Goals

Create a ship to:

1. Use with Internal Impact pulse lasers. These shift the damage from 100% thermal to 50% thermal and kinetic. This shift equalizes the damage to shields and hull, meaning the ship can damage both with a single weapon. However, they have a 3% jitter, drastically reducing accuracy.
2. See whether a shieldless build is viable. You can direct the unused power for systems towards weapons and engines.
3. Try something a bit crazy. Suboptimal builds can be fun due to the increased challenge.

Build

Links: EDSY and Coriolis (have your preferred one open as you read the guide for easy reference)

Pilots love the Federal Assault Ship for two reasons. The first is its manoeuvrability which recaptures the joy of flight for many pilots used to flying larger, less agile ships. The second reason is ramming things. The Federal Assault Ship’s mass and manoeuvrability give it a lot of momentum. Both are useful here.

Another alternative for these goals is the Alliance Chieftain. It even has slightly higher Armour Hardness and is more agile. The Federal Assault Ship is marginally faster and has more Armour. More consequentially, the Alliance Chieftain substitutes one of the medium hardpoints for three smaller ones. Smaller weapons have lower Armour Piercing values, meaning lower overall damage to the intended targets. The Chieftain’s engines are also exposed, making them prone to damage-induced malfunction.

Offence:

1. Sturdy Inertial Impact: At first glance, Short Range would be an ideal blueprint for the lasers. However, the hardpoints will be damaged quickly without shields. Instead, the Sturdy blueprint increases integrity. It also increases Armour Penetration, making this build more effective against its intended, highly armoured targets.
2. Weapon Focused Power Distributor: This build requires firing at enemies for as long as possible. The Weapon Focused blueprint means you can keep firing for 26 seconds with four pips in weapons.
3. Long Range Sensors: Using Long Range on A-rated sensors helps find ideal targets in expansive resource extraction sites, conflict zones and navigation beacons.

Defence:

1. Shieldless is impractical: Despite my efforts, any build that lacked a shield was worse than a minimally shielded one. Even a thin shield significantly increased combat longevity. It also makes landing with low hull integrity less stressful.
2. Shields: For this build’s frail shields, a Shield Generator’s regeneration (0% to 50%) time is more important than recharge (50% to 100%). Regular Shield Generators are ideal because bi-weaves’ faster recharge is not significant. Prismatic shields have a longer regeneration time. The Thermal Resistant blueprint also helps mitigate shields’ innate weakness to thermal weapons.
3. Shielded blueprint: Given this build’s lack of power-guzzling shield boosters and most modules and hardpoints need additional integrity, this build uses the Shielded blueprint frequently.
4. Strong armour and hull: Reactive Surface Composite bulkheads coupled with Hull Reinforcements, one with Thermal Resistant and the rest with Deep Plating, maximize integrity. The ratio of hull to module protection is a trade-off.
5. Advanced Field Maintenance Unit (AFMU): The AFMU is engineered to grade four to not overload the Power Plant.

Variations

1. Shieldless: Replace the 5A Shield Generator with another 5D Hull Reinforcement Package. The combat longevity shortens without a shield. However, you can place more pips in engines and weapons.
2. ECM: Swap two of the Chaff Launchers for ECMs for missile protection. ECMs require effort to time but can be effective. Remember, ECMs affect all nearby missiles and limpets, including your teammates’ ones. Change the blueprint on the Power Distributor from Weapon Focused to Charge Enhanced to help power the ECMs.

Solo Tactics

1. Point blank range: The Inertial Impact Pulse Laser’s massive jitter makes firing at anything over 500 m less effective. This build’s effectiveness is proportional to your ability to keep close to a target.
2. Ram: Do not be afraid to ram your target, even if your shields are down. All but the most formidable NPC enemies will come off second best.
3. Strobing shields: Your shields will go down and up frequently during the fight. The telltale ping of damage on weak shields and their subsequent falling evokes almost Pavlovian fear in many pilots. Fight that reflex. Your Power Distributor’s systems capacitor has just enough charge to regenerate your shields in thirty seconds with two pips to systems. 
4. Live with damage: Seeing your hull on 50% integrity causes panic in most pilots. However, modules willing, this build is still capable until about 15%. Your hardpoints and canopy are the most likely to be damaged. Use your AMFU between fights to keep them above 80% integrity to prevent malfunctions.
5. Fear missiles: All weapon and utility hardpoints are on the underside of the Federal Assault Ship except one large hardpoint. A ventral missile hit can affect all of them. Point Defense is ineffective due to the Federal Assault Ship’s hardpoints’ restricted fire arcs.
6. Chaff: With 40 chaff refills spread across four launchers, you should chaff whenever the shields are down. Unfortunately, it does not help against missiles.
7. Ideal targets: The ideal targets are large, less agile ships. You can get close and have a big target for the build’s inaccurate weapons, even if they chaff. Try to get above or below them because these are the most prominent profiles. Jitter makes targeting modules pointless. 
8. No ammunition: Ammunition constrains the combat longevity of most builds. Module damage usually curbs this build.
9. Power (pip) management: Put four pips in weapons and two pips in systems. However, the Weapon Focused Power Distributor means you will need to frequently shift pips from weapons into engines, particularly to boost frequently.

Team or Wing Tactics

1. Get someone else to tank: You do not have the shields to tank, particularly against teams or wings. Having someone else draw attention means you can get close to the target and above or below it, maximizing the target’s profile. If you are not taking damage, this build can fight for as long as you can.
2. Getting too close: Getting close to targets when fighting in a wing or team means you often get hit by friendly fire. It is an occupational hazard for this build.