I need advice....

[Cyrien]

Quickie mine defenses don't need mine layers. Just build the mines at the planets that are in danger and then launch them from the planet. Planets can launch any launchable unit from them as long as they have them in the planets storage. Most planets can build anywhere from 4 to 10 mines per turn with each mine easily being able to have 600 pnts of damage and upto 1200. More than enough to deal with most light cruisers on a one on one basis. So every mine in orbit of the planet if the enemy doesn't have mine sweepers is capable of taking out one ship in any attacking fleet. With a few turns of mine laying at threatened planets you can easily have a dozen or two mines in orbit of the planet. This provides considerable threat to the enemy. Even human players tend to back off when they run into mines until they have a fleet that can sweep 100 at a time (the limit of mines per sector). So mines make a very effective quickie defense.

[Starhawk]

Hmmm I didn't know about the minefield thing thanks for telling me, that'll help me a great deal when I get the full Version of the game.

Now since i am asking questions of all you grizzled veterans I was wondering.

I have heard that escorts become useless the second you get destroyers and that frigates become useless when cruisers come about.

The question I have is, just how long is the usable lifespan of escorts frigates and destroyers. And for that matter will you even have light cruisers or cruisers in the end of the game or will they all be useless too?

And is that even true about escorts frigates and destroyers becoming useless that quickly?

Really thinking about it I thought frigates could at least be usefull as "missile boats" during the later stages of the game.

[ December 04, 2003, 02:10: Message edited by: Starhawk ]

[Fyron]

Take a look at weapon mounts. Light Cruisers have weapons that are 33% more powerful right off the bat (assuming you use the mount ). This is what allows them to so easily overpower anything smaller. Battleships have weapon mounts that make their weapons 50% more powerful than those of a Destroyer, or 28% more powerful than those of any Cruiser. This makes bigger ships much more powerful by default. That, and ships do not start getting slower in combat until Dreadnoughts, and just 1 speed slower on the game map with Battleships. Why ever use small ships when much more powerful ones are available?

Also, the Escort is a horrible hull for a warship. 60% of its space is used up just for C&C and engines! Add CS and ECM, that uses up 73% of the space! On a LC, those comps take up only 27.5% of the hull. Bigger ship hulls are in general much more efficient than small hulls (save Cruisers vs. Light Crusier, which is just slightly more efficient; and possibly the Baseship if speed is important, though that is not an issue of effeciency).

[Starhawk]

Well what I meant was the destroyer has that 20% harder to hit thing going for it, as well as it's far cheaper and easier to produce then a cruiser.

I figured in a massed fleet action a good squadron of destroyers could be usefull for torpedo runs while the big ships pour on the heavy guns.

[Wardad]

I do not build Escorts. A transport with weapons is more effective and can be usefull for a long time.

[Fyron]

In massed fleet combats, you are better off doing significantly more damage via mounts rather than having that small ECM bonus of the small ship hulls.

[Starhawk]

Well as to you Wardad I'd prefer an escort or just waiting the two months for frigates, then to arming a transport ship for combat. I prefer loading out my transport ships for maximum cargo storage because of the fact that eventually I'll get troops and want these ships to be able to deploy them.

Frigates don't take that long to research so I usually get them rather quickly but when I am trying to research something else I make due with escorts.

But I have managed to take out frigates with Escorts so it all depends on the way you arm them .

[ December 04, 2003, 05:52: Message edited by: Starhawk ]