The best weapons for a close combat ship?

[Lemmy]

i would go for only weapon killers, and one APB to finish him off. in my latest game, which i haven't played for weeks i'm trying the special weapons like engine killers, shield depleters and shield destroyers. Once you find the right balance between these weapons and normal weapons, you can really make one mean design

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[golf_prez]

quote:

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Originally posted by tesco samoa:
The armour ships close with the pd ships ( due to the one weapon one them ( that way they don't fight in the famous SEIV X Formation ( yep rip one right to the best cornor on the map ))) , the missle ship backs off and starts firing. The other ships close to a max range and start firing while the close assault ships disable shields and weapons.

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Please can you expand on this Famous SEIV X formation (problem??)

Are these ships used in Tactical Combat or in Strategic Combat ???

Any suggestions for Strategic ??

thanks!

[Baron Munchausen]

quote:

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Originally posted by golf_prez:
Please can you expand on this Famous SEIV X formation (problem??)

Are these ships used in Tactical Combat or in Strategic Combat ???

Any suggestions for Strategic ??

thanks!

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I think he's referring to the tendency of 'unarmed' ships to run for the corners of the map. Ships with only PDC are regarded as "unarmed" by the AI and get excluded from formations and sent off to the corners of the map where they cannot help protect other ships from missiles or fighters. So, he puts one weapon in them to keep them in the formation. That's the 'Strategic' formation issue. In Tactical mode a ship with only PDCs stays in the formation and you can move it along with the others.

[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 12 August 2001).]

[tesco samoa]

Yep it is the computer controls all. I always use the Stragetic combat. Since you cannot fight in PBEM games any other way.

I have not really played around with tatical combat that much. Just for testing new ships or upgrades against current enemy designs or if I Intel some new designs. Even then I put it on auto and let it go. I arm everything.

You should try the mostly armour or mostly shield ships. They can take a pounding and they will break up the enemy formations.


My only suggestions for stragetic formation is to create specialized ships and max them out on that specialization.

Shield attacking ships, weapon attacking ships, armour or shield ships. Mix up the point blank ships with the longer range ones and pick a good formation. (I find the X and wall formations just get ships bouncing into each other ). If the enemy counters with all armour ships then mothball the shield attacking ships until thier needed again.

I believe that closing on the enemy fast is the number one prority of the fleet. 2 is disable the ships ability to fire, move and command. 3. clean up.

Since you have to close quickly max out the engines. Weapon damage is very important. But you need the ship to have a good reload time. Organic weapons fit this style.

Since ships never fight one on one a short range brawler type ship will not Last very long when they are fighting armour ships supported by missle ships and pd ships.

I would like to hear some other styles?

Or perhaps I should join some email games and learn by experience what everyone else is doing.

[Suicide Junkie]

My favorite design so far, is the BlackHole class Combat Fortress. Not exactly a close range combat ship, since it fights at range six-plus, but getting closer wouldn't help this ship in any way.

Completely invisible to the naked eye of most races (+108% defense), Six talisman powered Heavy Polaron Beams, 1350 shields, with 170 regeneration per turn, 1470 armor, 6000 internal armor, MC plus biological crew backups.
Enough Whoop-*** to survive a counter-attack from 6 undamaged max-tech Phong Dreadnaughts, solo, and crippling the enemy force before 30 rounds run out.

The purchase price is a staggering $100,000, but maintenance can be as low as 5K minerals. (free in SE4 v1.35 )

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[Hotfoot]

So far, my "magic combination" has been dual-mounted Null-Space Projectors backed up by either Meson BLasters (for tactical advantages and low tonnage) or Phased-Polaron Beams. The Null-Space weapons get first billing, so that my ships stand a decent chance of knocking out something important right off the bat (I never assume that PPBs can bypass shields by the time I get them), preferably shield generators, weapons, or the bridge. Meanwhile, my massive PPB arrays pound away at the shields/armor of the ships, every so often letting the knockout punch of Null-Space Projectors slip through to tear everything to shreds from the inside out.

Lately, however, I'm learning the bonuses of torpedoes. Sure, they only fire once every two turns, but they have damage comparable to missiles, can't be shot down by PDC, and can be massive mounted. Of course, it still pays to be using APB or PPB arrays to continue a continuous barrage against the enemy.

The "ultimate" melee, however, would be a ship that would be as hard as possible to hit, armed with explosive warheads and a small amount of PDC to avoid incoming missiles. Get in as close as possible and then, BOOM!

Oh, and perhaps some shield depleters in order to make the job just that much easier.

-Hotfoot
"Well, you wanted close range. Ain't nothing closer than hull meeting hull, now is there?"

[Taqwus]

For a high-tech close-combat dreadnought, I've used the following combo:

(All heavy-mount... except maybe for ionic disperser. It only needs to do 120 pts per hit, don't recall what mount that is.)

1x Ionic Disperser beam
3x Null-Space Projector
1x Repulsor Beam

It's mostly used for crippling ships and flinging them away before they can counter with remaining weapons. Killing tends to be done with other ships with a shield depleter and APBs, or sometimes with retrofitted LCs/CAs/BCs.

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