I plan on buying a Boreas for the Final Fury Plot, since I have read that this requires a M2 with a M6 fleet.

As I said, the ship will be used during the Final Fury Plot as in sector combat vessel and later also as in and out of sector combat vessel to protect my own sector that I will gain during another mission from Pirates and Khaak.

I am kinda struggling finding out a good loadout for it by myself, since it is my first M2 and therefore I ask, what is the most benefical loadout for such a ship?

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2 Answers

It really depends on what you want the M2 to be doing. I should disclose, I'm a hardcore Terran player, so my opinion on weapons is entirely based on "is this like one of the 4 Terran weapons?"

Anyways, with regards to the Kha'ak, their defining trait is that their fighters tend to suck, but their M6s start getting dangerous. (To the point where, when they're fully geared out, even ATF Vidars under player control can't really go 1v1 vs Kha'ak corvettes.)

The Kha'ak capitals are stronger. That said, the Boreas is one of the best M2s, so it's a good start. Lemme break this answer down to two parts, the M2 itself and it's support.

Don't know if you know of this site, but here's the stats on the Boreas:

The Boreas

tl;dr version: 1-2 full turret bays of Flak Artillery Arrays or Cluster Flak Arrays. Mix of Photon Pulse Cannons and Ion Cannons in other turrets. Incendiary Bomb Launchers are also a choice, but they are hard to obtain. Gauss Cannons can be a supplement if you like to have ammo-based weapons in addition to your reactor-fuled ones;

As I said before, Kha'ah fighters aren't your big concern, they're quite weak. 1 turret of Cluster Flak Arrays (CFA) or Flak Artillery Arrays (FAA). (I prefer the FAA as it is similar to the Terran Starburst Shockwave Cannon). The in game building manager likes deleting the forges for these two weapons, but FFAs are generally found in Teladi sectors whilst CFAs are found more in Argon space.

Here's a list of stations that exist at the beginning of the game that sell them:

As for anti-capital weapons, Photon Pulse Cannons(PPC) are the bread and butter of your heavy weapons. They can be found all over the place from almost every race. (list: )

Ion Cannons are good against Kha'ak capitals, as Ions do a lot of damage against shield, and Kha'ak ships have higher shields than hull. Only the Boron sell these ( )

Incendiary Bomb Launchers are also a good weapon against capitals, but are resoundingly rare, only found in Yaki and Pirate sectors.

Really, other weapons in the Boreas arsenal aren't all that useful (IMO). Concussion Impulse Generators(CIG) are really better on M7s and M6s. The Gauss Cannon CAN be used, but I don't like it on capitals because of the space requirement for ammo. High Energy Plasma Throwers (HEPTs) are the mainstay of M3s, and therefore are not the mainstay of capitals. Mass Drivers are deadly if you can get very close, but Kha'ak ships are devastating at close range, so I don't feel they are worth it. (their quirk is that they ignore shields and do hull damage)

Pulsed Beam Emitters (PBE) are weak, and are great for capping ships. You don't want to cap ships though. I like Energy Bolt Chainguns (EBC) for anti-missile duty, but you can use your flaks in place of that. I like Particle Accelerator Cannons as the anti-missile turret on my Mistrals, not so much on M2s. Ion Pulse Generators (IPG) have no place on a M2. (good on M7s and M6s though)

And that's basically the whole weapon breakdown, the best idea I can think of for this loadout is 2 turrets worth of anti-fighter weapons (read:flaks), then the remaining 4 turrets should have a mix of PPCs and Ions, with smaller weapons put in there if there is low on space (Gauss Cannons, even with ammo, are fairly light compared to PPCs).

Finally, max shields. You'll be fighting caps with 10GJ of shields, so there's no reason for you to not have 10GJ as well.

Fleet

tl;dr version: M6s are more effective when they have a mixed fighter force supporting them. Your Boreas isn't invincible as well, so a modest fighter screen would be a good idea for it as well. HEPTs are the main weapons of choice here, with some anti-missile weapons on the M6s.

For your choice of M6s, I don't like mixing races. Since you're going with a Boreas, I'd personally stick with Argon/OTAS ships. There are 3 easily obtainable Argon/OTAS M6s, the Centaur, the Heavy Centaur, and the Skiron. The Heavy Cent is just better (in my opinion), so that brings it down to the Heavy Cent and the Skiron.

The Skiron brings more guns to bear, but the Centaur can fire for longer. The Skiron is faster, but the Centaur has more weapon options. The Skiron has more shields, and the Centaur has no real advantage here. I prefer more defense over more offense, so I would go with the Skiron.

My personal preference is PACs in the turrets to protect from the heavy missiles that can do a lot of damage to your ships/fleet in general. In the main bay, I'd personally split of HEPTs and Mass Drivers. (HEPTs are common thought the Universe, Mass Drivers are found in Argon and Split space. )

M6s are good and all, but generally every ship can benefit from fighters. Most people say a mix of all three classes are the best idea, but I'm not a big fan of using M5s for anything other than scouting. Not amazingly hot on M4's either. If I had to make picks for the two classes (sticking with the Argon/OTAS theme), M4- OTAS Solano with PACs or maybe Mass Drivers. M5 - Argon Discoverer Raider with Impulse Ray Emitters (IRE).

So, M3s, what I care for. With the Argon theme in mind, the choices are the Eclipse and the Nova variants, of which I prefer the Vanguard. The Eclipse is a lot more expensive, but has more than twice the level of shields, and have the similar offense (the Eclipse has one more gun in a turret).

The Eclipse is really slow for a M3, similar to the speed of some M6s, whereas the Nova Vanguard has an average M3 speed. Really a matter of choice between liking speed or defense.

Regardless, HEPTs in the main bay, PACs in the turret. 2-4 escorts per M6, a somewhat larger screen for your M2.

This will cost a bit, but it's the safest option.

Fleet Optional

You can complete the Final Fury plot with just the capital if you are willing to micro-manage a bit. I did it alone with an ATF Tyr, but the fleet option is safer, and you'll have a good sized defensive fleet available to you after the plot. (M6s + 2-4 large fighter screens are amazing at out-of-sector combat defense)

Hope this is of some help to you.

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M2 needs 2 types of weapons some heavy capital ones on the sides normally and small ones everywhere else to pick off small fast movers the faster the weapons attack the better from taking out small stuff remember damage to small things it only takes a few shots to kill m3,m4,m5 class ships but if your ammo moves at 200mps and the m5 travel at 500 mps you will never hit them as for capital weapons on your M2 you can get away with one full side of 8 PPC or IBL or if you have a terran M2 PSP is godly at taking out everything :)

Final Fury Plot its a tough one near the end you will require a strong ship I used 2 ships the paranid deimos and the capped pirate brigantine and on the brig I got lucky and it retained almost all its Incendiary Bomb Launchers so I needed only to add a few smaller guns to the rear of the ship For the second to last mission I used the deimos with HEPT and shockwave cannons and all Pulsed Beam Emitter on all other slots that could hold them. PBE might not be the highest damage but when it comes to killing small things that move fast and there are friendlies mixed in there its as good as a laser scalpel. Also make sure your shockwave cannons are used when nothing around needs to live friend or foe alike die. On the last mission with the hives and stations that must be killed I tried the deimos and found it lacking in raw damage there were no issues with killing smaller things and even corvettes fall fast but the destroyer and carrier with tons of missiles coming from the hives = pure pain. Setting the Brigantines cannons to attack my target and then using the F2 key and scrolling out a little gives a nice 3rd party view to the fight making it easy to pick off the destroyer and carrier while smaller guns focus on everything else once your in on the stations and hives instead of the auto target going after the missiles constantly you can pick the hives faster and take them all down. I am sure if you follow my steps you will have no issues with any missions involving surgical, area or raw damage. P.S. any M2 is deadly but a free pirate one is best unless there your friends then take one from whoever is your enemy :)