Getting Started with Dropfleet Commander

UCM is a faction with a lot of viable cruisers. You can easily make use out of just about every option available. Still, you’ll want to start with a San Francisco and a Madrid. Bulk Landers are a much needed asset for securing sectors. The San Francisco is your only source of that asset as UCM. Bombardment is also key to many scenarios, and the Madrid is remarkably efficient at that critical role. The remaining four cruisers are a bit of a dealer’s choice. We recommend you build two Seattles, which is a somewhat controversial ship. UCM fighters and bombers aren’t great, but you should get a feel for them, if for nothing else to see how that part of the game works. The Seattle also isn’t just a carrier. It is more of a generalist, with good armor and solid guns that don’t require a weapons free order to maximize. The fighters and bombers aren’t its only way to contribute. Again, the Seattle is pretty controversial among UCM players. You're either gonna swear by it or hate it. If you would rather play it safe, you can assemble a pair of Osakas. These are very efficient damage dealers, which push out a lot of 3+ lock shots for pretty cheap. As light cruisers, have to be taken in pairs at a minimum, so make sure you build at least two if you build any. For your next cruiser, you should try out a Moscow. It has a ton of firepower on weapons free, which a great many UCM players swear by. For the last cruiser, we recommend a Berlin, which will get you acquainted with burnthrough lasers.

For the frigates, four New Orleans are a must. Drop assets win games, and the New Orleans gets you those drops. A couple Jakartas are a nice asset to try out, as they're nice cheap ways to supplement your point defense and can scan in a pinch. To finish out your frigates, grab a couple of Limas. They're a great way to spot for your New Cairos. The corvettes don’t have any customization options, so our final recommendation is for the Battlecruiser. Of the two options available in the Battlefleet, we recommend the Johannesburg. It's got the firepower of a Moscow, but with the launch capability of a Seattle. Between it and the Seattle, you're probably more likely to use the Johannesburg long term.

For Scourge, we’ll start with the same recommendation as the UCM: build a troopship. For the Scourge, that’s a Chimera. Bulk Landers are really get for putting down masses of troops and/or defense batteries on the ground. You should have at least one. Next up, we recommend a pair of Hydras. Scourge launch is really good, and the Hydra is an extremely efficient carrier. You’ll never regret bringing a pair of Hydras. For your final three cruisers, we’re going to recommend three Yokais. These are rather fragile light cruisers, but they pack a ton of firepower. Getting used to the timing for going weapons free with these guys are part of the learning curve for Scourge. Once you get the feel, they put out a ton of pain for their low cost.

For frigates, start with four Gargoyles, which are your dropships. Drop. Wins. Games. We can’t emphasize that enough. Don’t skimp. For the other four frigates, Djinn have gobs and gobs of close action attacks. A swarm of Djinn is a lot of fun. Again, corvettes don’t have any customization options, so the Battlecruiser is the last thing in the box. The Banshee has the potential to be a lot of fun, but I’d be doing you a disservice recommending that. Do yourself a favor: build an Akuma and never look back. It packs some stunningly nasty firepower with its Oculus Beams, which can do as much as 16 damages on a weapons free order. It is a somewhat tricky ship to learn, but its stealth and full cloak rules do a lot to protect you from incoming fire. You might find yourself loving this ship so much that you buy three more battlecruisers to maximize the number of them you have in your fleet.

For the Resistance...IDK...throw parts on ships at random? Starting with Resistance as your first fleet is very hard to do. Like Shaltari, we do not recommend them for beginners. However, that’s not so much about flying them as it is about physically building their fleets. Resistance is all about options and flexibility, making it hard to digest as a beginner. If you’re determined to tough through it, here’s our recommendations. First for the cruiser chassis, we recommend sticking with regular cruisers. It's the right mix of thrust, hull, and armor you need when starting out. For one hardpoint, we universally recommend ablative armor. You’ll want the extra toughness as you learn. You might be able to go lighter as you learn the game, but you don’t need to engage hard mode anymore than you already are for now. For your first two cruisers, we recommend two Fighter and Bomber bays plus a weapon system of your choice for the final hardpoint. Resistance launch is very cheap. You also badly need fighters to compensate for your terrible point defenses. For the next two cruisers, we like a combo of two bombardment mortar turrets and one bulk lander and fire ship bay. This gives you the equivalent bombardment of a Madrid, with the additional bonus of a bulk lander. You could choose to go heavier on the bulk landers, but there are other options for bulk landers as you expand your fleet. There aren’t many better options for bombardment. Two bulk landers between the two cruisers is enough to start out. Your last two cruisers can be really anything you want. We recommend you pick one weapon system with low power as these can always fire in addition to the single weapon you get to use on standard orders. Pick a pair of the same weapon system for your final two hardpoints. Resistance gets to combine those into one weapon system. Vent Cannons are a popular choice for this, though we can see a case for Mass Drivers.

Frigates are a bit easier. You’ll want four Strike Carriers for their dropships. You don’t need to take a hardpoint, but if you do, we recommend the Hybrid Gun Turrets. It keeps them cheap, but also gives them a surprising amount of dice, which can help if you need to fish for shots into atmosphere. The final four frigates should be assembled as Heavy Frigates with two Hybrid Gun Turrets. These are absolutely fantastic gunships. The extra hull point and ablative armor make them noticeably more durable than the other frigates for barely any additional cost. Meanwhile, Hybrid Gun Turrets weapons put out a ton of dice for really cheap. Oh right, we also recommended a corvette pack. You should glue those together.