Editing Particle Beams (section)

==Usage==
Particle Beams are a mid-range anti-ship weapon, and start to suffer when taken outside of that niche. At close ranges, [[Lasers|lasers]], [[Railguns|railguns]] and [[Plasma Carronade|carronades]] will deal much more damage over time, and at long range, lasers and (past a certain point) [[Mesons|mesons]] can handily outrange the particle warship. Within their niche, however, they're second to none, and lack of damage drop-off allows them to deal serious damage in mid-range combat while only receiving minimal damage themselves.

Lances take the one thing they're good at and take it to extreme: against unshielded or poorly shielded targets a single lance volley can cripple or destroy enemy ships with very little problem owing to their supreme armor penetration, but if it doesn't work or the target has strong shielding, the lance warships will be sitting ducks, waiting ages for their weapons to reload for a second salvo. 

Particle Beams are terrible PD weapons: with only one shot, inability to be turreted and long reloads, they're ill-suited for anti-missile fighting.