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

[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?

[Fyron]

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)

No, because those are not Space Yards. Space Yards can build replacement troops on the spot if you lose all of your troops. They can EB repair stations to get 100s of repair points after just 1 turn (esp. with a 20% racial construction bonus). They greatly extend the flexibility and lifespan of your fleet.

Also, _every_ ship needs to have either 1 Supply Storage or 1 Quantum Reactor. Not having this is asking for trouble, as 1 Ionic Disperser shot completeley disables your ship (assuming shields are down, ofc). This is especially a problem in the early game, where you shouldn't be using shields because PPBs make them pointless until you get to about Shields 8.

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?

Take your normal fleet, throw in a WP Opener ship and a WP closer ship. Warp deep into enemy space and close the WP behind you so they can't go through. Wreak havoc. As soon as you see enemy ships coming, warp elsewhere in their space. Always try to avoid engaging fleets (esp. large ones), so you can do as much damage to their infrastructure as possible.

[ May 08, 2003, 19:18: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[Pocus]

Imperator Fyron:

Did I read that for you non phased shields are too easy to counter so that you wont even use them?

So shielded fighters in a PBW game is a bad idea too, if you opponent is somehow knowledgable of the game?

[Fyron]

Non-phased shields are only good to have 1 on larger ships so that IDs and Boarding Parties won't work immediately on your ships.

I am fairly certain that fighters do not have "shields". Their shield generators simply add to their hit point total. PPBs do not skip their shields, because they essentially don't have a shield layer to skip. This may have changed in the Last patch though, but I am not sure.

[ May 08, 2003, 19:35: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[Phoenix-D]

"Not having this is asking for trouble, as 1 Ionic Disperser shot completeley disables your ship (assuming shields are down, ofc)."

Actually enough IDs to kill ALL your engines will disable your ship..not one shot. One shot will do it if the ID is large enough (heavy mount or greater) OTOH, a low-tech ID with no mount, say on a Destroyer early game, will do nothing. If it can't kill at least one engine per shot, nothing happens.

[Fyron]

Either way, IDs are still a big threat. And using the first couple levels of IDs is just asking to be killed anyways.