Drake Pitbull

[Shadow Reaper]

So I did a quick comparison in SC Ship Performance Viewer looking at the Pitbull, the Fury and the Arrow. Despite the Pitbull has 0/0/0 armor and the Fury has +15/+15/+15, they put out essentially the same signature. The Pitbull is smaller, much lighter, has a smidgeon better handling (all three are near identical), has much better guns 4S1+2S2 and seriously less hull. It’s the tissue paper fighter taken to the extreme. Flying against turrets with all Deadbolts it bursts at 2361.

The Pitbull is half meter wider and a meter shorter than the Fury.

I’m disappointed it doesn’t have a point less signature, but I’ll take it. On paper, hands down the best deck fighter. If you are stocking for a stealth carrier like the Polaris, you can easily fit 3 wings with enough room to fit 3 Razor EX, useful for stealth recon, scouts and spotting, or add 4 more Pitbulls for a total of 22. I recommend Razors since they’re crazy hard to see, faster than almost everything and useful for killing enemy fighters. With assault craft carrying Deadbolts, they are far from ideal to cope with enemy fighters.

IMHO, especially when comparing maneuverability you need to use the SC Ship Performance Viewer over erkul because the latter does not include strafe gee ratings. According to this brand new data, the Pitbull, Fury and Arrow all fly the same—which is really good.

BTW, erkul radar information is now blanked. All S1 radar list the same 1 km precision targeting range.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

So here’s a vid. Big takeaway is, the 6m wide figure is obviously with wings down. It is closer to 4M with them folded, which means it ought to be possible to put 5 wings or 30 of these inside the Polaris hangar bay. I’m not sure I’d want to, but certainly we should find out.

View: https://youtu.be/RYW9_liQ7pU?si=D6PLAeOLhztBMvkC

 

[Shadow Reaper]

View: https://youtu.be/KDb9siX3iV0?si=KG-8HTMq2D_kGDZA

 

[Shadow Reaper]

One of the things I really like about this ship is, if you leave the seat out, it is just a few seconds to be airborne. I totally dig the notion of an ultra quick scramble.

Liking this little guy more and more. Everyone needs one!

 

[Shadow Reaper]

View: https://youtu.be/NBeHx_ysVig?si=bus3e_LPtTViM1EG

 

[Sky Captain]

I like it.

My question is how many Pitbulls (or snubs in general) does it take to have a 'meaningful' force.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

I think this depends upon targets and what you are carrying them with. I do like to think in wings of 6, and the Retaliator can provide 6 beds past its pilot, so teaming 6 Pitbulls with a Retaliator seems a viable team, plus whatever they are based upon. A single wing supported by a Tally is more than a match for any gunship.

Because Pitbulls have no Q Drive, I personally want to see them based off a platform with at least some stealth. For now, my favorite choice is the Polaris. You can actually fit 7-8 wings of Pitbulls on a Polaris but that leaves no room for anything else. I suggest 4 wings all fit in the hangar bay, leaving the cargo bay free, and 4 Retaliators providing beds and torps. The recent reveal I posted yesterday suggests you can share the beds on the Polaris. That’s 12 crew members plus 24 Pitbull pilots, no Tallies needed. It will be key to see how this works. There will need to be some discipline to get 36 players to log in and out on command. If someone fucks up, they will likely fuck up the playtime of all 37 players. So some small discipline required.

The Polaris actually needs 12 crew plus a Captain, and that’s how many beds it has. When assigning crew, it is wise to stipulate BOTH regular responsibilities onboard and their General Quarters or battle stations. I can suggest one stationing if you like. It is my firm belief that the clearer you are about this, the more smoothly things will go aboard ship in and out of battle. It’s also key to keeping crew active, which matters.

The outcome is, the Pitbulls can kill PDCs and turrets so the Polaris torps can kill the ship from outside range and even detection. 4 wings is enough to kill a pair of Void Bombers, another Polaris, any group of 4 or less gunships and maybe even a fully crewed Idris.

Finally I should note, this kind of coordination requires a CAG or Commander Air Group, and each wing needs a leader who will assure their wing members do precisely what they need to. The CAG should also be the one to direct wings from the holoviewer, and decide if each wing separates to 3 pairs, etc. Based upon targets she’ll decide on fitout. Pups attacking a cap ship are best fitted with Deadbolts, and Pups doing force protection against enemy fighters are better equipped with repeaters. So you can imagine 18 Pups attacking a pair of Void Bombers while 6 Pups hunt down the 4 Blades they carry, etc. it’s the CAG’s job to make fitout and role decisions for the entire Air Group.

BTW, the Polaris has 4 med beds, one for each wing. If a pilot is killed, there should be spare Pups in the cargo bay. So you can resupply lost fighters in extended battles and pilots won’t feel locked out from taking a hit.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

So let’s make this thread for all things Pitbull. First things first. What is the greatest threat to a Pup driver?

I would suggest here that the EMP in a Sentinel is the single greatest threat to a Pup. It does more damage than the Pup’s single shield can manage, even if the Pup’s shield is upgraded. Therefore, when Pups sight a Sentinel, they should clearly run away.

This is a good reason to include Retaliators with EM based torps flying support to Pups, since any Sentinel targeted by S9 EM torps would be forced to cut engines, shields and EMP to thwart an inbound EM torp, which leaves them completely vulnerable to the Pups. Death by torp if they fail to respond properly and death by Pup if they do. Likewise, S9 EM torps can kill Paladins and a lot of other escort ships without revealing the location of the Pup’s origins.

Retaliators are therefore an excellent Combined Arms choice to diversify a Puppy strike force.

 

[AccidentProne8]

It’s so ugly. I love it. I bought one.