Ships & Modules

Out of curiousity, are there any existing missile boats that would be found acceptable?

And if not, what would be required to make them usable in an incursion?

It depends on fleet focus and site type.
For vanguards, with the community I currently FC for, no. And baring a massive change to missile or contest mechanics, almost everywhere else will also be a no.
For assaults, given the scarcity of BCs/t3s in incursions, the t1 BC & t3 missile boats may be acceptable for NCN fleets. Of course, Naga/talos/Nado are preferred in shiny fleets.
For HQs, SNI or Rattlesnakes are decent ships to anchor in under influence, and tengu drone bunnies are sometimes used if nothing better is available. Once again, for shiny fleets, these are entirely out baring a massive change in mechanics.

This is because incursion rats hit MWD speeds without sig bloom, have sub sized signatures and payout goes to highest actual HP damage in a contest.

Hes bad.

I am sorry - what? The Barghest has the highest velocity bonus in game (at the expense of flight time duration), plus highest missile alpha in game. The problem is small drone bay and no damage application bonus.

Wait , are you telling me tier 3 BC's are preferred in shiny fleets? What fits and what incursion channel runs these ???

For NCNs? Every shiny channel will prefer the ~1k DPS ABC over a 600ish DPS t3 or CBC.

A proper skilled Oracle can do quite respectable 1380 dps at over 20km and a Talos 1789 dps at 10km.

The normal slow boat Tier 3 BC for NCNs is flown in Helix last time I checked and participated in her AS fleets, while a mwd based variation of this setup is flown in D-Incursion and OIC.

OIC also uses them for VGs on high sec Island Incs, since they are a lot easier to move out there than battleships and Shady fleet uses them for low sec VGs because they offer one of the best cost/performance ratios if you look for high dps in a expendable hull.

This would be a NCN specific setup, but fittings can vary a lot by the field of use and the ISK the individual pilot is ready to invest(it also can be 2 slot armor tanked with slaves and a bit more ISK on the EANM, making room for the 4. heat sink etc.).

[Oracle, OIC NCN Oracle]
True Sansha Heat Sink
True Sansha Heat Sink
True Sansha Heat Sink
True Sansha Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
True Sansha Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I

Corelum B-Type 10MN Microwarpdrive
Tracking Computer II, Optimal Range Script
Republic Fleet Target Painter

Mega Pulse Laser II, Conflagration L
Mega Pulse Laser II, Conflagration L
Mega Pulse Laser II, Conflagration L
Mega Pulse Laser II, Conflagration L
Mega Pulse Laser II, Conflagration L
Mega Pulse Laser II, Conflagration L
Mega Pulse Laser II, Conflagration L
Mega Pulse Laser II, Conflagration L

Medium Energy Burst Aerator II
Medium Anti-Kinetic Pump I
Medium Anti-Explosive Pump I





CNR or TFI are quite nice on grid from my practical experience as FC with them.

[Barghest, Barghest fit]

Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
1600mm Reinforced Steel Plates II
Damage Control II
Reactive Armor Hardener
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II

Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Large Micro Jump Drive
100MN Afterburner II
Stasis Webifier II
Warp Scrambler II

Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Fury Heavy Missile
Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Fury Heavy Missile
Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Fury Heavy Missile
Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Fury Heavy Missile
Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Fury Heavy Missile
Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Fury Heavy Missile
Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I

Large Anti-Explosive Pump I
Large Trimark Armor Pump I
Large Trimark Armor Pump I


Warrior II x5
Infiltrator II x5

I tried an armour fit.

This would be the high end option with slaves, good compensation skills and T2 projectile turrets, T2 missiles and T2 sentry drones.

[Typhoon Fleet Issue, OIC TFI]
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Caldari Navy Ballistic Control System
Caldari Navy Ballistic Control System
Caldari Navy Ballistic Control System
Centum A-Type Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane

Federation Navy Omnidirectional Tracking Link, Optimal Range Script
Federation Navy Omnidirectional Tracking Link, Optimal Range Script
Republic Fleet Target Painter
Republic Fleet Target Painter
Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution Script

Cruise Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Fury Cruise Missile
1400mm Howitzer Artillery II, Republic Fleet EMP L
1400mm Howitzer Artillery II, Republic Fleet EMP L

Large Bay Loading Accelerator II
Large Anti-Explosive Pump I
Large Anti-Kinetic Pump I

Garde II x5
Warrior II x10
Garde II x1

It is also possible to add a 2 resistance mod and a plate to compensate for lower armor skills and cheaper resist modules plus the lack of armor HP with it at expense of 1 BCU and 1 DDA and use meta 4 artillery.

I probably have to eft and play test again a bit with it to decide if we switch it to curator II with 1 tracking and 1 optimal link with the Omnis given the changes from today but the overall idea behind the fitting shouldn't change.

Well you don't win contests or fly fast sites with a fitting that does nearly 650 dps less on a BS. That is like flying a Tach Nightmare or Artillery Macharial with zero damage mods in a shield fleet. OIC fields TFIs because I spend a lot of time in EFT and compared dps at different ranges to decide if it is useful in the same dps spot on grid as other high end options and in my opinion, fitted like this, it is. It does have a very good dps on the target at medium range, where we often have issues if we run blaster BS heavy and quite a few advantages for the AS fleet setup while the drawbacks of missile damage application are rather negotiable by our painter and web heavy setup. In contests, even if a missile volley doesn't hit a target because it is gone before the missiles are there(what can be avoided by a skilled missile pilot with a lot of contest experience), the alpha of the artillery does, as well as the focused sentry fire what is very effective to take armor and structure hits with good timing of the sentry drone bunny.

What we do in OIC is something no other channel I know off did since years, it builds a doctrine that tries to utilize the advantages of missile platforms instead of just allowing them on grid in doctrines that are all build around pure turret damage, maximum alpha and sniper setups on every non blaster hull. The reason for this is because I believe it will produce the best result in AS sites(it does produce very good results in VGs) and that we might be able to do what most shield channels can't and issue fittings that are not optimized around HQ sites but VG and AS sites. A lot of the smaller shield channels have to relay on the pilot pool the big shield HQ channels did build over the years and have to make compromises or issue compatible fittings to draw from this pool effective, while OIC spends a lot of time working with new players, building that pool on her own and with our ship loan out system we have options to draw from that pool as well without having to use the same setup, hull types or even tank type as the big shield HQ channels.

Overall changing opinions about something is a lot of work and it always takes somebody to make the first step, showing others that it is not only possible but even fairly effective. So we have a clear idea how to fit missile ships and what hulls to use, we don't consider them as a option for people that don't have turret skills yet but as a very useful part of the fleet concept.

As for the Barghest, I have to look at it in eft when I find the time, if I see something what could work I might buy one and play test it in the fleet but relaying nearly 100% on missile dps is actually more a handicap than a advantage, for the reasons given above.