What's tthe secret to Fighters & Missles?

[Devin D.Bass]

What is the secret to using fighters and missles. I am in a game against a modded race (romulans) and they have so much PD's that a missle could never break through, so I don't waste my time. On the other hand they love launching fighters but I have enough PD that their fighters can't break through. Stalemate!
Are fighters and missles any good? If so how do you use them effectively? I am currently playing an SEIV 1.49 TDM game.

[Growltigga]

YOu have raised some good points. I think the secret is like any other weapon tactic in SEIV, use them until your enemy has an effective counter and then retrofit to something else

IMO, missiles and fighters are useful only early on in the game - sometimes working them in combination can be effective where you use missiles to attempt to swamp point defence batteries and then fighters for the kill, but generally when you get to this stage, I find the best tactic is to build some beam heavy close assault ships, stick a couple of escort cruisers with them to keep off the fighters and missiles, get to point blank range and them use PPB's/APB's on large mounts to disembowel your missile/fighter loving enemy

All that being said, everything has its place and a combined arms fleet of assualt, escort, missile and fighter armed vessels is currently working well in my current game

[Gryphin]

In short:
Paper Rock Scissors
When the enemy changes one of the above, you need to change one of yours. That means researching it ahead of time.
However it is a bad strategy to allow the enemy to ever have the initiative. When ever possible you should be evolving a new weapon / defence befor the threat does.

[LGM]

Missles never miss. They either run out of range, their target gets destroyed, or they get shot down. If you cannot hit your opponent, missles are a counter to high defense.

Here are some tricks to missles: Use maximum range and let your enemy chase you. This works well if they cannot handle all the missles you throw at them. Another thing to try is close to point blank range so that you next volley appears with the incoming of the prior volley. This works better with Crystalline or Organic seekers which reload in 2 turns instead of 3.

Fighters perform much better with shields. Also, try matching their speed to your fleet so they do not outrun your warships. Otherwise your enemy will pick them off with beam weapons while waiting for the big targets. If they arrive with the warships, they will either be ignored and hit or targeted first, drawing fire.

Also, keep in mind that all units are maintenance free. This makes fighters a nice asset to have around. Some weapons cannot target fighters: High Energy Discharge Weapons and Missiles. Fighters do not require a Shipyard to build, so you can build them at those Facility Full planets.

[ 26 March 2002: Message edited by: LGM ]

[LGM]

I forgot to add that Point Defenses are rather expensive in resources and take ship tonnage. If you throw a few fighters/missle heavy fleets at your human opponent, he will have to start increasing his point defenses. Then throw direct fire fleet at him and his point defenses are useless. Make warfare costly for your enemy! (And do not waste your time playing the AI. Humans are more fun and unpredictable).

[geoschmo]

However, point defenses are smaller and cheaper than missles. Which is the main reason it's hard to get enough missles to overwhelm the PDC.

Switching from missles to beams in mid game can devestate your opponent. But if they catch you in the middle of a retrofit cycle, ouch. Timing is everything with that tactic.

IMHO the best use for missles and fighters late game is for defenses. Put the missles on sats and weapons platforms. Keeps your opponent from getting away with glassing your planets cheaply. He has to dedicate real fleets to it. Which can slow him down and give you time to react, or draw his ships away from where you want to attack him.

But it's always good to keep a few of each with your fleets, just to keep the other guy honest.

Geo

[ 26 March 2002: Message edited by: geoschmo ]