Nighthawk

Way back on my Playing with the Orca thread where I mused about using the Orca as a mission support platform, my good friend and corp mate Talinthi commented:

thats why you use a command ship for lvl4s not only do they move quicker over those annoying large gaps between warpin and accel gates they also fit into the maint bay of the orca.

Well, I never turned down an excuse to load up EFT and play with ship builds! Let's go!

First off the skills. I would need about 50.5 days of training to get to Command Ships IV, the lion's share being the 27 days for Battlecruisers V. Ewwwwww. But at least its a skill that really comes in handy for Drakes, Brutixs, etc.

Here's the build I put together from first principles for running level four missions.

(Click to enlarge)

The DPS with the five light drones is decent at 450 but still less than either of my mission running battleships (Rokh at 575, CNR at 545), although the heavy missiles would be more effective against cruiser targets than the cruise missiles are. Range is OK at ~73 km.

Tank is impressive, going all passive for 440 broad spectrum damage absorbed at peak regen. Not as strong as the X-Large active tanks on the battleships, but doesn't require cap booster charges to maintain and it has a smaller signature than either larger ship. A bit faster at 175 m/s compared to 118 for the Raven and 111 for the Rokh.

It looks promising overall. Not many missions where I would think a battleship would be a superior choice by default. However, the price tag is higher than even a Rokh .... but you know what? Its still cheaper than the CNR. Maybe this spring I'll look into training command ships after all since it would be a good boon for PvP play as well to have the option.