What is the point of the Lanius B?

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OC2142
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What is the point of the Lanius B?

Postby OC2142 » Sat Mar 14, 2015 11:20 pm

This cruiser... ugh this god-damn cruiser...
What is the point of it? Its starting flak is a peashooter compared to most other ships (you need only take a glance at the Kestrel A and B), and the crew is awful for boarding especially against ships with L2 Life Support. Again, a brief glance at the Crystal B, the Mantis A and the Mantis B, with Crystal Crew or mantises as the case may be. What is the point of this ship?
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stylesrj
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Re: What is the point of the Lanius B?

Postby stylesrj » Sun Mar 15, 2015 2:18 am

You did not just go down that path... insulting the Cerenkov or the Fregitadae is fine because those ships can go burn in a solar flare, but no one insults the Shrike like that!

The Lanius B is hands-down, the best ship in the whole freaking game (or second-best if we consider the OPness that is the Carnelian). It provides both early-game fire support and boarding action. Unlike the Crystal B or the Mantis B where you must flee at the first sign of unboardable ships, the Shrike is versatile.

The starting flak is very likely to hit its target (compared to the Flak I) and it fires 3 shots every 10 seconds.
The Lanius crew can also be used to board automated drones, smash their weapons or piloting and if you blow up the ship while they're still in it, can be revived at the Clone Bay. Can't do that on the Crystal B or the Mantis B unless you're lucky to find 50 scrap and a Store with a Clone Bay very early in the game. And considering how luck goes, your first jump in a pore boarding vessel will 75% of the time drop you in front of an automated ship.

Awful at boarding? Did you even notice the Mind Control system? Drop the Lanius into the Shields, mind control the first idiot who shows up there, move the Lanius to Weapons and laugh as you disable the guns while they're busy killing their friend. Then once they're done, they'll be low on health and not want to deal with your Lanius who are choking the air out of the room.
Level 2 Life Support cannot hope to counter two Lanius in the same room either.
Medbay? That's why you have the Flak.
By the time 2 shielded enemies have appeared, you've already got bigger Flak guns.

So yeah, don't mess with the Shrike. It's good on all difficulties and very good surviving in the early-game.
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5thHorseman
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Re: What is the point of the Lanius B?

Postby 5thHorseman » Sun Mar 15, 2015 3:26 am

Are you kidding? The Adv. Flak is exactly like the regular Flak except it takes only 1 power and fires 2 seconds faster. It's arguably the best weapon in the game, only mitigated by the fact that you can never have more than 1 of them and most anything you pair it with will just slow it down.

And 2 Lanius boarders are AWESOME. You don't come across people with upgraded O2 very often and I don't recall it ever happening in early sectors. By sector 3 if you're still running with 2 Lanius boarders and that single flak cannon, then any trouble you get into is your own doing.
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stylesrj
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Re: What is the point of the Lanius B?

Postby stylesrj » Sun Mar 15, 2015 3:42 am

5thHorseman wrote:Are you kidding? The Adv. Flak is exactly like the regular Flak except it takes only 1 power and fires 2 seconds faster.


Plus the radius is smaller. Can't forget that part. So that means if you're firing at a thin room, it's more likely to hit.
OC2142
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Re: What is the point of the Lanius B?

Postby OC2142 » Sun Mar 15, 2015 10:47 am

If the medbay is in a 1x2 room, the flak will almost certainly miss. if there is a defense drone, the flak will get shot down. If there is an enemy hacking system and it lands on say your teleporter or your mind control you've lost and if there is an anti personnel drone you're screwed. On the Basilisk and the Carnelian you have better defenses and a 4 man teleporter as opposed to the 2-man version on the Shrike.
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stylesrj
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Re: What is the point of the Lanius B?

Postby stylesrj » Sun Mar 15, 2015 11:01 am

OC2142 wrote:If the medbay is in a 1x2 room, the flak will almost certainly miss. if there is a defense drone, the flak will get shot down.


There's 3 shots being fired. And by the time you're encountering those drones, you're either fighting an Engi ship (and Engies are terrible at defending, even with nanobots and medbay) or you should have better guns as you're in Sector 5 or something.

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If there is an enemy hacking system and it lands on say your teleporter or your mind control you've lost


The same can be said for the Boarding Princesses. If a Hack lands on your teleporter, you've lost.

and if there is an anti personnel drone you're screwed.


Oh ho ho ho, on the contrary my dear OC2142! An AP Drone is perfect! If the enemy ship is down to one person, you don't have to risk your boarding crew, just let their drone take care of it by Mind Controlling their last crew.

Or you could teleport them back and kill them that way too.

On the Basilisk and the Carnelian you have better defenses and a 4 man teleporter as opposed to the 2-man version on the Shrike.


You can vent the Shrike out except for piloting, close a few doors to delay boarders and watch them suffocate and die. And if Doors and O2 are destroyed, your Lanius can fix it without issues, because air is for suckers!

It's not a bad ship, you're just not using it right and complaining about things that can happen to any ship.
OC2142
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Re: What is the point of the Lanius B?

Postby OC2142 » Sun Mar 15, 2015 4:55 pm

I've played it from multiple angles, from a boarding ship to a destroyer, and neither strategy is satisfactory. As a boarder, the Carnelian is superior, with a cloak AND shield leaving the hangar, as well as 3 crystals and a 4 man teleporter. The Basilisk also carries a good trend, with another 4 man teleporter and 2 shield bars which renders you immune to basic laser/mini beam equipped ships and the like. The Shrike has a very poor, sprawling layout as well as the weakest engines possible. With no-one to man the engines if used as a boarding ship, every weapon barring basic lasers and Heavy Laser I's screw you over since you have the bare minimum of evasion. Maybe, just maybe, if the ship had a hacking system it would be bearable, but mind control cannot hold a candle up to a drone control or hacking. On the Shrike, despite being a 'boarding' ship it suffers the same issue as the Gila Monster. A 2 man teleporter. Hell, even the Theseus is a better boarding ship, and frankly that says more than I ever could.
But what about from an interceptor point of view? Well, both the Kestrel A and B layouts outgun this ship by a factor of 4 to 1 in terms of weapons. One hit to the weapons, similar to the DA-SR 12 and the Osprey to a lesser extent cripples you outright on the Shrike. On the Kestrel A, it takes 3 hits to completely cripple the weapons since you still have a 1 power Artemis. And the Kestrel B it takes 2 hits to render you impotent against single shield enemies. Of course, for true firepower you have the glass cannon that is the DA-SR 12.
In essence, anything this ship can do, another ship can do far, far better.
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stylesrj
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Re: What is the point of the Lanius B?

Postby stylesrj » Sun Mar 15, 2015 6:31 pm

OC2142 wrote:In essence, anything this ship can do, another ship can do far, far better.


My highest score on the iPad is 6475 with the Shrike on hard, followed by the Carnelian (Hard), Noether (Normal), Shrike (Hard) and Carnelian (Hard).

Remember, if you don't get a gun or a Clone Bay early when flying the Carnelian or the Basilisk, you're screwed. You can't loot automated ships. And you'll be encountering them a lot in the early-game.

I feel like I should make a video showcasing a Shrike run to show how good it is, but my commentary might not be the best. I like the Basilisk and Carnelian too, but the Shrike is the second-best ship in the game.

P.S. I hate how Mind Control can still be hacked despite being depowered, but if you do it before the hack, you'll save the bars of power. Bars which could be used for something else.
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5thHorseman
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Re: What is the point of the Lanius B?

Postby 5thHorseman » Sun Mar 15, 2015 8:02 pm

OC2142 wrote:As a boarder, the Carnelian is superior... even the Theseus is a better boarding ship... both the Kestrel A and B layouts outgun this ship... anything this ship can do, another ship can do far, far better.


First off, it's not always about which ship is better. There's satisfaction in beating the game in a ship that is harder to beat the game with, once you're consistently beating the game with average ships.

Secondly, being all around capable but not shining in any one area (which this ship does. It's a great teleporter no matter how often you say it's not) is a GOOD thing in a game where multiple viable strategies exist for EVERY ship in the beginning, and you frequently have to decide what your overall strategy will be based on what you find along the way. It's far easier to adapt a Jack-of-all-trades ship to a specific strategy than one tailor made for a whole other strategy.
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OC2142
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Re: What is the point of the Lanius B?

Postby OC2142 » Sun Mar 15, 2015 9:00 pm

When you say this ship is a good boarder, tell me, what sort of good boarding ship lacks proper medical facilities. After a battle, your 2 laniuses (Lanii?) are on critical health. They cannot hope to survive the next fight. And you have no way to kill them and force them to clone, so what is the point of this thing?