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Ikke -> How do you build your fleet? (8/6/2014 6:02:34 PM)
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For no particular reason, I'd like to share how I design my ships and conduct my military campaigns.
For the most part, I rapidly discard the standard ship designs for my own preferences. The normal designs lack a clear purpose and/or tactical benefit in my experience, so we might as well replace them. I'm curious what other people use, so do share.
Overall, bigger = better (cheaper, stronger) and static defences are largely useless, for they require constant maintenance, whereas a mobile defensive unit can be moved around to where it is needed.
Ship design:
Escorts: Kite ships
Role: These ships are normally useless, so I like to turn their small size into an advantage. I station one of these to patrol any system where I have assets. Their role is to take on any single opponent that might appear. Pirates, monsters, and such. Against overwhelming force they are useful still, tying them down until reinforcements can arrive, or picking away a single invader.
Design: Basically, forgo all but the most minimal defences, and add engines to make sure they outrun practically anything. Their sole weaponry should be long range weaponry, preferably missiles, as they don't lose potency with distance, and are the best at extreme range. Add a hyperdeny once their range is greater than a missile's, to ensure the target cannot warp away as their death will a slow one. Go for the fast initiation hyper drives if possible. Set all behaviour to stand off.
Frigates: Long range raiders
Role: These ships are normally useless also (too small), so I use them to take down targets which are undefended. they have just enough fire power to take down a mining station and similar civilian targets, where optimising battle potential would be overkill. They should be capable of operating for an extended period of time without refuelling.
Design: The standard design tends to an ok start. Blasters offer more DPS than torpedoes, so for a fast lonely ship, it's a good choice. Torpedoes would offer the ability to stay out of range, but this is generally unnecessary. Add fuel cells to extend the range, and add a shield to make it that much more stronger. If possible go for the fast recharging shields, and the high speed hyper drives (to
outmanoeuvre). Be sure there are boarding pods, as a civilian target captured can always be retired, but also traded in a peace deal.
Destroyers: General Purpose Ship
Role: These ships are intended to handle any situation. Smaller hostile ships it should be able to kill, it should have long range weaponry to standoff better armed targets. Some troop compartments, maybe a bombard or ion weapon. These ships can be sent in support of any of your other ships, adding flexibility to your fleet, but you shouldn't have too many of them. For they are weaker than any of the specialised designs at their tasks.
Design: These ships should be maxed out in size. The standard design tends to be an ok start again, expand upon it till you reach max size. Don't forget to add a fair amount of engines in addition to weaponry and defences, 2 troop compartments, boarding pods, but forego tractor beams, hyperdeny or fighters as they don't serve this ship well. Efficient hyperdrives are preferred.
Cruisers: Main Battleship
Role: These ships are optimised for direct battle and should be the main ship in your forces. They are there to handle opposing fleets, starports and so on. Their only consideration is efficient destruction.
Design: Forget about speed or cute trinkets. Max this ship out to have plenty shields, a little armour and plenty of torpedoes. Torpedoes, cause it will likely be in a situation where it faces with multiple targets and allies and cannot get close easily. The range of torpedoes allow for the efficient concentration of fire power with minimal manoeuvring required. A tractor beam might pull an
opponent into range of more friendly cruisers and is worthwhile, a remote shield recharger too, and at this size a hyperdeny can be spared.
Capital ships: Cutesy designs
Role: Experimental ships. Maybe you acquired a super laser, or want to experiment with burner ship, staking area of effect weapons to burn out entire fleets, while your own ships stay a safe distance. This design I tend to leave open to accommodate whatever comes along.
Design: maximise the effectiveness of whatever special weapon. Remember that smaller range means you need more speed, and that bigger means better, so max it out size wise.
Carriers: Fleet support platform
Role: To bring the things of which you need only one to the fleet. These ships are flagships, where you put your admiral in, so they should linger on the side of survivability. Their fast fighters combine well with the slow cruisers, allowing for an even greater concentration of force.
Design: These designs allow to increase upon the max ship size, provided enough fighter bays are tossed in. Fair enough. Go for max size with minimal fighter bays, put in 1 torpedo launcher to synchronise the behaviour with the rest of the fleet, and put the rest into survivability. Synchronise speed and turn rate with cruisers too. Set behaviour vs stronger opponents to all weapons, and be careful around space ports, cue some orders in a circle around it to avoid closing in for certain death - the cruisers will likely switch to stand off here.
Transports: Troop deployment
Role: Move troops, duh. However, I keep them in separate fleets/ groups, and send them in after the target area is cleared, to avoid them going on suicide runs. Also, in separate units, they can float above the planet for space superiority bonus, while your combat fleets move on.
Design: Strip away most defences, and keep it to a minimum. These ships are not meant to get entangled in ship-to ship combat, so that's a waste of resources. Add a ton of troop compartments though, for it is more efficient to land your troops in 1 lander than having them come in piecemeal in a more expensive multi-ship solution. If you need to split up forces, station whatever you do not wish to pick up on the troop transport.
Explorers: Radar ships
Role: Once you're done with most of the exploration, the exploration ship class becomes rather useless... unless... you make them radar ships. Send these ships out deep inside enemy territory to create a blanket radar coverage of the enemy territory. The intel virtually ensures victory. No more than a handful are needed.
Design: Remove the resource scanner, add a long range scanner. Also add plenty of fuel cells (8-10) and energy collectors (3-5), as these radars eat energy. Park them right on top of a star to maximise the energy collection.
Resupply ships: Depots
Role: I hardly ever find these ships to be that useful when campaigning against an enemy on my border, as adequate resources are usually close enough. However, if the enemy is further away, these ships can make a big difference. Being largely static platforms, they should not be fitted for combat. If there is no friendly fleet nearby to protect it, it's not close enough to the fighting. You shouldn't need more than a handful.
Design: Strip away most defences and all weaponry. Otherwise, leave it pretty much as is.
Static Bases: mining stations, resorts, etc
Role: The upkeep of arming these stations on the off chance an enemy will come raid it is usually not worth it. Give them adequate defences to survive a while, while your mobile units take care of an enemy.
Design: strip those weapons away. The benefits in savings allow you more than enough ships to protect them, but unlike stations, ships can move to where their weapons are needed.
Spaceports
Role: Rather than using the standard variety, spaceports are mainly shipyards in my book. They are there to build ships and provide some minimal defence of a colony against nuisances. They aren't there for the off chance an entire enemy fleet jumps a colony - that's once again a waste of money. They are also there to provide a adequate research facilities.
Design: strip away most weapons and the overkill of shields and armour - and don't forget to remove redundant reactors. Leave enough for them to take a punch, and shoot away the occasional stray destroyer. Leave the point defence weapons there though, they are useful in planetary invasion scenario's and are rather cheap. Match the amount of research modules with the amount you need, and add a long range
scanner on all stations.
Fortified static bases: Some are worth it
Role: a parallel design to the standard design should keep arms and maybe a little more defences. you use these for particularly important sites, such as rare resources, over the top scenery bonuses (>75%), or planets containing wonders, or a maxed out population. It is worthwhile to eliminate the off chance of losing them.
Design: the standard design will do. Be careful to update these first, then update the stripped-down version, so the latter is the most recent (and therefore preferred) design.
Defensive bases: Outposts
Role: not using the defensive base in favour of mobile units, we have a spare design slot. I like to use this slot to create a 'miniport', providing all the benefits for a colony, without the ability to construct ships. I'm not so certain it's all the worthwhile, but here goes.
Design: Start blank. In addition to the required stuff, add a few shields, armour to give it a survivability. Add a few point defence against invaders. More importantly, add cargo bays, a docking port, commerce centre, entertainment and medical facilities. This should give your fledgling colony a leg up until you decide to expand to true spaceport. Keep costs down as much as possible.
The plan
Fleet build up
Have an amount of escorts equal to the amount of systems you need to protect.
Have an amount of frigates equal to that.
And the same amount of destroyers, though if cuts need to be made, they should be made here.
Bulk up on the cruisers, the more, the better.
Capital ships as desired and/or applicable.
Look at the fleets of your neighbours and determine how many cruisers you need in a fleet to match the fire power of the strongest. Build enough carriers to equip all fleets with one.
Build an amount of troop transports equal to 1.5 times the amount of troop-producing planets you have.
Build two resupply ships per theatre of war that's further than 1.5 sectors away from your nearest refuelling point.
Build an amount of exploration (radar) ships, enough to blanket survey all theatre's of war.
Put all your cruisers and carriers into fleets. Each fleet, as mentioned, should have fire power to be equal to the strongest fleet of your neighbours. Try to have at least 2 of these fleets.
Everyday security
Not having defences on your static bases sounds like a bad huh? Well.. by not automating our ships and sending them on relatively pointless escort and patrol missions, we can make a big change there. The basic defence is provided by our kite escorts, one of which is put to patrol each system in which we have assets. Make sure they patrol the star itself with an engagement range set to system. They will tie down any nuisance strolling into your empire. This is generally enough to ensure everything survives. If currently unoccupied, send in frigates and destroyers to assist.
Peacetime deployment
When not at war with any neighbours, it's time to take out the trash. Reinforce every system with frequent hostile activity with frigates patrolling like escorts. If there are any pirate task forces about, send in a group of destroyers to track them down. Use your fleets to deal with pirate bases (alliance or not). After a year of (relative) peace your empire should clean up wonderfully.
Wartime deployment
Preparation: Rather than attacking the enemy right away in an incoherent fashion, it pays off to organise a coordinated response. This applies whether you are planning to attack him, or if he declares on you.
First order of business is to acquire intel. Send your radar ships out to cover the enemy empire from empty systems within his territory. Send resupply ships to viable locations near the part of his border facing you.
Secondly, you wish to amass your forces near the border. Before anything else, refuel your ships so they are ready for campaigning. Refuelling them at their present location will safe fuel on the border where it is bound to become more scarce. Destroyer and troop transports should load troops.
If he declared war on you, he will likely send a fleet to the colony nearest to him. This is a good spot to amass your fleets, to prepare a warm welcome. If you're going to declare war on him, it's a good spot too cause it's nearby. Amass enough frigates to strike in every system where he has assets, enough destroyers to invade every fledgling (and therefore undefended) colony, and enough fleets to counter each fleet of his. Generally you can't have too many troops, unless you're dealing with a really huge advantage. At any rate: bring the troop transports to a spot in space close by, but not at the rally point. If these numbers cannot be met, it means you amass whatever you do have, and in that case, also keep one fleet and a destroyer or two in reserve to deal with incoming threats. The rest of the fleet can be kept on peacetime activities.
Initial strike: Once enough ships have been assembled, it's time to strike. If he sent a fleet to you, wait for it to arrive before you strike, its utter annihilation will help you.
Take a moment to study the intel your radar ships provide. If any mining station is crawling with enemy ships, it's likely a refuelling station, and should come high on the priority list.
Send out fleets to attack the nearest space ports & refuelling points. Send out destroyers to attack the nearest fledgling colonies and capture the nearest resort bases, and send out frigates to capture the nearest mining stations & research bases. Send your troop transports to a point in space not far behind the space ports your fleets will hit. Start with the most distant of the targets you wish to hit, so that all arrives as one big wave. The AI will simply not be able to handle this many treats being thrown at him, at the same time.
Once your fleets have cleared the space defenders of a major colony, send in the troop transports for capture. Should any of your strikes run into more opposition than they are able to handle, simply press the retreat button, and conserve your force. Assign a new target elsewhere and keep up the pressure. Should a captured be threatened with recapture, simply retire it.
Follow up: Once you have a captured an enemy planet or two, these are likely to become the focal point of your enemies efforts, and the war effort will now be fought on his (former) home soil. Keep those frigates, destroyers, troop transports and fleets flying onwards towards the next target, don't bother to defend the things you've captured - with the exception of planets while there are troops on there you need further down the road. You will do much more damage to him than he is dishing out in return, you can recapture things easily enough as long as you incapacitate him first. Don't bother with destroying fleets either, unless they are accidentally where they are supposed to be - defending something of value or attacking something of value. The destruction of infrastructure such as spaceports and refuelling points will leave them helpless soon enough.
Send your ships to refuel as necessary, and leapfrog your resupply ships forward as necessary.
Overwhelming opposition
Yes yes, that's nice against a more or less equal opponent, but what about overwhelming opposition - or such an alliance? In this case, more or less the same basic rules apply: make available whatever isn't necessary for defence to punch the enemy. A ship not flying to a fight is fire power wasted. The AI does not even begin to approach an optimum in this regard, and a smaller force does not need to all that much smaller in practise.
If you're bogged down in a completely defensive war, even then, sending out a few frigates or destroyers to capture a few high value targets can provide you with valuable bargaining chips for a peace deal. Or retirement to wreak havoc on his economy. Even the most advanced civilisation needs fuel.
Even if a fleet far more powerful than you could possibly counter invades and captures a planet of yours, the AI's weakness in getting those airborne and conquering again will mean you can capture something of equal value on the other side of the board, and have your troops out of there before reinforcements arrive. As long as you maintain a measure of initiative, the AI will crumble.
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