size of fleets midgame

[minipol]

I'm in my first simultaneous game agains the AI and i like it more than turnbased. Especially the repeat orders is very neat for satellite and mine placement.
Anyway, i blocked an AI (forgot the name, they are orange beings) in a corner of the galaxy. They only have 3 systems. I invaded with a fleet of 29 ships but it had some support ships like AA, supply, minesweepers, repair ship, troop transport.
My fleet was destroyed by what i thought was a harmless planet to start my attack with. It only had about 140m inhabitants so i thought it was going to be a piece of cake

Of course, it might have something to do with the orders i gave: capture planet.
I have 2 assault troop transports ( normal transports with shields, armor and a beam weapon )
in the fleet that where supposed to drop their troops.

Now for the questions:

1. Is there a way to replay the combat in simultaneous?

2. What's a decent size of a fleet for midgame attacks? My fleet included about 4 missile ships
( missile IV ) and 12 beam ships (APB VI mostly).
As it seems, this was not enough.

3. What's the best way to test if a fleet is going to do the correct thing? I now use the combat simulator to achieve this.

[Karibu]

Next turn you receive a log what happened during turn execution. It includes all the battles you participated.

The best fleet size is as big as you can get. What matters is: the level of your ship and fleet training, the strategy of the fleet (point blank or maximum weapons range), the defence of your ships (shields, armor and ECM), racial attributes you have chosen (high/low attack/defence).

The best way to test is to save&load tactics, but if you don't want to use it, combat simulator is the only chance.

Also, many players use homogenous fleets (ie. all attack ships in the fleets are same type, which work usually best in the simultaneous game).

For example: make 20 dreadnoughts and put 15 missiles on each of them. Strategy is maximum weapons range -> Propably enemy does not have enough point defence to block all 300 missiles coming in.

or

put all of your ships full of shield depleter guns and ripper beams and heavy defence (lots of shields and armor) and fleet strategy to point blank -> all your ships drive next to the enemy, first they fire their shields down and then they rip the apart with those powerful, though short ranged beam weapons.

[Slick]

Originally posted by minipol:

Now for the questions:

1. Is there a way to replay the combat in simultaneous?

2. What's a decent size of a fleet for midgame attacks? My fleet included about 4 missile ships
( missile IV ) and 12 beam ships (APB VI mostly).
As it seems, this was not enough.

3. What's the best way to test if a fleet is going to do the correct thing? I now use the combat simulator to achieve this.

1. Click on the Log (F10), select the battle, then on the right hand side of the log a button will light up for combat replay. There are some problems with this as it shows positions and firings and movement. It does NOT show updates when components are damaged.

2. Size is determined by mission. Ship & fleet configuration are arguably more important than fleet size. A finely tuned small fleet can take out a much larger fleet - I have seen it happen many times. Although, any fleet can be overcome by sheer numbers. Build your fleets to suit your intended targets. If you want to capture planets, I suggest not using missile ships since they will most likely glass the planet due to the way they work. Use 20-50 beam ships with 10 or so various support (supply, repair, minesweeping, etc.) and 1 heavily shielded/armored troop transport. It need not have weapons because when you use the fleet strategy of capture planet (and the troop transport has a strategy of capture planet), the troop transport will hang back while your fleet will moves in to destroy defenses. Once defenses are cleared, the fleet will stop attacking and the TT will move in to drop troops. If you are attacking a homeworld or heavily defended planets, you will need a beefier fleet. If you are attacking smaller or lightly defended planets, you can get away with less. For your capture planet fleet, use "attack" instead of "move" orders in simultaneous games when directing the fleet to the planet(s).

3. Yea, the simulator is ok, but it doesn't model everything exactly like a battle. i.e. it doesn't use experience, and there are other quirks, like you can only simulate planets/storms/etc from your home system. My opinion is the best way is determined with trial & error unfortunately. Or you can just get your butt whipped by a human and learn that way - I have learned most of my good tactics and strategies by playing humans.

Slick.

[ February 25, 2003, 19:06: Message edited by: Slick ]

[JLS]

Originally posted by minipol:
. What's a decent size of a fleet for midgame attacks? My fleet included about 4 missile ships
( missile IV ) and 12 beam ships (APB VI mostly).
As it seems, this was not enough.

Many Fighter-Bombers with Planetary Cluster Bombs is great for piercing planetary defenses but you may need fighter escort to get past any of there fighters and you will need a comparable fleet to get past any ships or bases they may have... Best to SEND ONE SCOUT IN FIRST and see what the planet has for Weapons Platforms, Troops and Fighters. A good rule of thumb may be to have better then 2 to 1 in regards to troops for Capture planet, that should give you a foothold. Also note: To many Cluster bombers may purge the planet…. Good luck…

[ February 25, 2003, 16:50: Message edited by: JLS ]

[minipol]

thanks for the advice guys. i learnt some good tricks so i'm off to test them.
Geronimo !!!!!!!!!!

[Fyron]

3. What's the best way to test if a fleet is going to do the correct thing? I now use the combat simulator to achieve this.

Create a test game on max tech. Use 2 human players, no AIs. Build everything you need to test.

For example: make 20 dreadnoughts and put 15 missiles on each of them. Strategy is maximum weapons range -> Propably enemy does not have enough point defence to block all 300 missiles coming in.

A few PDCs on each warship and then a decent amount of Aegis ships (with tons of PDCs) will counter that quite easily.

[ February 26, 2003, 00:39: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]