Three years ago I bought a Chieftain as the next step from my Vulture. I like the ship, but at that point I was not far along with engineering and I ended up selling it since it did not outperform the Vulture. Recently I have been thinking of building a combat ship that uses weapons other than my standard beams and multicannons. And with my much improved engineering access I thought perhaps I could pull it off. Maybe a ship with fixed weapons and not a shield tank. My experience fighting a jacked Chieftain in a pirate threat a couple week ago made me wonder if this could be the ship?

So last night I flew to Jameson and bought one. I mounted three PAs plus three rails. But I am lost as to how I will arm it really. I like the idea of rails, and I think the Chieftain would make a fine railboat, with three smalls. So I sort of mocked one up. This one has efficient thermal vent beams plus the rails. I reasoned with everything fixed it will reduce targeting complications and eliminate shot speed concerns like I would get with PAs. Plus the TV would counter the rail heat. In theory.

Rails and Beams Chieftain

I've mocked it up with long range rails and short range, efficient and focused PAs, multis and cannons, with various secondaries. Here I went short-range rails with one feedback cascade and two super pen. I reasoned that with the short falloff of the beams, that long range rails wouldn't synergize all that well. Get up close and let 'er rip. With a class 6 PD I believe WEP capacitor will be taxed near max, another reason for the efficient beams.

The GSRs are in there to make it feel like it has proper shields, but this may be a mistake with power at a premium.

Utilities are a blank canvas. I might want PD, I might need heatsinks. How about chaff? I have so little experience with this sort of build. I don't want to spend mats on mods I regret, so I will need to take my time with this one. Who has one of these and care to share the build?

Here's mine; https://s.orbis.zone/d8t9

Must say I haven't flown it in a couple of years. As I look at the build I had discovered the skittle guns and back then it was my go to combat ship. There are a number of things I'd do different today. I'd use a couple of Cytoscramblers in the size one slots, run two large multi's with corrosive and emissive coupled with a healer beam.

Then the Krait's came out and well that extra size large slot had me from then on.

Thanks man, appreciate the build. That must have been one of the first GSRs to roll of the line.

I think I have a good handle on how I want to build the cores and optionals, but weapons are far from settled, and utilities too. I hate the thought of G5-ing weapons just to change my mind.

Up close and personal no kidding. You are more than likely a better pilot than I am, but I was never very good at Fixed weapons, ESPECIALLY Rails that have a spool up lag time. I always mount a PA if I can, and against big ships, they are great, but for more Agile ships, the only shots I manage to get in (MOST but not all of the time) are the very first SITTING DUCK shots when the K-Scan is done and the ship is just sitting there or flying a straight path oblivious to the PA coming his way.

I did notice in the Pirate Activity USS during the CG, it would often turn into a toe to toe slugfest even with more agile ships like FDL's, so in that scenario, rails and PA's are useful. If I weren't driving a tanky Vette, I probably would TRY to avoid those slugfests if possible.

I've not much experience with fixed weapons. I have none with rails. Or PAs. I may be bad at shooting them. I don't know really. But that's the idea. Get out of my routine, build a ship that's very different.

Like I never bother targeting modules. I just lock the target and shoot until it is dead. With a build like this Chieftain might become, I can give all this a go, see if I am any good at it, and if I even like it. If I don't I can change up the weapons, or even sell the ship haha.

Fixed weapons are intriguing, and hit harder, plus use less power than gimballed counterparts. But I know I will miss the real reason I like gimballed weapons, and that's the ability to put weapons on target in all three pursuit phases. With fixed weapons like I am considering -- beams and rails -- the ship would only hit the target in pure pursuit, and I know I will have to adjust to always needing to be pointing directly at the target. I can't control range through maneuver, only speed, if I have to boresight every shot. Rails are hitscan though, so I'll see if I can work with the cues to attain reasonable accuracy and go from there. Seems a worthwhile endeavor after four years of ignoring this stuff haha.

And I am leaning back toward long range rails.

This project is off the ground. Not sure if I would adapt to, or even like, the idea behind this build, I decided to half-ass it at first. I couldn't skimp on thrusters of course, so those went G5 dirty drag. And G5 thermal resist on the bi-weaves And I have a lot of C5 FSDs sitting around these days of course.. Everything else is G3 or G4. These mods use mats I tend to have plenty of, so going half-way would allow me to build a capable facsimile of the full build, but without spending mats I would regret if it didn't pan out.

Half-assed beams and rails Chieftain

Beams are G3 efficient thermal vent. Rails are G3 Lightweight and all have super pen. I put a 5H FSD booster in it to fly it around to get the secondaries. Power plant is awaiting final modifications, but will go some grade of armored with thermal spread. I had to put overcharged on it to cover everything before the engineering started to drop the draw. Put a collector limpet in it because of course I did. The optionals still have a long way to go, and final decisions too, I'll see how she performs in combat then decide how I want to arrange the internals.

With the ship good enough now for some RES combat I took it out bounty hunting in my home system. It felt foreign at first, but I quickly started getting used to it. Fixed weapons, and rails to boot! My first four rail volleys missed, but then I started connecting, and even though these are class 1 rails, they pack a punch. The combination of beams and rails took a dangerous Conda's shields down in about 15 seconds. The pure pursuit attack requirement takes some adjusting too. I want to maneuver as a matter of routine, but to hit the target the reticle has to be right on. Not a big shift really, but when you've played as long as most of the guys here have, and me too, with gimballed weapons, these things become second nature and to do them differently suddenly requires thinking it through, being conscious of what you need to do. But it can't be more simple really than put dot on thing you want to kill. Keeping it there is the challenge.

So the Chieftain.... I sold my first one. But it is fantastic with engineering. I'm very impressed with how it handles. Of my combat ships it seems to bleed speed the least under aggressive maneuvering. It's a little drifty, but that's OK. It doesn't stall like the FDL and the Kraits do. Or at least it takes more to get it there. Good speed, great agility and performance. It already feels like the right choice for a fixed weapons ship. It's a really nice platform for matching a target's moves. I am also looking to get some FA-off skills, and again it seems like a good ship for this. The Chief also has fantastic overhead visibility. No one ever mentions this as something they look for in a ship, but I do! I spend a lot of time looking out the top of the canopy and tend to get rid of ships with limits here. I basically sold the Python for this reason. Of the ships I have now only the Cutter has poor overhead vis, but it's a fookin' Cutter, so...

Gotta say I'm impressed with what this ship and build can do already, and enough to now go through to full G5. At this stage I would struggle in one- v ones with heavy hitters, especially if they can get me in to a joust. I don't have the accuracy to handle this yet. But in a RES? It's good and kills stuff quick. One of the keys to me doing this was the purchase of the Crosswinds. Without these I don't think I would be looking to build a ship like this. But they add so much to my control ability that it's finally viable to give it a go.

And the finished article

Beams and Rails Chieftain

A few of these things are not quite done, I need more selenium, which I might go get tonight, but it's mostly there. The posted build is still theoretical to a degree. This ship has excellent agility, good speed, and plenty of firepower. Shield and hull resists are near perfect for me. Class 1 collector and class 4 rack for mat gathering. Good balance between shields and integrity, she is well-protected. Low recovery.

Heatsinks weren't needed once I gave it a go, I had no idea how hot it would get with rail volleys, but it's not an issue. I put a PD on it for some reason haha.

Had my first real experience with targeting modules. I blew up a Python with two rail volleys at the power plant. Cool.

This is a fun ship to fly and fight. Hits hard (if I can hit it), crazy good agility and energy retention, excellent cockpit vis and fantastic protection against all PvE threats. Good stuff.

Flew to Marco and got the power plant done, G3 Armored with thermal spread. Idle is down to 25%.

I took it out again last night for a little bit, enough to bump the rank another point. This is good fun. Small ships like Eagles, Adders and Diamondbacks have become more slippery since I can't just gimbal them to death in seconds. Against big ships, or anything say Clipper or Python size and above, it is pretty lethal. I feel like I've adjusted quickly to rails, there's a small delay when firing them which took some getting used to. I'm targeting power plants mostly. Selecting the PP in the contacts panel is awkward. I'll have to see if there's a more streamlined way to do this. Maybe get it mapped to the stick.

One thing I was clueless about is heat. Rails are hot. But my engineering has made it a non factor. The ship is reasonably cool at 25% idle/ 28% thrusters. But the rail engineering itself keeps the heat down. Lightweight rails drop power draw and distributor draw, and super pen drops thermal load 40%. Nice. And the beams are thermal vent so chill the ship nicely too. Super pen also raises reload time 50% so there is built in cool down to prevent me from going nuts with rapid fire rails and stacking heat. At first I only took my beams to G3 Efficient, in order to save the precious mats until I decided if this concept was a good one. At G3 they really didn't do much to cool the ship. But they are at G5 now after I went and got some selenium and cadmium, and three TV beams ice it over quickly.

I'll keep the G3 Lightweight rails for now. The only drawback is lower integrity, and I'm not concerned about that in PvE. Lightweight does not lower range or striking power (nor does it add to it). In this set up both the beams and the rails show the same max range, 3km, discounting falloff. So it seems to dovetail nicely. I may go long range eventually, not to hit targets at 6km necessarily, but to put the falloff point well out of range. That would give max rail damage with every one that connects.

Interesting concept there. Coupled with Guardian shield boosters, do those shields really come back in 1:44 minutes? Curious as to your use of 5A Life Support choice? Based on my experience flying a Chieftain, I would suggest dumping the cargo rack and collector limpet controller for module protection modules, or Guardian shield boosters.
Wingy

I may make a railboat challenger once I have the krait fully upgraded and can run two classes of engineered plasmas (long range and efficient) with long range thermal vented beams and fully upgraded sturdy rails with super penetrators.

When I bought the Chieftain I also bought the rails, and three PAs, as that was my first idea. But then I found I've never unlocked Bill Turner, doh! I'll do that sometime in the near future. PAs and rails are both excellent weapons, if you can hit with them. The ability to ignore most of a ships defenses and do absolute damage is strong. A PA/rail Challenger is a cool concept. This is like your Cobra IV but better, I think.

Wingy thanks for your comments. The A Life Support is more of a continuation of building a ship a little differently than I am used to. It only draws .2 MW more than the D and I've got power to spare on this build. Ds don't give me any speed boost or I might make a switch. Plus I read that the life support acts as a shield to the power plant, but honestly I don't think this is an issue. I might swap back to D at some point, especially if I change the engineering on the rails and they start to draw more power.

I can't see your build now, the link is funked up. I don't feel I need any more integrity, and having the rack and limpets is good so I can keep hauling mats aboard. I wanted to see how my integrity compares to that in your build. My Chief has 4000+ effective integrity against all three attack types, and anyway, the shields would need to go down first. I don't see why the recovery/recharge numbers would be inaccurate, but I've not lost much shield yet. Recovery is fast when 10 or 15 points are stripped off of it. Actually I think this ship has more than enough integrity, but this was the plan coming in. The GSRs were going to be a stopgap, but I've left them in I'm happy with the balance. It was to be more hull tank than hybrid, but that's where it is now.

Bill is beyond a pita to unlock, as you must deliver an ultrarare ore to him and get a system pass, and then one of the mats required for grade 5 engineering is so rare you can only get it as a mission reward from missions that mostly require a wing and have payouts of the 7 million+ range.

I do not own a fully upgraded corvette, so such "trivial" missions aren't so trivial for someone like me.

Maybe the mats can be traded for?

Yeah you can trade for the mats. I guess you're talking about the supercapacitors for G5 focused? I have one lol. I could do up several efficients, but would need to go shopping if I went focused. And anyway, PAs are in the future, but I'd like to try them. I was getting selenium and cadmium from the LHS 417 system Wingy pointed me to. I needed those for my beams, but they are used in efficient PAs too. I found no bio sites there, just geo, but got enough to finish them up plus keep some on hand.

Bromelite is is a core mineral right? I'll have to take a mining trip soon. I'll just save a bunch of explo data to get Alioth allied and get the permit. Or that's the plan.

Biotech conductors.

Turning in explo data flips a faction?

Only the controlling faction but yes. Bounties too.