Combat: Strategic vs. tactical

raynor · #1 March 19th, 2001, 03:18 PM

In strategic combat, you can direct your fleet to capture the planet. Your ships will fire on the planet until the weapon platforms are destroyed and then land troops. But... if you have a large fleet, it is not uncommon to utterly destroy the planet by accident in the process. In tactical combat, you can control which weapons on your ships fire and stop firing on the planet precisely when the Last platform is destroyed so that you don't destroy any facilities.

With overwhelming odds, tactical vs. strategic won't make as much of a difference. But if the battle is fairly evenly matched, you will almost always be able to control your ship better than the AI. In particular, I recently founght a battle using fighters that had much different results in strategic vs. tactical. In strategic, my light carrier with 60 fighters was utterly destroyed by six enemy light cruisers equipped with Point Defense Cannons I. In tactical, I destroyed anywhere from half the enemy ship to all of them!

Jason2 · #2 March 19th, 2001, 06:11 PM

I prefer strategic... more because I find tactical to take too long than any other reason... I occasionally play tactical if the "stakes" are mega-high (like my homeworld etc)... but usually do strategic as a way of balancing gameplay with the AI.

Lucanos · #3 March 20th, 2001, 03:33 AM

Very smart Jason2.

Balancing the gameplay...
I've had problems with the AI, you see, I've never lost a game, well, I haven't actually won any, because I never finish them. I start a new game every week. ("Why?" I dunno why?)

I was looking for a compensation to the AI's foolishness. Once I lowered my racialpoints to ZERO, but I still won. But now I know how to make the AI more challenging: STRATEGIC battle.

Aha!

Uhu!

HE HE!

Thanks Jason2.

God Emperor · #4 March 20th, 2001, 06:55 AM

Lucanos,
Have you tried using my Research/ DesignCreation mod? If you havent, I suggest that you give it a try - you will find it helps the AI in combat greatly.
Regards,
God Emperor

Aussie Gamer · #5 March 20th, 2001, 07:43 AM

Another trick in Tactical combat is to approach the enemy, wait till they have fired their missiles and move the targeted ship away at full speed.
They only target one ship at a time so the others can rush in a shoot them up for one or two turns before one more is forced to run away.
If you take the extra movement trait then this helps this tactic.
I have won a lot of battles with only minimal damage to all ships. In Strategic I have lost some of the same battles.

Noble713 · #6 March 20th, 2001, 06:36 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Aussie Gamer:
I have won a lot of battles with only minimal damage to all ships. In Strategic I have lost some of the same battles.

Yeah, the Strategic AI is a total moron. In my current game I recently switched to strategic combat, and have lost or stalemated almost every battle since. About 2/3 of my navy has been destroyed in less than 2 years of fighting. I never realized how much my victories relied on my abilities in tactical combat.

Lucanos · #7 March 21st, 2001, 12:46 AM

Quote:
"Have you tried using my Research/ DesignCreation mod? If you havent, I suggest that you give it a try - you will find it helps the AI in combat greatly.
"Regards,
"God Emperor"

God,
Yes I downloaded it a week ago or so, but I haven't installed it yet.
But I will now, thanks for the tip.

BTW, I tried to play strategically - I thought it would be fun to lose a couple of ships now and then (spares me the time to refit them), but it's like the computer AI is much smarter than my strategic AI. I haven't won ANY battle yet (played more than 10). I have almost no ships left - so I think I'm gonna go tactical again. Or mabbe I should try God's mod and start over (AGAIN).