Tractor Beam Railgun Ship

This ship type is slow and heavily armored using its tractor beams to flip opponents and the rails to punish quickly. It is a very APM heavy ship requiring constant retargeting or holding fire of rails, tractor beams and possible support weapons.

Mamatus by Qawa

General setup:

• Heavily armored ship with railguns in the center, 6-8 tractor beams in the back and thrust on the side.

• 

  Pinky Fluffy Unicorn by Plaus
  There are 2 main ways to build tb rail: With or without small shields. The shielded rail has more defense while the unshielded one has more offense.

Optional design choices

• Side nukes or mines. Possibly preload of either one.
• A horn to prevent ramlocks.
• A structure cage to make flipping opponents even easier.
• Thicker back armor to combat swarms and traps.
• Spaced armor.
• 

  Structure cage built to flip opponents by achieving higher leverage with the TB
  More thrust for fewer rails. This makes the ship faster but makes it rely more on flips.

Piloting

• Side nuke strategies
• Try to hold your rail fire and only shoot once you are looking at the enemy from the right spot. Unshielded TB rails are more likely to simply go straight through the front and shielded TB rail are also often capable of doing so. Deciding on going for the front defenses or waiting for a better opportunity is what often wins or loses matches.
• Use targeting tech.
• Use the tractor beams to destabilize and flip your opponents. Target corners to rotate opponents but do not target too far out since your tractor beams have a width. There are a few techniques:
  • 1. Target a corner to pull them in and for them to weaken their thrust on that same side. Then push them once they are close enough.
  • 2. If the enemy already is very close you can push one corner and then switch target to the other corner where the thrust will no longer be ramped up.
  • 3. If an opponent is orbiting you somewhat closely it sometimes actually is better to push on a corner to turn them inwards towards you. The enemies ships thrust will automatically bring it closer to you (or the opponent turns thrust off in which case you will easily be able to flip it).
  • 4. If an opponent intends to ram you using hooks it is likely they will ramlock you if you just pull them in. You should fly at about a 60-degree angle towards them. Once they get close you push on one of their hooks. You should even turn of your thrusters if you targeted the hook that is further away from you. You might have to change target to the other hook if the opponent makes a quick pivot.
• Possibly split railgun targets.