SU: --
RU: 10000
Max Health: 12000
Firepower: --
Coverage: --
Max velocity: --
Build Time: 240

This has to be the most feared of the component class modules. In the right hands, it can be the difference between a win and a loss. To some it has become the one weapon of choice, but against a skilled opponent, a counter can often be managed. The first of these is being the Defense Field Frigate. These are quite effective in reducing the blast damage. If used in numbers (3 or 4) , they can almost reduce the damage to nothing at all. Try hyper-spacing a DFF right under the enemy CS right as he is firing. This requires great timing to be successful (unless they don't notice it at all) but can be SOOO rewarding. The Dread can repulse the blast, but this requires good timing as well. A crystal blast will also repulse the siege shot in an identical manner. If you’re crafty, you can maneuver a crystal between you and your siege’n opponent (rammers, workers) and then send 6 missolytes at it when his shot comes close. If you can manage to leech his command ship, you can place a small wall of leeches between the two ships by setting the wall to GUARD your CS and the spy leech (about 30%-40% effective). Of course the most obvious, hyperspace. If you're really good at pinpoint hyperspacing, hyper a rammer in on their left side, and ram the area directly in front of the siege cannon (this has been known to work now and then).

If you have no RUs and no means of defense...GO VERTICAL, this will challenge the user to aim in 3D with high accuracy. Also, less damage is delivered on the vertical plane so its a good idea to move up or down as soon as you think you may be the target of an incoming siege blast. When trying to avoid an incoming siege shot, it can really be a pain in the ass to cancel your external builds in hopes of a hyperspace getaway. If you are building a cap ship like a carrier or processor here is a little trick you can use that will help you to escape an incoming siege shot. (1) Select your CS and Force Attack (CTRL +SHIFT + LEFTCLICK) the cap ship you are building. Don’t worry, your CS will not do any damage to it. (2) Move your CS Vertical, Down is better. This technique will cause your CS to move up or down without wasting time to re-align. By skipping the re-alignment process, you can escape from the blast without many casualties and very little damage to your CS. Of course if he is extremely close, you will suffer greater losses, BUT most siege rushers don’t want to get close for fear of losing the cannon to frigates or missolyte walls.

A few tips on operating a siege cannon:
Find your target, charge up the protons, then cancel the order before you fire by pressing the 'tilde' key ---> ` <--- that thing. Not only can this psyche out your enemy into wasting RUs on a hyper-jump, it allows you to fire the shot instantly with better accuracy (especially when your victim is moving). There is also a known bug that is rarely used and is NOT accepted by the HW:C community as legit. Its quite simple and takes very little practice to master. First, fire the siege, and as soon as you see the first signs of the 'flare up', hyper jump! If done correctly, you can shoot at almost point blank range and hyper away to safety while avoiding the blast of damage left behind. This is very risky and can backfire very easily. Be sure that you are not moving, and your CS is completely still.

A few tips on canceling the siege shot. (1 ALPHA SLS)
Now why would I want to do that, you may ask. I can think of several but all you need to remember is DFF. Anyway this is also a warning for those firing the siege as well. Even though you might think you’ll never run into the situation, you still should know how a siege shot can be canceled, if for no other reason than that DFF hyperspacing in. Generally the tilde key is more than enough to cancel a shot, however, the closer you are to firing the harder it is to stop in that manner. This can have you cursing as your CS explodes because your cancel command was ignored, or because you were firing and the darn thing stopped for some unknown reason. If you select your command ship and order it to attack ANYTHING, it will cancel the fire order you give/gave it. This helps you in 2 ways. 1) You are being attacked as you try to issue a siege shot, finding you need to select all ships and issue a general attack, but not wanting to stop the shot, you know to deselect the CS by holding down the shift key as you click on it. 2) Allowing you to cancel even a very far advanced powered up siege shot, when a suspected DFF could be hypering in.

One Final point, since the patch a new bug has appeared, in an attempt to prevent hypersieging Barking Dog added a mandatory pause of 10-30 seconds after firing the siege. Now this actually didn't stop hypersieging because there is a bit of lag that is part of the equation when using the bug. What this mandatory pause did was cause you to be unable to hyperspace if you initiate a siege shot and cancel it before firing. This bug can be compounded too, if you initiate and cancel several siege shots you will be unable to hyperspace until you LOSE the siege. It is possible that you can hyper once you fire as many siege shots as you canceled, BUT I wouldn't count on it. You better make doubly sure you can finish that siege shot if you think you may need to hyperspace very quickly.