TRS - Fitting Discussion: Poor man's ArmorHAC

I promised last time that I will discuss something else than a brawler ship and during recent fleet operations in armor cruiser gangs, I was reminded of the staple ArmorHAC. This successful small to medium gang Zealot-based fleet concept became famous for it's good performance and because of this classic piece of FC raging.

So what's the ArmorHAC all about:

[Zealot, ArmorHAC]
Heat Sink II
Heat Sink II
1600mm Reinforced Steel Plates II
Tracking Enhancer II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Damage Control II
Armor Thermic Hardener II

Experimental 10MN Afterburner I
Warp Disruptor II
Stasis Webifier II

Focused Medium Pulse Laser II, Scorch M
Focused Medium Pulse Laser II, Scorch M
Focused Medium Pulse Laser II, Scorch M
Focused Medium Pulse Laser II, Scorch M
Focused Medium Pulse Laser II, Scorch M

Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Anti-EM Pump I

The concept behind this fit is simple yet effective. With Scorch and the Tracking Enhancer your optimal range becomes 30km and more. That makes this an ideal setup to fight at gates. On a non-regional gate anything that jumps through into your gang will be in optimal range and therefore take full damage. Likewise, if you jump into an enemy you can be pretty sure that you can engage them right away except if they are sitting far off in sniper ships.

Your defense relies on heavy buffer and resistance, and a very low signature for a cruiser sized ship. That is why this ship is flown with afterburners: To keep the signature low. That low signature results in longer lock times for the enemy and a reduction in incoming damage because it makes tracking harder. Also missile damage is affected negatively by low signature and that means an ArmorHAC gang can engage turret and missile ships equally well if speed can be maintained. They are vulnerable against excessive missile bombardment though.

The third midslot is pretty much up to your preferences. Many people fit target painters there to increase their chance to hit by increasing enemy signature. Others like to use a Sensor Booster for increased lock speed. Personally I like the web because it works well if a brawler tries to get under your guns.

The typical ArmorHAC gang will be supported by suitable logistics ships and - if you have enough ISK to burn and high skilled pilots - Armor fit Lokis with long-range webs. The latter are particularly useful against the main weakness of this setup which is kiting ships. Once an enemy gang can get outside optimal range, you wont be able to chase them down again. On the other hand, that usually means you can warp out and escape them.

To fly and fit a ship like that, high fitting skills are needed, and training the HAC skill is also not something that is done in a few days. On top of that, a Zealot hull is not what you'd call cheap. So I thought about possibilities for similarly effective setups that can be done with lower skills and hulls that are more affordable for the pilot on a budget.

The obvious first ship to look at would be the Omen. After all, the Zealot is based on that hull. So let's see whether an Omen can work as a "poor man's ArmorHAC":

[Omen, Poormans ArmorHAC]
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Tracking Enhancer II
Heat Sink II
Heat Sink II

Warp Disruptor II
Experimental 10MN Afterburner I
Tracking Computer II, Optimal Range Script

Focused Medium Pulse Laser II, Scorch M
Focused Medium Pulse Laser II, Scorch M
Focused Medium Pulse Laser II, Scorch M
Focused Medium Pulse Laser II, Scorch M
Focused Medium Pulse Laser II, Scorch M

Medium Anti-EM Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I

Well, let's compare: The signature of the Omen is actually lower than that of the Zealot, so that's a good thing. Of course - being a T1 ship - it also has substantially lower armor resistance and one less low slot. In terms of absolute armor hitpoint buffer we get close to the Zealot. With the above setup a Zealot will be a bit above 101K armor hitpoints, the Omen gets around 97K. The main drawback here lies with the turrets. Because the Omen lacks the optimal range bonus of the Zealot, our engagement range will be reduced by a good 10K. A Tracking Computer like in the setup above brings you closer to the Zealot's range but not quite there. Also the damage output of the Omen lies significantly below the Zealot. On the other hand, the Omen can use drones, so we can actually push our DPS beyond what the Zealot would achieve when adding a mixed flight of light and medium drones. Another thing is speed. You will need to maintain transversal speed to help avoiding damage, and while the Zealot can run it's afterburner permanently, the Omen can't. That puts it at a disadvantage here.

So how about alternatives? Let's look at the other race that typically uses armor tanks. How about a Thorax with railguns?

[Thorax, Armorrailrax]
800mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Damage Control II
Tracking Enhancer II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II

Experimental 10MN Afterburner I
Warp Disruptor II
Tracking Computer II, Optimal Range Script
Tracking Computer II, Optimal Range Script

200mm Railgun II, Federation Navy Antimatter Charge M
200mm Railgun II, Federation Navy Antimatter Charge M
200mm Railgun II, Federation Navy Antimatter Charge M
200mm Railgun II, Federation Navy Antimatter Charge M
200mm Railgun II, Federation Navy Antimatter Charge M

Medium Anti-Explosive Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I

Because of the lower powergrid, we wont be able to fit a 1600mm plate with those guns, so the hitpoint buffer of the Thorax is below that of the Omen. The armor resists are spread differently and end up being slightly weaker, so in the end this ship has a good 8K less EHP compared to the Amarr T1 counterpart. It's signature lies between the Zealot and the Omen which is still OK.

Now for the good part: The Thorax almost reaches the DPS of the Zealot and has more than the Omen. When it comes to volley damage it exceeds both ships, achieving a maximum above 900. It's optimal range is close to the Omen, and with falloff added it will shoot farther than both Amarr ships. Because you will be in falloff range, you wont achieve full damage at such ranges, but at least you can still hit. In addition to that, the Thorax can actually control a full flight of medium drones, and that makes it better in DPS than either of the other two. So under the bottom line, the Thorax is the best damage dealer at ranges around 20K. That damage potential suffers from very poor tracking though. Because you are using tracking computers, you can actually mix and match scripts if you are closer to an enemy, but even with two tracking speed scripts you wont be as good as the lasers. With the lighter armor plate, the Thorax comes out on top when you look at speed, but just like the Omen it can not permanently run all modules and keep the afterburner active.

Let's consider an alternative for this particular ship:

[Thorax, Armorrailrax Dual150]
1600mm Reinforced Steel Plates II
Damage Control II
Tracking Enhancer II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II

Experimental 10MN Afterburner I
Warp Disruptor II
Tracking Computer II, Optimal Range Script
Tracking Computer II, Optimal Range Script

Dual 150mm Railgun II, Federation Navy Antimatter Charge M
Dual 150mm Railgun II, Federation Navy Antimatter Charge M
Dual 150mm Railgun II, Federation Navy Antimatter Charge M
Dual 150mm Railgun II, Federation Navy Antimatter Charge M
Dual 150mm Railgun II, Federation Navy Antimatter Charge M

Medium Anti-Explosive Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I

Here it gets interesting. Now we reach an armor buffer above both the Omen and the Zealot. Because of lower resists, this ship still wont have the EHP of a Zealot but it does exceed the EHP of the Omen setup above. Tracking is now closer to both ships, but we do sacrifice a significant amount of range. Optimal + falloff together will be just under the optimal range of the Zealot. Despite achieving higher DPS than the Omen and better volley damage than both Amarr ships on paper, again you wont do all of that damage at the same range that the lasers turrets can achieve. Still, at ranges of 12K you will outgun both ships, and that is before you add drone damage. Not bad for a T1 cruiser.

Edit:
That being said, the Pulse Laser boats can switch to short-range crystals when finding targets at such close range. Multifrequency will increase DPS and volley damage slightly over Scorch. Because of the better tracking one could then outperform a Thorax. Conflagration is another option, then you would outdo the damage of a Thorax but you lose the better tracking. Still for slow targets at close range that track badly themselves (like battleships) Conflagration on an Amarr ship is the superiour damage dealer. (thanks to raylu for reminding me of that) 
/Edit

So when looking at low-skill and low-price alternatives for the classic ArmorHAC setup, both Omen and Thorax offer viable options. Tracking is the main weakness of the Thorax when compared to the two other ships, but with tackle and Target Painter support, a lot of that can be mitigated and it's superiour damage potential can be realized.

Naturally the Zealot has the better resist tank and therefore profits more from logi support, but the T1 alternatives work well enough to allow for participation of newer players with lower skills in an ArmorHAC gang.