Ship Design for Dummies, weapons, armor, shields, oh my!

[geoschmo]

Ok, adding a little more indecision to the mix. I ran some new tests. This time with LC's and large mount DUC V's. One fleet of all DUC V's and the other of DUC V's and armor. With armor I it was no contest. The All weapon ships had a clear advantage. If I stepped it up to Armor 3 it was not so clear. On balance the all weapon ships still won more battles, but they were dinged up pretty badly and the armored ships won a few.

So this get's me back to the research question. If I compensate for the higher cost in researching Armor 3 I will have to penalize that empire by giving it a lower tech weapon. But as even as it is now that will clearly push the advantage to the all weapon ships.

The more tests I run on the this the more I get to the conculsion that for fleet combat less armor or even no armor and all weapons is the way to go. What am I missing?

Now, clearly in a one on one fight the armor ship would have an advantage since he could survive the first couple shots. Shots which have a good chance of crippeling the all weapon guy by taking out his bridge or engines. But I think this advantage disappears in the mass of a fleet battle.

Help me understand it.

Geoschmo

[ July 25, 2003, 18:11: Message edited by: geoschmo ]