Ships/Scarab

Scarab

In the hands of a skilled pilot turrets can be a very effective weapon system, and the Scarab is far and away the cheapest ship on the market with 7 turret slots. They can have pin-point accuracy against fighters, destroy missiles and mines, take out heavy turrets on larger ships effectively crippling them in combat, and when all else fails just hammer a target into oblivion. Properly equipped the 7-turret Scarab is absolutely incredible for its cost and is the first ship you can get where you will be able to enter truly heavy combat against large forces, even engaging Pirate Lords single-handed (provided you can catch up to them in warp). You honestly don't need to even bother equipping a Broadside weapon on it; save the money for something else and the lack of a Broadside weapon will prevent you from accidentally switching out of your turrets.

One particular configuration exists with early equipment that has been found to be extremely effective:
 * All 7 turrets equipped with Mk 2 Pulse Cannon Turrets
 * The best long-endurance booster and engines you can equip from the starting system
 * A decent Deflector, useful for taking hits from long range missile salvos.
 * Flak turrets as a secondary weapon, mainly for taking out missiles when possible.
 * The best hull and shields you can equip, you can get very good biological armor as soon as you join the Merchants Guild
 * One Turret Projector subsystem, the extra projectile speed also boosts the max range of the pulse turrets to 4000

With the long range Pulse Cannon turrets enhanced by the relatively cheap Turret Projector, you will be able to stay out of heavy weapon range of many ships while simultaneously being able to put heavy damage on them. This technique is known as Kiting.

With the above configuration that you can get rather easily in the starting system you end up with a ship that can out-endure and significantly out-shoot anything fast enough to catch it (which isn't much once the booster gets involved) and easily outdistance/outmaneuver anything big enough to overpower it while simultaneously putting heavy fire on them. You definitely shouldn't charge head-on into a large enemy squad, although you can drop enemy ships like Fighters quickly a large group of them will quickly wear you down while the bigger ships get in range and hammer down your defenses. Stay at longer range and let the faster fighters slowly catch up to you so you can pick them off, made rather easy by the fact that turrets can be fired behind you so you just have to control your speed, then move in closer to take out the larger ones. You will be able to take on VERY large enemy forces like this in the starting system.

And to top it all off, it has a very decent base cargo hold for its cost making it a very effective early trading ship.

This ship also ages quite well as you move to higher systems, since high grade equipment isn't restricted by ship class. Big ships with lots of slots fitted with bad equipment are still bad in combat. If you take the several-million-plus cash you would need to buy a ship that is more powerful enough than a Scarab to be worth bothering to get, and instead focus on getting the best possible turrets, shields, hull, etc on the Scarab you should still be able to go toe-to-toe with heavy enemy forces for quite some time.

The Scarab's turret layout features a chin turret directly under the nose, Beta. This covers the entire forward arc and easily handle the flanks to boot. Two more are placed atop the ship's back, Alpha being positioned midway along the spine and Gamma slightly higher and aft, providing complete coverage. If your weapon composition includes ion cannons, this is definitely the place to mount them: any other location runs the risk of being blocked by your own hull, allowing the enemy a moment of respite for the shields to recharge. Four other turrets are on the circular surfaces on the side of the ship, though both sides can reach a target directly ahead or behind your ship. Delta and Zeta are on the right and Epsilon and Eta are on the left. Due to the turret placements, you will only manage to focus all seven turrets onto targets that are almost directly in front of you and will often be firing only five turrets at a single target but that is still a huge jump from any cheaper ships which can only focus three turrets on a single target.