Cutlass Black - nasty!

[smilodon]

I'm now flying the Cutlass Black in Arena Commander Battle Royal. Out of the box it's totally broken and useless in multiplayer...... however......... :devil:

I have five weapon points compared to most other ships three. (The Super Hornet has more but you don't see too many of those and luckily when they do turn up they seem to always be on my team.)

The gimbal mounted nose gun is a decent Badger which is nice.
The fixed wing guns are distortion lasers which disable ships rather than kill them and are therefore useless in dogfights.
The turret guns are NN-13 neutron guns which have limited ammo and limited range but shred ships in seconds.

The main problem is that a Cutlass will burn through Neutron gun rounds quickly and then have to fight on with a single laser gun. So I have dumped the distortion guns completely, moved the neutron guns to the fixed hardpoints under the wings and added two more Badgers to the now empty turret. Hey presto, three gimbal mounted Badger lasers with a power supply big enough to keep them firing (the Cutlass is a medium sized ship so gets a hefty power plant). Then when were in real close I can use the neutron guns at near point blank range. And they really do horrible things to an enemy ship regardless of its shield strength. If you've seem the new damage model videos you'll get what I mean.

However the real ace up the Cutlass sleeve is maneuverability. As long as I stay in close to the asteroids I can outfly most fighters, who are often travelling way too fast. Once in the thick of a dog fight they more often than not end up stuffing themselves into a lump of rock. That's when I fly up to their crippled ship and finish them off. Out in the open it's no so much fun. I'm quite big and an obviously Cutlass shape. But with all the thrusters I have I can generally out turn the enemy. Even if they decouple and swing round they are no faster than me on the turn even if I stay coupled. I've been killed plenty when I'm picked on by several ships but in one on ones I think I do better that average.

Also plenty of players think when I'm firing from long range that I'm burning through ammo rounds on the neutron guns, as they see fire coming from the turret which is where these guns usually live. But when we're up close they find out I still have a full three hundred rounds left to use on them. I think about a dozen rounds will kill a Hornet if they all hit home. Most players still don't fly Cutlass's properly kitted out in multiplayer so they have a reputation for being a bit rubbish and not worth bothering with. This works quite well for me

The only thing I'm rubbish at is running away. Mustangs, 300's and Hornets can run me down very easily. Also clued up teams working together will always make a line straight for the Cutlass (assuming they can see me as I do hide a lot) and kill me first. They know that if they let me make a good sneak attack at them from behind an asteroid etc. then they are dead meat.

So out of the box the Cutlass is a joke. Switch things around and it's a very nice ship for multiplayer fun. In the PU I think it really could be excellent. Remember it's basically a pirate ship that is designed to stay out of your way, pick it's moment, rush in fast, out maneuver you and overwhelm you as quick as it can. I'm also using mouse and keyboard which is still by far the best way to dogfight. Hotas may be immersive but Arena Commander is Counter Strike in space ships so mouse and keyboard always. Voice attack is also a sensible option. Also I don't believe fighters are what the Cutlass is designed to fight. When the Constellation and Freelancer appear I think the Cutlass will be able to really show what it can do. Still it's nice to see them do well in dogfights.

Here's a nice video that shows the Cutlass in Arena Commander. https://youtu.be/pHddJR4k9V0

[Tutonic]

Even I managed to shred some fools with the NN-13, they really do kick ass.

Certainly doesn't feel like a dogfighter, and it shouldn't. A hard-hitting corvette would be the best description I could muster