Tackle Merlin

As a brand new player, odds are you will be flying "tackle".  Tackle is a role for a fleet where you use a ship with superior speed to catch another ship, allowing the rest of your fleet to dogpile onto him.  Most people fit their tackle ships poorly, with no tank.  While there are certainly times you want your ship to be as fast as possible and it is ok to be held together by prayer and duct tape, in most circumstances it does not help your fleet if you tackle someone and then immediately die.  You are not tackling anyone while dead.  Ive used a merlin below, but the fit can be translated to almost any tech1 frigate (emphasis on the almost).  Merlins have an acceptable speed, with strong tank, and are more resistant to electronic warfare than most other frigates.


For flying as a tackler, you want to stay with the your fleet until a target presents itself, or the FC orders you to tackle someone.  You want to burn at the target at an angle - moving directly something by using the approach command is a good way to a fiery death.  Double click in space to manually control your ship's movement.  You want to get as close to the enemy ship as possible and orbit it as quickly as you can.  Shut off your microwarp drive as you begin the tight orbit.  Tell your fleet that you have the target tackled, usually by saying on voice comms "Scram on this guy".  If the enemy ship is using energy neutralizers on you, mash the keys or icons for your tackle modules - very often they will go off for only a moment.  If you are dying, tell your fleet (calmly!) that you are going to die and you need someone else to come and maintain tackle.  The ship is cheap.  When you die, go get a new one and rejoin your fleet as you can.


[Merlin, new tackle partial]
[empty low slot]
[empty low slot]
[empty low slot]

Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
Medium Azeotropic Ward Salubrity I
[empty med slot]
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I

[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]

[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]

When creating a tackle fit like this, first you fit the microwarp drive.  An afterburner is not a suitable substitute - you are not fast enough with it.  Next, you fit the warp scrambler.  (Not disruptor).  Next you fit a tank, almost always a shield tank on tackle ships so you have room in your low slots for speed modules - the tank is the medium ward salubrity here.  Note the lack of guns - if you have spare powergrid at the end, by all means, add some guns on.  But guns are not really needed.  If you can fit them, they are helpful for killing drones, but it is not worth compromising your ability at your primary role to fit them.  So what do we have left to fit?

In our lows, we will use an emergency damage control and two nanofibers.  This gives us more tank (so we can scram something for longer), as well as boosting our speed and agility.  We use nanofibers instead of overdrives or inertial stabilizers.  Overdrives are only better if you fly in one direction for a long time (about 20 seconds for a frigate) which doesnt actually happen often.  Inertial stabilizers only increase agility.  Since the merlin has 4 mid slots, we can fit a stasis web.  For our rigs, we use an anti-EM, anti-thermal, and anti-explosive rig.  This fills in our lowest resist, as well as giving more resistance to the most common types of light drones.  If you cant fit your rigs, have someone else do it for you - you can fly a ship that has rigs you cant fit.

  The final fit is:

[Merlin, new tackle]
Emergency Damage Control I
Beta Hull Mod Nanofiber Structure
Beta Hull Mod Nanofiber Structure

Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
Medium Azeotropic Ward Salubrity I
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I

[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]

Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Small Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I
Small Anti-Explosive Screen Reinforcer I