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Sheild mk. 3B Defender
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Download the Defender- for the 3d unit viewer
Read the Defender Lore
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Build Time = 9 s
Drain = 7.22 RU/s
Simply put, the Defender is king of the fighters. They may be slow, but their heavy armor and three rapid-fire guns will own much larger fighter groups. Since they don't do well against corvettes or frigates, Defenders do not make good offensive units. Rather they're a quick, easy way to protect your larger, slower units from fighter attacks.
Stats:
| Weapon | Rate of fire | Damage per volley | Bullet mass | Bullet speed | Amour reduction |
| Gimbaled Guns |
30 | 10.5 | 0 | 20,000 m/s | 5 |
| Attack Range |
| Engagement Range | Attack Run (on F4) | Attack Run (on F3 or F2) | Sphere range |
| 9000m | 8000m | 6000m | 5000m |
| Fuel Consumption |
| Tank | Meters/Gallon | Max Vel | Time to dry |
| Non Combat | Combat | | Non Combat | Combat |
| 14000 | .021 | .021 | 385 | 29 min | 29 min |
| max speed m/s | Yaw Rate | mass (tons) | Armour |
| 385 | 2.1 | 10 | 325 |
| Kamakazi |
| damage | damage per ru |
| 470 | 7.2 |
| Kushan | | Taiidian |
| Coverage | Firepower | | Coverage | Firepower |
| 11 | 5 | | 20 | 5 |
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Some big notes. The defender has the best fuel consumption rate of all strike craft. And it doesnt change in combat. Their bullets are the weakest. but also fly the fastest, and they have the fastest rate of fire of all strike craft. multi gun corvetes fire at the same rate. They also have the greatest attack range. and note that defenders circle their opponenets, much the way corvettes do. so their attack run data is a little odd. They have the heaviest armour of all fighters, but are the slowest. Note the kushan defender doesnt have as wide a coverage range, however, Kushan Defenders have better 3D angle tracking than their Taidan counterparts. (Who have a superiority in the 2D plane in regards to angle tracking). and finnally. defenders have the worst damage/ru ratio for kamakazi attacks.
Formations:
Defenders aren't particularly mobile so it doesn't pay to move them in small groups. Any group less than 20 probably isn't going to be effective. Pretty much the only formation for Defenders is Wall because it's the most densely packed and will 1.) keep your firepower in a tight stream, and 2.) bring all your firepower to bear on a target quickly. However, if you are using them to gaurd your resource operations. Sphere is a good choice.
Tactics:
The Defender is basically a poor man's Multi-Gun Corvette. Anything Defenders can do, MGCs can do better, and so the Defender doesn't get a lot of use. The one saving grace of Defenders is that they're quick to produce. They only require two research techs (Fighter Drive and Defender Sub-Systems) and you can bust one out every 9 seconds. This means if your frigates are getting eaten by Attack Bombers and Interceptors you could use Defenders as a quick solution. But honestly, if your opponent has corvettes of any kind, don't even bother. Corvettes use Defenders for target practice.
Offence:
I ran a trial run today and it took 3.5 minutes for 20 defenders to take down a harvester. A harvester has an armor rating of 10,800 and the defenders firepower rating is 5. Which is because of patch 1.05. In the homeworld manual its rating was 30. in the early versions of the game. the defender was primier unit because of its low research, low cost. high build time. higher speed, firepower, and coverage rating. Relic decided it was unbalanced and tweeked it a little. none the less one defender takes out 154 armor units per minute. 20 can take out 3085 u/m and 40 can take 6170 u/m. so it goes to state that the defender does not work. 3.5 minutes is unnaceptable for an offencive strike. If you build 40 defenders you cut the time in half to about 1.5 minutes. but this is the same as 3 ion cannon frigs. which is a much better buy. and you can easily cloak 3 ion cannons.
Defence:
As stated these destroy strike craft. so any strike craft target you can think of should be gaurded with these. They are cheap and fast to buld. so put out 20 in the beginning and place them whereever you like
One interesting thing about Defenders is the obscene range of their guns. When set to Aggressive tactics, Defenders actually have longer range than either Gravwells or Drone Frigates. Beware of using either of these units to counter a Defender fiend.
Notes:
Defenders are okay for killing fighters, but corvettes and Missle Destroyers are better. If you are strapped for cash and you see a moron with 80 scouts. you know who you should call on. defenders.
Do you have any tips for the Defender??? Submit Them!
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