I just can’t make them work. They’re too short range and have terrible armor penetration. (not to mention that “howitzers” should be long range, slow rate of fire)
I found I did a lot better using plasmas.
Can anyone enlighten me?
Cameron
You’re not supposed to just put them on your tribe ships, they are an addition. The autocannon has a very short range, which allows you to fire while under your opponents shields, and directly damage their hull/light armor. The howitzer has a longer range, but is great against ships with shields and tribe ships, as long as they have no or very little armor.
The tribe have to be played a certain way. fight at VERY close range, charge into the enemy fleet and blast away at point blank range.
Plasmas are definitely more of a long range artillery-bombardment style weapon.
I’ve found that with tribe ships shields and armor are generally not that useful. A tribe cruiser with 4 repair bays on it will be a complete beast of a damage sponge though. Use the repair bays to keep them alive and have them close to point blank range so they can shred things.
Howitzer are fine, as long as you got 1 or 2 laser ships to go with them. Getting in close is always a challenge, and you will need at least 0.3 speed for that.
Funny, i’m finding that Anti-Frigate cruisers up front with howitzers and plasma frigates in the back work awesome. Toss in some anti-fighter missile frigates and a few autocannon frigates, and you’ve got gold!