[Rasorow]

Hmmmmm.....

Admittedly I only play single player but.....

against SEIV unmodded, I normally use the battlecruiser as my main ship. I have some battleships and Dreads... but this mainly stiffen my battlecruiser fleets. I also use cruisers in a main role in my attack fleets and dont normally have problems. Yes, every once in awhile an exceptionally powerful fleet comes my way.. then I might throw a couple of fleets together, but normally my battlecruisers, configured correctly can take out a dread. Baseships... another story.

Also for my defense fleets... which I always have defense fleets in my populous or strategic sectors are made of Cruisers, Light Cruisers, and Destroyers. A small fleet of them can handle most spies and small incrusions. I only need an attack fleet or primary defense fleet against major invasions.

I wouldnt think this would work in MP (I always play SP) but the SEIV AI chooses configs for its ship so poorly that if you choose a balanced design with proper specialist support (and I rarely use seekers or fighters in fleet combat but will always try to capture, configure AAA ships, have fleet tenders -repair ships, special weapon types, etc) you should not have a problem winning with smaller ships in tatical combat.

Strategic combat is a different shoe because the program does not allow you to issue the correct orders (those I want to issue like - defense screen for this ship, wait for this event then charge, etc)

Just my 2 cents

Rasorow