[Phoenix-D]

To get PPB I, your opponent needed to research Physics twice.

In that time period you could have researched Physics once (for combat sensors), Military Science (for ECM), and had ECM I. Right there he is at a disdvantage- his ships now have a 10% decrease in their accuracy.

You can get DUC V (40 damage up to range 5) for the same price as his PPB V then. (60 at min range, 50 at max) Or gone for APB V. Your DUC ships would have had less overall damage, but DUC is cheaper and therefore faster to build and easier to maintain than PPB.

Or for that matter you could have gone Construction then Fighters for the same cost as PPB, then researched DUC while he was getting PPB. Why? Because now you have the Light Carrier, which is just about as good as the Light Cruiser, and more importantly uses the Heavy Mount. Mounts are the single most important thing in SE4- if you don't use them you WILL loose. And having a heavy mount means your weapons are now 1.5 times more effective- and better than his PPBs.

The only reason PPB can be excessively nasty is if you rely heavily on shields. If you don't its primary advantage goes away.

EDIT: or you could have gone mines. Boom, no more PPB ship, and you have 50,000 research left to boot.

Given the same amount of research for each side and taking the Carrier approach (without any fighters!):

5 DUC carriers killed 13 PPB escorts for a loss of 2 carriers, with two more damaged.

More simulations:
escorts cost 3730/100/900 and take two turns to build.
carriers cost 7900/100/525 and take three turns to build.

In a large scale engagement, that means one side fields twice as many escorts (and those escorts would have taken longer to build).

Simulator tests:
20 escorts / 10 carriers: total loss of escorts, most carriers lost: 1.
20 escorts / 9 carriers: can go either way. Best-case scenerio for the escorts: 15 destroyed. Best case for the carriers: NONE destroyed (this is more common)
20 escorts / 8 carrers: almost always results in total destruction of the escorts.

You have to get down to 6 carriers before the escorts start winning consitantly, and even then they loose around half their number most of the time.

[ April 11, 2004, 00:27: Message edited by: Phoenix-D ]