So, after pondering some of the discussions in this thread, reading over the wiki again but now armed with considerably more knowledge than I had many moons ago when I first set up a Tier 5 ship (the first Margrave), thanks to more time in game and discussions here and elsewhere, I took a look at the tetryon-and-transphasic set-up on the Margrave-A, and at first decided to try spamming "Sphere of Influence" to accumulate a set of blue-quality Tier XI antiproton beam arrays, to go along with the omnidirectional one I already had, and to look for a photon torpedo or two to go along with the Dyson rep one I'm currently working on.

Then, after the first run, I was reminded that, since it wasn't a feature episode mission any more, I had to wait through the CD before I could run it again. I was, by that time, much too tired to sit around and wait through that many replay cooldowns (not to mention the whole sleep thing). So I started looking at the kit I had scattered around various ships I have in drydock, where I've stashed gear that I didn't want to have eating up bank space, but that I didn't quite yet want to feed into the replicator. I also headed over to our fleet starbase, which we have at Tier III (and are in no immediate danger of leveling to Tier IV in the immediate future -- we're focusing on the dilithium mine first, for the discounts, and I think we're at Tier II with that), and looked over the selection of ship weapons available.

Well, I do have the fleet credits for six beam arrays, but I don't have the dilithium for them right now (if I'd thought to check the fleet vendor before I started my current Tier II Dyson rep projects, the torpedo launcher and the deflector dish, though, I might have... not that it'll take me hugely long to accumulate it again, since the deflector dish already has all the dil it needs, and the torp only needs <900 dil). I also plan to save up enough fleet credits for when we <i>do</i> get the shipyard to Tier IV that I can pick up an Aquarius Destroyer to go along with the Margrave... but, again, that's not likely to be an issue in the immediate future.

Anyway, the Margrave had been feeling a bit lackluster in Dyson battles, and with the new event starting up tomorrow (that promises a boatload of marks and dil, and a purple-quality doff -- I'll take all of those I can get), I wanted to still do something. So, after a bit of thought informed by the results of some searches on the Exchange and looking over the kit stored on my drydock ships, and then sleeping on it, this morning I picked up a half-dozen Tier X blue-quality polaron beam arrays and a pair of Tier XI (IIRC) blue-quality polaron-damage tac consoles to go with them, along with a pair of Tier XI blue-quality photon torps (one fore, one aft) and a purple-quality Tier XI photon torp damage tac console (for shockingly cheap). I also pulled my Tier XI Jem'Hadar set out of drydock storage, for the polaron damage set bonus and because purple is cool (putting the Breen set back on the ship I'd been keeping the Jem'Hadar set on), and took her out for a quick test run in the Sphere.

After a bit of flying around doing some mission from Dyson Joint Command, I came across some NPC ally ships getting stomped on by a Voth Bulwark Battleship. I'd struggled against these beasts before when I encountered them in the adventure zone, having to hit everything just right and be totally on top of CDs and all that.

Well, I'll be the first to admit that my play this morning was far from my best; I kept forgetting about CDs and boff powers, my starboard shield was the one facing the enemy ship more than the other three combined (usually I fly such that no one shield faces the enemy for too long, and also so that I can transition between broadsides to beat down a shield and torps to exploit a downed shield), stuff like that... and I won. I won't say "handily" -- I was slow enough on the draw for survival CDs that I finished the fight with each shield at about 30% and at 60% hull strength -- but if I'd played like that with the prior loadout? I would not have survived.

Also, is it just me, or are there no antiproton weapons on the Exchange, ever, aside from the Voth ones from the lockboxes that go for half a million EC and up? I want Kaluma's Kar'Fi carrier to have an antiproton and chroniton loadout for thematic reasons, and it looks like the only way I'll get such is either through spending a small fortune in EC on the Exchange, rerunning Sphere of Influence, or racking up a whole lot more fleet credits and dilithium than she has now (looks like our starbase is now Tier II, though I'd have to go check it in-game to see if we unlocked the advanced space weapons).

"Mathematics brought rigor to economics. Unfortunately, it also brought mortis."
- Kenneth Boulding