Supply Sattelite Strategy

[rdouglass]

I don't know if any of you have tried this yet, but here's a little strategy I've been using w/ pretty good luck.

By playing the settings that give the AI better bonuses, I've found I'm engaged in better / bigger / more combats earlier in the game (that is the idea, right?). I also play on low tech settings and large maps (makes those 250+ turn games). Sometimes my fleets travel significant distances and researching Resupply up to Quantum Reactor level can be expensive (in research points). I'd rather put more research into weapons / shields / etc.

So by researching Solar Harnessing (gives collectors), storage (Supply Storage III), and Sats (large), you can make killer "Supply Sat Fleets" that cost you nothing to maintain. Build 20 large sattelites with sat core, 1 Solar Collector III, and 4 Supply Storage III's and park'em in a system (Binary or Trinary systems are a big bonus) near a victim you are going to attack.

Each one of these will have 4000 supply points. This is important 'cause transferring supplies between ships when you fleet 'em seems to go from the largest supply to the smallest based on a percentage of the total system (this could probably be another thread).

Now fleet 'em together and you have a fleet with 80,000 supply points (with zero maintenance!!) parked and waiting to merge with your attack fleet for 1 turn to "gas and go". This seems to be how mine works:

Have a fleet of 8 ships (doesn't really matter too much) that has just finished raiding an AI system and is below 1000 points each ship. My ships usually only have 2500 or 3000 total supply points (engines only - I don't use storage on attack ships 'cause of this strategy). I merge them with my 20 sat fleet and the next turn their all gassed up to about 2250 to 2750. Re-enter the system under assault and hit 'em again!

I'm not really sure what the formula is, but the supplu "Sharing" seems to be much faster if the ship / sat doing the supplying has more storage than the one being supplied. At a rough guess I would suspect it would be a balancing thing that works with the "Average difference of supply" between all ships in fleet (maybe someone knows or can find the formula). All I do know is that if I reverse the numbers of solar collectors and supply storages on the Sat's, it takes a whole lot longer to resupply the fleet. Try it with your own ships / supply tankers. There does seem to be a direct relationship between total supply storage per ship and supply sharing.

Anyway, (I digress to another topic), the results of these sat's is that I can stay pretty deep in enemy territory earlier in the game. The research time for the QReactor vs. the time for Solar Harness, Storage,and Sat's are very different. With this strategy I definitely can put off researching resupply 'till very late in the game if at all. Bigger fllets, just build more sat's - sats have NO MAINTANANCE!!

Try this strategy sometime if you're not already...

[LintMan]

I think that the way resupply works in a fleet is that it adds up all the supply contained by the fleet, and then it divides that by the total supply _capacity_ of the fleet, and every ship gets that percentage of supplies. In other words, if you have 10000 supply currently amongst all your ships, and your fleet has a total capacity of 40000, then each ship will be filled to 1/4 of its capacity.

For example if you have a fleet with 2 ships: one at 0/4000 and the other at 4000/12000. I think it will end up with the ships at 1000/4000 and 3000/4000.

But if you had a fleet with two ships: one at 0/4000 and one at 4000/4000, you'll end up with both ships at 2000/4000.

I haven't directly tested my hypothesis, but that seems to be how it works from what I've seen.

I think the reason you see your fleet resupply more quickly when the sats have larger storage is because they initially have a greater amount of supply to distribute when your fleet pulls up. In other words, if each sat is filled with 4000 supply when your fleet pulls up, it will fill your ships more quickly than if each sat has only 1000 supply. Of course, that's assuming that the sats have time to refill in between fleet arrivals.

But there seems to be an easier way to set up a remote resupply area... Create a space yard ship that moves with your fleet, and have it stop and build a cheapie base wherever you need a resupply area. The base doesn't need to have anything in it but the crew stuff (so maint is dirt cheap), but it will still have endless supplies so when your fleet joins it, it will be completely refueled 100%. And for just a little more cost, you can put some defenses on the refueling base, and it is self-defending. It'll take a few turns to build the base, but the space yard ship can stay behind to build it (and catch up later, or when the fleet comes back to refuel) while your fleet continues its conquest in the next system.