Tournament Setups : Team Minmattar - High Speed Command Ships / Interdictors

One thing I have noticed from previous tournaments is the number of sheer crap setups being fielded. In an effort to improve the tournament I am going to post about several common and not-so-common setups that are viable for the tournament.

The 'Team Minmattar' setup is a common setup from strong PVP alliances. Most notably, it was used by PL during the AT-7 semi final and during most of AT-8 including the AT-8 final.






The main idea behind this setup is to have both high speed and heavy firepower. The basic setup is as follows:

12 points - 1 Scimitar (logistics cruiser)
16 points - 1 Claymore (fleet command ship)
48 points - 3 Sleipnir (field command ship)
9 points - 3 Sabre (interdictor)
13 points - 1 Hyginn - (combat recon ship)
2 points - 1 thrasher - (destroyer)
--------------------------------------------
100 points - 10 ships

There are lots of possible minor variations here. One or more command ships can be swapped for Lokis. Switching command ships to hurricanes frees up a few points as well for other things. However I feel that the above is the core concept and would work very well. Lets look at some possible fits ...

[Scimatar, Standard Scimatar]
(I will post about logistics ships later)

[Claymore, Tean Minmattar Claymore]
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Damage Control II
Co-Processor II
Power Diagnostic System II

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Invulnerability Field II
Phased Muon Sensor Disruptor I, Targeting Range Dampening
Command Processor I

Skirmish Warfare Link - Rapid Deployment
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, EMP M
Skirmish Warfare Link - Evasive Maneuvers
Skirmish Warfare Link - Interdiction Maneuvers
425mm AutoCannon II, EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, EMP M
Siege Warfare Link - Shield Harmonizing

Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I


Medium Shield Maintenance Bot II x3
Light Shield Maintenance Bot II x2

The above claymore provides a little dps, but mostly it provides gang links to increase the speed, lower signature radius, improve shield resists and increase webifier range. Pilot should have a skirmish warfare mindlink inserted to maximize bonuses to nearly 40% :).

[Sleipnir, Team Minmattar Sleipnir]
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Damage Control II
Tracking Enhancer II

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Large Shield Extender II
Invulnerability Field II
Large Shield Extender II
Conjunctive Ladar ECCM Scanning Array I

425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
Medium Proton Smartbomb II

Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I


Medium Shield Maintenance Bot II x3
Light Shield Maintenance Bot II x2

The Sliepnirs are the heavy hitters of this setup. With over 700 dps (overheated) they pack a hell of a punch. On two of the Sliepnirs the Energy neut should be replaced with gang links. One for shield efficiency and the other for sensor integrity. The third one should have a Medium Smartbomb to deal with drones if needed.

[Sabre, Team Minmatar Sabre]
Gyrostabilizer II
Damage Control II

Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Medium Shield Extender II
Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I, Tracking Speed Disruption
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I

200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket

Small Core Defence Field Extender I
Small Core Defence Field Extender I

The Sabre is an easy way to get a lot of DPS out of only a few points. With around 1000 DPS between the three of them, these provide a lot of punch and significant tackle / ewar but use up just over half the points of a command ship in total.

[Huginn, Team Minmattar Huginn]
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Damage Control II
Overdrive Injector System II

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Invulnerability Field II
Large Shield Extender II

220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Hellfire Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Hellfire Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Hellfire Assault Missile

Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I


Medium Shield Maintenance Bot II x3
Light Shield Maintenance Bot II x2

Extended range webs + TP and some damage. This ship basically makes sure that the main DPS boats are getting the most out of thier DPS.

[Thrasher, Team Minmattar Thrasher]
Overdrive Injector System II
Gyrostabilizer II

Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Medium Shield Extender II
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I

200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket

Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I
Small Projectile Ambit Extension I
Small Projectile Ambit Extension I

Two points left... might as well throw on a bunch more hard hitting DPS. Basically a T1 version of the Sabre, lots of damage for only a few points. No tank but it counts on the opponent wasting time shooting at it when there are other more important ships available. Also great at killing drones and/or enemy tacklers.


How to fly
The basic idea of this setup is to very quickly get into range of the enemy and lay down a boatload of concentrated DPS. Depending on what the enemy has use either high damage RF ammo at close range. Alternatively use barrage to increase range and keep out of the enemy killzone. Using high damage ammo the fleet can deliver close to 4000 mostly selectable damage type DPS, more than enough to overcome enemy logistics. With the claymore bonuses overheated each of these ships should be able to easily go 2800 m/s or higher. This seriously reduces incoming damage from any missiles and it means that the blob can quickly switch from target to target even if they scatter around the arena.


At the beginning of the fight logistics drones are assigned to the Scimitar. With 15 medium and 10 light logistics drones, this should give it pretty good survivability. Care must be taken however to keep in the drone range of the combat ships. The logistics ship itself should probably pulse it's MWD if it has one to get out to about 30 km range and then use the AB to minimize signature radius making it a very hard target to hit with missiles and guns. The bonus from the claymore really helps here. From there the Scimatar should be able to provide excellent sheild reps to the high T2-minmattar resist shields on the DPS ships, and the Huginn. Being shield logistics the repair happens at the beginning of the cycle rather the end so switching reps is easier then for an armour logistics ship. If taking fire it is important for the pilots to overheat their invul fields to maximize logistics reps. I also suggest the logistics ship put it's light shield drones onto the Huginn as that is the most vulnerable key ship.

The Huginn acts a heavy tackler. It either sits with the DPS boats pinning the target down and boosting its signature radius. Alternatively it chases after the secondary target, pinning it down so that the DPS can get to it faster. With the bonus and gang links the web should reach out about 50+ km. Any enemy Dramiel or other tackler will find itself wishing it were somewhere else.

I have placed a sensor dampers with range scripts onto the Claymore and at lease one additional one should be fitted to a sabre. These should be used to either reduce the range of the enemy logistics, forcing their fleet close together, or put against an enemy long-range ship like a heavy missile Tengu, forcing it to close with our fleet. One or two tracking disruptors on the other sabres should provide a little ability to mess with enemy turret ships.

Target selection depends on the FC's feeling of the major threats. I would personally go after TD bonused boats first (curse, arbitrator, sentinel, etc), followed by ECM (rook, blackbird) then logistics saving the DPS boats for last.

The ECCM modules are to mitigate the serious weakness that Minmattar setups traditionally have to ECM boats. One module may not be enough. In the AT-8 final PL apparently added a second ECCM module suspecting correctly that they would face the very ECM heavy Hydra Reloaded team. This worked very well.

Preliminary Round Setup

Scaling this setup down for the 50 point/5 pilot preliminary rounds should be easy.

12 points - 1 Scimitar (logistics cruiser)
32 points - 2 Sleipnir (field command ship)
6 points - 2 Sabre (interdictor)
--------------------------------------------
50 points - 5 ships

In this case we manage to keep over half of the DPS, we just loose the long range webs of the Huginn. In exchange it makes sense to make sure that at least one of the Sleipnirs has a webifier, if not both. Also we end up with only two non-bonused command links, one on each field command ship. This should still work quite well.