Combat: Strategic vs. tactical
 

So far in my limited experience I have used strategic combat entirely.

What added advantage would I get from using tactical combat instead or at least in certain situations.

Mostly when I attack I have overwhelming odds so stratgic seems to work fine. I also understand that in PBEM games you can only use strategic combat so I didn't want to become dependent on tactical tricks that wouldn't work in strategic mode...

thoughts??

Ken

Re: Combat: Strategic vs. tactical
 

In Tactical combat (imho), you get a better idea of the opponents weapon loadout choices, engine choices, etc. than you get from just the replay. but that's just my opinion. before they put in the replay, you got practically no info on this topic from strategic combat.

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May your Life prosper and your Dreams be sweet.

Re: Combat: Strategic vs. tactical
 

Replay? Is that the battle summary report you get in the logs? Or is there some way to replay the battle and watch?

ken

Re: Combat: Strategic vs. tactical
 

yea, the battle summary from the logs. us tactical players don't have much use for those, either. (except when we get trounced and don't know why. then they come in handy!)

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May your Life prosper and your Dreams be sweet.

Re: Combat: Strategic vs. tactical
 

When the summary is highlighted there is a combat replay button lit down on the bottom right which allows you to watch a replay that looks like tactical combat but you don't get to see the damage breakdown during the combat (i.e every time you click on a ship you see it will all ocmponents, even if it only has a single engine left)

Re: Combat: Strategic vs. tactical
 

In strategic combat, you can direct your fleet to capture the planet. Your ships will fire on the planet until the weapon platforms are destroyed and then land troops. But... if you have a large fleet, it is not uncommon to utterly destroy the planet by accident in the process. In tactical combat, you can control which weapons on your ships fire and stop firing on the planet precisely when the Last platform is destroyed so that you don't destroy any facilities.

With overwhelming odds, tactical vs. strategic won't make as much of a difference. But if the battle is fairly evenly matched, you will almost always be able to control your ship better than the AI. In particular, I recently founght a battle using fighters that had much different results in strategic vs. tactical. In strategic, my light carrier with 60 fighters was utterly destroyed by six enemy light cruisers equipped with Point Defense Cannons I. In tactical, I destroyed anywhere from half the enemy ship to all of them!

Re: Combat: Strategic vs. tactical
 

I prefer strategic... more because I find tactical to take too long than any other reason... I occasionally play tactical if the "stakes" are mega-high (like my homeworld etc)... but usually do strategic as a way of balancing gameplay with the AI.

Re: Combat: Strategic vs. tactical
 

Very smart Jason2.

Balancing the gameplay...
I've had problems with the AI, you see, I've never lost a game, well, I haven't actually won any, because I never finish them. I start a new game every week. ("Why?" I dunno why?)

I was looking for a compensation to the AI's foolishness. Once I lowered my racialpoints to ZERO, but I still won. But now I know how to make the AI more challenging: STRATEGIC battle.

Aha!

Uhu!

HE HE!

Thanks Jason2.

Re: Combat: Strategic vs. tactical
 

Lucanos,
Have you tried using my Research/ DesignCreation mod? If you havent, I suggest that you give it a try - you will find it helps the AI in combat greatly.
Regards,
God Emperor

Re: Combat: Strategic vs. tactical
 

Another trick in Tactical combat is to approach the enemy, wait till they have fired their missiles and move the targeted ship away at full speed.
They only target one ship at a time so the others can rush in a shoot them up for one or two turns before one more is forced to run away.
If you take the extra movement trait then this helps this tactic.
I have won a lot of battles with only minimal damage to all ships. In Strategic I have lost some of the same battles.

Re: Combat: Strategic vs. tactical
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Aussie Gamer:
I have won a lot of battles with only minimal damage to all ships. In Strategic I have lost some of the same battles.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yeah, the Strategic AI is a total moron. In my current game I recently switched to strategic combat, and have lost or stalemated almost every battle since. About 2/3 of my navy has been destroyed in less than 2 years of fighting. I never realized how much my victories relied on my abilities in tactical combat.

Re: Combat: Strategic vs. tactical
 

Quote:
"Have you tried using my Research/ DesignCreation mod? If you havent, I suggest that you give it a try - you will find it helps the AI in combat greatly.
"Regards,
"God Emperor"

God,
Yes I downloaded it a week ago or so, but I haven't installed it yet.
But I will now, thanks for the tip.

BTW, I tried to play strategically - I thought it would be fun to lose a couple of ships now and then (spares me the time to refit them), but it's like the computer AI is much smarter than my strategic AI. I haven't won ANY battle yet (played more than 10). I have almost no ships left - so I think I'm gonna go tactical again. Or mabbe I should try God's mod and start over (AGAIN).

Re: Combat: Strategic vs. tactical
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Noble713:
Yeah, the Strategic AI is a total moron. ...I never realized how much my victories relied on my abilities in tactical combat.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I always use Tactical Combat, unless I know for a fact that the target can't shoot back. Tactical Combat allows you to utilize your ships much better, especially if you're more mobile and have better weapons than the enemy. I regularly engage forces with more and bigger ships than mine, and win (or at least give them a bloody nose). I can get away with having fewer ships that way.

Re: Combat: Strategic vs. tactical
 

In tactical combat you will almost always be able to get the better of the AI. When you play against a human in tactical combat then your fleet composition becomes as important as tactics. You really need combined arms fleets.
If you just played tactical against the computer you would think it wasn't much but against a human it really shines.

Re: Combat: Strategic vs. tactical
 

I think tactical is usually a cop-out against the AI.

I have found that using Strategic mode I have to pay attention to two main areas: the battle formation and style of attack (optimal range etc.) actually matters, and it helps balance out a human's superiority in design.

I have found that different formations and firing strategies are required against different races. Tactical will always be too easy when it's in a game with the complexity of Space Empires IV. I could always quash MOO2 at will (the name of the game was: plasma cannons) and it was much less complex that SEIV....

Anyhow, just my additional thoughts http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Jason2

Re: Combat: Strategic vs. tactical
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Jason2:
I think tactical is usually a cop-out against the AI.

I have found that using Strategic mode I have to pay attention to two main areas: the battle formation and style of attack (optimal range etc.) actually matters, and it helps balance out a human's superiority in design.

I have found that different formations and firing strategies are required against different races. Tactical will always be too easy when it's in a game with the complexity of Space Empires IV. I could always quash MOO2 at will (the name of the game was: plasma cannons) and it was much less complex that SEIV....

Anyhow, just my additional thoughts http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Jason2<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yeah unfortunately there's no hit and run strategy or at least I haven't found one that works. Which can be quite a problem when you're relying on smaller high speed ships going head to head with the AI's dreadnoughts. I like to use fast ships that can slash in and hit the enemy than dart back out of range. The other thing being is I prefer to use smaller ships, task forces lead by BC's conisisting of LC's and CR's. This can be a bit of problem since late in the game the AI makes nothing but DN's and BB's. But I figure the handicap of taking primarily lighter ships makes up for my use of tactical combat.

Re: Combat: Strategic vs. tactical
 

What it needs is a "Don't get hurt, but still fire back" strategy, so you'll stay away from missiles, but duck in when they're reloading for some quick hits, then run away again.

Re: Combat: Strategic vs. tactical
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by suicide_junkie:
What it needs is a "Don't get hurt, but still fire back" strategy, so you'll stay away from missiles, but duck in when they're reloading for some quick hits, then run away again.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


max-range / dont get hurt will basically do that. use it with missiles, you will pop into range, then go out of range while you reload. make sure your strategy setting allows all ships to break formation, or some things just wont get a chance to shoot.