What Are Your Fleet Designs?
 

My apologies ahead of time if I missed this in the FAQ and strategy guides.

I was wondering . . . what are some good fleet designs?

I'm noticing that one of my (many) weaknesses in SEIV is that I don't make effective use of fleets, particularly in the middle-game.

For example, maybe I'll have a fleet of four or five ships and not have enough supply ships. Or maybe I won't have at least one ship with a medical bay in it.

Should I create single purpose ships and fleet them together? Or should ships have a more balanced design?

Do you create single purpose fleets and then have them work together with other single purpose fleets?

So share your coolest, most effective fleet designs!

Re: What Are Your Fleet Designs?
 

I tend to make the following classes of ships:

Attack Ships
Carriers
Fleet Tenders

Attack Ships are my front-line combat ships. They take damage and deal it out. There are invariably subdivisions, usually between direct fire and missile ships, as well as any variations designed to defeat a specific tactic (more shields/armor vs. direct fire, more PDCs vs. missile ships/fighters)

Carriers tend be to dedicated later on, but early on they act as my heavy hitters, as well as fighter-deployers. This also covers any other carriers, be they satellites, drones, mines, or troops.

Fleet Tenders repair and resupply the rest of the fleet. They also tend to include the eyes and ears for the fleets (you only need a few sensors to see, after all), as well as any other miscellaneous jobs the fleet might have to do, including medical detail. The basic design is simple: a repair bay + as many solar collectors as you can manage.

The way to win wars is through combined arms. Specialize your ships and put them in fleets with ships that complement their strengths. The surest way to lose a war is to make ships that are jacks of all trades and masters of none. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[ May 08, 2003, 00:58: Message edited by: Hotfoot ]

Re: What Are Your Fleet Designs?
 

mine sweepers ( carriers with fighters and sweepers if they can sweep 36 mines then 5 of them ) with fighters that move the same speed as the ships

5 space yard ships which also have scanners on them and solar collectors and cargo

5 Repair ships with cargo and solar collectors

85 direct fire ships

All the same size and speed.

Variation would be the 5 space yards replaced with troop transports... Yep you guessed it Carriers with cargo....

[ May 08, 2003, 00:58: Message edited by: tesco samoa ]

Re: What Are Your Fleet Designs?
 

Early Game:

As many as attack ships you can find
3 Ships filled with supply bays/Solar Panels

Mid-Game:

5 Minesweepers
10-15 Attack Ships
1 Light Carrier with Guns
2 Supply/Repair ships

Late Game:

3 Minesweepers
10-12 Attack Ships
1 Light Carrier fully devoted to Fighters
1 Repair Ship
3 Specialty Ships *Ship Capture to Sensors*

Edit: May I remind you that you should have at least 30 of these Groups if you wish to make a viable late game navy http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ May 08, 2003, 03:01: Message edited by: TerranC ]

Re: What Are Your Fleet Designs?
 

as you can see my fleets like to meet up with terran c's fleets...

Re: What Are Your Fleet Designs?
 

Whatever I can sling together, usually http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif .

Re: What Are Your Fleet Designs?
 

My Fleet strategy is usuallty set to either 'Break Formation', 'Capture Ship' or 'Capture Planet' depending on what task they are performing.

The ships usually consist of 50% Direct fire ships, 25% Missile Ships, 10% Point-Defense ships and the Last 15% support ships, including Sweepers, SY/Repair Ships, Transports, Boarders & Carriers.

Re: What Are Your Fleet Designs?
 

lol What Slynky said http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Usually when I make a fleet its because I'm in trouble and need to defend a warp point or something... so I pull whatever ships I have nearby and make a fleet lol

One thing I do is have a DN set up as either Heavy combat or Missle Boat and then put a spaceyard on it. Solves the problem of having repair ships in your fleet....

Re: What Are Your Fleet Designs?
 

Er, a space yard is a tad costly and large if you only use the repair capability . . . mightn't you want to use repair bays? (Which are stackable, too)

Re: What Are Your Fleet Designs?
 

I'd back a Dreadnaught that uses the extra 400 tonnes for weapons over your DN with a SY.
I perfer a single ship with both a SY & multiple Repairs bays.

Re: What Are Your Fleet Designs?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">If you only use the repair capability, yeah...but Space Yards can also Analyze captured ships, and they can retrofit other ships, including themself...which means you could actually update your fleet with new technology you just discovered, without having to retreat back to a Planetary Space Yard http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif
Example:
Your fleet is packed with 'Wave-Motion Gun I' weaponry, and you capture a ship with Wave-Motion II technology. You could Analyze it, update your Wave-Motion I weapons, and repair the updated components - all from the Ship's Space Yard http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

Re: What Are Your Fleet Designs?
 

I always try to have 1 or 2 'Point-Defence Ships' in my fleet, which are just ships with a Shield or two, and as many point-defence cannons as I can muster. Invaluable when fighting Empires that use Missiles &/or Fighters up the wazoo http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: What Are Your Fleet Designs?
 

Posted by Gryphin:
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Depends on how you set your strategies. In a tough battle, I often have a large number of partially damaged ships. If your fleet is "chasing" the enemy fleet, this can easily happen as your damaged ships will be left behind and unmolested on the battle field.

ALL ships are worth repairing, after all, its free!

I must be missing something: I never take a SY ship with my fleets, just repair bay ships. I understand the arguments but they seem to apply so rarely to my style of play.

My fleet profile

1. Enough sweepers for 100 mines
2. One repair bay for every 5 heavy ships or 10 light ships.
3. One PD ship for every 5 to 10 attack ships.
4. One boarding ships for every 4 attack ships.

I go along with everyones thoughts on sensors and supply. Put them on the non-combatants. Also, I break my own rules as often as I follow them. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: What Are Your Fleet Designs?
 

My general fleet construction rules are simple, but they've been honed from 30+ games against the AI. I got SE4Gold in the middle of several PBW games and then I could no longer manage my ships so that got annoying real fast.

Anyway, my usual fleet consists of:

Minesweeping for 100 mines
10-15 warships
2-3 repair ships
2-3 supply ships
1-2 troop ships
Maybe a sensor scout

I tend to make my warships 'jack-of-all-trades'. They have some PD, a Quantum Reactor, and a sensor package in addition to loads of weapons and armor. I suppose I might have to change that in a real game but it works fine against the current AI.

Re: What Are Your Fleet Designs?
 

Thanks for all the suggestions, folks! Keep 'em coming.

Does anyone have a particularly creative fleet design? Maybe one that has a specific purpose, or maybe is good for a single use until it's countered by the AI?

Also, it seems that the consesus out there is to have a fleet with a lot of attack ships, some resupply, some repair, some minesweeping ships, and use the non-combat ships for sensors/scanners. So to make these fleets, do you balance your research?

Maybe one of my weaknesses is that I tend to focus on getting a higher tech level in a few technologies instead of getting a lower tech level in multiple technologies.

So I guess my next question is: to create your fleets, what kind of research strategy do you follow?

Re: What Are Your Fleet Designs?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">No, because those are not Space Yards. Space Yards can build replacement troops on the spot if you lose all of your troops. They can EB repair stations to get 100s of repair points after just 1 turn (esp. with a 20% racial construction bonus). They greatly extend the flexibility and lifespan of your fleet.

Also, _every_ ship needs to have either 1 Supply Storage or 1 Quantum Reactor. Not having this is asking for trouble, as 1 Ionic Disperser shot completeley disables your ship (assuming shields are down, ofc). http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif This is especially a problem in the early game, where you shouldn't be using shields because PPBs make them pointless until you get to about Shields 8.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Take your normal fleet, throw in a WP Opener ship and a WP closer ship. Warp deep into enemy space and close the WP behind you so they can't go through. Wreak havoc. As soon as you see enemy ships coming, warp elsewhere in their space. Always try to avoid engaging fleets (esp. large ones), so you can do as much damage to their infrastructure as possible. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

[ May 08, 2003, 19:18: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

Re: What Are Your Fleet Designs?
 

Imperator Fyron:

Did I read that for you non phased shields are too easy to counter so that you wont even use them?

So shielded fighters in a PBW game is a bad idea too, if you opponent is somehow knowledgable of the game?

Re: What Are Your Fleet Designs?
 

Non-phased shields are only good to have 1 on larger ships so that IDs and Boarding Parties won't work immediately on your ships.

I am fairly certain that fighters do not have "shields". Their shield generators simply add to their hit point total. PPBs do not skip their shields, because they essentially don't have a shield layer to skip. This may have changed in the Last patch though, but I am not sure.

[ May 08, 2003, 19:35: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

Re: What Are Your Fleet Designs?
 

"Not having this is asking for trouble, as 1 Ionic Disperser shot completeley disables your ship (assuming shields are down, ofc)."

Actually enough IDs to kill ALL your engines will disable your ship..not one shot. One shot will do it if the ID is large enough (heavy mount or greater) OTOH, a low-tech ID with no mount, say on a Destroyer early game, will do nothing. If it can't kill at least one engine per shot, nothing happens.

Re: What Are Your Fleet Designs?
 

Either way, IDs are still a big threat. And using the first couple levels of IDs is just asking to be killed anyways. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: What Are Your Fleet Designs?
 

Thanks Imperator. You reminded me that shields on fighters are hit points also...

Re: What Are Your Fleet Designs?
 

I typically include one SY ship in my fleets and a couple of dedicated Repair Yard ships, usually with 2 or 3 repair comps. That way I can repair battle (or nasty WP) damage, produce some extra units during a break, or even another ship or two if the layover is going to be extensive....a run in with an AI using an obscene number of Ionic Dispersers tought me that one http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/blush.gif ...

Re: What Are Your Fleet Designs?
 

Couple of points:
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes these are nice to have around:
Don't forget to include a direct fire weapon or they will run for the corners.

Repair Bays:
Most of the comments about using these make it fairly clear they are good for retrofitting but don't include them with the thought of repairing ships as most battles end with very few ships worth repairing.