Ship weapon loadout

[primitive]

Looks like I have a bit trouble with explaining myself here (surprise, surprise).

I am not a fan of missiles because I like fighters better. Missile ships are indeed both expensive and useless in large battles, but early in the game they will win one-on-one battles with DUC ships. So the thing they can do for you are early claiming of systems and forcing the other guy to use larger fleets (running convoys). If not most of what fighters can do, at least its some

Winning in SEIV is all about economics. While (early) fighters (and even more so, missiles) are weak against a well prepared fleet, the fact that you have them is the key to victory. Get your enemy paranoid and make him waste more resources than you do and you are already halfway there.

The secret to fighters is like that old song “the Gambler” (hope Gryphin or the Tabby don’t see this post or I will never hear the end of it )

You've got to know
When to hold 'em,
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away,
Know when to run.

BTW:
I dished WPs and Sats earlier. Will nobody step up an defend their honor ?

[Growltigger]

Primitive, the "Tabby" has seen your post and yes, it will not be the end of it.

I am more ginger and black, rather than tabby anyhow

I have never played a game against humans, so dont have the depth of knowledge that the rest of you do.

In the early game, I think fighters are devastating if they catch you unawares. But the AI rarely manages that. I am sure a cunning human would be able to do it, but it seems a hell of a waste of resources to build a DF fleet and a fighter fleet to spring a trap on your foe.

Satellites are useful in the early game, and I think useful in the later games, if you have enough of them. The problem comes with their placement as often, they are on the wrong side of the planet from where your enemy is. Large satellites for remote mining are always useful!

I like weapons platforms, I always have some on my planets, with a mix of PDC and Phased Polaron Beams on large mounts. PDC stop errant missiles or fighters from nuking your planet, the PPBs with their enhanced range make incoming ships pay.

In any event, whatever the level of the game, you need to use everything for a tiered defence. A mobile fleet to hit the enemy in space, mines in orbit so the enemy has to use sweepers to get through, sats and WPs and make the bugger pay if nothing else

[ January 23, 2004, 16:11: Message edited by: Growltigger ]

[Fyron]

You're whole point of making the enemy paranoid is irrelevant. You do not need to go crazy with PDC to counter both missiles and fighters, 2-3 per ship plus a few ships loaded with PDC to fighter-hunt, will do quite nicely, and has a minimal effect on your economy. Even adding an extra PDC to have 4 on larger ships has little to no real effect on your economy or fighting power. Now, if you do something silly like have 8 PDC on all of your ships, that will ruin you, but not because of the fighters having been successful, but because you made some really poor decisions. Fighters and missiles take a lot more resources than a few extra PDC do, and the extra PDC are more effective per unit of resource at countering fighters or missiles (or both) than the fighters + carriers or missiles are at overcoming the PDC.

[ January 23, 2004, 16:18: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[geoschmo]

The only thing I would say in defense of WP's and sats is that they are no less effective then missles or fighters.

[Fyron]

I made use of WPs on my HW to thwart one person's attempted invasion with a fighter fleet once. All of their fighters were slaughtered, with no small loss of WPs, and my fleet of warships arriving next turn took out their carriers that had a few weapons on them, which would eventually have whittled away my planet (eventually).

[Wardad]

It is far better to have a couple of weapon platforms, then it is to give a scout or cloaked raider free rein.

I gave an AI hell by using a cloaked raider with plague bombs. Only the larger planets had WPs. The fighters finally finished off my raiders, after I killed a dozen planets.

WPs are not effective against large fleets. They just seem die to quickly and may not get a chance to shoot back.

[primitive]

GT:
Ginger and black you say. Well, I may have to adjust the colours on my monitor, cause you look more grey and brown to me

I used to love satelittes until I met Asmala in the Open tournament (5 player game). Had the border warpoint secured by a nice big stack of 100+ small and medium sats, with good weapons and max sensors (+ I was 20/20 berzerker). I felt very secure and content behind this formidable (I thought) wall. In comes Asmala with a trained fleet set on max range. Allthough within range, I could not hit his ships at all. Total dissaster and out goes the barbarian.

Satelittes have one BIG flaw. They can't hit trained ships/fleets unless they are stupid enough to get in close.

WPs are somewhat more usefull but only when used in large quantities. It's quite fun sneaking in a bunch of good WPs on a disputed planet as a surprise. As for detering raider ships/fleets, I only employ them as the third level of defence after fighters and mines.