The versatility of the disruptor is well known among its advocates. Since it only has a single turn arming cycle, its possessor can decide at the start of the turn how the weapon will be best armed. In addition, it is hard to catch a Klingon warship without its disruptors available, because of this single turn arming sequence (however this is a definate problem for those using multi-turn arming heavy weapons which you can exploit against them). Disruptors also do not take a lot of power to arm (only twice as much as a phaser if not overloaded), and therefore do not drain your ship of its power, even when overloaded. Most Klingon ships can fully overload their disruptors, fire phasers and still have power to move themselves, whereas fully overloading a Federation ships photons on the second arming turn can bring the ship to a standstill. In addition, disruptors have a better chance to hit than photons do, and so more will probably connect with the target. Newer ship designs, such as the F5W, D5 etc, add another aspect to this weapon’s versatility. The disruptors on these ships have a wider firing arc, allowing the captain to hit targets off to the side, and even a bit behind the Klingon ship. This also allows these ships to fight just as effectively behind their #2/#6 shields and almost as effectively behind their #3/#5 shields as behind their #1 shield. Here are some points to remember when using disruptors:
© 1997 admkang@geocities.com
Disruptors
The disruptor is the most versatile heavy weapon ever created. Its only drawback is that it causes the least single turn damage of any of the heavy weapons. As in any tactical situation, you need to play up your strengths and mask your weaknesses. In order to minimize the limited amount of single turn damage that your disruptors will cause, you need to fire them as often as possible and concentrate your barrages on single targets. It is best to begin your incessant bombardment as soon as your targets are within range 22. It is true that you will not do a heck of a lot of damage at this range, but the cumulative damge over multiple turns will benefit you later. Remember that 10 points of shield damage now means that later on you will need 10 less points to penetrate that shield and thus you can translate those 10 points of early game damage into internals later on. Another way to increase the impact of your disruptors is to close range as disruptors cause more damage at closer range. Since photons take two turns to arm, many Federation commanders are loathe to fire them at range 9 to 15, hoping to unload them on you in overload range next turn. Your disruptors can be highly effective in this sort of situation, if you are Able to maintain range 9 to 15. You can continue to pummel your opponent with disruptors while he keeps his precious photons sitting in the launch tubes.
-If you are not sure whether your opponent will be in overload range this turn or not, don’t overload. You can always use reserve/battery power to overload a disruptor or two if need be.
-If you don’t have a lot of power and need to choose between overloading some disruptors or firing all with none overloaded, choose the latter as it leaves you the most options later. Two regular disruptors are equal to one overload both in power cost and damage. You may miss with one disruptor and do zero damage, but you probably won’t miss completely with two. Two disruptors can also be fired in two separate volleys and at two diferent targets.
-When selecting a disruptor to be destroyed, always save your wide arc disruptors for last, if all are wide arc, select disruptors on the side that you will be turning away from the enemy to take the hits.
-Fly in Reverse. If you have wide arc disruptors and you have just taken a good pounding, flying in reverse is a good tactical option.
For example (see gif below), if your #1 (and maybe #2) shield is penetrated, take your disruptor hits on the right side (left for #6) (ship facing A). Next turn stop, HET/TAC (ship facing D) and fly in reverse. The wide arc disruptors (beside shield #5) can still hit targets directly direction B (2nd Turn). If you turn your ship to the left, you can hit targets directly direction A.
-Use your UIM wisely-Only when you want to guarantee a hit.
-Use your UIM early in the turn. A burnout won’t afect you very much (especially if used in first 8 impulses).
-It may be harder to hit fighters than ships with disruptors, but since disruptors have a good hit range, you can reasonably expect to effectively turn a fighter squadron away from your fleet with them. If you train one disruptor on each fighter inside overload range, you can expect to hit one fighter for every two disruptors fired. Add two points of phaser damage to these fighters next impulse and these will be crippled (most fighter types).
Get your own Free Home Page