Strategic Mode Combat - Tricks, Hints, and Advise

[Commander G2]

We need more topics on how to play better than we do discussing bugs and mods, so I am starting one on tricks to use in multiplayer, strategic mode games.

I am currently losing a major war to another player (a good friend at my office) in a PBW game, but in the process we have both learned a lot about how to conduct combat in strategic mode. Here are a few things to consider in your current and future games.

To Hit modifiers are vital for Direct Fire weapons. Important Technologies to have are Advanced Military Science (Fleet/Ship training), Armor 4-6 (Stealth Armor and Scattering Armor), Sensors 1-3 and Combat Support 1-3 (ECMs). Also consider using a smaller hull to get better defense. For example, if you oppponent has a 20% chance to hit you, a smaller sized hull can decrease the chance to 10% or maybe even 1%, depending on how much smaller you go.

Possible Defense Factors: ECM III (60%), Scattering Armor III (15%), Stealth Armor(15%), Fleet Training(20%), Ship Training(20%), Hull Size (negative to +40), Range (10% per square beyond point blank) Racial Modifier(20%), Cultural Modifier(10%, but not working in 1.41).

Possible Attack Factors: Sensors III (60%, I think) , Fleet Training(20%), Ship Training(20%), Racial Attack Modifier, Cultural Modifiers(not working in 1.41). Some weapons also have a ToHit modifier in the Ripper Beam/Wave Motion Gun Tree.

As you can see, there are more ways to get
defense modifers than attack modifers. If you are having trouble hitting, make sure your ships have orders to fire at the 'nearest' ship rather than the biggest or smallest. Consider the following targeting order: Has Weapons, Nearest, Most Damaged, Smallest.

Depending on how the modifiers add up, you may often find that Destroyers are a better hull than Light Cruisers, Battle Cruisers or Battleships. Personally, I do not care much for Cruisers as they require more non functioning iron eating components, giving little advantage of Light Cruisers.

Other hints to consider: Target Seekers before Fighters.

Once you employ a fleet that exploits the To Hit modifiers in your favor, watch out for a Missle Heavy fleet. Missles automatically hit provoding the PDC do not shoot them down. My opponent referenced above has switched to using Battle Cruisers and Battleships with 9 Organic Parasites (Organic Missles with ROF 2) because he could not hit my Destroyers. His missleships do not require fleet training before he sends them off to battle and thus they are very disposable.

Another thing about ships with high defense, is they have no advantage in defending against ramming attacks, at least in the current Version. I would argue ship experience at least should be a factor to avoid a ram attack. Ramming was historically used frequently by the Greek ships around 300BC. In ramming in that era, crew experience was critical in getting the right angle in attack or in avoiding it as the defender.

Another thing I would recommend is training skeleton fleets with a cheap ship and add ships to them once they are fully trained.

Also, remember to give your fleets a better formation than arrow. Arrow is about the worst thing to use in most cases. Try using wall or spider. I usually use wall, unless I am defending a carrier or some other valuable ship, in which case I use Decoy or Spider instead.