Re: Fighters! What are they good for?
If your enemy has a fleet equipped with lots of PDC and PPB, use ships with Phased Shields (if available) or Armour, no normal shields and strictly direct fire weapons. PPB doesn't do much raw damage, and it'll take forever to chip through the armour. Just leave fighters/seekers out of it.
Match your strength to the enemies weaknesses.
Fighters are great, if you use them for the right missions. The point is to use them as cheap attrition units. Deploy them in huge numbers, expect massive losses, but with the right equipment and tactics, they can kill ships many, many times their own value. Also, you can produce them anywhere, you don't have to occupy your "real" shipyards time with them.
A heavy fighter with a pair of Small Rocket Pod IIIs can do a ridiculous amount of damage. 2 or 3 solid hits can wreck a BC, unless its all armour/shields. Then move in your "real" ships to finish off the cripples, and pick up the experience. You'll lose lots of fighters, but hey, so what? They are really cheap and easy to replace
I usually create specialist carrier fleets, with 2 or 3 line carriers, based on a carrier hull, and 1 or 2 Aux CVs, which are transports kitted out to carry lots of cargo, with a few launch bays. Overall the fleet can launch loads of fighters, and after the fight, you transfer fighters from the transports to the line carriers. Then in the next fight, you can still put loads of fighters on the board quickly, and your losses don't matter so much (just keep topping up your Aux CVs). Mix in a few dedicated PDC ships, and a few real warships, depending on who you are fighting, and what equipment they use, and away you go. So long as you keep the fleet topped off with fighters, and don't let it fight a fleet that can kill the carriers, you can wreak havoc.
When the sector gets too hot, run away. A smart enemy will chase you with a PDC-heavy fleet. Thats when you jump the other direct fire weapon fleet on him. The PDCs become dead weight, and he loses again
If rearranging your ship production is difficult, use an alternative "molasses" strategy. Mix carriers with ships that carry loads of seekers. Design a "dummy" fighter, just cockpit/life support/engines, and put loads of them on your carriers. Launch seekers, follow up with a wave of "dummy" fighters. These will soak up most of the PDC for the turm. THEN move the wave of assault fighters in (1 x Small Rocket Pod, fill up with Kamikaze warheads). Once again, you'll lose loads of fighters, but you'll kill a LOT of ships. I think you'll be happy with the exchange
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