[Dragonlord]

Wow, I am away for two days and see a whole bunch of replies. Phoenix, thanks fro backing up my claim there :-)
Alrighty, you all have presented some arguments as to why PPB is NOT the best weapon in the game. Let's see:

* Range - not as relevant as you would think. Sure some other weapons have better range, and they'll get in the first shot. Then they just sit there for a turn or two to reload while the PPB ship closes in and kills them. Plus your initial shot probably misses because of the accuracy penalty of long range weapons.
Fact remains that nothing beats the PPB as a direct fire weapons measured in damage/kiloton/turn. (see table that was reposted). Plus they are cheap to research.
Plus remember that I am talking about Strategic combat, so no dancing in and out of range manually. And if your opponent has such a tech advantage that his *combat* speed is so much bigger than yours that he can shoot, move away, and be far enough for you not to be able to move within your PPB weapons range.... then you're toast anyway.


* Phased shields? By the time I think an opponent might have them I just add some shield depleters to the mix. I'm not even going to bother with phased shields anymore. I can use all that research more wisely elsewhere. Note that the ONLY shield that gives you more protection/kiloton than a regular shield V is the phased shield V, which takes *ages* to research. I'd rather stick to a mix of normal shields and armor.

* Engine killers? Tried em. Don't like em. The only way I can see that strategy working is if you send some 15 LC's equipped only with engine killers against a larger enemy fleet. You have to have enough ships to disable ALL engines on on all their combat ships, then have enough left to move out of their attack range, then go after the support ships. And then 3-4 turns later their repair ships (in fleet) have patched things up and the enemy fleet is moving again. I'd rather spend resources on more attack ships than on wave after wave of engine killers which just slow down the enemy a few turns.

*WMG: see above. Not as good as PPB. Longer range (so what?) long reload time, expensive to research, and less damage per kiloton per turn than a PPB.

Geoschmo, I'd love to take you up on that challenge.

OK here is a sample ship design (by heart, don't know if I used all space available in the hull)
Battlecruiser, space 600.
Bridge, 2 LS, 2 CQ
6 JP engines
Solar Sail 3
ECM 3, Sensors 3, Multiplex 4
6 large mounted PPB V
2 PD V
6 Armor III
1 Stealth Armor 3 (for defense bonus)
1 Shield V

Or: a battleship, same as above, heavy mounts, plus 1 Scattering Armor III, and 3 shields V. Using a MC III instead of bridge/LS/CQ.