Re: newby\'s guide to ship and fleet strategy
 

Missiles are good too, since all of them stack into one hit.

5 CSM 1's do 375 damage: you'd need 750KT of crystalline armor III's, plus 400 shield points to defend against that.

And by the time you've got that defensive tech (Dreadnaughts, Crystal 3, shields x), your opponent will have reached bigger missiles http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: newby\'s guide to ship and fleet strategy
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
"comabt turn, my fleet can take 4000kt before EVEN BEING DMANAGED."

Wrong. Your fleet can take *100kt* of damage before being hurt. Then you start loosing armor. Once you've taken 400kt of damage, you start loosing internal components. Your fleet isn't just one big ship!

Phoenix-D<hr></blockquote>


GUTB,

Phoenix-D is right, unless you had your targeting options to have something odd like least damaged. Normally, I target ships with Has Weapons, Nearest (better to hit), Biggest (better to hit), Most Damaged. But you may want to go with Has Weapons, Most Damaged, Nearest, Biggest to make sure you keep working on a ship that has damaged armor so you do not spread the damage around.

With that strategy, a ship will be targetted until it cannot shoot any longer. Focus first on the ships that can harm you. Even if you lose, they have to pay maintenance on the crippled ones and your early hoard is not likeley to have any repair ships near by.

[ 04 March 2002: Message edited by: LGM ]</p>

Re: newby\'s guide to ship and fleet strategy
 

Attacking with Planetary Napalm would be devastating to Phoenix-Ds WP strategy. But the downside is that the Planetary Napalm ships would need some protection againgst ordinary attack ships. I think there isn't any easy way to win.

Good strategy against ships with a lot of shields and armor is small null-space ships with orders to make 10-20% damage. It might not be very effective, but it is very anoying.

In general key to winning is allies. If you don't have them you just got to pull some stunt that no one is expecting.

[ 04 March 2002: Message edited by: Zarix ]</p>

Re: newby\'s guide to ship and fleet strategy
 

"Attacking with Planetary Napalm would be devastating to Phoenix-Ds WP strategy."

Right, but that means your ships are dead meat unless you escort them, and his strategy was worked on massive numbers quickly. Escorts don't fit well into that.

Phoenix-D

Re: newby\'s guide to ship and fleet strategy
 

Good old dependable rock... nothing beats rock.... I am looking forward to battling with Phoenix-d (or allying with) soon.... Zarix you have to remember that Phoenix would most likely add fighters...mines and bases to the defence of the planet......

I like the null ships set at 'until weapons are destroyed'...and you use them with ship capture ships flanked by missle ships or engine targeting ships.....and a couple 1 reload Direct fire ships...

I believe in specialization of ships but the fleets are made up with many ship classes....

If Null ships are giving you problems then attack them with weapons overload or weapons take 6 turns to reload.... and a repulser beam...

Re: newby\'s guide to ship and fleet strategy
 

I don't know much about null-space weapons or long-term strategy as I've never used one http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif but if i may...

Phased polaron beams are pretty much the way to go in early weapons research IMHO, as they can skip shileds and deal a good damage, although you have to get face-to-face to get maximum damage.

Point defense is also something that you should develop early. Or good engines since missles still have ranges.

Torpedo is a heavy weapon that even though short ranged, since they can't be targeted by weapons, ships mostly have to grin and bear it.

Armor is good for early ship defense.
Shields just take to long and by the time you develop PS, others already have better weapons that can pierce right through it.

Engines are a must. Just one PD cannon won't hold up against Planetary defences and missle ships. Unless you plan on building ships solley on Missle defence, you hit, and run, and hit, and run. Good engines will make sure your raider comes out alive.

Missles are only effective early on and in numbers. BIG NUMBERS. Don't expect to live by them for long.

Shiled depleters are useful to boarding ships for independent action or people with creative ideas.

Null space weaponry claim to be a good shot but from what I've seen, they are only good in numbers and escorted. Ships can quickly overwhelm a single NS ship with fast firing weapons such as PPB, APB, and Long range weapons such as WMG and CSM.

Combat support should be also researched but don't make it your priority.

For Specific racial techs,

Crystaline and Organic armor can't be beat but if someone had to choose, OGA should be the first choice as it heals wounds, while crystaline gives off 20 or so shileds, they are quickly overcome and destroyed.

Temporal weapons are... creative. Tachyon cannons don't seem to be worth the effort.

Organic weaponry are not much without support.

Crystaline weapons are nice in early stages, but as shileds develop, they are dead in the water.

Psychic weapons are just not worth it. Alligiance subverter is nice but it misses so many times, even with combat scanners and is ineffective against MC's so...

Religious items are worth the effort, besides the size which makes it not worth investing in small ships but for larger ships invaluable.

There goes my rant http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: newby\'s guide to ship and fleet strategy
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Psychic weapons are just not worth it. Alligiance subverter is nice but it misses so many times, even with combat scanners and is ineffective against MC's so...<hr></blockquote>Wha? Don't wave off psychics:

From a Damage Factor List:
TKP does 1.75 damage/KT/turn
It is in the top-5 most powerful (anti-ship) weapons, and at max range, it is tied for most powerful!
And when you research the TKP, you get other items along the way!


Ripper Beam: 2.00
PPB: 2.00 -&gt; 1.67 @ maxrange
APB: 2.10 -&gt; 1.5 @ maxrange
Meson BLaster: 1.75

Re: newby\'s guide to ship and fleet strategy
 

"Phased polaron beams are pretty much the way to go in early weapons research IMHO, as they can skip shileds and deal a good damage, although you have to get face-to-face to get maximum damage."

PPBs are painful. Second only to APBs IMO, and that only because they don't do quite as much damage against phased shields or armor.

"Point defense is also something that you should develop early. Or good engines since missles still have ranges." Can't always rely on the missle dance, especially if you're using, oh, Ripper Beams. Or the enemy has fighters. Yes, PD Is Your Friend..

"Torpedo is a heavy weapon that even though short ranged, since they can't be targeted by weapons, ships mostly have to grin and bear it." Relatively short ranged. Medium, really, and unlike some other weapons don't loose damage with range. Plus they get a to-hit bonus.

"Armor is good for early ship defense.
Shields just take to long and by the time you develop PS, others already have better weapons that can pierce right through it." Armor is also good for defense (+30 defense total, mmmm). I like shields, but they're so !$% expensive to get to decent levels.

"Engines are a must. Just one PD cannon won't hold up against Planetary defences and missle ships. Unless you plan on building ships solley on Missle defence, you hit, and run, and hit, and run. Good engines will make sure your raider comes out alive." Not always. Remember fighters http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif Also in strategic (i.e. most games against humans) it doesn't work so well.

"Missles are only effective early on and in numbers. BIG NUMBERS. Don't expect to live by them for long." Unless the other guy doesn't have PD. Even then, APBs can overwhelm them.

"Shiled depleters are useful to boarding ships for independent action or people with creative ideas." Or for taking out highly shielded ships. Kill the generators and all that nice shielding goes out the window.

"Null space weaponry claim to be a good shot but from what I've seen, they are only good in numbers and escorted. Ships can quickly overwhelm a single NS ship with fast firing weapons such as PPB, APB, and Long range weapons such as WMG and CSM." Right. Null-space is best against single, highly shielded/armored targets.

"Combat support should be also researched but don't make it your priority." Heh. ECM and sensors are your best friend. As I've said elsewhere in this thread, I've had a BC that killed many times it's own weight because the opponent didn't have either.

For Specific racial techs,

"Crystaline and Organic armor can't be beat but if someone had to choose, OGA should be the first choice as it heals wounds, while crystaline gives off 20 or so shileds, they are quickly overcome and destroyed." Hmm. Organic regens 30 per turn, and can replace damaged components. Crystal, 15 points of shields per hit. It's a toss-up really. Organic is better on it's own, Crystal is better behind heavy shields and against fast-firing weapons like the APB.

"Temporal weapons are... creative. Tachyon cannons don't seem to be worth the effort." Haven't used.

"Organic weaponry are not much without support." Organic has the fastest firing seeker. Faster firing means you can overwhelm PD more easily..

"Crystaline weapons are nice in early stages, but as shileds develop, they are dead in the water." Then again, if the target is only protected by armor..of course, the armor-skipping weapons tend to be rather weak.

"Psychic weapons are just not worth it. Alligiance subverter is nice but it misses so many times, even with combat scanners and is ineffective against MC's so..." Heh. I had an ally one game. He had 400 some ships, most of that stolen by subverter. The MC issue is simple enough- computer viruses.

"Religious items are worth the effort, besides the size which makes it not worth investing in small ships but for larger ships invaluable." Haven't used.

Phoenix-D