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Vaygr Capital Craft

The all purpose Hiigaran Frigate and Capital shipping can exert some powerful advantages, thanks to their extensive use of turrets that can fire in all directions. The Vaygr Destroyer and Battlecruiser pack nastier weapons than their Hiigaran rivals, but are weighed to only demolish big targets, relying entirely on their Strikecraft and Frigates to protect them from smaller attackers.

Once upon atime, I used to think the Hiigaran Capital warships were the last words in a Homeworld 2 multiplayer game. The Vaygr Capital warships were nimble, but having acrobats armed with very slow firing weapons seemed completely pointless. Then one night in a CPU game I hyperspaced a brand new, fully decked out and upgraded Hiigaran Battlecruiser on top of an enemy Vaygr Carrier - right in front of two Vaygr Battlecruisers hidden in a dust cloud. To my amazement, these two massive ships blew away my perfectly healthy Battlecruiser within a matter of seconds with a spray of red fireballs and twin streams of nasty missiles. With my heavy hitter out of the way, the AI hyperspaced to all my production vessels and completely destroyed me in less than three minutes. Its very simple: in order for those Vaygr warships to live up to their fearsome reputation, it is essential that you get your tactics right.

Any dingbat can order the Hiigarans around - their turrets save you the trouble of having to think. The Vaygr Capital warships, on the other hand, require good tacticians to make sure they're pointing the right way and not being sprung by any unpleasant surprises from the sides or rear. Just don't let them get flanked or swarmed and they'll unleash serious mayhem on the opposition.


	Vaygr Carrier Capital Class Production Ship

The first thing beginners learn about the Vaygr Carrier is that it has only one Production slot. It feels like a pale imitation of the Hiigaran version: its the bargain basement carrier. Only one docking bay, one Production slot and, it's oh so easily destroyed. Most attackers don't bother snipping off its Subsystems - its just easier (and more merciful) just to demolish the whole ship and get it over with. Vaygr commanders should have a small shoal of these things, each dedicated to producing its one type of shipping. Fortunately, you can build them the instant a Capital Facility comes online.

They're cheap, and one on one, clearly inferior to the Hiigaran Carrier. But this can be a little misleading: they can be better value in numbers. You're distributing your vulnerability around, and two or three carriers gives you more modules and the old principle of safety in numbers. Again, managing more than one vessel is tricky, and while the Hiigaran's one-stop-shop might be very convenient for beginners, having two or three Carriers lets you build two or three sets of ships at the same time. More advanced players have the option of tailoring the Vaygr forces more precisely to their strategies.

The Carrier is the production ship with the emphasis on servicing your ships. If you can, process your Strikecraft through a pair or trio of these ships and they'll plow through repairs and replacements in a flash. Even though your Strikecraft line up in scattered rows amongst all the Carriers, their Strike-Force orders will still be preserved. The minute you reissue any orders to your Strike forces they'll promptly reform and do their duty.

Prerequisites

Capital Facility

Perks

2 Capital Armour Upgrades

2 Capital Engine Upgrades

Carrier Manufacturing Upgrade

1 Production Slot

2 Module Slots

1 Sensor Slots

10 Berth Docking Bay

Can take 5 repairers

Pros

One free with every netgame!

You can build the Capital Facility almost immediately and churn them out - well, you have to, really.

Pretty cheap...

Cons

...did we say cheap? You get what you pay for!

Only ONE production slot!

Can't build Capital shipping.

Easily destroyed by even a modest force.

Upgrades cost an arm and a leg.

Far, far less armour than the Hiigaran version


	Vaygr Destroyer Capital Class Knee-Capper

This is definitely one of the more interesting ship designs in the game. The Vaygr Destroyer sports an asymmetric, V for Vaygr shaped cross-section and some of the sexiest texturing around. These solid warhorses deliver some serious blows, demolishing larger and slower targets. However, at the same time they are extremely vulnerable to shoals of smaller vessels and require escorts. They get four powerful Fusion Missiles, each delivering 2900 points of damage at 4500m range, and two massive twin Fletchette Turrets that fire 450 point slugs over the same distance. The turrets themselves are smaller than the Hiigaran Destroyer's, and have real problems hitting Strikecraft (1% accuracy!). Weight for weight, a Fusion Missile is only a tad weaker than the Hiigaran Destroyer's Torpedo Launcher. Overall though, the Vaygr Destroyer packs more punch - you just have to be a little patient with its missiles, reloading as they do once every 20 seconds in a big salvo. Their missiles also have difficulty chasing down fast fleeing targets like Resource Collectors. An don't bother aiming Fusion Missiles at Subsystems: they'll only do 20% damage.

This is definitely another Vaygr specialist, designed only for destroying targets Frigate sized and up, or removing those pesky Platforms blocking your fleet. Its just as likely to unload all its missiles against a target with one hit point left, wasting them all, as not; and Fusion Missiles don't acquire a fresh target if the first one dies prematurely. This ship does get some slightly above average point defences, but its still vulnerable to hijacking and can't really do much against massed Strikecraft except weather the storm and hope its armour holds long enough for the cavalry to show. Its armour, speed and build times are identical to the Hiigaran version. The Vaygr can get their Destroyer up a mite faster than the Hiigaran's, thanks to the easy access of their Capital Facility and single Research Module. Itt can repair itself, but very slowly: there are three "latch points" for a trio of Resource Collectors to augment repairs. Take advantage of them.

When a gang of these guys gets going, serious unhappiness quickly follows - provided there's some nice big chunky targets to dismember. Like the Hiigaran Destroyer, it has only one Innate Subsystem: its Engines. Vaygr Destroyers are easily nobbled by any cool headed foe with a brace of Bombers, although the Vaygr Destroyer feels like it recovers more quickly than the Hiigaran version. A little patience is required waiting for that impressive missile battery to fire: the Vaygr Destroyer will pummel most Capital ships quite nicely and completely smash through Frigates, but it lacks the instant response you get from a broadside of Hiigaran turrets. Nevertheless, those warheads will still fly even after the Destroyer's death.

Prerequisites

Research Module

Capital Facility

Destroyer tech

Perks

2 Capital Armour Upgrades

2 Capital Engine Upgrades

Can take 3 repairers

Pros

Tackles Frigates with appalling ease.

Extremely durable, especially with the Vaygr Capital Armour upgrades.

The fastest and most manoeuvrable Capital ship, especially with the Vaygr Capital Engine upgrades.

Harder hitting than the Hiigaran version.

Point defences better than Hiigaran version

Cons

Fusion missiles have trouble chasing down fast targets, like Corvettes or fleeing Resource Collectors.

Fusion Missiles have 20 second reload time.

Its vulnerable to concentrated Strikecraft swarms, despite its thick hide.

Bombers immobilise it's exposed Engines just like that!

Slower firing than the Hiigaran version.

Useless against Subsystems: just blow the target away from under 'em instead!

Fletchette turrets only 1% accurate against Strikecraft!


	Vaygr Battlecruiser Long Range Capital Powerhouse

The Vaygr Battlecruiser feels strongly inspired by Space Battleship Yamato from Star Blazers (Japanimation TV series, 1976). It packs the biggest and nastiest arsenal in the game, but its specialised nature leaves it extremely vulnerable to Strikecraft swarms and hijacking. Like its Hiigaran rival, it gets its own Docking Bay that can house five Strikecraft squadrons and two Module slots to play with. It can service a lot more ships than it can hold, but not efficiently. Its Docks frequently form long queues - not a situation you want in a major battle.

Its primary weapon system is a massive, dorsal silo that launches a string of eight Heavy Fusion Missiles, each delivering 5000 points of destruction at maximum range: 6000m. This battery is weighted towards Capital and Mothership class targets - it only scores 60% damage against Frigates, and it doesn't even bother with Strikecraft. Heavy Fusion Missiles won't reacquire a fresh target if the first one dies before they reach it. The other issue is that it launches all eight warheads at a time, usually at a single target: great against Motherships; a real waste against Resource Collectors. There's also a thirty second reload time, so try not to rush things. The missile battery is a thin sliver of a Subsystem that can be disabled, but for once its tricky to select and target in a busy battle.

Its second weapon is the Trinity Cannon, a huge triple barrelled energy gun that fires three red bolts in a single salvo, extracting awesome damage - 17,500 points per pulse - over extreme range. Its like a monster version of the Laser Corvette. Unfortunately, the Trinity Cannon is hamstrung by being fixed to the nose of the ship with an incredibly narrow cone of fire. It can only shoot forwards, and it can miss. It has a long reload time as well, and is just as likely to take potshots at passing Resource Collectors (missing on numerous occasions) instead of concentrating on other Capital warships. Since all the Capital shipping in Homeworld 2 never tilt that much when moving vertically, this can be a real worry. This warhorse is extrermely vulnerable to anything major attacking it from directly above, below or from the side.

The Vaygr Battlecruiser is really an overgrown trebuchet. Like the medieval castle busters of old, you keep it at the rear and bombard the enemy from afar. If you do decide to push it forward, you're relying on its armour to absorb enemy fire whilst your other forces are freed up to engage the enemy. But the Vaygr Battlecruiser will always be on the back foot the moment it has to defend itself. It does get some substantial armour and enjoys twice the point defences of most Capital warships: a set of four Lance Fighter beams and a set of four regular point defences (try and get some overlapping crossfire with multiple battleships for some sort-of satisfactory point defences) but it completely lacks any mid-sized weapons. It is agile for its massive size and can outmanoeuvre its Hiigaran counterpart, but in spite of all this it's exceptionally vulnerable to a big Strikecraft cloud and can be readily flanked. And being slow firing its extremely vulnerable to Marine Frigates. Don't ever leave this big fella unattended.