Alliance ChieftainCombat

The Alliance Chieftain is the ship that proved a medium could be tough and nimble. Built on the Alliance chassis it shares with the Challenger and Crusader, it carries a heavy armour base, three dedicated military slots for reinforcement, and — uniquely among tanky mediums — agility that lets it out-turn ships half its mass.

Two large hardpoints anchor a six-mount loadout, and the military slots let it hull-tank to absurd levels while keeping its shields as a buffer. At under 19M credits it's a fraction of the cost of a Fer-de-Lance or Python Mk II, yet it holds its own against both in a sustained fight. It's also one of the premier anti-Thargoid platforms, which is why so many AX pilots fly it.

Four things make the Chieftain a standout combat medium:

• Agility plus armour. The rare combination — it turns like a light ship but tanks like a heavy one, so it holds guns on target while absorbing return fire.
• Three military slots. Dedicated reinforcement bays let it hull-tank far beyond what its optionals alone would allow — the Alliance signature.
• Two large hardpoints. Enough main-battery punch to kill anything in a RES or CZ, backed by a medium and three smalls for utility weapons.
• Outstanding value. Under 19M credits for a top-tier brawler — the cheapest way into elite-class medium combat.

Elite agility and military-slot armour at under 19M with no rank gate carry it to 88; only its sub-premium DPS ceiling and modest ~162 MJ hull-tank shields keep it off the podium.

The 88/100 headline is a verdict against the combat role's priority-ordered factors. Each factor carries a weight (its share of 100); this hull earns part of each based on how it performs against the whole field. The points sum to the rating.

Both tables rate ships for the combat role specifically. The role column is the hardpoint loadout — the raw weapon mounts behind the damage.

Same class — medium-pad combat ships

The Chieftain is the value-combat champion of the medium class. The premium specialists out-gun or out-duel it, but none matches its blend of agility, armour and price. For most PvE combat — and almost all AX work — it's the smartest credits you can spend.

Other classes — the larger leagues

Large warships out-gun and out-tank the Chieftain but cost five to ten times as much and need a large pad. The Chieftain's whole pitch is delivering most of a heavy brawler's staying power, with better agility, on a medium pad, for under 19M credits.

At ~18.6M Cr the Chieftain is astonishingly cheap for its combat capability, with no rank or permit gate. A full combat fit — with three military-slot reinforcements engineered — stays well under the cost of a single premium combat medium's hull.

Because it's so affordable, many commanders keep one purely for AX work and another for CZ/RES, or fly it as their first serious combat ship before ever touching a Python Mk II or FDL.

The Alliance Chieftain anchors the 'AX Combat Jumpstart' ARX pre-built, themed for Thargoid combat. The standard pre-built rules apply: stock modules sell for 0 Cr and cannot be stored or transferred, but engineering the stock cores in place preserves the free rebuy.

If you fly the AX Jumpstart hull, add AX weapons and guardian modules to open slots and engineer the cores in situ — never strip the stock modules out.

A hull-tank combat fit that leans on the three military slots. Initial is buy-only; A-rated is the combat-ready baseline; Engineered applies the house combat pattern with heavy reinforcement. An AX variant swaps the weapons for Guardian/AX hardpoints.

Buy the hull (~18.6M Cr); it ships on stock Lightweight Alloy — leave the bulkhead there for now. Fit a stock 6E Shield Generator with a single 0A Shield Booster, then drop one 4D Hull Reinforcement into the first military slot — instant tank.

Arm buy-only with gimballed mounts: a 3C Multi-Cannon and a 3E Pulse Laser on the two large hardpoints, a 2F Pulse Laser on the medium, and a 1G Multi-Cannon on the first small. Leave the other two smalls, the spare utilities, the second and third military slots and the empty optionals at — until A-rating.

Even on Lightweight Alloy, the base hull plus that first reinforcement make it RES- and CZ-ready immediately.

A-rating priority for an agile hull-tank:

• 1Bulkheads → Military Grade Composite — The cheapest large jump in raw armour; staying in the fight is the Chieftain's whole game. ~3M Cr
• 2Thrusters → 6A — Preserve the agility that sets the Chieftain apart. ~3M Cr
• 3Power Distributor → 6A — Sustain two large guns plus boost. ~3M Cr
• 4Power Plant → 6A — Headroom for guns, shields and utilities. ~3M Cr
• 5Shield Generator → 6C bi-weave — A fast-regen buffer over the heavy hull. ~2M Cr
• 6FSD → 5A — Reach fights and turn-ins faster. ~3M Cr

Fill the three military slots and the optionals with Hull and Module Reinforcement, add the second 0A Shield Booster, a chaff and a heat-sink launcher, and two Shield Cell Banks (5A + 2A) — and put a 1D Hull Reinforcement, not a surface scanner, in the size-1 internal. A combat hull wants armour in every bay.

The house combat pattern with heavy reinforcement in the military slots. Pin blueprints for remote G1→G5 application; visit in person for experimentals.

Recommended order

• 1Thrusters first — the agility is the whole point; keep it.
• 2Distributor and plant to G5 to sustain the guns.
• 3Heavy-Duty hull reinforcement across the military slots (and a spare optional) for the signature tank.
• 4Weapons and shields last: G5 Overcharged multi-cannons with one Corrosive Shell, G5 Reinforced + Hi-Cap bi-weave.

Approximate progression across the three states (figures are representative, not exact rolls):

A-rating the bulkhead to Military Grade Composite and filling the military slots roughly triples raw armour before a single blueprint; engineering then drives effective armour into the thousands — Heavy-Duty Deep-Plating bulkhead and reinforcement in every bay down to the size-1 internal — pushes boost past 400 m/s and adds a usable shield buffer, all while keeping the turn rate that lets it dominate a turning fight. The DPS stays solid rather than spectacular; survivability and control are the story.

• Fill all three military slots with Heavy-Duty reinforcement — it's the cheapest, biggest survivability gain on the ship.
• Fly it as an agile brawler: turn inside the enemy, hold guns on, and let the hull soak what gets through.
• It's a hull-tank, not a shield-tank — modest shields are fine; the armour and reinforcement carry it.
• Keep one configured for AX; the Chieftain is among the best value anti-Thargoid mediums in the game.