Scout Bombing

Since it takes so long to get to their space, try to stay alive up there. Don't worry too much about dying before you even get to the front (you have wasted < 10 seconds). If they have a guy who picks up and goes to take (or shuttle, whatever), that you have had success ogging, just wait for more armies to pop and bomb those instead. If you ogg and fail, there will be more armies waiting for this carrier next time. Try not to get frustrated, frequently you have to just let her/him go. Don't get impatient -- let the ship guard a pile, wait for other armies to pop and bomb those instead (of course this is a judgement call -- if you have 2 on 1, and have not been having serious problems with this player, go for it).

If the sc-bombers are lagged things are more difficult. One thing at your disposal when you are lagged is patience. If someone waits to guard a planet, wait with him -- your very lagged ship is tying up his not so lagged ship. If he chases you, run at the same speed he does (or just hit maxwarp unless you are pretty far away).

Erik.

• the sc-bomber should be able to see when a DD is coming in to kill, and not only to asw and save armies. Then, more than ever, run run run;
• if the DD is just flying around, shadowing your moves and preventing you from bombing, then don't think that cloaking and rushing to the planet that just popped will do. You are dead meat already, and he has been waiting for nothing more than that. However, don't hesitate to do that to actually fake and bomb another planet.

1. A scout does little damage to a base.
2. A scout is usually much further from the base than most other players. Usually, the scout will miss the attack wave (and so will be killed easily).
3. It takes time to find the base, die or survive and then run back to the enemy's core. In this time lots of armies pop. During a base ogg, the opposition get lots of kills. Hence the base ogg is usually followed by a scum fest.

James (aka Zork).

Not to the point of being negligeable: 4 torps + phaser + explo -> about 200 ptswhere a CA would do about 300.

So the base and defense cannot simply ignore any "??", even if they correctly tracked the SC position. Just disturbing them is a good help for the big ships, specially as the SC often attack from the back.

Go in, those couple hundred points may tell the difference between the SB life and death.

Jean-Marc Tanzi

Either

• bomb
• or cloak, fly within range of the base, and try to make it waste wtemp firing at you. When the ogg wave hits, either join in (as a decoy rather than a serious threat) or go back to bombing.
• or act crippled/low on fuel/dumb and drag some defenders away from the base. Only worth it against low-clue teams who'll send 2 or 3 ships after a scout.

Sometimes you can combine choices -- cloak and head towards whatever planets the base is trying to guard. Dodge around making it waste wtemp, and then bomb them when the ogg wave hits.

Killing a base with 8 torps and the explosion from your dying scout is the stuff of Heroes and myth. Don't let that stop you attempting it when after the ogg wave the base is all alone wtemped at warp 1, and your resurrecting teammates are shouting "KILL IT!" to you, though...

Spaceman "living vicariously" Spiff

• you missed the sync message and your so novicey that you wouldn't be much of a help anyways. (i'm usually guilty of this.)
• or no one synced up for the base ogg in which case the base will anhillate them unless it sucks. in either case, who cares.

I usually ignore the base og messages and continue scumming planets. (You're in a scout? so what).

terry

A scout does little damage to a base.

So YOU say. A scout is a precision surgical ogging tool with many excellent features. Some of the scout damage-causing attributes are:

• The ability to zoom around cloaked and attract torps in the wrong direction from the main ogg. This ability is crucial.
• The ability to det. Scouts can det huge numbers of torps without dying, leading the enemy protectors into firing the wrong way or hitting their base a little.
• The ability to look just as scary as any other set of ><s on the screen. Fear is everything.
• The ability to cause over 50% of the actual hull damage caused by a CA (low, but not inconsequential).

A scout is usually much further from the base than most other players. Usually, the scout will miss the attack wave (and so will be killed easily).

The scout can get there faster, and usually synchronizing with the scout will be a win because the scout can imply the threat of all-quarters ogging, which is far harder to manage than the threat of single-quarter ogging.

It takes time to find the base, die or survive and then run back to the enemy's core. In this time lots of armies pop. During a base ogg, the opposition get lots of kills. Hence the base ogg is usually followed by a scum fest.

True. However, killing a base is usually more important than letting a few armies pop. Consider it as if you're being ASWed for a minute or two for a good cause.

If I was sure that base ogging in a sc was a bad idea, I would not ogg. However, I know I could get more torps into the base with practice. I want to know what experienced bombers do during an ogg.

Ogg. In fact, although it's a judgement call, bombers can do excellent general-purpose back court ogging; just by exerting a little pressure from the homeworld side, a bomber can cause irreparable position damage to an enemy carrier and send him squirting out into third space to be pursued by ravening friendly destroyers and certain ignominious death.

Although it's easy to get used to the idea if you're a CA pilot, it's very useful to remember in netrek that not all damage is shield damage or hull damage. There's also position damage, in which the enemy is made more likely to die by closing escape routes. And there's sensory overload damage, in which the enemy is pressed to her liminal ability to cope with all the threats on her screen. Scouts are *the best ship* to inflict position damage with, because you simply can't run into a good scout and expect to be happy afterwards, and scouts get into position to set the pick fastest. Scouts are also fairly good sensory overload ships, again because they can get into position; unfortunately if plocked they might as well start looking at the galactic to see where a good pick might be set next.

Recently there's been a dearth of good scouts, and a lot of scout loyalists have defected to CAs. Some are even bombing in CAs. I think this is due to the current overfixation on killing rather than getting into good position. But then, I have like a .60 ratio.

Felix Gallo aka rear ensign sunscreamer

Scouts tend to be less than useful as active participants in low-clue pickup-game oggs. In such games, a forward base will often be over-protected by otherwise useless big ship newbies who are hovering around the base in their all-too-familiar LPS mode. The advantage you have over your CA teammates is that your deeper position makes you a threat/target behind the enemy. In the critical moments before an ogg, you can pretend to bomb/take a nearby planet, or cloak and hover just out of phaser range. The objective is to take an escort out of the picture while maintaining bombing position, draw base fire when the ogg closes, and join in the ogg if it becomes a legitimate threat to the base. It is also useful if you can keep the base from regenerating W-temp.

In a T-warp scenario, it can be beneficial to bomb their core, in order to hinder new ships who wish to transwarping to their base. Intermittent core presence is enough to make some players decide that T-warp is not worth the trouble.

As an active participant, scouts are very useful in surprise oggs, assuming the oggers are clued enough to uncloak from different directes near max phaser range rather than close to the base. The varied torp speeds will often force a base to det huge numbers of torps in such an encounter, and the scout's marginal benefit can be more than 400 points if the scout's presence enables the cruisers to close. If your teammates insist on uncloaking on top of the base, you are probably better off with one of the above passive roles or switching to a CA, as your contribution is likely to be small.

-Teddy Ruxpin