I havent had much experience with Ziks since R7 - except from attacking them (
) - so this guide may not be ideal. However, hopefully the following posts will be able to clarify any blunders i have made
.
Attacking
This round, Zikonians have two race specific pods - Privateers (FR) and Pillagers (BA).
The FR attack fleet should consist of the following ships:
Privateers (FR)
Cutlass (FR)
Theives (FR)
Cutter (CO)
Beetles (CO) - Stolen by Theives
Sentinels (CO) - Stolen by Theives
This fleet will work well against Xans in particular during the early stages of the Round. Cutlasses fill the important role of discouraging Vsharrack defence against your fleet, and/or minimising the damage done by the defender's Vsh. Thieves are important as you will want to steal Sentinels to gradually take over the role of the Cutlass (as Sents fire before Vsh and they are more efficient, further reducing your losses). Beetles will also fulfill this function. Ideally, you will cap Mosquitos and be able to have an independent CO fleet, whilst your Thieves defend against Cath CO attacks in-gal to pick up some fluffy new Corvettes as replacements. This fleet will discourage Xans from attacking you with their FI/CO fleet once you have capped Sents/Beetles as that tips the balance of terror between Vsh and Cutlasses in your favour. I believe that this fleet (or variations thereof) will be successful early in the round, and later revisted at very late stages of the round.
In Summary: The effectiveness of this fleet depends utterly on how many Sents/Beetles your Thieves can capture. Use Theives to defend in-gal against Cath CO attacks, then later Xan FI/CO attacks to pick up Sents/Beetles/Mossies. Then attack with CO only (if sufficient mossies) or use your FR to back up the CO fleet. Cutters are to discourage Lancer def in late round phase.
The use of the second fleet, involving Battleships is pretty much common sense - build the ships that target your most common enemy's ships and steal them. Be particularly wary of ships that target your fleet and are not targeted directly in return (Ghosts, for example).
Zik CR fleets are also practical, with Syren, Roach and Hornets. Many Ziks i know are trying to capture enough ships to make this viable as Cruisers are pretty hard to stop (as most of you will know by now
), and CR/BA fleets are even harder.
Defence wise, it depends totally on what attack fleet you are choosing, and what your enemy sends at you. Keep in mind, though, without defence your ability to defend yourself is tiny (otherwise the attacker wouldnt have launched, obviously). I'd reccomend focusing on building your stealers and sending alot of in-galaxy defence to steal enemy ships that you are after, as your stealers tend to be too slow in-universe.