Re: Beams v Missiles
 

I still think Missles are useful throughout the entire game. The reason is that A combined arms approach allwos you a chance to defeat the talisman or the crystal defence. And if you achieve industral superiority then missles become even more effective. If you saturate a defender with missles then after the point defense has fired the defending ships start using beam weapons to take out missles then your beam ships have a better chance to approach and fire. Combined arms missles drones fighters and plenty of Fleet ships can win against any specialty weapon. But the logistics and micromanaging nightmare is a factor.

Re: Beams v Missiles
 

I do not believe any beam weapons can target missiles other than PDC...

Re: Beams v Missiles
 

Geo you linked to the same thread!! Are you trying to confuse me?!?

Re: Beams v Missiles
 

No I didn't. I linked to the other thread with the same name as this one. That's the point.

Re: Beams v Missiles
 

We could always change the title of this thread to "Beams vs Missiles II" to clear things up...

Re: Beams v Missiles
 

Oog, my brain. I asked the same question 20 days apart... I am getting seriously sleep deprived.

Re: Beams v Missiles
 

i.e. I posted the same category question. I forgot that I had posted it already.

Re: Beams v Missiles
 

If you are playing against the AI, you can use missiles for quite a long time because they don't research PD early in the game.

Human opponents always research PD early in the game so your few early research points are better spent on improving your direct fire weapons. And don't forget that you only get experience from direct fire weapons...

Re: Beams v Missiles
 

I too like to play with combined arms tactics (like Gozra). So although beams are the weapons of choice for main combat, I also find the missiles can be a great help to.
I find it frustrating sometimes to send fighters after a well PDC protected ships only to have their numbers cut down quite a bit before they reach their target. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif(Fighters are an integral part of my combat tactics.) So that's where some missile ships come in. They'll basically launch some missiles at a time to provide cover for fighters, so that my fighters that are equipped with rocket packs and beams can actually get at the target. Most times I get acceptable losses in my fighter squadrons, which shows that missiles shouldn't be dismissed too quickly. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Beams v Missiles
 

One thing not mentioned...

Beam and missile research is parallel with organic races. So, you do not lose any research when researching organic weapons if you want to convert to missiles later.

About the only reason why you'd research missiles, researching conventional missiles seems stupid because it sets you back hundreds of K of research points that are useless later on when they adapt and mount PDC.

And, you can do the nasty tactic if you're really rich of retrofitting all your ships in the middle of the battlefield to missile boats and annihilating your opponet if you notice they don't mount PDC to save space if you're organic (I have yet to pull this off though).

Brian