XPiratez Information Compilation, Starter Guide & Weapon Spreadsheet

[eharper256]

Except for snipers or those with infinite Aimed range guns, mid-range is generally best for most combat in my experience. I'll have some dedicated melee girls of course (on my last game, my Gal with the most kills is a melee girl and is only a dozen behind my initial starting gnome's insane kill streak).

Since RNG's historically always love to screw me over, I'd rather make more rolls than bet on single ones, hence my preference for auto-fire. There's no "correct" answer here, though, everyone plays different.

I do see what you're saying about the Blacksmarsh description, but the comments aren't neccessarily a review, just things I thought of. A-Tier still means A-Tier.

[Rokksta]

Several of the Piratin' Tips make it quite clear that bravery is important for voodoo defense. Also plenty of weapons with bravery bonuses. I think it's quite natural that one looks for ways to improve it. Always having bandages (&c) so you can treat the wounded is easy, but for me it hasn't translated into much of a stat increase. Deliberately drawing out missions that could be finished in four turns, just for the morale checks, feels silly. Yet here we are. Had I known about rope earlier, I would certainly have given it a try.

Back to topic: while you give the Blackmarch SMG a solid A rating, your description is not exactly an endorsement. For me, it's one of my favorite weapons (or at least used to be). More powerful cartridge than the RCF carbine though no AP bonus, much faster, but ultimately limited range. I've used it as a plinking gun, snapshots rather than autofire, as I feel that this yields more hits per TU; also, there's a decent chance that one hit will be enough. Four snapshots (or two aimed) with a comfortable 20% TU to spare.

The only clear benefit of the carbine in that comparison is it's truly unlimited range. Well, and that even a rookie soldier can get off an highly accurate shot.

The Assault SMG is even faster and more accurate, but the Blackmarch delivers 20% more buck with each bang, and that's really quite noticeable. Like Assault Pistol vs Manstopper.

Bravery is important and you shouldn't ignore it. But that doesn't mean, that you need to go out of your way to train it. Your soldiers are getting wounded often enough. Just have healing things that actually trains bravery (I'm looking at you X-Grog!)

You are actually getting even penalized for drawing out missions because of Glamor. It is, like you said, silly and not worth the time.

The reasons why I like the RCF more:

• Its cheap
• You can buy it quickly
• Its accurate
• It ignores 25%! of the armor

In my experience the RCF is killing ninjas with much more ease, than the SMG's.

[Laie]

• It ignores 25%! of the armor

Don't underestimate the worth of sheer power. Ninja Gals are at the breakeven point where either weapon does about the same damage per round. Any more armor and the RCF is, let's say, not quite as inadequate.

IMO, the accuracy only matters for rookies. A good shoot with 100+ accuracy will benefit more from getting off two aimed rounds rather than one; what does matter, though, is the RCF's truly unlimited range. Using the BM-SMG beyond something like 30-40 tiles is frustrating even for the best marksman.

[Laie]

@eharper: I think it would be worth mentioning that the Mini-Cougar is a single-handed weapon.

Seen as a main weapon, I totally agree with your lukewarm assessment. What makes it unusual is that you can pull it from the QD slot and wield it in one hand.

[Psyentific]

The mini-cougar is literally the best 1x2 sidearm in the game, direct upgrade to (and manufactured from) the smartpistol. Death Blossom beats it out in terms of one-handed SMG damage, but the blossom can be a bit awkward to store in inventory.

[eharper256]

Oh is it? Don't think I got to test it very long before I went on hiatus for that campaign. But it does still have an A-Ranking on the sheet.

Generally, my pistoleers favoured revolver types for impact and SMG users were mostly Gnomes for me, who get most mileage out of a Linux Origami.

Don't think I'd usually keep a sidearm on anyone unless I just had loads of weight spare (or it was a rare Rocketeer gal), but I guess there's indeed some use in that function.

[Laie]

Don't think I'd usually keep a sidearm on anyone unless I just had loads of weight spare (or it was a rare Rocketeer gal), but I guess there's indeed some use in that function.

"I guess there is" -- yeah, me too. I guess there is, there has to be. It's not hard to imagine the circumstances, after all. Heck, I've personally experienced these circumstances, and not only once. Yet still: in the loadout screen, I always pick something else.

[Rokksta]

...(or it was a rare Rocketeer gal)...

A rare Rocketeer? If it isn't a mission where I know that I can stun everyone, there will be at least one Rocketeer Gal in my squad. 

There you can see again, that everyone is playing different and there can be no answer for everything.

[Psyentific]

Rocketeer gal? Rare? Whatever happened to "Don't leave the base without an RPG"? Don't be stingy with those explosives, try to cause at least two booms every deployment!