Berzerk

**Berzerk** is a Colonial capital ship in *Battlestar Galactica Deadlock*.

## Background

The Berzerk class carrier is a fast and effective force multiplier.

The carrier is not designed to survive prolonged engagements by itself. However, when supporting a battlestar or strike group, it can provide powerful complementary firepower and squadron support.

## Weapons layout and performance

The ship has a 20% base damage reduction and 100% base subsystem repair rate. Its firewall regerates at a rate of 100/s.

The Berserk possesses medium gun batteries (5 guns each) located along the broadsides, lacking any munitions capabilities or any forward facing weapons. The Broadside medium guns have a range of 6200m on +4 attack posutre, beating out even the Minotaur and Heracles in range.

The ship possesses an improved hanger subsystem that grants an additional bonus to the squadron evasion stat. This is the best squadron evasion stat the colonials have access to, and is only out-competed by a Cylon squadron launched from a Cerberus that is also being boosted by a Gorgon using the “Machine Learning” ability.

## Strategy

The Berzerk is the consummate 'jack-of-all-trades' craft -- it is adequate in a number of roles, but excels at none. However, due to the fragility of the ship, the Berzerk can also be considered a ‘glass cannon’ as well. Primarily for use in the early game against smaller Cylon strike groups, the Berzerk is generally acts as a support vehicle for Manticores and Adamants. From the rear of a formation, the Berzerk's squadron can defend the scout compliment while adding ballistic fire support for an Adamant compliment, or it can load a Raptor ECM squadron to offset hacking attempts from Wardrivers and Nemesis-class vessels.

However, the introduction of any battlestar into a fleet renders this craft obsolete, as does the firepower of the Minotaur/Heracles gunships, the carrier support of the Atlas, and the munitions options of the Ranger, though its one advantage is cost, it’s a cheap way to throw in extra firepower and squadrons into a battlestar group.

These ships can be extremely potent in numbers, three or more grouped closely together can pour gunfire into a target while distracting it with their squadrons. This tactic can cut through most ships extremely quickly.

In the late game, the Berzerk's strongest options are nearly all defensive; costing only 650 fleet points, it can 'top off' a fleet's units with more versatility than an additional Manticore or Celestra.

Assigning non-fighter squadrons to a Berserk is not a wise decision. Berserks have the best colonial squadron evasion stat and so are the priority for hosting Viper Mark 2 squadrons, as this will maximise the benefit provided by the Berserk. Even in the late game, for fleets low on free fleet points and lacking squadrons or already possessing plenty of munitions, it can be worth swapping a Adamant for a Berserk to obtain a more effective Viper squadron, as the extra evasion will make the squadron a much tougher target, which can be crucial when fighting fleets with superior numbers of squadrons.

As a relatively inexpensive ship it may seem wise to sacrifice a Berserk for a larger, more valuable Battlestar, but doing so will remove any evasion from the Berserk’s squadron (if still alive). As such keeping the Berserk alive in the rear of a formation is wise as it means the evasion bonus will continue to be provided to its squadron, allowing the fighters to continue to harass the enemy.

The Berserks additional firepower can be useful in a gun fight, or for supporting a fighter brawl, but do not let it be destroyed early on, Heavily damaged Berserks should be rotated out of the line, and if possible, repaired by a Celestra.