Deck Conn Tactics Tier List

This tactics tier list ranks opening postures, not character names. Deck Conn is a single-player command sim: the “build” is how you enter a contact. Use it with Combat, the systems tier list, and a doctrine written on the power planner.

S tier — Quiet intercept

Start passive. Hold a propulsion floor. Keep weapons at ready, not roaring. Close only when the picture is good enough to name their drive and guns. This posture matches HQ investigation orders, distress calls that might be traps, and almost every capture you will actually complete.

Why it sits in S: the game’s own language is imperfect information. The winning captain is the one who still has a choice on turn five. Quiet intercept preserves choices.

Failure mode: staying quiet after they have already fired. At that point you are not stealthy. You are under-gunned. Transition to loud interceptor and pay for it.

A tier — Loud interceptor

Active sensors on, weapons funded, defenses not optional, fuel cost accepted. Use when the contact is a known hostile, when the order is elimination, or when a second smear is already turning toward you.

A-tier, not S, because it spends the campaign. A whole patrol of loud intercepts is how you win fights and miss the yard. Mix it with the campaign filter: loud for the priority contact, quiet for the rest.

A tier — Escort home

After a prize, a bad hit, or a reactor scare, the mission is no longer the original order. Defenses, propulsion, batteries, and a weapons deterrent. Do not hunt. Do not ping the whole quadrant. This posture saves campaigns and therefore sits next to loud intercept in A. Captains who skip it to “finish the map” write reviews about unfairness that was actually pride.

B tier — Range kite

Open the distance, spend on propulsion and sensors, poke with whatever weapons still reach. Useful against a heavier hulk you do not want to board yet, or while batteries recharge. B because it burns fuel and time. On a short standalone scenario it looks S. On a long patrol it can strand you.

Kite is also how you set up a capture when their weapons outrange yours: survive, disable drive, then close. If you kite without a disable plan, you are jogging.

B tier — Alpha strike, then bargain

Dump a battery-backed weapons pulse into propulsion or guns, then immediately return power to sensors and defenses. It is a technique, not a lifestyle. B because new captains forget the “then bargain” half and sit empty when the return volley lands. Drill it in a standalone mission before you try it on a campaign contact. See Controls so the click sequence is not the reason the pulse failed.

C tier — Always-close brawler

Closing range makes weapons honest and your hull easier to hit. As a default it is C. As a finisher after a disable it is A. If your logs show you close every time because the art looks cool, you are flying a C-tier personality, not a tactic.

D tier — Ping everything, shoot hull, ignore the order

This is the trailer brain. It is how you donate bearings, waste magazines, and fail capture by deleting the prize. It is also how you ignore HQ and then wonder why the forever-war feels messy. D.

Matching tactics to orders

• Investigate / unidentified: Quiet intercept.
• Eliminate / already firing: Loud interceptor.
• Distress, maybe prize: Quiet, then capture sequence.
• Damaged, fuel short, prize in tow: Escort home.
• Heavier gun, yours still work at range: Kite until disable.

Write the match on the planner before the first click. Mid-fight improvisation is allowed; mid-fight amnesia is not.

After-action

Log the posture you chose, the posture you actually flew, and the system that ran out first. If those three lines disagree, the tier list did not fail. The conn did. For crew who executed the plan, see Players. For patch notes that invalidate a posture, see Updates.