Advice on protecting unarmed ships

[Joe Cool]

What is the best way to protect valuable unarmed ships, like stellar manipulators? I've got warp weapons III, and am thinking that perhaps the best design would be one with, say, 8 point defense cannons, armor, and as amny wormhole III cannons as I have multi-tracking tech. I'm also considering warships with APB VIII's (for range 7) and one or two wormhole III's (also range 7), so they bLast the enemy then teleport him away before he gets in range. Problem is, this could send enemy ships right over into my unarmed stellar manip ship! Is there some way to keep them within the protection of my warships, without having them bLast into battle? I thought about maybe setting them to avoid getting hurt as primary plan, and max range as secondary, but will this work? Also, does putting the wormhole beams on the stellar manip ship mean it is easier to target? What can the enemy do to target my stellar manip ships if I don't put any guns on?
Obviously, I'm just starting the thought process here, so any advice would be much appreciated! I'd hate to lose those valuable ships! Any advice for protection of cheaper ships, like supply/repair/mine sweepers, that I don't want to lose?

Thanks!
Joe

[Me Loonn]

Well you could make manipulator ships in base ship hull n give it plenty repulsor beams.

Of coss it only works on ships smaller than baseship. Witch is all of them

Well, as far as i know anyway.

-edit-
Typos, how unusual for me.

[ July 01, 2003, 07:03: Message edited by: Me Loonn ]

[Slick]

How about using a small fleet with a few of your toughest hombres to escort? Make sure the fleet is fast, with minesweepers and cloak detection. When you see the baddies, you can scram; maybe even give them all an Emergency Propulsion Pod for a quick getaway. If you have to fight it out, maybe you can survive. Since you have invested the $$$ for the SM ship and are paying big bucks for maintenance, I think you should protect your investment. Also, keep the Counter Intelligence up. Nothing is worse than spending the time and resources to build an expensive SM ship only to have it stolen with a Crew Insurrection.

Slick.

[Baron Grazic]

I personally just load them up with Armor, Sheilds and defenses and keep it joined with a large fleet.

[Joe Cool]

I'll definately defend it (and spend heavily on Intel -- thanks, Slick!). What is unclear to me is:

(1) How can I ensure that the enemy won't go past my warships and kill it?

(2) How can I ensure that it will fire it's wormhole weapons should enemies come near?

The tactics has primary orders and secondary orders. It would seem logical to use "don't get hurt" as primary orders (to cause it to move away from enemy fleets) and "max range" as secondary ordrs (to get it to fire on ships that do wind up near it (e.g., those that get beamed away after being pummeled). But, will this work?

By the way, wormhole beams don't require that you be in a heavier ship than your opponent do they? I know repulsor beams do. How about tractor beams?
Thanks!
Joe

[Slick]

(1) How can I ensure that the enemy won't go past my warships and kill it?

This is not a real answer but there have been numerous discussions on setting up proper ship & fleet strategies. Read those, and experiment a little. Use the simulator. I am no expert, but here are a few tips that I would use in creating a SM protection fleet:

- Keep your SM fleet behind your front lines for defensive SM like planet building, etc.

- If the SM ship is offensive (planet destroyer, sun destroyer, etc.) put it in a large fleet. Note that sun destoryers will destroy all planets and ships in the system, even yours, so set up your plans accordingly and remove the ship from the fleet when appropriate.

- I personally like using a Battleship hull for SM ships because I can use all the extra room for weapons or defensive systems. Usually the extra cost for the larger hull and components is small compared to the SM component, so build cost and time is not much longer.

- If you are worried that your SM ship will break for the corner while the escorts will engage the enemy and possibly some enemy ships will get through, you need to do some risk analysis. If you give your SM ship an offensive weapon and set it's strategy properly, it will attack, but probably stay with the rest of your ships. This will allow mutual protection. If all your ships have the same speed, that's good too because you can break formation and they stay together. Alternatevly, you can stay in formation with your SM ship as the leader and use a formation that protects the leader. There is no canned answer here because if I was after your SM ship and faced any of the options above, I would work on a counter tactic. You would then have to change your defense or lose that ship on the next combat. That's what is great about this game.

Slick.