Cool tactic: Retrofitting on the Fly

[Tezzezar]

I never really found a good use for mobile shipyards. Until now.

I'm in a PBEM game with two friends. They started near each other and I'm on the other side of the galaxy. I needed a way to get to them with an effective fighting force.

By mixing one ship with a shipyard component in with nine repair/solar panel ships I was able to move my fleet its full turn, stop and retrofit ships almost every turn. One shipyard allowed me to make changes to as many ships as I had repair cruisers. Next turn, the components were repaired and my fleet moved on. My 24 BB's got seriously upgraded on the way.

By the time I reached my friends (fighting through three empires on the way) I had upgraded to Phased polaron V's and Type V shields. Even better, quantum reactors.

One more tip. Retrofit damaged ships first. They need to get repaired anyway.

T-

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Someday I'll tell my friends about this forum... Naaaah.
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[Gozra]

Repair and construction ships have numerious uses. IF you intend to conduct fleet operations repair ships are indespensible. Construction ships are invaluable. Send them out with mine layers and satallite layers and a cargo hold full of people and you have a long range almost never ending colonizer scout ship. Drop off spy sats and mines in every system and colonize every system along the way.
Build fleet repair ships with sensor arrays and solar panels and fuel tanks and you drastically increase the range of your fleets and open 20-40 Ktons of space on indivdual ships. Fleet support ships are almost as critical as the combat ships themselves.
SEIV is a great game because you can put so many things together in a huge amount of ways.

[Tezzezar]

Neat idea but construction bonuses don't apply to spaceborn shipyards.

Much better idea is a planetary shipyard on EVERY planet. Once you have your system capital identified in newly conquored space build a shipyard on the nearest tiny moon. That way you get your bonuses and you can load up mines, fighters and whatever you wish onto freighters/minelayers/Carriers/transports.

I agree completely that the sheer number of options in this game is wonderful in that there are so many different ways of doing things. However, some things are much more effective than others.

T-

[jimbob]

Personally I'd rather put two or three "construction bases" in orbit over every planet than put a ship yard facility on every planet. The build time per construction base would be lower than what you'd get out of a ship yard, but you leave the facility slot open to do things that can't be done by ships (ie research and intelligence).

just my $.02

[Tezzezar]

Definitely don't agree there. Fortunately we live in a free country and I am quite happy allowing you to express your ideas and opinions to spite those bastards who attack us out of frustration that their medievil system of Religious government doesn't work!

Sorry. Thought I was Dennis Miller there for a moment.

I used to agree with you. What I've found is that later in the game when you're building the type III facilities you need a shipyard to build them in a single turn. The production gained over the course of the game by having these facilities earlier outweighs the investment in having a SY on a planet instead of a facility. Taken in conjunction with the fact that you can produce ships and units MUCH more quickly, spaceborn shipyards don't make a lot of sense (note I am saying shipyards, not repair facilities).

Of course, I personally thing racial construction bonuses should apply to spaceborn shipyards. That would make your idea extremely viable.

The best test is to try the planetary shipyard tactic. No human player I've encountered has failed to switch to this methodology after it's been demonstrated to them in a game.

That could mean I play against weak opponents. What it really means is that 80 - 120 planetary shipyards in a game with a construction bonus dominates. Give it a try and let me know what you find.

[geoschmo]

Your construction characteristic and culture bonuses do apply to space based yards. But the advanced racial trait does not and they get no population bonuses.

Planetary based are faster individually, space based though allows a greater overall rate with the same number of planets because you can have as many as the game will allow you to build bases. Plus it's nice to have several bases over one planet and be able to produce a fleet in one spot rather than have to collect all your ships from all over the empire.

It all depends on your play style. Personally I use both.

Geoschmo

[rdouglass]

I tend to try and find planets w/ moon(s). Then build 2 (or 3) planet-based yards for ships and build several space-based ones to construct units. Depending on the units, you can get quite a few out of a group of SS's w/ SY's and still reserve the higher production planet-based yards for ships.

Space-based yards are generally too slow building ships (for my tastes anyway), yet definitely come in handy during 'strategic' moments in the game (ie. build more ships as fast as you possibly can!! or wholesale retrofits...)

EDIT: Oh yeah, the original topic. Actually, thats kinda' a cool thing. IIRC you don't even have to stop for the repairs to continue. If you retrofit more components than you have repair capacity, move the fleet anyway. As long as the ships are fleeted together, the repairs will continue...

[ September 12, 2002, 04:28: Message edited by: rdouglass ]

[Fyron]

And, you can repair cloaked ships too.

[Tezzezar]

Hmmm. Using Mobile space yards to produce fighter replacements for my carriers while retrofitting my battleships on the fly...

Pardon me Gentlemen, I need to issue some additional orders to the Dark Nebulae Expeditionary Fleet.

T-

[PvK]

I think you can do mobile repairs and retrofits, but not mobile construction.