Fight Dirty?

[jimbob]

Sorry your fleet was destroyed

I'm interested to know exactly what happened. Are you certain that the mine sweepers went in first? Movement of ships occurs by day... that is to say, if you have a sweeper fleet with a movement rate of 10, the fleet will move one sector on day 3, then one more on day 6, 9, etc. If the other fleet (say your battle fleet) has a faster movement rate, lets say of speed 15, then it will move one movement point every second day.

It may not have been apparent to you, but unfortunately this means that the battle fleet will warp through the warp point before the sweeper fleet = mine detonation!

Now, did your battle fleet have a higher movement rate than the sweeper fleet? Or maybe the battle fleet was closer to the warp point than the sweeper fleet? I'm pretty sure that the sweepers would have done their job before combat was enjoined if they had warped through ahead of the battle fleet... this is why I always put the sweepers in with the battle fleet... sorry I didn't tell you this before.

Lastly, regarding his miner having mines on board still. I'm willing to bet money to donuts that he had put out his maximum complement of mines already, and those onboard mines were surplus. Once you went through and swept the mine field, he would be ready to erect and instant minefield again. If he was smart, he was sending "deploy mines" orders every turn, so that if you came through and destroyed a few mines, he wouldn't have to wait a turn before deploying replacements!

[ May 23, 2003, 17:56: Message edited by: jimbob ]

[Loser]

Did you send in minesweepers or just send in your fleet because you didn't think there were any mines?

The mine sweepers you stole from him wouldn't sweep mines because they were already in the sector. Mine sweepers automatically sweep mines when they move into a sector, but if they are in a sector with mines in it, you have to use that little sweep button. Of course, you wouldn't get a chance to push this button when there are enemy ships in the same sector.

[Ruatha]

Use the ship movement replay button to see which ships went in in which order, then report back!.
Now, dismissed, carry out your orders Private Pooka.

[Pooka]

Originally posted by Loser:
Did you send in minesweepers or just send in your fleet because you didn't think there were any mines?

The mine sweepers you stole from him wouldn't sweep mines because they were already in the sector. Mine sweepers automatically sweep mines when they move into a sector, but if they are in a sector with mines in it, you have to use that little sweep button. Of course, you wouldn't get a chance to push this button when there are enemy ships in the same sector.

This was the problem. I figured minesweepers swept mines. My sweeper fleet never even got deployed. I held them back because I figured, why send my minesweepers, when I can just use his?

The documentation, as I have said, is very poor on this subject. Regardless, I have a minefield of my own, plethora of fighters, and collection of starbases. I also didn't send my cloaking SY through, so I still have that. I'll set it to building some other stuff while I rebuild a fleet. Very frustrating lesson, though.

[Loser]

Don't just leave it there... send the sweeper fleet in to die and pop that SY throgh the turn after... or maybe with them.... but cloaked.

But if it's in the same fleet as them, even if it's cloaked, I think it still ends up in combat... I think...

Well, when you make that work, you build your Drone Factory in some obscuring Storm and start raining hell down on his unsuspecting population with your cloaked drone fleet. yeah

Doom, doom, doom, doom, doom....

[Loser]

[edit: double post, sorry]

[ May 23, 2003, 18:52: Message edited by: Loser ]

[Pooka]

Originally posted by Loser:
Don't just leave it there... send the sweeper fleet in to die and pop that SY throgh the turn after... or maybe with them.... but cloaked.

But if it's in the same fleet as them, even if it's cloaked, I think it still ends up in combat... I think...

Well, when you make that work, you build your Drone Factory in some obscuring Storm and start raining hell down on his unsuspecting population with your cloaked drone fleet. yeah

Doom, doom, doom, doom, doom....

Sadly we're playing v1.49 right now (I just created a Gold game to use as a sequel since folks are starting to get bored and decide that 1.49 is too buggy). So no drone fleets, but cloaked troop-dropping ships are on my list, and covert recon is my friend.

Sweeper fleet will go through next turn, and I'll try to set it up so that my SY goes through on the same turn, but not the same day. How would one set this up?

[Ruatha]

Originally posted by Loser:
Don't just leave it there... send the sweeper fleet in to die and pop that SY throgh the turn after... or maybe with them.... but cloaked.

But if it's in the same fleet as them, even if it's cloaked, I think it still ends up in combat... I think...

No, not the same turn, in that case it will die.
If it is at the same sector as the sweepers at the same day it will enter combat even if it's not fleeted with them (If cloaked it will decloak).
The turn after he will propably have a minefield there again, see Jimbob's post below.

Any fleet you have must include capacity to sweep 100 mines, never move that fleet without supporting sweepers in it!!,Never!

[ May 23, 2003, 18:38: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[Pooka]

Originally posted by Ruatha:
No, not the same turn, in that case it will die.
If it is at the same sector as the sweepers at the same day it will enter combat even if it's not fleeted with them (If cloaked it will decloak).
The turn after he will propably have a minefield there again, see Jimbob's post below.

Any fleet you have must include capacity to sweep 100 mines, never move that fleet without supporting sweepers in it!!,Never!

I have sweeping ships now, but it takes 10 destroyers, yet, to sweep 100 mines. How do you slip a cloaked ship through this mess?

[Aloofi]

Use transport hulls for minesweeping. Two medium transports with Minesweeper component 3 can easily sweep 100 mines.