In Defense of Bulk Cruisers

[apovverz]

The Bulk Cruiser is available to the majority of factions, and yet, it seems mot people snub their noses at it.  Today I am here to present to you why you should reconsider this hidden gem.

The major issue (and really only weakness) I see with the Cruiser is how weak its shields and hull are.  Sometimes it feels like you can sneeze at the thing and have it fall apart. The closest ship to this is the Aclamator, with much more firepower, more snub fighters, and much better shields.  It would be a logical claim that the Acclimator is the objectively better ship.  And I would agree, if your using both in a front-line cruiser role. 

However, once you ignore the name of cruiser and use it as a carrier, the Bulk meets its full potential.  "But the Acclimator has more total snub fighters, so its a better carrier too" I hear you say.  My counter argument to that is the QUALITY of the Bulk fighters outlasts the total QUANTITY of the Acclimators. 

The Acclimator has an armament of 2 turbo lazers, 2 quad turbo lazers, and 2 pron torpedo launchers with a load-out of 3 tie fighters and 1 tie bomber (with about 2 ties fighters and 1 tie bomber in reserve).  These are great as micro star destroyers and are highly cost effective.

The Bulk has 3 turbo lazer batters (one being a quad if the animation is correct), two ion cannons, and two lazer cannons.  Both are about the same price point (1500 credits).  Examining the fighters though is where things get interesting...

The bulk contains 1 bomber, and 2 (for lack of a better term) elite fighters.

The Zinj bulk has 2 tie rapotors
The Maldrood Bulk has 2 tie avengers
NR, 2 X Wings
CSA 2 T Wings

So basically, NR and CSA Bulk comes with 3 bombers and Zinj/Maldrood comes with 2 space superiority fighters that are really hard to kill.  Because of the cheap cost of Bulks, they operate best in packs of 3 or more, hiding behind front-line ships, providing supporting fire, zapping shields with the ion cannons, and shooting down fighters with the lazer cannons. This gives you acess to either 9 bombers, or 3 bombers and 6 interceptors that CHEW through most snub fighters. VS an Aclimator with the (lets be honest) garbage ties that would get destroyed by the quality the Bulks bring in.

In my experience, early game fleets composed of maybe 1 or 2 capital ships (or really tanky cruisers) supported by a swarm of Bulks and a handful of AA gunships (Correlian Corvette/IPV/ect) are one of the most cost effective fleets that can be run until your economy can support more specialized vessels. 

Typically, I use the AA as a pathfinder, then deploy the tanks in front (they don't need to be good on the offense, just GREAT defense), with the Bulks about a ship length or two behind them, and the AA on the flanks, behind the tanks.  The fighter swarms deploy, and they bonzai rush any AA the enemy has (usually a swarm of bombers takes it out in one strafe with minimal losses), then destroy the shield generator, engines, and hanger bays (in that order) of the biggest threat ships. From there, the bombers continue to attack the high threat ships while the fighters focus on taking out the enemy star-fighters.  If any enemy bombers get through, they are destroyed by all the lazers from the Bulks and AA.  The Bulks also are great at taking out the suicidal enemy AA that like to rush your lines.  By the time the enemy exchanges shots with my tanks, there crippled with no shields.  Once appropriate, I move up the Bulks with 'power to weapons for the finishing blows.  Any losses (usually there are none) are also super cheap to replace.

I highly recommend trying this fleet out to see for yourself.  Ill also bet that a fleet of even numbers using the same tactic with Acclimaotrs against the same Bulk fleet would lose due to the previous argument of QALITY vs QUANTITY.  I've cheesed through a CSA, NR, and ZINJ campaign mainly using this fleet on Admiral difficulty with great success (although I have yet to try 'cruel AI')

TL:DR
Bulks suck as front line cruisers, but are surprisingly good multi-role carriers.

Thoughts? Comments? Obligatory flame wars over ships?

[Katarnstar]

Personally, I use Bulk Cruisers to protect my carriers; they have both the laser cannons to deal with starfighters and turbos to take out any corvettes or light frigates that somehow makes it though my front line ships.

[tlmiller]

I like both the Bulk and the Acclamator.  Acclamators in bulk (usually 5 or 6) throw out a large anti-bomber force that can clear the way for large ships to bash through the enemy without fear of bombers ripping their shields apart.  The Bulk is a fantastic support ship that can mop up the burning remains of ships that make it through the front line while offering decent amount of fighter superiority (never used the CSA bulk since  haven't played as CSA).

[Douk Nouk Kem]

I do agree about buying Bulks as CSA, as your only other option for reliable bomber carrier is Lucrehulk, so for a quick-n-cheap bomber bus it'll do, but there's really no need to buy them as other factions, Zsinj won't get much from spawning in a mediocre combat ship for just 2 squads of Raptors, especially since both ISD variants carry them, but I guess with space unit roster as horrible as his beggars can't be choosers, you positively should not think about fighter supremacy as Maldrood when you have IPVs which were S+ tier back in 2.2 and now sit somewhere around SSS+ due to weapon accuracy changes making them basically untouchable and while a bit more costly NR's Assault Dreadnought features better armament while still carrying 2 X-wings, I am probably biased, but I felt that Bulks were better in 2.2, but now their ion cannons seem to do absolute squat amount of damage to shields and with Dreadnought ( which I personally don't really like ) also getting price reduction I don't feel that this is a unit that varrants any attention and together with Gladiator ( although for different reasons ) and Enforcer ( why do you even exist? ) still sits awkwardly in the "uncool cruiser" category.

[Zardnaar]

I covered them in my empire guides. They were decent in carrier type fleets although only Zsinj should use them.

[the_trots]

How does the NR build Bulk Cruisers?

[sunilbhaiya72]

I highly recommend trying this fleet out to see for yourself.  Ill also bet that a fleet of even numbers using the same tactic with Acclimaotrs against the same Bulk fleet would lose due to the previous argument of QALITY vs QUANTITY.  I've cheesed through a CSA, NR, and ZINJ campaign mainly using this fleet on Admiral difficulty with great success (although I have yet to try 'cruel AI') 9apps cartoon hd