[Taqwus]

Agreed on the Max Range / Don't Get Hurt combo.

On Optimal Firing Range, a BB of mine (speed 6, effective fighting range 8) regularly gets thrashed by planets defended w/ Incinerator Beams (range 4-6, IIRC) because it gets too close and then crisped.

On MR/DGH, so far it behaves roughly as I would in the same situation, well, except for being more fidgety (there are turns in which my ships just *sit there* waiting when I'm controlling them; the computer seems a touch twitchy). Bye-bye planet.

Primarily use is exploiting speed+range combo; right now, OFR too often degenerates into "get into point-blank and let them shoot me even when I'm outnumbered, but faster".

On the value of speed -- for the heck of it, I sent one of my 11/6-speed BB-sized bombers against a small AI planet guarded by 18 DNs, all speed 6/3. I nailed the planet, plus one of the DNs, and escaped with my shields still up. Couldn't do that without the speed advantage, or, for that matter, probably with any of the strategic options. Crazy.

(And yes, I've suggested to Malfador that fleets defending planets should be more reluctant to stray far from them in combat just to avoid this very situation; it shouldn't have happened.)

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-- The thing that goes bump in the night