Riots - How to succesfully use them

[Mánagarmr]

Hi guys!

I've played this game for quite a long time now, and I find myself neglecting these puppies (as I have previous neglected Raid Starships and transports). Can anyone give me a good guide as to how to successfully deploy these? Which situations are they best used, what modules are used for what situations and so on.

I really have no clue as how to use these guys

[soMe_RandoM]

well combined these with cloak-er star ship and they go well. have them on ether longest ranged or highest engine damage and lowest minimal and they go well. have few strong star ships to take out close ships and when they are all dead they cloak again thus the ships leave them alone. if you want distract again then uncloak and let them come to you.

[Frozen Critical]

Riots , as the name suggests , is excellent at shooting down the masses , But horrible When it comes to Anything that is of Core quality or above

The shotguns are Pretty much best if the AI keeps pushing Mass troops down into your wormhole  , Lasers are perfect against small clusters of ships , Machine gun does a good job destroying loners and wiping out Survivors , the Taser can stun whole armies in one shot , which makes it excellent in combination with a shotgun to destroy them and a laser for those who managed to somehow avoid getting hit by the elec blast

the FF addons can protect the Riot and a small group of ships

in short : Defense riots Should have a FF addon , shotgun and taser , Support riots Laser , machine gun and FF , Offense Goes Shotgun , Lasers and machineguns

Try some other combinations and see what matches you , the riots have limitless customization combinations , Just remember that the Laser and Machinegun are the long range shots of the Riot

[orzelek]

Riots even Mk I included with your fleet and armed with lasers give your long range units more time to shoot at anything incoming. Their force-fields can protect units and they are the no-dps reducing type.
With enemy units slowdown you can also do some tricks with Eye units and hordes of AI ships that they spawn.

I didn't try out the higher tiers and tasers yet.

[ShdNx]

In my experience Riot Control Starships are simply excellent in defense, but I haven't been able to use them in offense.
This is simply because they specialize in disabling the enemy engines, or neutralizing them without actually destroying the enemy ships.
That means that I leave them on my home planet (and send them wherever they're needed obviously), and when an enemy wave comes, it won't be long before they are sitting docks waiting to be taken down by the long range missile and sniper turrets.

They are best against neinzul ships (their name begins with Yng), who attack in swarms, but have a constant health degeneration.

I use 2 MK1 variants: 4 machine guns + shield + shotgun and 4 lasers + shield + shotgun, usually building 3 of the former, and one from the latter.

[superking]

just put them near wave receiving wormholes, or to intercept warp counterattacks... any situation where you need to slow down a large number of ships in order to deal with them

[orzelek]

Riots have very decent offensive usage. When you fight against planet with lets say more than 500 hundred ships (example only - actual number varies) they will be concentrated around few points there.

Having riots with your fleet with long range variant - lasers mainly will allow extend the time that shorter ranged units from distant points need to attack you. This gives you more time to prepare and also allows semi-kiting where you can fly away from enemies and whittle them down using longer range ships. I was able t use this tactics on eye spawns... when I triggered ton of them - riots made them slower and it was possible to go around to get the eye first and kill the spawned ships then.

[Winter Born]

The Riot FF can push enemy units around including away from your com station or other valuable structure, if required.
I sometimes fit dual FF and forgo the shottie if I am not going against swarms.

Only the main gun can take engines to zero.

[Lancefighter]

I generally go all forcefields and machineguns, with exceptions for the tazer module. Gives them quite a bit of staying power. Shotgun isnt usually a bad idea in place of t1 shields on the mk3, but the shields have such a high opportunity cost if you dont use them.

[TheDeadlyShoe]

I like to grab the Mk I and Mk IIs, then use them together as a Riot Squad for trouble spots. They're great for shutting down AI waves while turrets and the Mk I Militia chips away at them. 

I rarely use them offensively, though.  Without command stations or fixed defenses, I can just use superior human speed to keep the range open if need be.