.

The best tactics for this fleet is to evade detection until the last minute, even better during feigned retreat to draw enemy capital ships to overextend, then unleash the deadly torpedoes at the unsuspecting enemies (weapons control mode HOLD can be used to great effect here).

Can take out lone Solomon, Axford pair, or Vauxhall trio with ease. However, ally fire support is strongly recommended against denser concentration of enemies. Be economical when expending your torpedoes, as they are a limited resource, and an empty Torpcello cannot respond to threats other than bow tanking.

Intel coverage is provided by EO spotter and radar crafts launched from the eclectic carrier Wulung Jawa. Use these tools to scan ahead of your movements and plan deadly torpedo strikes while keeping the torpcello itself hidden.

Be sure familiarize yourself with craft control and mechanics. Keep your scout crafts alive and away from combat, as they are your eyes and ears, and you only have a limited number of them.

When moving between covers or if a short-ranged charge is the only option, use the radar jammer escort shuttle Peurise to cover the torpcello's movement. This is effective down to 5 - 4.5 km away from enemy radar.

Note: The torpcello does not have enough power to run all systems simultaneously. It is important that you manage your power consumption during combat, especially when your point-defense is activated. Set your PDTRT to DEDI on the torpcello at the start of the match to avoid having the illuminator automatically firing on PD prioritized targets and unnecessarily drawing power.

Weaknesses: Vulnerable to cruise missiles, bombers, and beams spams; in addition to just being in the open in general. Keep your position and composition well concealed for best survivability.

The included SGT-315 Letter Opener torpedo is best fired at range 3.6 - 3.8 km, to a maximum of 4.0 km. It has corkscrew terminal maneuver with 3.2G of turn rate to defeat weakened/exposed point defense. Remember to burn through and lock the contact you want to shoot to defeat jamming, as this torpedo is Command (CMD) guided.


Below is the amount of SGT-315 Letter Opener torpedoes it takes to cripple ANS hulls of each class. Please note that it might take more torpedoes to take out ships capable of bow-tanking (Vauxhall light cruisers and larger), or ships that are unusually reinforced with many components and redundancies.


When shooting a small amount of torpedoes at smaller ships (less than the salvo size of 6), care must be taken to ensure that heavy enemy point defense is not present. Otherwise, more torpedoes would be needed to get through to the target without being all shot down.

A mass torpedo attack will perform best when you can catch the enemy ship off-guard on its either sides, top, or bottom. This increases the likelihood of widespread damage to vital systems such as the drive, reactor, magazine, and CIC.

In total, you have 8 full salvos (48 torpedoes).

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Based on my other Torpcello build Hidden Blade Squadron.

Good luck and have fun! Let me know in the comments if you have any suggestions.


I wrote a guide on my approach to playing this fleet:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3477772891

• Update v1.3: Updated SGM-115 Retort to only target hybrid missiles and optimized the torpcello internals.
  
• Update v1.2: Fixed incorrect ACM ordering that makes the ship fires multi-purpose Whirlwind SDMs at bombers instead of spending the dedicated Breadstick ACM first. Thanks Kenric for bringing this to my attention!
  
• Update v1.1: Adjusted the internals of the scout carrier Wulung Jawa to fit in 3000 points due to the increased point cost of the Monitor hull from update 0.5.2.9 - Modular Spacecraft.
  
• v1.0: File uploaded.