The Face of the Enemy (Destroy this Ship!)

[Cyrus]

One thing you can do to make the Engine Destroying weapons useful is put them on a smaller hull, like a destroyer. That gets a +25 to defense, put on stealth and scattering armor +30 to defense, put on ECM 3 +60 to defense, train the ship and fleet to max before using them +40 to defense. I haven't used engine destroying weapons with this strategy, but I've used PPB's at max range succesfully against battleship and dreadnought sized ships. They ended up having something like a 1% chance to hit even with a combat sensor.

[Mordante]

"engine destroyers/small hulls" - I can see the advantages - but i do wonder about their ability to avoid all hits in a target rich environment. Unfortunately my racial traits produce an additional -20% defence bonus so my vessels will not be very good at dodging. That said, I am beginning to see the advantages of sticking 1 engine-killing cannon on everything ... even if i lose the engagement it will stop the fleet moving on.

PS. to anyone interested in the political situation of this game have a look at the "face of the enemy" - narrative thread elsewhere ...

[Taqwus]

Of course, whether or not engine-killers are a good idea also depends on his degree of support (namely, repair ships -- and possibly resupply? I don't recall what happens to supply with a destroyed engine), and how much damage you can inflict before the fleet is repaired. If you can't take advantage of the (quite possibly temporary) immobilization / slowing down, engine-killers won't be a good idea.

------------------
-- The thing that goes bump in the night

[rdouglass]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Taqwus:
...I don't recall what happens to supply with a destroyed engine), and how much damage you can inflict before the fleet is repaired...

---

IIRC, a repaired engine (after being a destroyed component) gets no supply directly unless of course you have a QR or Solar Collectors or are at a planet with a Resupply Depot. Also IIRC, a ship / fleet will be repaired as long as it is in the same sector as a SY or RepairBay and has at least 1 component left intact. The rate of repair depends on SY's and RB's levels and numbers of them (they do stack).

[Phoenix-D]

re: plague bomb ships..

Assuming he doesn't have sensors everywhere, park a cloaked SYS near one of his systems. Now crank out a few cheap, fast DISPOSBLE escorts and send them at the planets, especially planets with no ship defenders.(chances are they wouldn't survive dropping their load no matter what, so..)

Phoenix-D

[ZeroAdunn]

I once ran into a problem where I my small three system empire was attacked by a fleet of twenty ships (most of them cruiser or above)

I sent a small fleet out with this combo:

3 destroyer all shields
2 frigates, all engine killers

I only got 1 ship but that was enough. Rather than dropping the movementless ship they kept in the fleet and sat there for ages. Once their supply ran out and I had emassed a large enough fleet I sent in missile ships and boarding ships, gained a lot of tech.

[DirectorTsaarx]

quote:

---

Originally posted by ZeroAdunn:
I once ran into a problem where I my small three system empire was attacked by a fleet of twenty ships (most of them cruiser or above)

I sent a small fleet out with this combo:

3 destroyer all shields
2 frigates, all engine killers

I only got 1 ship but that was enough. Rather than dropping the movementless ship they kept in the fleet and sat there for ages. Once their supply ran out and I had emassed a large enough fleet I sent in missile ships and boarding ships, gained a lot of tech.

---

This works well against the AI, but a human would sacrifice the movementless ship. Or at least send a repair ship to rescue it; maybe with a ship or two defending the movementless ship.

[This message has been edited by DirectorTsaarx (edited 07 June 2001).]