Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock/Cylon Ships

Cylon vessels are generally lighter with fewer hard-hitting ships. Relying more on finesse, hacking, and subterfuge, Cylons can nonetheless be powerful if used properly.

Most Cylon vessels have an 80% subsystem repair rate instead of the Colonial's standard 100%. They rely much more on additional power to Engineering in order to recover from subsystem damage. They also have weaker firewall regen ability than Colonial ships.

Nemesis Class
The Cylon Nemesis corvette is a fragile vessel equipped only with a single forward-mounted gun and extremely light armour. What it lacks in durability, it makes up for speed, hacking ability, and the most potent scouting range in the game.

Campaign: Its small size and fast speed make it a tough target for battlestar artillery. Use guided missiles, Adamants, and Manticores to take them down. Try to destroy the Nemesis before other vessels in the enemy fleet; two or three Nemeses working in tandem will quickly disable your firewalls and deal subsystem damage.

Multiplayer: The Nemesis is the ultimate scout craft. It is both faster and more manoeuvrable than the Colonial Manticore. With maximum power to its tech bay, the Nemesis has over 10 km worth of DRADIS range. It can identify targets as early as the second turn, and is almost always worth bringing. Once the enemy has been scouted, keep your Nemesis away from the main fight and have it contribute via torpedo attacks and long distance hacks.

Official Description: ''Nemesis tech corvettes are the spearhead of the Cylon electronic warfare strategy. Coupled with long-range missile capabilities and high maneuverability, these light ships are perfect for hit and run tactics that can hamstring larger capitals.''

Talon Class
The Talon Class is a reasonably armoured, if sluggish, light carrier. It is roughly equivalent to the Colonial Berzerk class, though it is stronger defensively.

Campaign: Most likely the second Cylon ship encountered in the campaign after the Nemesis class, dealing with Talons using Manticores and Adamants involves whittling down their armour. With narrow front and rear arcs, and an unaccomodating AI, front and rear shots will be difficult. The numerous light guns make approaching Talons with Manticores using the nose gun difficult. With no belly guns, however, they are helpless to Adamants from below. Once you unlock battlestars, the Talon itself is an easy target.

Multiplayer: With its large size and the guarantee of facing Colonial battlestars, Talons are support ships. Either keep them back and use their squadron slot, or have them act as light fire support for Raiders against Vipers.

Official Description: ''Talon mini-carriers bear a striking resemblance to obsolete Canceron frigates discarded before the rebellion. The single-bay fore hangar has become a regular sight of the Cylon War, regularly bearing squadrons of prototype radar crafts and electronic warfare fighters.''

Revenant Class
With a multitude of light and heavy guns, the Revenant can heavily damage anything it can reach. With several heavy guns underneath, Revenants can even deal with targets below them. It is a good blend of mediocre armour and speed coupled with excellent weapons. It is similar to, but weaker than, the Colonial Minotaur class.

Revenants are also known for their faster than average subsystem repair rate of 95%. While not a match for the Colonials, Revenants have the best subsystem repair rate of all Cylon vessels.

Campaign: A Revenant's excellent firepower is a particular danger to Manticores. Adamants, with their light guns, will have trouble damaging them. The ideal combination is Berzerks to deal damage, and Adamants to soak it up. If you do not have the Reinforcements DLC and the Berzerk, use Adamants equipped with torpedoes to sink them. Once you unlock them, Minotaurs are capable of outgunning Revenants, provided all other factors are equal. The Artemis battlestar can deal with these ships handily, especially once targeted with focus fire.

Multiplayer: As pure gunships, Revenants need to be close to their targets to be able to deal damage. They can stand up to some fire, but will fall apart if not supported by Basestars and the core of your fleet. Revenants will operate on the flanks or in the front supported by missile fire from Basestars. The Revenant is most vulnerable to missiles, torpedoes, and strike craft.

Official Description: ''The core hull of the Revenant is stolen from the design of Scorpian gunship captured early in the war. The Revenant uses aggressive turret placements to suppress and dominate opponents with constant barrages of gunfire.''

Arachne Class
Despite its official description, the Arachne behaves more like an improved version of the Adamant class than a frontline battlestar. The Arachne is equipped with a fast-firing missile slot, a solid suite of guns, and a single hangar slot. The hangar slot is rather sub-par, however, with a Squad Evasion stat of 8. It lacks the firepower of the Revenant and is overall a rather average ship on its own, but works well at filling gaps in a Cylon fleet.

Campaign: The Arachne's biggest weakness is its lack of ventral firepower. While its forward guns have some arc downwards, the majority of its weapons are on its back and can be avoided by getting below it. The Arachne is helpless to ships beneath it and to its side.

Multiplayer: Arachnes are notorious for their lack of belly weapons, so expect enemy vessels to dive when they identify your Arachnes and Revenants. A catch-all vessel, bringing an Arachne to support the core of your fleet is always a good idea.

Official Description: ''The Arachne carrier is the closest counterpart Cylon Command has to the Colonial battlestar design. Equipped with broadside hangars and missile tubes, this warship is a deadly combination of cruiser and carrier with the maneuverability of a light assault ship.

Cerberus Class
The predecessor to the Cylon Basestars of the TV series, the Cerberus is a dedicated carrier with four squadrons. The support slot supports Heavy Raiders, Wardrivers, Scorpions, and Vespids. It also has a multitude of heavy guns, giving it teeth against large enemies. While it carries no missiles, the Cerberus has the heaviest gun armament of all the major Cylon capital ships.

Campaign: Despite its imposing appearance, the biggest threat the Cerberus has is its fighter wing. Flak, Adamants, Vipers, and Debris Mines can be used to counter them. The ship itself can then be focused down with heavy gunfire from Artemis, Minerva, and Jupiter class battlestars. While it has a number of large guns, it doesn't have enough of them to deal damage to a battlestar on its own.

Multiplayer: The cornerstone of Cylon carrier fleets. Keep this ship close to the fight and get its six heavy guns working, but keep it away from concentrated fire as it doesn't have the same armour as the Atlas class.

Official Description: ''A supercarrier by Colonial standards, the Cerberus is the mainstay of Cylon assault forces. With greater hangar capacity than any other warship, and hull plating to rival a battlestar, the Cerberus provides an imposing tactical presence on any battlefield.''

Basestar
The Cylon Basestar is a low-cost, well balanced command vessel. The basestar's primary attack will be with its two missile slots and its large fighter wing, as its heavy guns are too few to deal reasonable damage. Its armour is only average and is almost incapable of moving, but its quick turn speed lets it spin around and expose multiple different facings to the enemy. This is helped by its sets of 360 degree turrets.

Campaign: Basestars are encountered only close to the end of the game, by which point you will have access to Artemis class battlestars to deal with them. Basestars cannot withstand concentrated gunfire from battlestar artillery. Their slow speed also makes them easy to hit with torpedoes, even without a DRADIS lock.

Multiplayer: While not all Cylon fleets will use basestars, they nonetheless can fulfill either a carrier or missile role in the fleet. Take advantage of the basestar's high turn speed and well-balanced armour to constantly expose a fresh facing to the enemy. Basestars should have a plan for countering torpedoes, as most opponents will notice the immobility of one of your ships and target it from a distance.

Official Description: ''The basestar is the core of the Cylon fleet. Even without the pace and armour plating of a battlestar, these command ships carry the destructive potential to annihilate entire fleets within minutes.''

Phobos Class
The Phobos is a lightly armoured hacking cruiser, similar to the Nemesis but lacking the munitions slot and gaining a hangar slot. It is also equipped with a short-range jump drive, allowing it to jump to another spot on the map. The jump range is short, but can be used defensively to dodge a torpedo salvo, or offensively to ram targets or get into their blind spot.

Campaign: The Phobos cruiser is not a threat by itself, but its hacking abilties can be powerful. Its large size makes it an easier target than the Nemesis for torpedoes.

Multiplayer: Though a skilled flanker thanks to its jumping ability, the Phobos is not often used due to its lack of firepower. It is powerful with hacking-focused fleets. The Phobos can also perform a tactical jump straight in the enemy's path, either damaging or destroying the target ship as well as the Phobos itself.

Official Description: ''The Phobos class tech cruiser has highly sophisticated DRADIS systems integrated into its FTL drives, allowing it to make tactical-range jumps while engaged with the enemy. An array of missile tubes, a fore-facing hangar and a powerful electronic warfare suite rounds out this high impact cruiser.''

Cerastes Class
The Cerastes is a dedicated fighter killer with a number of point defence turrets highly effective against fighter craft. Primarily used as an escort to Cylon fleets, primarily protecting basestars as they have no flak options. Although its description indicates it specializes in destroying fighters, six or more point defence cannons can still cause significant damage against other escorts. The Cerastes' small size also makes it tough to hit with heavy guns, and it is very well armoured for its size.

Aside from its small guns, the biggest weakness of the Cerastes is that it has no defences aiming directly above or below it. A squadron moving well above a Cerastes and then dive-bombing it can destroy the Cerastes with impunity.

Campaign: The Cerastes is very dangerous in the campaign, especially against Manticores and Adamants. Their small size makes them impossible to hit with battlestar artillery, and two or three Cerastes catching an Artemis out of formation ends poorly for the Artemis. Of particular note is a regularly occurring Cylon fleet consisting of five Cerastes. Target these fleets from afar with missiles and keep your Vipers either far away, or directly above or below them.

Adamants have the same broadside firing arcs as the Cerastes, but other vessels with top or bottom mounted weapons can fire upon the Cerastes without worry of return fire.

Multiplayer: Most players will bring along a Cerastes if they suspect they will be facing carrier groups. Although it is not as good as the Nemesis at scouting enemy fleets, the Cerastes provides additional gun firepower at the expense of the Nemesis' hacking and missile abilities. Its good speed, small size, and excellent armour can be used to scout fleets.

A Cerastes functions best when it is not taking focused fire, and as a support in fighter duels - it cannot kill Vipers and Raiders on its own.

Official Description: ''A small and agile gunship, created as a response to the rapid escalation of Colonial Viper design. The Cerastes is fitted with point defence turrets similar to those found on the flightpods of battlestars, and specialises in softening hostile fighter squadrons.''

Hydra Class
The Hydra is a support ship designed to support fleets with faster reloading missiles and minor repair. While the Colonial Celestra can improve a ship's armour, the Hydra instead repairs the hull points of a target, up to its original health. The hull repairing drones are consumables and do not return to the Hydra after use.

The Hydra's primary use is Coordinated Reload. This ability is indicated by a blue ring upon use. All friendly ships within the ring will have their munitions cooldown reduced by 1 turn. The effects of this can stack - two Hydras using Coordinated Reload together can have an Argos output a constant stream of missiles every turn. This ability only boosts the reload speed of munitions, and has no effect once all missiles are fired.

Coordinated Reload's range is identical to its DRADIS range, and can thus can affect a larger area with more power to the Tech Bay.

Despite not having any weapons, the Hydra does have a Fire Control subsystem. Its use is unknown.

Campaign: Despite their status as a support ship, Hydras are not a threat and can be ignored until all other vessels are sunk.

Multiplayer: Hydras are rarely seen in multiplayer. Their hull repair is too small to be noticeable, and while rapid reloading is helpful, the fleet point cost is very high for a ship that does only reloading.

Official Description: ''A mobile repair and comms centre. The Hydra support ship has a complex integrated fire control system, whose processing power is outsourced to coordinate fleet-wide missile strikes.''

Argos Class
The Argos class is a carrier and a missile platform. With three munitions slots and three squadron slots, the Argos specializes in ranged combat from the back lines. It is rather slow, but still faster than the standard basestar. Combined with the Cerberus and gunships up front, the Argos can be a very deadly ship.

Like the Phobos class, the Argos is capable of a short range warp jump to reposition itself, usually to dodge torpedoes or get a small head start against pursuers.

The Argos' biggest weakness is its total lack of guns. Aside from its fighter wing, which can be shot down, and any missiles, torpedoes, and nukes it carries, the Argos is completely helpless. To compensate for this, the Argos has its onboard munitions factory.

Tied to its Armoury subsystem, this onboard factory can take about six turns to create a single volley (106% munitions size, regardless of how many are fired due to Fire Control overclocking) of munitions. All launchers are resupplied at the same time, and a display at the bottom right corner will show progress on the next munitions resupply.

The Argos repairs its subsystems at only 75% instead of the regular 80% of most Cylon vessels.

Campaign: The Argos' slow speed and large size makes it an inviting target for long range torpedo attacks. Dealing with it quickly, however, is difficult. Use Sweepers and Vipers to deal with its missiles, and flak and Vipers to deal with its fighters.

Multiplayer: The Argos works well in pairs, providing enough firepower between the two of them plus Raiders. As it has no guns, avoid moving it towards its targets. Unlike in the campaign, players will use the jump to dodge torpedo strikes, so long distance torpedo sniping is more difficult. Consider pairing it with the Gorgon class for even more powerful squadrons.

The Argos is best equipped with Armour piercers and guided missiles, followed by a third utility slot for PCMs (to counter missiles), cluster nukes (against scouts), or torpedoes (against slower targets). As the Argos replenishes its own weapon supply, almost any munition will work on it.

Keep the top of the Argos protected, as this is where the Armoury is located and thus where the missile factory is.

Official Description: ''The Argos contains an overwhelming array of hangars and missile tubes, but hosts little in the way of self-defense. The Argos' external hangars allow for similar wing capacity as other supercarriers, but are not as effective with squadron support and repairs.''

Gorgon Class
The Gorgon Class Squadron Support Ship is designed to support Raiders by granting them important benefits. Its light armour means it should be kept away from smaller guns and escorts in particular. Its size 2 classification protects it from heavy guns and battlestar artillery.

The two support hangar slots can only be equipped with Wardrivers, Heavy Raiders, Vespids, or Scorpions. The third hangar slot is a specialized repair hangar slot. When a fighter squadron is ordered to recall, they can be sent to this slot instead of their attached mothership. When landed, these fighters repair faster than if they landed at their mothership, allowing you to get them back into the fight faster. This repair bay can be boosted to up to 300% efficiency, and can also rearm craft like Scorpions and Vespids.

The Gorgon's other special ability is Machine Learning. The Gorgon can link itself to a squadron, and every time that squadron takes damage, the Gorgon provides it with an additional 0.5 evasion. The tether will persist until the squadron is destroyed or the Gorgon selects another target - squadrons can freely be sent home for repairs without breaking the link. Machine Learning can provide an evasion bonus of up to an additional 40 points, and stacks on top of what the squadron gets from its parent.

Campaign: As support ships, Gorgons are mostly kept behind the front lines. As a threat, they are similar to the Argos in that much of its power comes from its fighters. Offensively, the Gorgon is only equipped with point defence weapons, limiting its damage output.

Multiplayer: An impressive addition to the Cylon arsenal, the Gorgon's powerful evasion boosting and quick repairing of fighter squadrons makes it a welcome addition to carrier-oriented fleets. While its point defence weapons can let it contribute to fighter battles, keep it away from all other ships.

Official Description: ''A mobile support carrier with advanced squadron repair and support functions. The Gorgon is a technologically advanced repair platform that enables fast turnaround repairs for squadrons from the whole fleet. A powered comms array allows it to transmit the results of its high-fidelity risk simulator to individual squadrons.''

Cratus Class
The Cratus is a super-powered Basestar, and performs very similarly to the battlestars of Colonial Fleet. Its impressive turn rate is limited by its slow speed and vulnerability to torpedoes. What it lacks in armour, it makes up for with its large 320 health pool - just under twice that of either of the Jupiter battlestars.

Like the Argos, the Cratus has a short-range jump drive. While its jump range is shorter than that of the Argos, it is still more than enough to dodge torpedo salvos, or to lodge additional shots into the flanks or unarmoured side of an enemy ship. Unlike battlestars, however, the Cratus is only equipped with heavy guns, making it vulnerable to smaller ships that can dodge its shots.

Unlike the Argos, however, the Cratus cannot replenish its munitions stores.

Campaign: Use torpedoes as much as possible, as the Cratus is too large to dodge them. Destroy its escorts to leave the Cratus exposed.

Multiplayer: The Cratus' cost prohibits adding more than two, and even having two can be dangerous. The Cratus must be escorted and operated wisely to see success. While it can respond to smaller threats with guided missiles, its rapid reloading munitions slots means it can burn through ammunition rapidly.

Official Description: ''A heavily armed and armoured command basestar. The Cratus represents a significant expenditure by Cylon Command for a singular ship that eschews the typical Cylon doctrine of tactical diversity. On the battlefield, this powerful basestar acts more similar to the battlestars of Colonial fleet, deploying squadrons, missile salvos, and heavy artillery to batter its opponents into submission.''