SE4: Point defense ships, like in WW2. Good idea?

[Dethgod74]

Hi folks,

I'm starting to run into races with either fighters (ftrs) or Capital Ship Missiles (CSM) and I'd like to know when playing in a turn base game, are point defense ships, ie ships primarily armed with point defense cannons (PDC) are a good idea. These were used to some good effect in WW2, with the Oakland class CLs and the Atlanta class CLs.
What I need to know is, will the limited AI that you can 'program' your ships with, would the PDC ships stay close enough to the main ships in the fleet to protect them.
With in the basic game, no mods, how much can you really 'program' single ships' AI ?

Thanks in advance!

Regards,

Rob aka dethgod74

[Phoenix-D]

They won't stay close to the main ships. They will either charge in, or run away until seekers are fired, depending on if they have weapons that aren't PD on them or not.

[douglas]

I usually just put a few PDC on my main warships. They're cheap, don't take up much space, and in my experience even dreadnoughts don't need more than 3 or 4 unless you have an enemy with truly huge numbers of missiles to throw at you.

[PvK]

I've had success with PD ships, though I don't always use them. With their huge to-hit bonus is stock, they often don't need Combat Sensors, which saves 400 mins. Sometimes I even make micro-fleets with PD ships keeping formation with non-PD warships, but that's when I'm having too much fun micro-managing (but it does work).

[Suicide Junkie]

Carrier Battles mod provides are pretty good justification for dedicated PD ships.
Rollo's AIs even build them!

[capnq]

I typically put my PD ships in the same hull size as my line ships, replacing all but one or two of the non-PD weapons with PD. Then I can give the PD ships the same strategy as the line ships, which usually keeps them fairly clumped together even after breaking formation.

[Azselendor]

Normally I drop 2-3 per ship on cruisers and up, the only time I've found a use for dedicated point defense ships is if I'm facing off against a lot of fighters or sats orbiting a planet.

[PvK]

I think a micromanager can gain a slight advantage by using dedicated PD ships.

[Fyron]

Dethgod74 said:
With in the basic game, no mods, how much can you really 'program' single ships' AI ?

Mods have no capacity whatsoever to alter the strategy system. They can tweak the default strategy settings, but no more or less than you can do on your own in stock.

[Black_Knyght]

I almost always use PD Ships in a fleet. I usually arm them with a few capital ship class weapons, then stock up on PDC's. They fire and act like any other warship, but also act as a screener against missiles and fighters.