Strategies:Space Combat



There are many ways to fight in space, but there are some ways that can actually save you. In this guide I will discuss with you the best ways to fight in space from my personal experience. As an avid SWBFII player I always suggest flying as pilots so that you can heal ships. They do not have the fire power to take on marines, but with a trained pilot, the space in which the cruisers have met can become very dangerous. Also always attack the shuttles.

As a Starfighter
This includes the Droid Starfighter, ARC-170 starfighter, TIE Fighter, and the X-Wing. Starfighters are great for fighter-to-fighter combat, however they are not suited for attacking cruisers. Keep these ships away from the frigates, and away from auto-turrets. They can be used for taking down dropships/shuttles. They are also best at taking down bombers, and interceptors, but the interceptor part is a little harder.

As an Interceptor
This includes the Droid Tri-Fighter, Republic Interceptor, TIE Interceptor, and the A-Wing Interceptor. They are fast, and very weak. They traded speed, over armor, and only the most skilled pilots should even think about using this. It is suggested against you using one of these. A single shot from a Auto-Turret is enough to cripple this ship, making it very hard to use. So if you do use this ship, stay away from cruisers bottom line, and stay near your own cruisers. Make sure to intercept any shuttle coming near your cruiser if they land in hangar bay they can unleash marines that will take down systems and can be a quick defeat.

As a Bomber
Now this is the slowest of the assault ships. This has armor, over speed the complete opposite of the Interceptor. This ship is designed and built to take a beating and to dish one out. The average bomber is equipped with particle cannons, and Proton Bombs. The V-Wing Bomber is the only ship to have a different load out. This ship has a shock cannon, and is the fastest of all the bombers. The Bombers include the Droid Strike Bomber(Bellebub-24), Alpha-3 Nimbus V-Wing Bomber, TIE Bomber, and the BTL-3 Y-Wing. There are several things you should do as a bomber. 1.)Take down frigates, this is to make it safer for your fighters and interceptors to get to enemy hangar, and this also gives you more space to fly. 2.)Take down enemy shields, this is so you can destroy objectives. 3.)Take down ship heavy cannons, so that they can give you +1 hero points. And if you want to go inside and take down the Auto Turret Mainframe, so it is safe for your friends and or allies to fly around enemy cruisers.

Each bomber is also unique in terms of performance. The V-Wing starfighter has the best manuverability and speed, and has better anti fighter weapons over the other ships, the TIE Bomber can seat two people, like the Y-Wing, except the AI never uses the guided rockets if they take this seat, and dishes out the most damage if it's anti-fighter cannon hits, the CIS Strike Bomber fires it's bombs the fastest, but takes the longest to reload, in turn having the most bombs to compenstate for the long reload, making heavy damage in one spot possible, and the Y-Wing has the gunner spot, which allows an AI bot to open fire on pursuing ships and assist in the destruction of a ship or hardpoint. The AI is also very accurate when firing this particular gun, so it is advisable to let an AI take the gunners spot in a Y-Wing.

Using the Y-wing gunner spot will often make a player dizzy, as if an AI is in the pilot seat, they tend to veer around, and fly after more manuverable ships, and do barrel rolls and loops, which explains why the gunner spot should be turned over to an AI or if available, another player.

Interestingly, the TIE Bomber Guide Rocket spot is never utilized by an AI, they will simply sit inside the spot and do nothing to support the player.

As a Shuttle
This is the slowest ship in combat, but it also has the strongest armor. It includes the HMP Droid Gunship, LAAT/i Republic Gunship, Theta Shuttle, and the LAAT/i Republic Gunship(rebel). This can carry up to 5 people other than you. There is a key strategy, if you play online then make sure that not all of your clan is in the gunship. Have them fly Bombers or Fighters, this is so they can protect you as you get to the enemy cruisers hangar bay. Now once that is done, always make sure to fly as a Pilot, so you can heal ship. If you manage to land and dock the shuttle in the enemy hangar, it will become a command post inside the enemy cruiser. But it can be destroyed. If playing offline, there’s an odd moment where you’ll likely have to ‘double dock’ the shuttle or else there’s one AI leftover that doesn’t leave the shuttle who tries to take off and typically crashes the shuttle in the hangar bay or goes back out into space at best. To clarify, ‘double docking’ is landing the shuttle once in the hangar bay, whereby all of the passengers come out except that one other AI who’s going to crash your shuttle if you leave the shuttle alone for 5 seconds, then you ‘take off’ from the hangar bay and dock again within the hangar bay a 2nd time without going back into space, this time the leftover AI will get out of the shuttle so that once you get out, none of your AI allies will try flying away with it again. To know if you did it right, be mindful of whether any positions are occupied on the shuttle by the time you leave, none of them should be, if any still are, take off and land again until the AI leave.