Yes, but it's interesting to see what is possible. I imagine that would give purpose to the game once you have all the ships you want. I am sure I'll be doing that in the future if I stick with the game. But at the moment, that engineering is giving his Chieftain about double the shields of
my Chieftain. Yep, new owner.
Outfitting on a budgetI flew the Asp X to the nearest Lakon dealer. Well, not the nearest, but the closest one with a Chieftain on the lot. Paid my 19m and took it to the custom shop. I had 32m left, and I figured I should keep twice the re-buy in the bank. New ship, compromise build, me at the controls. Best to keep the extra insurance money on hand. The 6A power plant of course had to wait, and I installed a 6C. Had to skimp on the power distributor as well and went with 6D The rest of the core internals were top-shelf. Chose a 6C Bi-Weave and put a couple of shield boosters, a chaff launcher and a point defense on the utilities.
I put multi-cannons on the large HPs and pulse lasers everywhere else. A little armor boost as well. Didn't have the money to sort out the optional internals. I flew a couple of bounty hunting missions to a nearby high-RES and earned enough to upgrade the distributor to 6A. Just before heading out for the first mission I remembered Wingnuts mentioning the field maintenance and threw one in. Jump range is a very acceptable 19, but as I get money, this will get heavier and the JR will suffer. Still, it's really good jump range for a combat ship, and would make the Chieftain a great choice for kill missions, like assassinations where you have to travel a bit. It's also great for getting to CG's.So this is what a little less than 50m will buy you, give or take.
First ImpressionsTook the keys and down to the hangar.. Great 'pit in this thing. The cockpit feels like flying a 109, or maybe a Razorback P-47. The framing gives me that feeling. Great overhead and lateral vision. A different sort of feel than my other ships. I like.
Dockside handling is really nice. I already feel like I can land this thing better than other ships. I had read about poor lateral thrust, but around port at least it's very responsive. Great yaw ability. Seemed to be so in supercruise as well, but no one is going to care much about that. I didn't get interdicted, but it seems that evasion would be a snap, if the Chieftain's yaw control carries over in that mini-game, which it should right? But you might not want to evade, you're in a Chieftain!
The boost sound is, well, I don't know. You will know you've boosted, or at least think someone fired a missile from just outside your cockpit. Overall early impressions were really good. Nothing so far that I didn't like.
CombatThis is why one buys a Chieftain, innit right? My initial reaction to the Chieftain's flight model was not good. This thing drifts. My combat skills have been honed in the Vulture. I flew the Chieftain the same way. Or I tried. It is not a Vulture. I hit one asteroid so hard that I collapsed my shields and took 5% hull damage. Flying it like a Vulture gets you pointing the right way, but traveling the other way. It's like the engines/thrusters can't match the impressive pitch control. It can't overcome it's inertia when the 'AoA' is high. It's mushy like you see those airshow crashes when the jet just goes soft. The Chieftain lacks
purchase under aggressive maneuvering. Or it does as equipped, I should say. This affects the sense of acceleration. Once the Chieftain is going the right way it seems peppy enough. But if you let it wallow out, the acceleration seems to take too long to kick in, and the target can extend, or you will fail to gain separation.
I never took hull damage in the Vulture. I got hit sure, but the shields were always enough, and the extreme maneuverability means you can play catch me if you can while waiting for recharge. In the Chieftain I got hit. And took damage. Worst was down to 70%. I took most of it from the front and the canopy never cracked. I don't know if the canopy was hit or not, but seems likely and anyway it stayed intact. An expert NPC Clipper gave me everything I could handle. We had our own dance away from the others and it was tight. Like a joust, where each ship made a head-on pass and then turned around and did it again. I couldn't get inside his circle. I finally boosted away and he was then engaged by others. At a little better than 300mj, the shields are just weak. If the Chieftain had the Vulture's agility it would be less of an issue. Obviously in this early budget-build I have not maxed out. But with 6C Bi-Weave and two boosters there isn't much more other than engineering. You can stack some armor on, but that adds mass. This is no shield tank, and I miss that from the Vulture. Shields are like are like a built-in combat timer. Just come back when they're ready. I would rather rely on shields than hull anytime.
Act 2I flew back to the station and cashed in my bounties. Decided to christen the ship Ashigara. The first visit to the RES was filled with FDLs and Gunships and lots of high value stuff. Got 1.7m but decided against upgrading the distributor just yet. just in case. After repair and replenishment I sat there thinking about that first hop. I wasn't all that impressed. Sure, for everything not combat it is great. I like the ship. But I bought it to hunt. And in combat it just didn't match the Vulture in my eyes. But I had noticed that the Chieftain seemed to be especially agile at high speed. The Vulture is sort of a pig at full speed. But drop it in to the blue and it whips around like a banshee.The Chieftain doesn't care about being in the blue. So I though about flying it like an energy fighter. The Vulture is the Spitfire, the Chieftain is the 109. Classic boom and zoom ya know?
So I flew back to the RES and changed tactics. Full throttle all the time. I bounced ships and extended. The Vulture is best flown on the tips of the target's exhaust. The Chieftain needs to hit and run. And it excelled. The key for me was to never let it mush. As soon as the speed starts to bleed, ease off and let it recover. It retains it's agility, and doesn't get in to the bogged down state that kills it. And the weapons are exceptionally well placed for this. It's like a sniper ship. It puts out a concentrated cone of fire. The full weight of the volley at all ranges. Changing the way I flew opened my eyes, and let this ship shine. I broke out all of the old moves, chandelles, rolling scissors, Immelmans. Distance is controlled by maneuver, not the throttle. This works especially well in the typical RES, as the swirling maelstrom is moving in slow motion, and you're slashing through and bouncing your targets. I took no more damage after changing tactics. Energy fighting helps to negate the ship's weaknesses and maximize it's strengths. In a one-on-one dogfight, I'll take the Vulture everytime. But in a furball, each has it's strengths.
The second and third trips to the RES saw smaller targets. All Adders, Cobras, Vipers, so the money dropped off. Still, I could afford to A-rate the distributor. There is still a long way to go on this build, but I think for 50 million you can get yourself a good combat Chieftain. My opinion now is that this is a great ship. It's more flexible than the Vulture. But I won't be getting rid of mine anytime soon.
The action was thick, and I was having so much fun that I failed to get any good interior shots, but I did manage this one from the first hop. Kinda like a 109 right? Doesn't show much, sorry.