Ranking ships in terms of their value from a MP perspective.
Colonial
All credit goes to Half Phased !
Colonial battle style prefers generalist vessels, with a bias for speed in Colonial vs Colonial engagements and munition defence + fighter presence when facing Cylons.
S Tier
The cream of the crop, S tier ships are ships that represent the colonial gold standard in terms of performance and usually a good fit for a fleet, no matter the circumstance.
The Artemis
The 2nd cheapest colonial battlestar, the Artemis packs it all. High firepower, 2 squadron slots, a munitions slot, flak, decent speed, armour and hull stats and a class 3 hull. The Artemis is the pinnacle all rounder in a fleet that values it’s generalist. The Artemis is rarely a bad pick for a fleet, forming the back bone of fast manoeuvring fleets or a support components of fleets built around slower vessels.
The Valkyrie
How about an Artemis, but cheaper? Enter the Valkyrie. The Valkyrie trades some firepower, armour and hull for even more speed. Whilst it’s airwing is limited to a single squadron, it is capable of equipping a Mk7 squadron in that slot, making it’s airpower almost match the artemis (and rivalling it in airpower per FP). As an added bonus, the Valkyrie’s armour faces are such that the Valk will often use all of it’s armour surfaces, making it just as, if not more tanky, than the Artemis.
The Adamant
What do you get if you stick 2 Adamants together? An Artemis. So it’s just as well that it costs half as much. With a squadron slot, munition slot, the adamant is extremely flexible before mentioning that it’s 4 light guns are among the best guns in the game, able to hit most targets effectively. About the only thing the Adamant lacks is a flack field, but that’s generally fine as it’s never seen far away from the battlestars that provide one.
The Orion
Welcome the Orion, the smallest ship in the game. The little frigate that punches up, quite litterally. It’s 6 light guns on it’s dorsal surface give it incredibly good DPS. Add onto this a munition slot with a salvo size bonus, a fighter squadron, cloaking system and class 2 hull, you have one nasty little frigate that can stealth up to enemy fleets before unleashing a crippling blow of munitions and guns. It just needs to be protected to get there.
As an added bonus, Orions on the field demand a response from your enemy, forcing them to act in way they’d rather not do so normally.
A Tier
Solid performers in colonial fleet, these ships often excel in their role or demand a response from the enemy in order to counter. Many fleets will want to bring at least one of these ships.
The Mercury
What do you get when you combine the highest DPS in the game at 18BA, the strongest airwing and the most bulk? The answer is Lee Adama’s door knocker. As mentioned, the Mercury offers strong performances in all areas except speed. The presence of one on the field requires it to be focused fired down quickly unless the enemy wants to see their capitals destroyed rapidly, as no other vessel can survive a Mercury for long. The support squadron and 2 munitions slots is just the icing on the cake.
Unfortunately for the Mercury, it’s sluggishness is its downfall and can often find itself separated from the escorts it needs to protect it if opening manoeuvres last too long. Or those escorts find themselves poorly positioned instead.
The Heracles
The best gunship the colonials have, the Heracles offers outstanding firepower and durability on par with battlestars for a fraction of the cost. The flak is a nice bonus, creating a gunship that can operate independently of the fleet with little worry.
The heracles can win 2v1 against revenants, 1v1 against minotaurs and solidly beat most battlestars by rising above them and cutting out their fire controls. Basestars will struggle in close contact with a heracles, bar the Cratus and Guardian.
The only downside to the heracles is it’s speed, making it a poor fit for fleets built for speed, preventing it from being S tier.
The Atlas
Praise Be The Almight Brick! The colonial’s dedicated carrier, the atlas offers the joint 1st most efficient airwing per FP in the game, rivalled only by the mercury. However, the Atlas has the advantage of packing a support squadron whilst being only 40% of the cost, meaning that you can get far more support squadrons with the Atlas per FP. Otherwise, the Atlas offers excellent durability along with firepower that will often surprise the enemy, 3 heavy guns and 2 mediums may not sound like much, but the Atlas survives long enough to get great use out of them.
The Janus
Munitions are rarely a good fit for colonials in MP, but if you want to bring a dedicated missile boat, it’s best to bring the most bang for your buck.
Lacking squadron slots, the Janus hampers your fleet in MP where squadrons are often key to victory. The Janus’ poor guns loadout and lower accuracy doesn’t help either. However, bringing 3 munitions slots on one <1000FP ship is a selling point, making the Janus better than the Ranger if you need lots of munitions that battlestars and frigates are unable to provide. The Janus is also respectably tanky for it’s cost too.
The Defender
The Defender is a ship that has too much going for it. Technical support, buffing nearby ships. Marine reinforcements, for countering boarding and free scouting. A repair bay with high repair speed, to quickly repair damaged squadrons, even those whose mothership has been destroyed. Flak. Good durability. The only downside to the defender is it’s poor manoeuvrability and weapon range.
The Berzerk
The Colonials pocket carrier, the Berzerk brings the highest evade squadron in the game and a nasty amount of firepower on it’s broadside in the form of 5 medium guns, at 6200m range, 400m greater than colonial standard. While it is squishy and dies quickly, if protected, the Berzerk will do wonders.
B Tier
Ships that are overshadowed in their role by other ships, but do fill a niche or are still decent performers. Often worth picking if their equivalent in S or A tier are too expensive, don’t fit with the style of fleet you’re building or are banned.
The Jupiter MkII
The J2 offers the second highest pratical DPS, highest theoretical DPS (at 16 Battlestar Artiller and 8 PDS) and second most durable ship in the game, beaten only by the Mercury in these regards. It also has the largest flak field and a strong firewall. However, it’s fighter wing of 2 Mk2 squadrons is on par with an Atlas, a ship less than half it’s price and a second support squadron does little to improve on this.
The J2 is an good choice of flagship for slow fleets when the Mercury is banned, or if the Mercury’s weak topside firepower is a liability.
The Ranger
The Ranger offers two munitions slots on a rapid reload, allowing it rapidly dump munitions on target, along with a decent level of firepower in it’s guns.
However, the Ranger is fragile for it’s cost and suffers from poor convergence on it’s weapon arcs, its hard to get both the broadside and bottom guns to fire on the same target, far harder than the topside and broadside combination that most ships have.
Otherwise, it’s speed makes it a better fit for some fleets than the Janus.
The Minotaur
The Minotaur offers excellent firepower and durability for it’s cost, making it an excellent line brawler in colonial fleets looking to boost their firepower. However, unlike the Heracles, it lacks a defence against munitions, resulting in it depending on ships like the Artemis and Jupiter to protect it.
However, in fleets where speed is key, a Minotaur will often fit in better than a Heracles.
The Celestra
Extra armour plating and munitions reloads, it hard to not like the Celestra. However, more often than not, extra firepower will outweigh the benefits of the armour plating and battles rarely last long to require reloads, making it more often than not suited for switching munitions loadouts on the fly.
C Tier
Ships in this tier have niche use, finding value in performing a role that no other ship provides. They’re generally poor performers and need to watched to ensure they don’t explode prematurely but can offer unique tactics.
The Minerva
The longest ranged ship in the game, the Minerva is the Colonials answer to the question “can you have enough guns?” The answer being, No.
However, the Minerva suffers from paper thin armour and a tiny flak field and needs constant supervision to ensure it’s survival. It also can’t run from most attackers and whilst continuing to shoot back, making it vulnerable to being focused down.
This changes when the Minerva is paired with at least a Defender and possibly even a Celestra. The Defender buffs the Minerva’s already incredible range of 6400m to even further heights and the Celestra helps to resolve the Minerva’s durability issues.
The Manticore
The highest dradis range in the colonial arsenal, the Manticore offers excellent scouting capabilities to a fleet. It’s corvette cannon is the best in the game, unfortunately however, it sports only one. While Manticores can be effective in wolf packs, it’s always better to bring better, more expensive ships and use a squadron to scout instead.
F Tier
Or J tier, for Jupiter Mk1
The Jupiter Mk1
At first glance, the J1 doesn’t seem to bad. 3rd best durability in the game, high firepower, 2 squadron slots? What’s not to hate? Unfortunately, the J1 has poor firing arc convergence, meaning it’s firepower caps out at 8BA + 8 PDCs on the broadside + topside and 8 BA on the bow + bottom, meaning it solidly underperforms compared to the J2. The missing 2nd support squadron is just salt in the wound.
In addition, due to it’s poor bow and bottom combination, it can’t go head on to engage targets, locking it out from working effectively with Heracles, unlike the J2 and Mercury.
All in all, it’s generally worth paying the 350FP extra to get a J2, or saving 600 FP and bringing an Artemis instead.
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