Right, as far as i know the stats have been finalised - though i havent been in touch with appoco to confirm so this thread may need to be updated
. But here goes:
Attacking
Cathaar have two race specific pods - Mosquitos (CO) and Hornets (CR).
The Composition of the CO fleet will be as follows:
Mosquito (CO)
Beelte (CO)
Viper (CO)
Spider (FI)
When it comes to attacking with CO, Terrans are your b!tch. Their Gryphons are underpowered, and Vipers will be able to kill enough of them before they fire to reduce your losses significantly. Similarly, attacking Zikonians should prove profitable - particularly at the beginning when Ziks dont have many Theives and, again, your Vipers should be able to reduce the losses that you take. Be wary of those Ziks though - they will probably want you to land so they can cap some cool Cath CO - that was part of the reason why Ziks were so strong last round, Cathaars suiciding on Ziks to trade ships for roids.
Attacking Xans with your CO fleet poses some problems, as it depends on what the Xan has built. Arrowheads dont seem to be all that popular amongst Xans, and thus you wont be needed Spiders as you can just take the losses. However, if you want to try and Stun the Xan and take 0 losses, you'll need quite alot of Spiders as you must stun both Arrowheads and Sentinels - and indeed attacking Xans should be a Spider/Mosquito type attack with only a token amount of Beetles to counter Corsair defence. Having said that, your fleet should be very effective and Cathaars will do very well initially in R14.
In-gal Lancers, in particular, throw the long-term viability of the CO fleet into question, and may quickly cast doubt over how useful a CO fleet will be in the late stages of the Round. Having said that, there may be opportunities where you could take advantage in a weakness to CO at some stage, however most Xans will have enough Lancers to discourge CO use against them.
Summary: Viper heavy Beetle/Mos fleets will do well against Terrans and Zikonians, however to attack Xans you will need alot of Spiders - this means you may be able to attack two targets at once using different parts of your fleet. Attack Caths who have insufficient Spiders.
Cathaars also have Cruiser classed pods;
Hornet (CR)
Roach (CR)
Tarantula (CR)
A Cath CR fleet will be highly effective against Xandathrii throughout the round. Roaches will be of particular importance, as you will require enough to stun Xan Peacekeepers - otherwise you'll die horribly. Scorpions are fairly hopeless as an attacking ship, as no Corvettes target CR. The Guardian is similarly useless in an attacking fleet as no Frigates target CR either. However, by building Tarantulas, you will discourage Dragons to be sent to defend against you. Whilst Tarantulas fire after Dragons, they have similar firepower. It will be similar to the Peacekeeper/Dragon situation last round - a colossal game of chicken
. Building Tarantulas may also enable you to attack hapless Terrans by scaring their BA away - particularly if you are attacking as part of a multiple wave CR attack. Zikonians are even more vulnerable to a Tarantula heavy CR fleet than Terrans - as their Rogues fire after Tarants. In this fashion, if Xans start running out of roids, then switch to attacking Ziks. They are both ripe for the picking.
Having said all this, i still think your main source of roids will be Xans, as roids can potentially be gained for free - the true calling of every cath
. Having sufficient Roaches will be vital - but dont forget those Tarants!
In Summary: Build lots of Roaches. Then build some more Roaches. Then double it for good measure
. Then bend hapless Xandathrii over you knee and spank them untill they have no more roids to give
. Seriously, Cath CR will be
extremely effective this round - just make sure you build enough Roaches for attacking Xans, and Tarants to attack Ziks and act as anti-Dragon escorts.
Defence
As a Cathaar, defending yourself is the definition of a lost cause.
You will never be able to defend yourself from any attacker - however, you
will go a long way to stopping him/her - meaning you wont need much in the way of defence to cover your incoming. Having said that, there are still some good ships that you can build to help your alliance out with defence;
Scarab!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Beetle
Black Widow
Scarabs will be absolutely critical to successfully defend against CR incoming - the efficiency of the Roach demands that using heaps of Xans to cover the incoming is impractical - one Cathaar should have enough Scarabs to stun enough Roaches to let the defending Xan get enough Peacekeepers to fire on attacking CR.
Scarabs are crucial to alliance defence. Beetles will be a fairly efficient way of dealing with FI incoming, as typically the alliance's Sentinels will be out attacking. Beetles are, similarly, highly efficient and it wont take many to thwart a Xan attacker. BW will go a long way in helping Ghosts stop Zikonian BA/CR attacks in particular, but also Terran CR/BA to a lesser extent - however the participation of Ghosts is important. BW cant finish the job on their own, even with an efficiency level of 72.
Comments: I think that Cathaar CR is easily the best attacking fleet of any race this round - being able to easily target and overpower the two more populous races (Xan and Zik). Caths will - as always - be plagued by lemming attacks on them that they just cant
quite stun, and thus be a bit of a def drain on their alliance. Ideally, however, this will be compensated by their extrodinary offensive power.
Compared to last round, Cathaar has a much brigter future and could potentially dominate the top ranks - especially if they feed off the Ziks that are beside them
.
Build Scarabs!
Feel free to post your thoughts and opinions below, and all the best for R14.