Fifth's Muscle Manual
The muscle car is one of the true joys of Darkwind. Neither well armored nor well armed, its primary asset in the wilderness is its speed and maneuverability. Wilderness battles have been won against enormous odds because of one or two well-employed muscle cars.
Muscles are also indispensable for hunting Traders, because only muscle cars can chase down and corral fleeing cargo vehicles.
But muscle cars are terribly vulnerable when exchanging fire with the enemy, due to their light armor and weapon loads, and their high speed can be as much a vulnerability as an asset. The difference between a victorious muscle and a very fast coffin is forethought and planning.
This manual is broken into several sections. First I’ll go over what a muscle car is, and setting up your muscle, and I’ll go over different weapons. Then will be basic strategies and tactics, and I’ll close with the Chassis Appendix, going over the chassis one by one.
Section 1: Setting Up
What Is (And Isn’t) A Muscle?
A muscle is a midsize car that can mount a big engine unexposed. The Windsor and Windsor II are not muscles. No car with an exposed engine should be considered a muscle, as they are too vulnerable to survive in a combat zone. Here’s a (partial) list of muscle chassis:
All of these, other than the Flash, can mount a 4L or larger engine unexposed. The Flash is included because of its sheer speed and ability to accept an engine disproportionately large for its size. I’ll go into each of these chassis in detail in the Chassis Appendix.
Setting Up
Engine In general, you want at least a 4L engine or a 3.2LV8. A full-sized muscle with a 3.2L engine isn’t a muscle at all, it’s a coffin.
Armor Max out your front, put 5 on your top and bottom, and distribute the rest evenly between your sides and rear. Class B - NEVER C. A-class armor is tempting and gives a nice speed boost, but is awfully expensive to keep repaired.
Fuel A 2-unit tank is sufficient for most muscle operations.
Tyres Offroad all the way. Handling is everything to a muscle. The exception to this is if you’re working in rough terrain, then you need Reinforced.
Crew Driver and gunner. Putting in 2 gunners takes up too much valuable space. Your driver should have at least 20 skill, but 40 is really preferred. With more driving skill, you’ll accelerate faster and you’ll be more stable. Your gunner should have at least some Gunnery skill, but muscles are a good way to train gunners.
Weapons Front, front, front. You want your weapons on the FRONT. A side-mount is a tempting prospect, but the recoil will throw you all over the place. Rear mounts sound good on paper, but they’re actually very difficult to use in practice.
Here’s your menu of killware:
Machine Gun - The vanilla option. Don’t knock it, a pair of these on the front of a muscle can really chew through enemy armor over the long run, and they have decent range and accuracy. The downside is, you need a pair to make a decent punch, and your driver will have to man one of them. Your accuracy with that gun will be lower.
Gatling Gun - The Machine Gun on steroids. The downside is, its range is shorter and you NEED two of them to make a decent punch, so your driver better have decent Gunnery skills.
Micromissile Launcher - Like the Machine Gun and Gatling Gun, the MML is small enough to be fitted in pairs, or mixed with a MG or GG. However, I don’t recommend doing so. Having an explosive round is useful in some cases, but there isn’t enough punch to outweigh the low ammunition capacity.
Medium Machine Gun - My favorite muscle weapon. Decent damage, manageable recoil, good ammo supply, and low bulk. You will NOT have enough room for 2 of them, but that’s not a bad thing, you’ll be able to fit several reloads or a One-Shot secondary. Putting in just one gun lets your gunner concentrate on killing properly.
Heavy Machine Gun - One of the heaviest weapons available to muscles, the HMG should be deployed with care. Its recoil is hard enough to seriously affect your handling, and its 40 bulk will limit you to a single reload. On the other hand, its sheer power and ammo capacity can sometimes outweigh its bulk.
Rocket Launcher - The Rocket Launcher is a sledgehammer of muscle weapons. Peeling 3 or 4 off an enemy with a single hit is very tempting, to say the least. But the 10-round clip means you’ll be reloading mid-fight, and you generally will only have room for a single reload. Having only 20 rounds of fire means you have to hit Every. Single. Time.
Heavy Gatling Gun - Rare and powerful, the HGG is better mounted on an SUV than a muscle. Its fierce recoil will throw you all over the place.
Car Rifle - The Sniper’s Best Friend, the Car Rifle is feared for good reason. But in the high-speed muscle fights, you will NOT have enough time to line up a proper shot, and the 15-round magazine means you’ll have less sustained fire. Use a Medium Machine Gun unless you have some very skilled Snipers.
Flamethrower - The Flamethrower is another weapon that looks better on paper than it does in combat. As long as you’re running like you’re on fire, why not set everyone else on fire too? But unless you like being quite literally on fire, avoid the Flamethrower. Its damage is not high enough to justify its short range and small clip size. Also, ANY damage to the FT will set you on fire. Avoid unless you are making a suicide/novelty car.
One-Shots - I’m using this as a catchall for the Mini Rocket, Light Rocket, Medium Rocket, and Heavy Rocket Rockets and their respective Racks and Pods. A One-Shot mounted next to your primary weapon can give a low-armor opponent a serious case of the breaches. Given that you’ll need to use your driver to man it and you only have a single shot with them, you need to time your shots carefully to hit an enemy’s weak side from close range. But a well-placed rocket can shorten a duel by several turns. My personal favorite is a toss-up between a Light Rocket Rack (3 shots, triple the fun!) and a single Heavy Rocket. (Make a Big Bang!) As appealing as One-Shots are, NEVER compromise your primary firepower to fit in a bigger One-Shot. Your main weapon is your cake, your One-Shot is your icing.
Section 2: Let’s Talk Tactics
Strategy and Combat Roles
Muscle tactics fall into four general areas: Kiting, Strafing, Dueling and Chasing. Which one of these you perform depends a great deal on the situation of the rest of your scout, so LISTEN to your squadmates. Clear communication can make the difference between a successful scout and a disaster.
Kiting - Kiting is distracting the AI opponents. Run fast around them, OUTSIDE of their Line of Fire, and see who peels off to chase you. You don’t need to get the whole group’s attention, and every enemy that’s chasing you is one less that’s firing on your buddies. If none of them chase you, you can start Strafing them. If you only pull one enemy, you have a good chance to Duel it into submission, but if you have more than one, keep running until the rest of your squad is done with their portion and ready to peel them off of you.
Strafing - Strafing is, in essence, attacking a group of enemies at high speed. Get your speed up - between 60 and 80 is ideal - and pick your closest target. Take several turns to plan out your approach, and check your target’s weapon arcs carefully. A rear strike is ideal on a Mutant Marauder, but not a good idea against a Poltergeist. NEVER aim straight in at your target, aim slightly to one side. Keep your speed up as you make your attack run, fire a few times, then move on to the next target. You don’t need to kill your target, just sting it. Then you can move onto the next target or break off and set up for another run.
In an all-muscle scout squad, strafing is the best tactical option. Either form a loose column on the squad leader, with every car taking turns on a single target, or every car makes staggered attack runs on different targets.
Dueling - This is the opposite of Strafing. You’re getting in, going in for the kill, doing it for the thrill. As the name suggests, you’re going for a single opponent, and you’re not giving up until they’re dead in the desert.
First, know your opponent. Know exactly what weapons it has, know his firing arcs, and figure out how to get your teeth into him without getting bitten. In almost every duel, you WILL be outgunned, use your maneuverability to stay out of his fire zones. Taking some fire is all right, but spread it out among your sides, but focus your fire on one or two of his facets. Watch your ammunition level, and leave your opponent lamed and burning.
Chasing - During trader hunts, this is where the muscle shows its true strengths. While your heavier allies are hammering the cargo escorts into scrap, your job is simple: keep the cargo from getting away.
Communicate with other chasers, make sure all of the runners are covered and none get to 350 meters.
Runners are fairly dumb AIs, they run away from the closest player. You can use this to your advantage if you can get one muscle in front of the pack, they’ll turn back toward your heavies or scatter into rough terrain. Most runners have heavy rear guns, so don’t get too close. With enough carnage among the escorts, traders will demoralize, but to maximize salvage, it’s a good idea to start shooting at traders when the escort is mostly demoralized. This increases the runners’ stress level and brings them closer to demoralizing. You DON’T want to actually breach them unless you’re in serious danger, but stressing them can shorten the scout by several turns.
Chassis Appendix
Phoenix - The venerable Phoenix is probably your first muscle car, as it’s the most common in Somerset, and even as you move onto better muscles, Phoenixes remain the best option for training drivers. I’ve found them generally forgiving of newbie driving mistakes. Like all muscles, they have a tendency to drift and tend to lose armor to terrain.
Sunrise - The Phoenix’s twin. The Sunrise and Phoenix are identical in the garage, with identical armor, engine, and bulk characteristics. But out in the wild, the Sunrise is quite different from its sibling. The Sunrise tends to handle differently, softer and with a pronounced drift. After turning at high speed, it’s not uncommon to drift on your original course for several turns. The Sunrise demands planning four or five turns ahead. For all its faults, the Sunrise is marginally faster than the Phoenix and tends to lose less armor to terrain.
Vampire - It’s easy to see the rental Desert Striker as representative of the Vampire, even to take it for a spin, but the rental’s Standard Tyres cripple the Striker’s beautiful possiblities. The Vampire drives like a Phoenix on steroids, but the increased responsiveness comes at the cost of 10 bulk. The Desert Striker build is almost overgunned, because with the HMG, you don’t have room for a single reload with a gunner. Switching the HMG for an MMG, you make one of the best combat cars in Evan, because then you can fit in a gunner, a reload and a Light Rocket. This build is one I’ve used to solo-kill Poltergeists and Mutant Bombers, and once scored three kills in a single scout. Never, ever underestimate the Vampire. On the other hand, the Vampire seems to be a bit more fragile than the Phoenix, so use it with care.
Bullet - It’s easy to dismiss the Bullet as a Redneck Racer, since it is a Ford Fusion, the NASCAR car. But I’ve found the Bullet to be a surprisingly flexible hunter on the battlefield. It’s a fair sight faster than either the Phoenix or the Sunrise, and very maneuverable. With a good driver, I feel like my Bullet is reading my mind, like it’ll do precisely what I ask it to, with a minimum of drifting. Low bulk is certainly an issue, but with a Medium Machine Gun and a Mini Rocket Pod or a Light Rocket, the Bullet is a nasty little predator.
Buccaneer - The Bucky is one of the larger muscle cars, but it also has a slightly lower armor value. On the other hand, being able to fit a 5L engine, a MMG, and a gunner in makes it SPEEDY. Or you can fit in a 4L and free up 20 bulk for reloads, One-Shots, or even a secondary Gatling for your driver. I’ve seen a few people mount an Anti-Tank Gun in a Buccaneer, but that takes it out of the Muscle category and places it into a Sedan class, tactically, because there is NO WAY you can maintain speed and control while firing an ATG.
Flash - The Mini Muscle. With a 2L engine, it’s almost as fast as a 4L Phoenix, and it is so light and fast that it’s a joy to drive. The downside is, you have paper armor, not much of it, and you will have 40 bulk with a gunner. That’s enough for a MMG, a reload, and a Light Rocket. I wouldn’t recommend mounting anything heavier than a MMG on this chassis, it’s very susceptible to recoil.
Pike - The Pike is the Sunrise’s bigger, nastier brother. If you think a Sunrise is too bouncy, walk straight past this baby. Fire 1 shot from a MMG and watch this thing bounce for 4 turns. Sitting still and getting shot will leave you bouncing wildly and struggling for traction and any ability of escape. Even under MML or MG fire you may find yourself stuck for 4-5 seconds hoping it doesn't roll. All that said, it drives over the rough stuff real well (with care) and is fast. Takes some time to get used to the handling (ghost)and tends to understeer heaps into a corner (especially if you fill its huge engine bay with motor) and oversteer once it does start to turn. Once you do get used to this though and drive accordingly, shes a dream to drive and low speed maneuverability is amazing. Reasonable armour. - Bastiel
Flail - The Flail has almost sedan-like bulk available and heavy armor. Well, it's more like driving a mini SuV than a musclecar depending on how you arm it, but for a musclecar, boy does it have a lot of armor and almost as much capacity as the Osprey... and thats about it. - FireFly
Osprey - It has decent handling, not the best, but there are worse. The main issue is that if you get locked into a slide, it can take some turns to get back to moving straight. The main strength lies in it's huge capacity, with a crew of 2 and a 3.2lv8, you still have room for 110 bulk worth of weapons, for example, a HCR/HMG combo works suprisingly well, but the real fun with that is that it's the most heavily armed musclecar around, and kicks the living snot out of other muscles, if you can handle the weight... - FireFly