Dunov Battlecruiser
From Sins of a Solar Empire
 TEC
Dunov Battlecruiser
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The recent and unexpected arrival of hostile forces in TEC systems meant that constructing a sufficiently large fleet of warships from scratch was impossible. With desperate times calling for desperate measures, TEC engineers began cannibalizing parts of the large civilian merchant fleet as a quick means to militarization. In spite of its cargo freighter heritage, Dunov-class battlecruisers make a respectable and welcome addition to TEC battle groups.
Extracted from the game manual.
[edit] Development
When Patch 1.1 was implemented, the Dunov's Shield Restore ability was reviewed and revised. As of the patch, the amount of shields restored has been reduced from 350/700/1050 to 250/500/750. In exchange for the reduced restore, though, it now requires 65 antimatter, down from 90, and its cooldown has been reduced from 16 seconds to 11.
This is actually a minor improvement, as while the shield-per-second and shield-per-antimatter values remained roughly the same, it's now able to react to ships taking fire more quickly. Likewise, when targeting frigates rather than capital ships, there's less chance of shield points being wasted.
| Ship Type: | Capital |
|---|---|
| Primary Role: | Support |
| Shield Power: | High |
| Hull Points: | Very High |
| Armor Level: | High |
| Armor Type: | Capital |
| Antimatter: | Unknown |
| Weapons (Fore): | 4 x AutoCannons / 2 x Ship-to-Ship Missile Launchers / Ship-to-Surface Nuclear Missiles |
| Weapons (Side): | 3 x Heavy Pulse Lasers (Starboard / Port) |
| Weapons (Aft): | 2 x Heavy Pulse Lasers |
| Squadrons Supported: | 1 - 3 |
| Crew Complement: | 2,700 |
 Shield Restore | EMP Charge | Magnetize | Flux Field | Ability Management |
 Attack |  Stop |  Move |  Tactics Management | Squadron Management |
[edit] Tactics
- A pair of Dunov Battlecruisers and a compliment of Hoshiko Robotics Cruisers can help a front line fleet stay in the fight: the Hoshikos repair hull damage as it occurs while the Dunovs replenish shields on important targets (they automatically target capital ships, but can manually target frigates and cruisers). When combined with a Kol Battleship or Kodiak Heavy Cruiser fleet, the resulting nut is very tough to crack. Indeed, the primary target in that situation becomes the Hoshikos, since they are the most vulnerable: the Kol Battleship simply won't die, the Dunovs can support one another via Shield Restore, and the Kodiaks are nowhere near as frail as the Hoshikos. The main weakness of such a fleet is the inability to deal significant damage or swat fighters: they must win by attrition, and cannot effectively deal with large clusters of units or even a small group of well-armored high-damage units unless staffed with a healthy compliment of Javelis LRM Frigates or Cobalt Light Frigates.
- The Dunov is usually employed for its Shield Restore ability, but its EMP Charge ability is hardly useless: it deals significant area-of-effect damage to shields while simultaneously draining Antimatter. A Dunov and a group of Cobalts using Sabotage Reactor can quickly drain an opposing fleet of shields and antimatter, but since both the Dunov and the Cobalt are extraordinarily vulnerable on their own, it makes more sense to use these units to support a larger fleet.
- Magnetize can be used to supplement other anti-fighter units and abilities if the Dunov is caught on its own, but generally pales in comparison with the Kol's Flak Burst: a pair of Kol Battleships can ravage whole squadrons of fighters by employing Flak Burst in a timely manner.
- The Dunov's "ultimate" ability, Flux Field, makes life easier for every ship in the TEC fleet. By reducing Antimatter costs, the Dunov can allow a fleet to "spam" its abilities without worrying about Antimatter reserves. Since the TEC's order of battle depends on interlocking abilities, Flux Field is essentially a direct enhancement to the TEC's core strategy.
- The Dunov is best deployed under two distinct and important conditions:
- When capital ships are present (since Shield Restore is essentially wasted on smaller targets)
- The Dunov Battlecruiser is fragile on its own. It can fight, but not well, and it cannot utilize Shield Restore to regenerate its own shields. In pairs, though, Dunovs are exponentially harder to destroy.
- Dunovs are best used in support of a fleet, repairing other capital ships and draining shields and Antimatter where possible. They are used best where the fire is hottest, since that is where their abilities will see the most use.
- If you have the time and resources, consider putting together a fleet of five to six Dunov class battle cruisers, with the ability points going first into Shield Restore, and then into EMP. Once you get all five to level 5, and get full shield restore, there's not a whole heck of a lot that can stop even a lightly supported Dunov wolfpack, allowing you to operate with virtual impunity, especially when facing the Advent. If you do put together a wolfpack fleet, focus your strike craft on fighter squadrons (and your support on flak frigates), as your only real threat is going to be from either a massed EMP charge that wipes out shields and antimatter, or from Vasari phase missiles, most of which can be removed from play by careful use of fighters.
