What Are Your Fleet Designs?

[Dingocat85]

Originally posted by Gwaihir:
Er, a space yard is a tad costly and large if you only use the repair capability . . . mightn't you want to use repair bays? (Which are stackable, too)

If you only use the repair capability, yeah...but Space Yards can also Analyze captured ships, and they can retrofit other ships, including themself...which means you could actually update your fleet with new technology you just discovered, without having to retreat back to a Planetary Space Yard
Example:
Your fleet is packed with 'Wave-Motion Gun I' weaponry, and you capture a ship with Wave-Motion II technology. You could Analyze it, update your Wave-Motion I weapons, and repair the updated components - all from the Ship's Space Yard

[Dingocat85]

I always try to have 1 or 2 'Point-Defence Ships' in my fleet, which are just ships with a Shield or two, and as many point-defence cannons as I can muster. Invaluable when fighting Empires that use Missiles &/or Fighters up the wazoo

[Xaren Hypr]

I typically include one SY ship in my fleets and a couple of dedicated Repair Yard ships, usually with 2 or 3 repair comps. That way I can repair battle (or nasty WP) damage, produce some extra units during a break, or even another ship or two if the layover is going to be extensive....a run in with an AI using an obscene number of Ionic Dispersers tought me that one ...

[Gryphin]

Couple of points:

Originally posted by Dingocat85:
I always try to have 1 or 2 'Point-Defence Ships' in my fleet, which are just ships with a Shield or two, and as many point-defence cannons as I can muster. Invaluable when fighting Empires that use Missiles &/or Fighters up the wazoo

Yes these are nice to have around:
Don't forget to include a direct fire weapon or they will run for the corners.

Repair Bays:
Most of the comments about using these make it fairly clear they are good for retrofitting but don't include them with the thought of repairing ships as most battles end with very few ships worth repairing.

[Grandpa Kim]

Posted by Gryphin:

most battles end with very few ships worth repairing.

Depends on how you set your strategies. In a tough battle, I often have a large number of partially damaged ships. If your fleet is "chasing" the enemy fleet, this can easily happen as your damaged ships will be left behind and unmolested on the battle field.

ALL ships are worth repairing, after all, its free!

I must be missing something: I never take a SY ship with my fleets, just repair bay ships. I understand the arguments but they seem to apply so rarely to my style of play.

My fleet profile

1. Enough sweepers for 100 mines
2. One repair bay for every 5 heavy ships or 10 light ships.
3. One PD ship for every 5 to 10 attack ships.
4. One boarding ships for every 4 attack ships.

I go along with everyones thoughts on sensors and supply. Put them on the non-combatants. Also, I break my own rules as often as I follow them.

[Escaflowne]

My general fleet construction rules are simple, but they've been honed from 30+ games against the AI. I got SE4Gold in the middle of several PBW games and then I could no longer manage my ships so that got annoying real fast.

Anyway, my usual fleet consists of:

Minesweeping for 100 mines
10-15 warships
2-3 repair ships
2-3 supply ships
1-2 troop ships
Maybe a sensor scout

I tend to make my warships 'jack-of-all-trades'. They have some PD, a Quantum Reactor, and a sensor package in addition to loads of weapons and armor. I suppose I might have to change that in a real game but it works fine against the current AI.

[NPC]

Thanks for all the suggestions, folks! Keep 'em coming.

Does anyone have a particularly creative fleet design? Maybe one that has a specific purpose, or maybe is good for a single use until it's countered by the AI?

Also, it seems that the consesus out there is to have a fleet with a lot of attack ships, some resupply, some repair, some minesweeping ships, and use the non-combat ships for sensors/scanners. So to make these fleets, do you balance your research?

Maybe one of my weaknesses is that I tend to focus on getting a higher tech level in a few technologies instead of getting a lower tech level in multiple technologies.

So I guess my next question is: to create your fleets, what kind of research strategy do you follow?