quote:
Originally posted by cascalonginus:
Size of attacking fleet vs vessel size. In the first case, more ships invariably prevail regardless of tech differences of the smaller opponents.
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Any comments & pointers would be most appreciated.
Not true!
Take this true to life example
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He had
Battle Cruisers (40-50) and Cruisers (10-20) with light Carriers (I think) (5-10). He had no support ships in this fleet.
His ships were a mixed lot. Combined arms theory maybe?
BCs had either APB max tech, PPB max tech, or Null Space level 2 or 3 all with best mount. 1 or 2 max tech not-phased shields. max tech ecm, combat sensors. no armor. I don't really know about exp level but I would guess it was low. Something in my head says so (listen to the voice...) 2nd best engines +1 moves trait bonus. 3 or 4 pd per ship (I wasn't using fighters or missiles so this was a waste against me, though the AI was missile heavy). He used bridge with crew quarters, life support. Had no racial advantages in combat/defense.
EDIT: He also had a few with incinerator 2 or 3 beams.
The CRs were missile ships level 3 or 4 CSM. They also had minesweepers on them. But mostly missiles.
The carriers were nothing but launch bays and cargo space. Took 4 or 5 turns for him to launch all the fighters from em. Launched em in Groups of 10 with a little leftover for a smaller group each turn.
The fighters themselves were small with mini APBs no shielding, 5 or 6 engines second best type.
I don't know what his battle strategy was. But his beam ships seemed to keep at a distance (YAY) his missile ships were way out at extreme range. His carriers launched and ran for the corners and his fighters tried for point blank. All broke formation.
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I had
BattleCruisers (15-25). That is it, not multiple designs. A single ship design that hopefully had everything it needed as long as it remained in a system with a star.
I was using Meson BLasters with the largest mount available max tech. 1 Max tech phased shield. Max PD two per ship. Best engine in the game. 1 max tech shield regenerator. scatter + stealth armor. 1 minesweeper. 3 or 4 max tech solar panels. 1 max tech combat sensor + ecm + Multitrackx4.
My ships and fleet were elite exp with a 5% racial trait defensive bonus and advanced engine for +1 moves. Maybe one or two other things that I don't remember. Oh. Master Computer max tech.
My strategy was: has weapons, nearest, strongest, fastest
break formation
fire until no weapons left
max weapons range
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End result
He loses every single Last ship in a single (maybe two) combat engagements. I lose... half the shields on two of my ships with a little shielding damage on a few others. Not a single shot fired breached my shielding. The Null Space weapons got off a few shots but every Last one of them missed. The fighters were decimated by PD. The missiles were either A> Outrun or B> decimated by PD.
This battle took place not by my wish (I thought I would lose) I knew his fleet was out there but I knew not where. I warped through a warp point to help an AI ally out with my mobile fleet and the enemy was on the other side. Thus both our fleets started in close proximity. He had more ships than his strategy allowed and thus about half of them were scattered all over the combat field in seemingly chaotic array. Both of us were using double wall close formation.
My conclusion from this is. It doesn't matter how many the enemy is if he can't hit you and you can hit him.
Learn well from the mistakes of others grasshopper.
[ 06 May 2002: Message edited by: Cyrien ]
[ 06 May 2002: Message edited by: Cyrien ]
[ 06 May 2002: Message edited by: Cyrien ]