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FIREBRAND - Protectorate Frontline Fleet

ROLE:
FRONTLINE | FIRE SUPPORT | INTEL

DIFFICULTY:
EASY

DESCRIPTION:
Firebrand is a basic 450mm twin liner fleet which aims to introduce newer players to ordinary OSPN liner gameplay without distractions. Each liner brings to bear withering long range firepower using their 450mm casemates, while 100mm secondary batteries lash out against smaller enemies at closer ranges and respond to flanking attacks.

Each liner carries a reinforced "stack" of components in the bow. Together, reinforced components mutually increase each other's survivability, which makes it prudent to carry them as close together as possible. In combat, the bows of your ships thus become a "citadel", surviving heavy strikes and allowing you to chain restore yourself back to moderate combat effectiveness. Double magazines and double reinforced CICs allow you to continue fighting under heavy fire. A backup reactor in the bow can help keep you operational should your main power get knocked out.

Fury Warm As Flames is the fleet's flagship. She carries a Warbler comms jammer and a Blackjack dazzler to softkill hostile hybrid strikes - As liners, you are especially vulnerable to missileers or carriers.

Revenge Spills Like Gasoline is your half-sistership, trading the jamming and dazzling capability for a suite of AMMs tuned to intercept size 2 hybrids and a Bulwark Huntress radar for longer range vision (though the track quality is not good enough for a firing solution). She also combines this with a Scryer module for missile seeker information.

Intel is provided by Loyal As A Dog, a relatively expensive intel monitor. These kinds of ships have fallen out of favour with the price hike experienced by liners and the proliferation of the Pike scout craft with its EO designator, but they are still highly capable. Combining an Early Warning radar and a Bloodhound radar with triple track correlators and an adaptive radar receiver means your radars will both spot even smaller targets and offer decent quality for firing. An intel centre helps with quickly identifying targets and creating a threat picture.

USAGE IN BATTLE:
OSPN liners require constant management of their position using the heading (HDG) and roll (ROL) commands. Setting these up as soon as you land to present your broadside towards a likely enemy approach angle is crucial before moving into position to engage. Do the same for your intel monitor and turn on the EW radar, this will allow you to quickly snap the bow-mounted Bloodhound radar onto a track.

Keep Loyal As A Dog a few Kilometers behind your liners - Around 12-14km from the enemy capital ships is ideal. Using the Bloodhound radar in combination with the 450mm casemates actually affords you a range advantage over most Alliance ships which use Bullseye and Parallax radars for fire control. Stay outside of the 9500m max range of the Bullseye in the early game unless you know a target is already heavily damaged.

If you encounter return fire, you have two options: Either try to engage in open space or move to cover and repeatedly peek out of cover, fire, and retreat to wait out your reload. Whichever you choose depends on the enemy you encounter - If you face a Solomon which is firing at you accurately at very long range, it may be a quad TC Spyglass BB, which forces you to apply the latter strategy. If you find the enemy's fire slackening after the lock drops, engage with confidence.

Unless they surprise you, Axfords and Solomons are a manageable threat if you can keep a long range or break line of sight if required. Fire 450 AP against them unless you know they're showing you their side. Do not get caught at close or medium range against Alliance 450 assets, you will take heavy damage very fast.

Vauxhalls can pose a serious threat if they flank you, but are otherwise near helpless against your heavy and sudden firepower. Their armour can not protect them unlike heavier Alliance units and if you catch them off-guard a single well-placed salvo can seriously injure the lighter Alliance cruisers. Their jamming will be ineffective if you manage your intel asset's radars correctly, as they far outrange the 0km max range of the Blanket jammer. Consider these a welcome target.

Lighter assets are slippery targets for your 450 at long range but at closer ranges a combination of 450 and 100mm HE will deal with them quickly.

In the mid to late game, don't hesitate to split up your ships and place them on points. Each has a Pinpoint and enough firepower to handily see off any light Alliance assets rushing for points. Even Loyal As A Dog has substantial armour mostly resistant to 120mm guns and can at least die slowly, affording you and your team precious time.

Missiles of any kind pose a serious hazard to you. A dedicated missileer will bring a large assortment of S2H missiles which will very quickly deplete your AMM arsenal - Do not rely on them and employ softkill tactics to defeat the missiles. Press the EMCON button to turn off your radars, hit Y or the DCY button to deploy your decoys as required.

It may be prudent to leave one radar running on your fleet to provide tracks for the EO Dazzler. Should an enemy salvo use ARAD seekers, you'll get hit on this ship - Unfortunately neither soft- nor hardkill is perfect. Analyse enemy seekers (the Scryer gives you the seeker information) and decide what approach works best.

Cruise S3H are rarely used but can seriously hurt you even in small numbers. Softkill and 100mm Grapeshot are your best tools against them. Use your Pinpoints to gain locks on incoming missiles.

Facing a carrier strike, you'll have to respond in a similar manner: Fire 100m Grapeshot and hope your softkill, consisting of CMD-jammer and flares, chaff and EMCON, will defeat the incoming weapons. Bastions and Pavise will also intercept a few missiles and further reduce the damage you receive.

Fleet created by J4R.

CHANGELOG:
15/08/2025 - Posted to Steam.
07/10/2025 - Update - Changed AMM configuration, changed distribution and type of PD mounts. Removed some 100mm guns on Fury Warm As Flames on account of liner hull changes.