Destroying Enemy Shields

[Nyx]

Boarding parties are faster to research, cheaper to build, and faster to reuse than intelligence projects. If all you want is to capture ships, intelligence is a vastly inferior method. Its sole advantage is that you don't need to know where the ship you're stealing is. The downside is that you often get a lone ship deep in enemy territory surrounded by more powerful, hostile forces. If you can't get to your enemy, or your enemy has a big lead on you, then Intelligence is the way to go. Also, both methods complement each other very well.


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[Taqwus]

Intel's better under certain circumstances, such as in my present game where pretty much every enemy warship, apparently, has a Self-Destruct Device. I do have a few boarding-capable ships skulking around, but they're used mostly for patrol and spotting (so I know where to send the spies, biowarfare ships, napalm-laden bombers, and so forth), or terrorizing the helpless (as they each have some conventional armament).

Plus, the Phong are currently the biggest threat, and boarding drops shields for the rest of the fight of *both* the target and the boarder, so their fleets (tend to move in Groups of 15 or so) will quickly shred boarders and boardees alike unless the boarders are in hordes, which eats maintenance...

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