Basic Cyborg Super Melee beta impressions

Menkmack is so slow it has a lot of difficulty escaping the planet's gravity well.

Menkmack vs Dan'nath: The reinforcements used to fly towards the enemy and fire canister mines, but they don't do that anymore.  They are far less suicidal now, which makes it easier to defeat Menkmack (in my previous post, the Earthling Cruiser never had to worry about reinforcements before it killed the Menkmack) but it makes it much harder to play as Menkmack.  Maybe this is ok though, because Jeff is suicidally aggressive (except he cannot take damage) so reinforcements behave differently from him.  But anyway that makes this matchup impossible because the Dan'nath black holes do so much damage, canisters almost never hit, and reinforcements almost never get in range.

Menkmack vs Earthling Cruiser: Somehow I can win.  My reinforcements are again useless and the point defense laser can shoot down my canisters, but the Cruiser does not fire off nukes very well and never tries to dodge cansiters only point defense them.

Menkmack vs Menkmack: Thank you so much for the different colored engine trails so I can see who is the enemy reinforcements.  Again my reinforcements are useless.  But I can still win because I am much better and more frequent at firing canisters.  Even on Crazy Cyborg the enemy does nothing but run away, and since all reinforcements are worthless all I have to do is stern chase the original enemy and fire canisters until it dies.

Menkmack vs Phamysht: Impossible to win.  Charbroiled is hard to dodge and Invitation is impossible to dodge and you have to get pretty close for Cansiter to work so both of those will kill you.  I guess Phamysht counters Menkmack.

Menkmack vs Measured: Impossible to win.  Red tape is just so much better than canister.

Menkmack vs Scryve Battlecruiser: The Menkmack is just too slow to dodge the laser.

Menkmack vs Pinthi: Evenly matched.  The Infection and Canister are both easy to dodge.

Menkmack vs Tywom: Hard to win.  Canister has longer range than Tywom blaster but is much harder to hit with.

Menkmack vs Trandals: Impossible to win.  Canister does so low damage compared to Bola.  If you retrograde just out of range of Bola the AI can get confused and not activate speed burst to close the distance and instead just keep firing Bolas that are too far away to hit, while you can fire Canister, but it is actually really hard to hit Trandals with canister because they are so small and fast.

Menkmack vs Drenkend: Actually possible to win.  Canisters can kill both boarding parties and the Drenkend, so just fire enough canisters and dodge the de-energizers and you can win.  I almost won just 1 more canister and the Drenkend would have died.

Menkmack vs Scout: Scout wins it is much faster and the Scout bolts damage enough.

Menkmack vs Mowling: Easy win.  The canisters can easily outrange the beam carver because the Mowling has to turn around to use the beam carver and you don't.

Phamysht vs Dan'nath: Too easy.  It is surprisingly hard to hit with Charbroiled, but Invitation can kill the Dan'nath so easily.

Phamysht vs Earthling Cruiser: Too easy.  It is surprisingly hard to hit with Charbroiled, but Invitation can kill the Earthling Cruiser so easily.

Phamysht vs Menkmack: Too easy.  The menkmack is so slow that mid or short range Charbroiled can actually hit (Charbroiled may never hit very well at long range even though it can go that far), but two Invitations can kill the Menkmack so easily.

Phamysht vs Phamysht: Balanced except the AI is much better at aiming the Charbroiled, but does not fire it as often as it could so it balances out.

Phamysht vs Measured: easy win because the Invitation is much larger than the Red tape

Phamysht vs Scryve Battlecruiser: Impossible to win, but can do more crew damage to them if you get enough Invitations out.

Phamysht vs Pinthi: Easy to win with Invitation.  I also noticed that the enemy ship can recover their own crew if they fly over the green crew bubbles, that is great!

Phamysht vs Tywom: Tywom always wins.  Tywom just does so much more damage.  But I can get the Tywom to almost die before I do, so crew loss is similar.

Phamysht vs Trandals: Invitation lets you win every time, and the Trandals is so bad at dodging that mid or close range Charbroiled also works, but Invitation is better.

Phamysht vs Drenkend: Charbroiled can hit easily because of how big the Drenkend is, and invitation is good too.  I can do a lot more crew damage to the Drenkend than it can do to me before I die.

Phamysht vs Scout: I have trouble with this, but I think if you do an Invitation then a Charbroiled at range, then the self destruct will not hit you.  The second one cannot be an Invitation because you cannot avoid the self-destruct

Phamysht vs Mowlings: Invitations can kill the Mowlings.  For some reason the Mowlings are much better at using their Beam Carver against Phamysht, so you could actually die to the beam carver if you are not careful.  The Mowlings almost always win if Jeff is summoned.

 Measured vs Dan'nath: balanced, but you can quickly lose if you don't dodge the black holes

Measured vs Earthling Cruiser: as expected the Measured can dodge nukes easily (although you have to pay close attention sometimes or the nuke will hit you) and kill the Cruiser easily with Red Tape

Measured vs Menkmack: the Menkmack never releases canister mines even a long time after calling in reinforcements.  So I always win.  But as I found out in my Menkmack vs Measured, Measured just plain beats Menkmack because Red Tape is so much better than canister mine

Measured vs Phamysht: balanced.  You can dodge the charbroiled sometimes but it is hard so it hits you occasionally, but it does low damage.  The Invitation is really annoying because it is bigger than Red Tape, but Red Tape does more damage.  I win more often than not, but with almost no crew left.

Measured vs Measured: Balanced.  It takes the Basic Cyborg AI a long time to fire off a Red Tape, so you can Red Tape the enemy without getting hit if you are good.

Measured vs Scryve Battlecruiser: Measured can actually win.  I got grazed with a laser once and took a few flak, but the Red Tape hits much more reliably (and maybe at a longer distance?) than flak so I won.

Measured vs Pinthi: Measured wins most often because you can dodge Infection easily while Red Tape, but Infection does do high damage if you don't dodge it

Measured vs Tywom: Hard to win, but if you keep at maximum Red Tape range the Tywom Bolts are much easier to dodge.  If Tywom gets close to you, you are dead.

Measured vs Trandals: balanced if you only use Red Tape, because Trandals is actually pretty good at Bola so Measured wins but loses almost all crew.  However, if you use Demotivator and mine the battlefield with them, then Trandals' flying skills go way down and you can win easily taking only a little bit of damage

Measured vs Drenkend: I won as Measured first try.  Red Tape kills boarding craft easily and the Drenkend turns so slowly you can dodge De-energizers and actually turn faster than the Drenkend can so it cannot turn fast enough to get its forward De-energizer guns to line up on you because you are too far to the side.

Measured vs Scout: balanced.  One Red Tape, then escape.  Then skirt close to the Scout and it will self-destruct.  I died once trying to skirt and I lived once trying to skirt away from the self-destruct.

Measured vs Mowlings: It is possible to win.  I won once.  But Measured is so slow that the Mowlings usually can call Jeff between each firing pass.  So I usually lose.

Battlecruiser vs Dan'nath: laser the Dan'nath to death at long range and you win a lot.  The black holes are too slow and they miss at that range.

Battlecruiser vs Earthling Cruiser: If you are good you can kill the Cruiser with your laser, without taking damage

Battlecruiser vs Menkmack: easy win.  The Menkmack are very passive

Battlecruiser vs Phamysht: One good hit kills the Phamysht, but more often it takes two because the Phamysht is good at dodging.  So you can take no damage if you get off that one good hit quickly, but if not then you take a little damage from Charbroiled and Invitation.

Battlecruiser vs Measured: It is almost impossible to hit the Measured with the laser, but one good flak can kill the Measured, so Battlecruiser counters the Measured.  This is the opposite outcome from when I played Measured vs Battlecruiser and the Measured killed the Battlecruiser with a lot of Red Tape.

Battlecruiser vs Battlecruiser: I won with half crew.  The AI on Basic has a long delay between firing lasers and is not so great at aiming them.  The AI shoots flak just fine though.

Battlecruiser vs Pinthi: You can lose no crew if you hit the Pinthi with 3 lasers. Do not try to use flak instead because Infection does so much damage and Battlecruisers are so large and slow they cannot dodge them.

Battlecruiser vs Tywom: It is hard to hit the Tywom with the laser, but it can be done about half of the time.  Flak is surprisingly powerful, significantly more powerful than even the Tywom bolts.  Keep holding down the flak fire button and the Battlecruiser keeps firing flak non stop and it fills the screen.  Is this new or has flak always been able to fire that much that fast?  Anyway, Battlecruiser always wins, with little damage.

Battlecruiser vs Trandals: Flak is useless somehow.  Does bola really have that much more range than flak?  Anyway, 1-2 hits with laser kills Trandals.  The easiest way to do that is retrograde against the Trandals and try to aim your best, the Trandals will not be moving fast.

Battlecruiser vs Drenkend: Battlecruiser always wins with almost no damage, so long as you kill the boarding craft with your laser or flak.  The flak is much less efficient at killing the boarding craft than the laser, though.

Battlecruiser vs Scout: You can take some damage from the Scout Shot if you get too close, but one huge advantage in this matchup is flak can kill the Scout before it can self-destruct.  So Battlecruiser almost always wins, only loses if flak is unlucky.

Battlecruiser vs Mowlings: Battlecruiser wins because it has more crew, but Mowlings can do equal crew damage with either beam carver or Jeff.

Pinthi vs Dan'nath: You can almost kill the Dan'nath (so the matchup is balanced).  I do not understand why (it is so hard to hit with Infection but I still can).  On paper the Dan'nath seems to have much faster weapons.

Pinthi vs Earthling Cruiser: It all depends on whether you can hit the Cruiser with the Infection, one hit and the Cruiser is dead.  It actually is not that hard because the computer is much worse at dodging the Infection than I am.

Pinthi vs Menkmack: Pinthi is just a bit faster than the Menkmack, so creep up on it and Infection down its tailpipe.  Easy win because again the Menkmack is so passive.

Pinthi vs Phamyshed: Infection is supposed to be high damage but does not seem to damage the Phamyshed much.  Is it that the Phamyshed dodges at the last moment?  Contagion are useless here so just focus on Infection and on scooping up the crew balls that Invitation makes, because Phamyshed regenerates a lot of crew from those balls.

Pinthi vs Measured: The computer is terrible at Red Tape.  It is easy to trigger Red Tape while the Pinthi is still out of range.  So do that until the Measured's battery is out, rush in, Infection, and get out.  Contagion helps a bit to get random hits in, but Contagion are still awfully dumb flying in random directions (unlike boarding parties).  I was able to defeat a Measured with a Pinthi once.

Pinthi vs Battlecruiser: Impossible to win, but if you get off a few lucky Infection you can do equal crew damage.

Pinthi vs Pinthi: Easy win.  Keep being aggressive throwing out a lot of Infection and Contagion and at some point the enemy Pinthi starts running away, then shoot an Infection up its tailpipe.

Pinthi vs Tywom: Easy win.  Be aggressive with Infections and the Tywom gets scared and dodges instead of firing bolts.

Pinthi vs Trandals: High crew loss on both sides.  Trandals dodges a lot very well, but does not completely dodge Infections sometimes and gets a little hurt.

Pinthi vs Drenkend: I got Drenkend to half health.  Infection is so slow, but Drenkend is so big and slow that Infection can actually hit.  Contagion does not seem to be able to hit the Drenkend.  Just keep firing Infection at the Drenkend and at the boarding parties and you'll kill a good deal of crew.

Pinthi vs Scout: Infection is longer range than Scout Shot (at least how the computer shoots the shot), so you can kill the Scout, but it is hard to dodge the self destruct if the Scout decides to do that, because the Pinthi is so slow.

Pinthi vs Mowlings: Deploy 2 Contagion at first because you are so far away.  Then the Mowlings will do one of three things:

1. Charge at you seeking to beam carver the Pinthi.  If this happens, just fire a lot of Infection and you should win.

2. Run away and call Jeff.  If this happens hope that you are already close to the Pinthi so Jeff does not want to fire his weapons in the Mowlings' vicinity.  I think that happened once.  Either that or Jeff just flew around randomly and left.  I don't know why.

3. Run away and not call Jeff, maybe because it can't decide if it was going to use that battery to call Jeff to instead use beam carver.

Just keep chasing the Mowlings and after a very long time you will catch up to it and can Infection down its tailpipe.

 Tywom vs Dan'nath: Surprisingly easy to win.  Tywom is so fast and maneuverable that it can dodge black holes.  Be economical with your Bolts because it is surprisingly hard to hit the Dan'nath and your energy recharges slowly.

Tywom vs Earthling Cruiser: Easy win.  Tywom is so fast and maneuverable that it can dodge nukes.  2-3 Bolts kill the Cruiser

Tywom vs Menkmack: Always win.  Menkmack never fires canisters.

Tywom vs Phamyshed: Easy win but you will take some damage from Invitation.  Charbroiled is surprisingly easy to dodge.  A few bolts kill the Phamyshed.  The Phamyshed never tries to dodge the bolts really, unlike the Dan'nath.

Tywom vs Measured: High crew loss on both sides, but Tywom wins.  Once you get used to the Measured flipping directions instantly you can hit the Measured much more often with bolts (spraying does not work because Measured will just reverse direction).

Tywom vs Battlecruiser: You can do a lot of damage against the Battlecruiser.  You can fire bolts and dodge the lasers easily by circling the Battlecruiser up close, but then flak kills you.

Tywom vs Pinthi: You can win taking no damage.  Especially if the Pinthi is orbiting the planet, because then it does not want to turn around to fire Infection and you can get behind it and fire your bolts.  But you can also win taking significant damage because Infection are so large it is hard to dodge them at the short range your bolts need (bolts dissipate at short range).

Tywom vs Tywom: You can win taking no damage if you jiggle your path a bit (the computer takes a long time to line up shots, so if you dodge it will miss).

Tywom vs Trandals: You can get lucky and kill the Trandals taking no damage, but you have to be really good at dodging and not flying at the Trandals head-on because then they will fire a bola.  You have to keep flying perpendicular to the Trandals' movement and just keep firing bolts occasionally at long range and the bolts will occasionally hit.

Tywom vs Drenkend: I won on my first try.  Be sure to fire bolts and not miss.  If most of your bolts hit (and they can because the Drenkend is so large), they do a lot of damage.  The Tywom is so fast it can dodge the boarding parties.

Tywom vs Scout: Easy win so long as enough Tywom bolts hit that you kill the Scout in one firing pass.  If you don't, then you have to dodge the self-destruct.

Tywom vs Mowlings: The top speed of the Tywom is double that of the Mowlings, so Mowlings only have time to call for help once before you obliterate them with your bolts.  Mowlings are small, but they try to fly away instead of dodging your bolts (and they probably can't dodge well anyway because they are so slow compared to Tywom).  Mowlings' beam carver does not do much damage compared to bolts, so I assum that Tywom is supposed to hard counter Mowlings.

Trandals vs Dan'nath: You can dodge the black holes if you try hard.  It is hard to get a bola to hit the Dan'nath, but you can keep dodging until it does hit.  It may be a one-hit kill if done perfectly (the bola does a lot more damage on the big curve than the neck).  If not, 2-hit kill.

Trandals vs Earthling Cruiser: You can easily dodge the nukes.  The Earthling Cruiser is faster than you, so you can't speed boost behind it and bola up its tailpipe, because the Cruiser will quickly go farther away.  You have to speed boost to the left, right, or front of the Cruiser, then fire the bola.  Easy.

Trandals vs Menkmack: Menkmack does not fire nor dodge, so you always win.

Trandals vs Phamyshed: Heavy crew loss on both sides but you can win.  Invitation hurts you a lot because you don't have much crew.  I won first try, but was almost dead.  It all depends on how good you are at not missing with the bola.

Trandals vs Measured: Heavy crew loss on both sides but you can win.  Trandals is fast and Measured is terrible at dodging bolas if you keep speed bursting around to confuse it, but Red Tape can reliably hit pretty fast before you can connect with 2 bolas.

Trandals vs Battlecruiser: Heavy crew loss on both sides but you can win.  3-4 bolas kill the Battlecruiser.  You can dodge the laser no problem, so it all comes down to RNG flak damage and how fast you can bola.

Trandals vs Pinthi: You can win with almost no damage if you don't get too close and dodge the Infection.  But sometimes you will win but with high crew damage.  It's hard to lose.

Trandals vs Tywom: The Trandals turning speed is so slow I am having trouble hitting the Tywom with bolas.  So there is heavy crew loss on both sides.  If I was better I think I could win with almost no damage.

Trandals vs Trandals: Win but with high crew loss.  The computer is just as good as I am.

Trandals vs Drenkend: 2-3 bolas and the Drenkend is dead.  Easy win because it is so large and slow

Trandals vs Scout: You have to hit the Scout with the head not the neck of the bola to kill it in one hit.  You need to kill it with one hit to avoid the self-destruct, or you have to be good at Speed Burst right before self-destruct.

Trandals vs Mowlings: easy win with no damage, because I kept speed bursting around until I was in a good position for bolas.

Drenkend vs Dan'nath: Win but high crew damage.  Constantly release boarding parties slowly, so they don't all die to one black hole.  You may even get a de-energizer bolt or two to hit, but the Drenkend turns so slowly that's hard to do.

Drenkend vs Earthling Cruiser: You can get de-energizer bolts to hit the Cruiser, but they take a long time to line up.  The de-energizer bolts do almost no damage, so it all comes down to how fast you can get your boarding parties to hit the Cruiser.  The fight can be short if you get lucky with a lot of boarding party hits, or the fight can be really long if you are unlucky.  It is surprisingly easy to dodge the nukes.

Drenkend vs Menkmack: Easy win.  2 boarding parties kill the Menkmack.  The Menkmack does nothing but run away and call reinforcements.

Drenkend vs Phamyshed: Win but lose half your crew.  Aggressively release boarding parties.  The Phamyshed is surprisingly bad at dodging the boarding parties.  The Drenkend is too slow to pick up the crew balls from Invitation unless you get lucky.

Drenkend vs Measured: Win with no damage.  The Measured is even worse at dodging boarding parties than the Phamyshed.  The Measured seems to not dodge at all.

Drenkend vs Battlecruiser: You can win if you dodge the lasers (not as hard as you might think).  If you don't dodge the lasers it can kill you in 1-2 hits.  It all depends on how lucky you are with boarding parties.  The Drenkend's energy recharges so slowly that if your first wave of boarding parties does not hit enough then you won't get many more boarding parties for the rest of the match.

Drenkend vs Pinthi: Drenkend wins but at high crew loss.  You cannot fire boarding parties straight at the front of the Pinthi, because Infection can then kill the boarding parties.  You have to release boarding parties and get them to circle around from behind.

Drenkend vs Tywom: Win with little to no damage.   You have to release a lot of boarding parties at long range and hope the Tywom does not shoot them down with its bolts.  The Tywom tends to shoot the boarding parties down more often if the Drenkend is closer to it.

Drenkend vs Trandals: Heavy crew loss on both sides.  It is too hard for me to win because the bolas do so much damage, the Drenkend rotates so slowly, the de-energizer does almost no damage, and the boarding parties can hit pretty often because the Trandals likes to be really close, but bolas often kill boarding parties.

Drenkend vs Drenkend: Easy win.  Launch a lot of boarding parties, dodge the enemy's boarding parties (not as hard as you would think), and hit the enemy with a de-energizer so your boarding parties can rush in and one-shot the enemy.

Drenkend vs Scout: Easy win.  Launch some boarding parties and wait until the Scout gets close to them, then de-energizer.

Drenkend vs Mowlings: Lose about 1/4 of your health if you kill the Mowlings before Jeff, lose about 1/2 of your health if 1 Jeff pass but you still win.  The Mowlings is good at shooting down your boarding parties with its beam carver, so you have to get a bit lucky with the boarding party hits.

The Tywom ship is more like the ships players will make in the editor than it is a Star Control ship.  It has no weaknesses and is a pure dog fighter.  This is one of the big problems with having an editor in Star Control and why it needs to be viewed as two entirely different classes of ships that don't really mix with each other.  You achieve that "Star Control uniqueness" by breaking the rules in both directions with ships that are weak, in some cases almost useless, in one or more ways but then have other abilities that are far too powerful and make up for those deficiencies.  Of course, players making their own ships in the editor will make ships like the Tywom... pure warships that have little or no weakness to exploit.

Scout vs Dan'nath: The Dan'nath has so much health, don't try to Scout Shot it to death.  Self-destruct from the beginning.  Just watch out for directly hitting a black hole because you could die in 2 hits.

Scout vs Earthling Cruiser: You can win so long as you dodge the nukes.

Scout vs Menkmack: Win always no damage.  The Menkmack runs away and calls reinforcements, does not fire canisters.

Scout vs Phamyshed: The Phamyshed weapons are just too much better than your Scout Shot, so self-destruct from the beginning.  It is easy to get the self-destruct to work.

Scout vs Measured: Scout's turn rate is so high that it can keep up with the Measured changing direction.  If you are good at getting Scout Shot to hit, then high crew damage on both sides and you might occasionally win.  But self-destruct is a safer option.

Scout vs Battlecruiser: The battlecruiser has far superior firepower, so self-destruct from the start.  You will destroy 3/4 of the battlecruiser's crew, which is a lot more than the crew and points you lost.

Scout vs Pinthi: You can win using Scout Shot because the Scout is so fast it can dodge Infection pretty well even though it has to get really close to fire Scout Shot.

Scout vs Tywom: High crew damage on both sides if you are good at getting the Scout Shot to hit on the first pass (that's hard).  Self-destruct is a more sure win.

Scout vs Trandals: Bola is far superior to Scout Shot, so self-destruct instead.  Not hard to get self-destruct to hit, because the Trandals AI does not seem to comprehend Speed Bursting away if that happens.

Scout vs Drenkend: Scout Shot is about as good as De-energizer and the energy does not recharge fast enough for you to spare Scout Shot to shoot down boarding parties, so self-destruct is a better option.  You can remove 4/5 of the Drenkend's crew this way, a lot more than you lost.

Scout vs Scout: You can win if you get really lucky shooting a full burst of Scout Shot from long range.  Otherwise self-destruct is a lot easier than Scout Shot.

Scout vs Mowlings: You have a higher top speed than the Mowlings, so close as fast as possible and they will only call for help once or twice.  The Mowlings do try to fire beam carver off at you when you get close, but they almost never actually hit you (what is going on?) so just facehug them and shoot scout shot down their tailpipe.

Mowlings vs Dan'nath: High crew damage on both sides.  You call for help and Jeff has time to appear once, which is not enough to kill the Dan'nath.  Then if you are lucky with beam carver you might win, but almost always you lose.  But it's a good point and crew trade.

Mowlings vs Earthling Cruiser: You have time to call for Jeff twice.  If Jeff appears he can take the Earthling Cruiser down to half health (for some reason Jeff that he can't come back for another firing pass).  The Mowlings seems really bad at dodging nukes somehow.  I always lose.

Mowlings vs Menkmack: Always win.  Menkmack just runs away and calls for reinforcements, never fires a canister mine.  I like how the Mowling's beam carver lengthens like a lightsaber, like the Scryve laser does.

Mowlings vs Phamyshed: I run away until Jeff arrives, then we both team up on the Phamyshed becaues Jeff has trouble killing it on his own.  I can win that way with half crew loss to one Invitation, but if Jeff does not soften up the Phamyshed before I come in I can die, because two Invitations can kill me.

Mowlings vs Measured: Same strategy as Phamyshed because Red Tape is similar to Invitation (undodgeable and does damage).  I can win if Jeff softens up the Measured.  Jeff has trouble killing the Measured on his own.

Mowlings vs Battlecruiser: I can take 1/4 of the Battlecruiser's health by summoning Jeff twice.  Jeff is terrible at staying in weapons range of the Battlecruiser, which is strange because the Battlecruiser has a top speed of 2 and Jeff has more than that.  I hope Jeff is improved so he can fire his weapons and hit the Battlecruiser more often.

Mowlings vs Pinthi: Jeff totally ignored the Pinthi and flew around randomly what is going on?  This is an easy win if you retrograde and fire your beam carver, because you have equal top speeds so the Pinthi cannot catch up and the beam carver has good range to hit the Pinthi far enough away that the Infections don't have time to hit you before the Pinthi is dead.

Mowlings vs Tywom: High crew loss on both sides if you use beam carver.  If Jeff could actually help then you could win.

Mowlings vs Trandals: You can win taking almost no damage if you fire your beam carver at maximum range.  This is just far enough away that bolas are not fired.

Mowlings vs Drenkend: I won taking half damage, which is killing a lot more of his crew than he did of mine.  The beam carver is just so good at hitting the Drenkend and the boarding parties.  Jeff does nothing but fly aimlessly.

Mowlings vs Scout: Call Jeff, get the Scout to slow down by flying towards the Scout, then let Jeff kill the Scout in one pass.  You win taking no damage.

Mowlings vs Mowlings: If your Jeff gets there before the enemy Jeff it can kill the other Mowling in one appearance.  If you save your energy and do not call Jeff, the enemy Mowling will, so get close to the enemy Mowling and fire your beam carver.  You can kill the enemy Mowling with one full energy bar's worth of beam carver and the enemy won't have the energy to fire its own beam carver.  Either way you win taking little to no damage.