• Barrel Roll is your Friend! Bottlenose, Like other BHG Ships, has a really small Front & Top profile, but a rather wide Side profile. Barrel Rolling and Strafing at the Same time, Specially when the one fighting you is Behind you, is one of the Key Moves to turn into a Nearly-Impossible-to-Hit Target, if the opponent is using Slow Guns (Either Refire-wise, like GB Snipe Guns, or Guns with slow Projectile Speed, like Bomber Weaps). You'll have to go to Options, and set two keys to "Roll Right" and "Roll Left", and then go to Cockpit View (Ctrl + V) and Hit the Roll. You can also switch from Cockpit to Rear or Turret View & Hit the Roll, It'll still work. Also, if you Hold the Roll Key, then open the Chatbox, you can let go of the Roll, close the Chatbox and still keep rolling. It makes controlling your Ship easier during Combat, so you won't have to hold down many keys at once.
  
• Never do Horizontal Turns. It'll just make you a Really Easy Target. Instead, do Vertical Turns (Move the mouse to Top of the Screen instead of Side), It'll take a bit longer to Turn, But it'll grantee that your broad side won't be exposed to your opponent(s). And also if you go on EK for turning while you have a Bomber on your ass, tap the Thruster every second or two so you turn in an arch, not straight line. This will prevent you from turning into an easy target.
  
• Bottlenose has Six Guns. And it makes me Facepalm whenever I see a Bottlenose with 2 Empty Slots on rear Because "They are useless anyways" (And believe me, I've seen plenty), And when Using Rear View, You can fire with all 6 Guns. So, Although using Rear View in Fights might be Hard or confusing at first, with a bit of Practice, you'll notice you're doing Twice the Damage compared to those who only use front Guns of a Bottlenose.
  

' Wrote:

• There are a few loadouts that work fine on Bottlenose, But each need their own flight style to be most effective:
  
• Full Basic GB Turrets: Yes, Basic, not BHG. Although they might look crap Stat-wise but the greatest advantage of Basic turret is you can fire em non-stop, because they don't use much energy. So, when using this loadout, You should try to keep the fire on the Target, specially if you're fighting other GBs. Again, "Stat-wise", Pulse and Razor has higher DPS, but thats only If you can chainfire them, which you can't because of your Ship's Energy Limit. (Something that is not considered in the Gun's DPS) So, with full basic you'll actually do More damage than Pulse/Razor if you Keep the fire on target. To do this, the most "amateur" way is to Joust your target, shoot him as you're getting closer, and when you pass, go to Rear View and start backfiring as the other ship is turning. He'll either follow you while you're backfiring, which makes your job easier, or will turn around and stop, so you'll have to turn, joust again, and repeat.
  - Same tactic works with Full BHG Turret as well, but you'll have a disadvantage: You'll run out of energy pretty fast.
  
• 2 Pulse, Rest BHG Turrets: This loadout is more of a Anti-GB variation of Full Turrets, although if you know how to use the Full Turret setup, that'll do much better. It's nearly the same deal with full Basic/BHG loadout, but if you mount the Pulses in Backward hardpoints, you can Backfire 2 Pulse at the shields each joust, which will down the shield Pretty fast. This way, You can pulse the shield and shoot the Hull with 4 BHG Turrets.
  - BHG Turrets use so much energy, so they are not really efficient, but using only 4 of them won't cause a problem, so I personally prefer BHG Turrets to Basics for this loadout.
  
• Pulse and Razor: I would personally go with this loadout, although it's a bit harder to use and needs more practice. With 3 Pulses (1 on Forward, 2 on Backward) and 3 Razors (on the Front hardpoints) You can Instakill any Fighter or and Most Bomber (Except Barghest , Waran, Challenger, and Fafnir - Well, You won't be fighting the last two on a Bottlenose anyways), and be really effective against other GBs and do serious damage to Caps. When Fighting GBs, This loadout works best in Jousting situations. You can Joust them, and when their shield is up, fire All the 4 forward firing Turrets, then Do the backfire trick to hit them with the 2 Backward firing Pulses as well. This way, you can take their shield out pretty fast, and then you can go with Razoring the Hull.
  

• Missile Turrets: Many use Missiles, and mainly use it to deshield the Fighter/Bomber, and Missiles do notable damage to Hull as well. So I've seen many Bottlenoses with 2 Missiles on Backward firing slots, but to be honest, I see it as waste of Weap Slot! Because Missiles are least effective against other GBs, and if you run into another GB while you have 2 of your hardpoints occupied with Missiles, you're simply fighting with 2 less guns. Also, because of their No-So-Good Tracking, if you or your Target are lagging, there is not a really big chance of the Missile hitting them.
  

So, The Main Point which will save your Ass one day: Bottlenose has Six Turrets, Not Four!
Other than that; Bottlenose is pretty Small and Agile, but lacks Armor... It has 55k Base Hull, and 230 Cargo Space. Meaning You can't mount any Armor larger than Cap4 On it which will give it a Maximum of 165k Hull. It still survives really long even with this amount of Armor, and when you get used to its handling, and find your favorite setup, It will do really good.

• Get them from Above. I've seen many Z-Turreted KusExps who sit in one spot and chainfire in turret view. Many make the wrong move of doing circles around them and trying to do more damage than they do. This is pretty stupid, because if you do that, You'll be just doing what they want... Ever Noticed KusExp can fire only Three Turrets at a Ship sitting right above it? 3 Turrets, Even Zoner Turrets, can't really scratch a Gunboat Shield, and a Bottlenose is Agile enough to stay on top of a KusExp if the dude sits too much.
  
• Pick your Tactic according to your Loadout. Turret-Boats & Snipe-Boats require 2 Different type of flying to be most effective. If you're using Snipe loadout, You'll have to either Stay at Range and try to get clear Shots (Which is not really easy against smaller Gunboats, specially if the pilot is not a total lolwut) or make them Joust you, do One-Pass-Damages, and get out of their Range until Energy comes back. But when using Turret loadout, You'll have to keep fire on Target, so your best bet would be making them Chase you. KusExp might have a 600k Core, but Zoner Turrets eat up so much Energy. So, Unlike a Basic-Bottle which can Fire nonstop, a ZT KusExp will run out of Energy after 20secs of constant Fire and will be able to keep fire with only 3 of it's gun after that. So, if you make the KusExp Chase you, while backfiring with Basics & Doing the Roll-Strafe trick, You'll be the one with superior firepower after the first 20 seconds.
  
• Also keep One thing in mind: No matter what loadout you have, -Never- Chase a Backfiring Gunboat in a Bottlenose.