Tier 1 PvP - The Miranda versus the B'Rel Bird-of-Prey

The introductory PvP Tier can be a harrowing experience for new players, especially those that join a Scenario having faced nothing but the early NPC squadrons you fight in the first few missions. The experience can be quite negative, as the difference in playstyle between PvE and PvP and between Klingons and Federation are quite staggering.

This post will focus more on the ships involved than on the actual tactics, because fitting a ship the right way for PvP is as important as knowing how to fly it.

First lets take the Miranda:

Hull: 10000
Shields: 3600 (Covariant MK1)
Turn Rate:11.4
Weapon Ports: 2 Forward, 1 Rear
Bridge Officer Slots: 1 Ensign Tactical, 1 Ensign Engineering, 1 Ensign Science

The shields come from one of the very early quests, so it is quite likely that a Fed player will have better shields by the end of T1.

Now the B'Rel:

Hull: 8000
Shields: 3600
Turn Rate: 23
Weapon Ports: 2 Forward, 1 Rear
Bridge Officer Slots: 3 Ensign Universal

You can clearly see that a B'Rel, while less resilient than a Miranda, is a more versatile ship. The B'Rel is also built from the start as a damage dealing vessel, using forward facing cannon and torpedo launcher and a rear turret. The Miranda on the other hand is handed to the player as a Cruiser, set up for broadsiding then turning to face the unshielded side of the target to let loose a torpedo. This does not work in PvP, where the B'Rel will fly circles around a Cruiser Miranda. A Miranda needs to hit hard and fast as well to be able to take out a B'Rel before the superior maneuverability of the Klingon ship takes its toll. Going the forward facing cannon/torpedo route with a turret behind is a good idea, same as going with 3 beam arrays and simply broadsiding the fragile BoP into submission. What you don't really want to do is combine the setups, like Cruisers do. You cannot effectively broadside with just 2 arrays and you cannot effectively burn down a BoP with a cannon up front and mines behind.

The next important difference is the Bridge Officer slots. The Miranda has 1 of each, meaning it can never really specialize in anything, while the Klingon Bird-of-Prey can field any combination of Bridge Officers. What that means for a Miranda Captain is that he needs to have a good balance of both offensive and defensive abilities, preferably PvP oriented like Polarize Hull, Engineering Team, Science Team, High Yield Torpedo, Jam Sensors etc.. and be ready to react to any situation. The BoP is usually more specialized, few go the Federation route and stick one of each type of Bridge Officers on their bridge.

Overall the matchup between ships really comes down to experience in flying the ship. New Klingons will struggle with the forward facing Bird-of-Prey while new Federation Captains will not know how to handle a fast moving, hard hitting target. They will join a Scenario fielding their PvE Bridge Officers and fittings and wonder why the Klingons tear them up.