Walkover with the Redtail

[Darkelve]

I had a couple of playthroughs (all on Easy) with the Redtail in which I was on a roll, but then got unlucky or careless in sectors 6, 7 or 8 and in a few cases I did not have the proper equipment against the flagship.
I even had one were I had a winning lay-out, but I jumped to the flagship and did not realize it was also jumping... next to the base... game over!

So after all this frustration I had a ship with equipment&crew which made me feel really mighty! I visited a lot of stores, most of which had really good augments. I actually 'switched' a Shield Recharge Booster' for a second weapons loader.
It made sector 7 and 8 *really* fun... 'mad scientist laugh' kind of fun

This was my setup: - I wish I could have "saved" this ship/lay-out somehow!
Power: all bars except for the 4 last ones.
- All shields (four?)
- 5x Engines
- 2x Oxygen
- 1x Medbay
- 7x Weapons
- 1x Teleporter
- 2x Drones
- 3x Stealth System

Drones: Defense Drone Mark I
Crew: 2x human, 2x Mantis (boarding), 1x Rockman, 3x Zoltan
Weapons: Burst Laster Mark III - Heavy Laser Mark I - Heavy Laser Mark I - Heavy Laser Mark I (total damage output: 11)
Augmentations: Weapons Loader - Weapons Loader - Weapon Pre-Igniter

Because of the weapons pre-igniter I could shoot anything that was bothering me to shreds (usually this meant the enemy weapon system room).
Then: cloaking at the appropriate time. Because of the double weapons loader augments, my weapons were fully charged *before* my cloak was halfway...

I find there are few things more satisfying than seeing enemy ships collapse under a burst of laser fire.

[UltraMantis]

FTL loves me, FTL loves me not, FTL loves me, FTL loves me not, FTL loves me...

That's how it goes sometimes All those frustrations washed away by the sweet sweet satisfaction of nailing the mothership. Probably you're right and it's most enjoyable when it's a burst of lasers, though i had a similar experience with the Rock cruiser and a hail of missiles crunching the boss.

Heavy Lasers aren't regarded as best weapons but with two reloaders and a pre-igniter boosting 3 of them they sound nasty. Hell i'd love to have that ship setup too.

[Number43]

I've had more powerful setups. I once had all systems upgraded to max except for drone control which was 5 (which was fine since I only had a couple of 2 power drones). Once I had that augment setup, but was tempted to ditch the pre-igniter when it gave me a third re-loader.

My last run I had 2 burst laser II and 2 burst laser I, which is 10 shots (less total damage than yours, but all separate shots so less wasted taking out shields, and much less charge time without the mark III.) Once I had crystal burst II, ion bomb, pegasus missile, and burst laser II (I had to ditch an ion blast I and several other weapons). I know I've had several other impressive 8 power weapon setups I can't recall at the moment.

In any case, I usually reach the boss with max power and more system power than I can use with max reactor power.

[Darkelve]

FTL loves me, FTL loves me not, FTL loves me, FTL loves me not, FTL loves me...

True, but it seems to hate me more than it loves me...
Although it is true that as I am gaining more and more experience in the game, I have more success in my play-throughs.

Even though I'm still bad at certain things, e.g. micro-management when boarding... For example:
- my boarders are boarding a ship that's in an Asteroid field. Asteroid destroys the enemy ship before I can beam them back
- my boarders are boarding a ship and the ship is able to jump before I can beam them back or before I can disable engines or cabin
- my boarders are on an enemy ship, a couple of HP left... and die of Oxygen shortage before I can beam them back

Then there are those times when you are hit by a stroke of bad luck... e.g. four boarders teleporting into your 02 room while you only have 2 crew, or an encounter with an automated scout holding 3-shields and heavy weaponry in the beginning of sector 2.

On the other hand, in my last play the game spawned an automated scout with one Heavy Laster Mark I (1 shot). That was quite amusing.