POS Warfare
Overview
- overview that explains the basic concepts behind attacking or defending a POS
- specific POS setups should be put on a separate "POS Setups(?)" page to keep page length down
Configuration - we're only going to list very basic attributes for modules and only for the base version, so things like (m3, kg, powergrid used, CPU used, and hitpoints).
- faction versions of POS towers/modules are not covered
Defense
The primary form of defense for a POS is its force field (or shield bubble). If you are inside the shield bubble, you cannot be targeted or damaged, nor can you target/damage anyone outside it. You can either enter the bubble based on standings or be given the starbase password to slip through the shield. Even if your POS access is based on access, you must set a password on the tower. The bubble will exist until the tower is destroyed (shield and structure of the control tower) or taken offline.
There are two caveats to the invulnerability when you are inside the POS shield however. The first is that someone who is inside with you may decide to bump you out of the shield radius. The second is that the shield radius tends to warp and wobble, slowly moving inward and outward a few hundred meters.
All towers have shield, armor and structure like normal ships, but during the initial phase of combat only the shield HP comes into play. In addition, each tower as a set of basic shield resists that vary according to the race/faction of the tower. One of the resists will be 50%, one will be 25%, and the other two resists will be at zero. You should add shield hardeners to shore up your weaker resists.
Shield Hardening Arrays
- 4000 m3 4000 kg
- 150,000 PG 250 CPU
- 20k shield HP, 20k armor HP, 20k structure HP
Shield hardeners come in four types, one for each resist, and should be mounted inside the POS bubble. They are named Ballistic Deflection Array (KIN), Explosion Dampening Array (EXP), Heat Dissipation Array (THE), and Photon Scattering Array (EMP).
The correct way to harden the shields of the POS depends on the tower size, the tower location, and expected opposition. But you should probably use one of the following recommendations. You will need the most modules (highest number) for the two resist at 0%, with one fewer hardener for the resist that starts at 25%, and one fewer for the 50% resist.
- 2/2/1/0 results in 44%/44%/44%/50% resists
- 3/3/2/1 results in 58%/58%/58%/63% resists
- 4/4/3/2 results in 68%/68%/68%/72% resists
A tower with high resists becomes very difficult to reinforce since you force the attackers to spend 1.8x to 3.1x more time then if you don't plug the two 0% resist holes. Trying to stack the resist modules beyond 4/4/3/2 is pointless and you'd be better off using that PG/CPU for other defensive modules.
Sensor Dampening Battery
- 4000 m3 4000 kg
- 12,500 PG 25 CPU
- 100k shield HP, 1.5M armor HP, 100k structure HP
The Sensor Dampening Battery has a 150km optimal, cuts the target's scan resolution and targeting range in half. It has very low fitting requirements and can force an enemy to come closer to POS weapons instead of being able to snipe modules. Just like any other module that targets enemy ships, it must be mounted outside the POS bubble.
Note: Dreads are immune to sensor dampening in seige mode and carriers are immune if in triage mode.
ECM Battery
- 4000 m3 4000 kg
- 25,000 PG 50 CPU
- 100k shield HP, 1.5M armor HP, 100k structure HP
The four ECM batteries are Ion Field Projection Battery (MAGNET, Gallente), Phase Inversion Battery (LADAR, Minmatar), Spatial Destabilization Battery (GRAV, Caldari) and White Noise Generation Battery (RADAR, Amarr). They have an optimal range of 200km with a jam strength of 15.00. Player ships like the Blackbird, Kitsune, Falcon, and Scorpion have jam strengths in the 6.00 to 10.00 range. This module must be mounted outside the POS bubble.
Offense
There are two types of offense that a POS can engage in. One is acting as a tackler, using energy neutralizers, stasis webs and warp disruptors/scrambers in order to hold enemy ships in place for destruction by the POS weapons or support fleet. The second type of POS offense is weapon systems such as hybrid turrets, laser turrets, missile launchers or projectile batteries. Each race/faction POS tower gives different bonuses to weapons, but that must be balanced with the issue that once a tower enters reinforced mode all weapons that use CPU will go offline.
Hybrid Batteries
Laser Batteries
- Small: Useful against frigates, cruisers and fighters
- Medium: Better for cruisers, battlecruisers and battleships
- Large: Only works well against capital ships and battleships
Laser batteries get bonuses from Amarr towers and come in two flavors, "beam" for long range and "pulse" for short range. Laser batteries use zero CPU and will continue to function after the tower is reinforced (if repaired and in working order). As with regular Amarr pulse/beam weapons, they use crystals, but the size of the crystals is always one larger then the laser battery. This means that large laser batteries use XL crystals, medium uses large crystals, and small batteries use medium crystals.
| Type | Power | CPU | Optimal | Falloff |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small Beam Laser | 112,500 | 0 | 187km | 50km |
| Medium Beam Laser | 225,000 | 0 | 280km | 75km |
| Large Beam Laser | 450,000 | 0 | 375km | 100km |
| Small Pulse Laser | 78,750 | 0 | 52km | 14km |
| Medium Pulse Laser | 157,500 | 0 | 79km | 21km |
| Large Pulse Laser | 315,000 | 0 | 106km | 28km |
One downside to using Laser Batteries is that the active crystal cannot be removed when you need to unanchor and move the battery. Inactive crystals can be removed before you unanchor.
Missile Batteries
Projectile Batteries
The primary advantage of projectile batteries on a POS is that they do not require any CPU in order to operate. In addition, they can be fitted with different types of ammo in order to spread damage across multiple resists.
- need ammo capacity, max ammo stored, estimated time to deplete ammo. should be around 13 hours for arty and 65 hours for autocannnons
Energy Neutralizing Battery
- 4000 m3 4000 kg
- 350,000 PG 25 CPU
- 100k shield HP, 1.5M armor HP, 100k structure HP
The energy neutralizer has a 250km (50?) range and drains 1000 GJ (a heavy T2 neutralizer on a ship does 600 GJ). Compared to the other types of defensive modules, their fitting requirement is rather high.
Stasis Webification Battery
- 4000 m3 4000 kg
- 50,000 PG 25 CPU
- 100k shield HP, 1.5M armor HP, 100k structure HP
These will cut an enemy's ship speed by 75% and have a range of 150km.
Warp Disruption Battery
- 4000 m3 100 kg
- 100,000 PG 50 CPU
- 100k shield HP, 1.5M armor HP, 100k structure HP
The disruption batteries have a 150km range, but higher fitting needs then the scramblers. They have a warp scrambling strength of 3 points.
Warp Scrambling Battery
- 4000 m3 100 kg
- 25,000 PG 25 CPU
- 100k shield HP, 1.5M armor HP, 100k structure HP
The scrambling batteries only have a 75km range, but much lower fitting needs. They have a warp scramble strength of 6 points.
Anchoring of Spares
A recommended tactic is that you always anchor extra weapon and countermeasures outside the POS bubble, but leave them offline until needed. As existing weapons and countermeasures are incapacitated by damage, you can bring new weapons and countermeasures online.
Starbase Defense Management
The Starbase Defense Management skill allows a pilot with the Starbase Defense Operator role to control weapons and countermeasures mounted outside the POS bubble.
Initial Attack
- what do we bring, how long should it take
- ammo types, range needed
Incapacitation of Modules
- order of modules to attack
- modules inside vs outside the shields
- how to keep ships from being popped
- what ammo works best
Damage POS Shield
- Best Ammo
- Based on type of faction tower. Each faction tower has 2 weaknesses with 0% base resistance. Any active shield hardening array may also play a factor.
- Amarr EMP and Thermal
- Caldari EMP and Explosive
- Gallente EMP and Explosive
- Minmatar Explosive and Kinetic
- Shield Radii
- 30km for a large POS
- 21km for a medium POS
- 15km for a small POS
- taking down the shield
Once the POS shield drops below 50%, the POS owner can no longer add Strontium Calthrates to the stront bay to affect the length of time that the tower will stay in reinforced mode. When the shield drops below 25%, the tower will enter reinforced mode.
Reinforced Mode
Once the POS shields have been damaged down to 25%, the POS may enter reinforced mode. If there is at least one our of Strontium Calthrates it will do so and a timer will appear by the tower in space. This timer will say "reinforced" along with the length of time remaining before the tower comes out of reinforced mode. All towers can carry a maximum of around 41.7 hours worth of Strontium Calthrates in their stront bay (see the "Capacity2" field on a tower's attributes). If there is not enough Strontium Calthrates in the tower for at least one hour, you can continue straight to final destruction of the POS.
The math for the stront bay is 50,000 m3 (for a large tower) divided by 3.0 m3 per Strontium Calthrate, give you 16666 units. A large tower goes through 400 per hour in reinforced mode, giving you 41.665 hours of reinforcement (1d 17h 39m 54s).
In addition, the following things will happen:
- The POS shield will no longer regenerate when reinforced
- All modules/structures that require CPU power will go offline
- Modules/guns that do not use CPU power will stay online
- Modules/structures inside the tower are still safe
What the owner can do while the POS is reinforced:
- Repair guns and modules outside the bubble
- Anchor new guns that do not use CPU power
- Online already anchored guns/modules that do not use CPU
- Can access the contents of a Ship Maintenance Array (uses no CPU)
What the owner cannot do while the POS is reinforced:
- Online anchored modules/guns that require CPU power
- Online repaired guns/modules that require CPU power
- Add Strontium Calthrates to the stront bay
- Cannot repair the POS shields
- Cannot access the contents of corporate hangar, labs or silos
The POS will exit reinforced mode once the Strontium Calthrates run out. At that point in time the shields will start to regenerate on their own. The owner of the POS can bring the shields up to the 50% mark by using ships with shield transporter modules (such as Basilisks or Scimitars). Once the shield has been repaired to 50%, the owner may online any modules/structures that require CPU power. They may also re-stront the tower so that it will enter reinforced mode again if the shields are lowered again to the 25% mark.
If the attacking force wishes to completely destroy the POS after the reinforcement timer, they should leave a harassing force in place to prevent the repair of guns or other modules outside the POS bubble.
Final Takedown
- when do we come back, what do we bring, how long should it take
What to Shoot
- repaired modules
- shields
- other modules?
What to Loot
- corporate hangars and mobile labs retain their contents after being unanchored. they can either be anchored at another POS to retrieve the contents or can be repackaged which will extract the contents
- silos and weapon batteries will destroy their contents when unanchored after the POS tower is destroyed
- modules? hangar contents?
- link to IVY war loot policy
Reference Links
EVE Online POS Builder
POS'S AND YOU (forum thread)
MyPOS (calculate fits)
Starbase Defense Management skill (plus warfare info)
POS Death Star Setups: Jump Bridge, Cyno Jam, Reactions, Moon Mining (EVE Online forums)
