Fleets in PBW games
 

I read a post a couple days ago about building specific ships (missile ship only, beam ship only, carrier only, ect.) and then having them placed specifically in their own type of fleet with an appropriate strategy setting. Now my question is If I have two seperate fleets taking off from the same position and has the same speed and I want to attack or pursue another players fleet, how exactly is this handled?

Will I gain the effect of both fleets attacking my enemy's fleet, or will one fleet wait for the next 30 round phase to begin after the first fleet was squashed?

I am assuming that having combined arms style fleets in PBW games just does not work other than having PD support.

Re: Fleets in PBW games
 

I don't think it's a problem as long as the fleets have the same speed. I've done it before without a problem. Of course, this is for combat. Sweeping mines is another question, I think. But, combat occurs, as I understand it, at the end of movement at specific intervals of the "month". So, all the movement into a sector would be completed before combat occurs.

One other problem you might want to consider (that happened to me) is this: When you give orders to attack multiple targets, and during the combat of the first one, a ship gets damaged so that its movement is reduced to 1 (and therefore, the movement of the fleet as well), THAT fleet will not continue with the other fleet (whose movement may still be what it was at the start of the turn). So, it may move on and get slaughtered. (just so you know!)

Re: Fleets in PBW games
 

Tnarg, Slynky is right on.

I do disagree that specialized fleets are necessary. In the scenario you brought up, it will make little difference if the two fleets travel as described or if you place all the ships in one fleet. In either case the fleet orders do not matter, because you should have "all ships break formation" and they will follow their own design orders.

Specialized fleets is a failsafe for sending out too small a fleet. Missile or Carrier fleets must be big enough to overwhelm point defense. In a combined fleet its too easy to not attach enough missile boats or carriers.