Hard headed b*stards!

[*cat]

After installing the new Imperial Courier, every one I attack lets loose hard head missiles at me! Is that standard? I had a go at one, it tried me with a nice cheap missile which I ECMed, then it panicked and sent 3 hard-heads after me in quick succession!
Not enough witch fuel to get out of there, and I can't hit those spiraling things!
I hear hints of plasma cannons that can take out missiles... without asking for too many spoilers, are they something I can buy somewhere? Are they only in an OXP. I'm in galaxy 2 - will I need to move on to another galaxy before getting some?

[TGHC]

Continual use of ECM can eventually take out a hard hat, but some take longer than others so you have to run anyway.

[davcefai]

Activating the Cloaking Device also detonates ALL missiles.

[Arexack_Heretic]

Activating the Cloaking Device also detonates ALL missiles.

Because they lost their target: YOU.
So not ALL missiles, just the ones tracking your ship.

[davcefai]

Quite right. What I really meant was all KINDS of missiles where All=Both.

[*cat]

Thanks for the tip: the nightmare scenario (apart from being attacked by a Hydra - has [i]anyone[/i] beaten one of those with just lasers?) is being attacked by hard-heads when I'm short of witchfuel for a high-speed getaway.

[Captain Hesperus]

(apart from being attacked by a Hydra - has anyone beaten one of those with just lasers?)

Me, me! The key is to get out of it's fire arc ASAP. I find that 'jiggling' (pitching up and down while rolling) is quite effective. Once it's past you, settle on it's tail and hammer it to the exception of everything else. Hydras maybe quite scary head-to-head, but when you are behind them, they are slow and unable to turn quickly enough to escape your single beam of death. Either shoot off the sub-ent lasers or (as I do) nail the main body for the quick kill. Easy, but the hard bit is responding and avoiding it's teeth.

Captain Hesperus

[davcefai]

To expand on the previous post, once you are on the ungodly's tail you've got him.

Stay close so that he cannot turn and meet you head on. He'll try but give up half way through the turn. Then just keep on "pinging" him into a state of violent self disassembly.

[*cat]

Hercules should've kitted himself out with mil lasers!

[Cmdr Wyvern]

Here's some tips on dealing with another heavily armed and very dangerous opponent, the infamous Rattle Cutter.

The Rattler is a fast attack fighter, packing an array of four beam lasers. His assault begins as he closes at full burn, then opens up at close range on your blind side with a withering barrage that can rip most ships to shreds in a Zaoncian second.

For obvious reasons, you don't want to allow him that oppertunity.

Most forget that the mil laser's primary advantage is range, and lots of it, more than three times the reach of a beam laser. A nice long-range snipe can beat the daylights out of a Rattler well before he can begin his attack run, then if neccesary, a missile rammed up his exaust port to finish him off.

[Captain Hesperus]

I'd just like to add to Cmdr. Wyvern's post that, should you find yourself already taking fire from a Rattle Cutter, then the 'jiggling' tactic used against the Hydra is effective to get out of it's fire arc.

Captain Hesperus

[Commander McLane]

And I'd like to add another tactic against hardheads, if you don't have any witchfuel left. Run away from them, but watch them in your rear view. When they have come very close, pitch at least 30 to 40 degrees either up or down. They won't be able to follow you immediatly, but tumble for a short while until the are on your track again. Thus you have brought some distance between you and them. Repeat this manoeuvre until they have reached their maximum distance, run out of fuel and explode.

It's the rabbit's standard tactic against the fox.

Of course it can't do you harm to constantly hit the ECM-key while you are doing this. Even hardheads are not protected 100% against ECM.

[Cmdr Wyvern]

Military shields at half charge or better can shrug off a hardhead missile hit.

But not even military shields can spare you from being hit by the dreaded nuclear torpedo.

Fortunately a nuke is slow, best used to score kills on Pythons, Hydras and other big lumbering cruisers, and easily outrun by faster ships like your Cobbie. (Also fortunate that pirates rarely deploy it.) Outrun it, try to ECM it, and try to gun it down with your rear laser is your best bets.

[Disembodied]

Is there a kinetic component to missile damage? I ask because I have suffered some missile hits which did little more than make a dent, and others which have wiped out an entire shield plus a couple of energy banks... It's possible I'm just imagining things, but taking a missile in the face seems to be worse than getting shot in the back, where the relative collision speed would be much lower.

[Commander McLane]

This has been discussed elsewhere, but with no clear result, as far as I remember.