Best ship size?

[Owlman]

My vote is for light cruiser. It has a defensive bonus, its fast, can carry good firepower, cheap. the only real weakness is durability and it cannot use larger weapon mounts. With my badass warrior race, I defeated an Eee Drednaught with one Bird of Prey (LC) and they had superior tech.

[Fyron]

Battle Cruisers are nice because they are the largest of the "fast ships". Battle Ships are also good (esp. with Solar Sails and advanced engines) because they are only 1 slower than Battle Cruisers and have much more powerful weapon mounting. Play Strategic Combat instead of Tactical. Then you'll change your tune. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[oleg]

My favorite is Light Carrier - yes, carrier.
It is _very_ cheap to research. Fill it 50% with fighter bays and what is left is 400k - light cruiser, but with heavy mount. 25% better then LC, not to mention fighters escort! And the build time is (usually) just one turn more.

[geoschmo]

Oleg, now that's a pretty original idea there. That has some definite possibilities. Basically a pocket carrier and a light cruiser in one hull. Could be quite nasty if done properly.

[Fyron]

It was used against me in a PBW game, but very unsuccessfully.

[Gozra]

I know one player that has won a game based on the light carrier/Light cruiser concept. But for My money the Dreadnought in the mainstay ship hull. It can contain everything you need to get to a battle and survive. I would never trust the Empire to light cruiser hulls. Battle cruisers are very suited to support type ships (fleet repair ships/supply ships). And the Baseship hull is the ultimate mine sweeper. I do think however that there is room in every fleet for all sizes of ships. And with all tech researched your fleet needs to be able to handle most situations well. (Suicide ships defending the wormhole etc.)

[Alpha Kodiak]

For the most part I like light cruisers into the midgame and battlecruisers later in the game. There is room for other sizes, both on the smaller end and the larger end, but the bulk of my fleets wind up either LC or BC. The least used size (for combat roles, anyway) is probably the cruiser. It doesn't give you much more usable space than an LC, after the double life support and crew quarters, at a greater cost.

[tesco samoa]

Guys you have it all wrong.

Escorts.
3 engines
some control
and level 1 duc.

Wins every time.

It will beat up on your dreadnaughts and make them cry for mommey.

Those Small C's will r-u the day they met an escort.
Caught in traffic... Escort will help.
Boss Nagging you... Send an Escort after him... He'll change his tune.
Worried about drops in the stock market. Invest in Escorts. There value will increase 2000% this year. We know we have the numbers.

I constantly beat everyone I play against with just these escorts.

You can too.

Wanna learn the secert.

Just send me 9.95 and you too will beat everyone you meet with the escort except these escorts.

But we can show you how to beat these escorts as well.

[geoschmo]

Tesco! That's Genius! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Do you remember the Wiley Coyote guy with the ACME Uber-Escort strategy. ROFL! That was too funny. That might have been before you were hanging out on the forum though. What was his name anyway? I can't remmeber now. I don't think he Posts anymore.

Geo

[Gryphin]

tesco,
Are you running an "Escort" service?

[Taera]

I must say i use cruisers for all the combat purposes. I cant give you a reason, i simply found out they work the best for me.

Second favorite would be the frigate, this ship is awesome being cheap and can be produced in great numbers. given the defensive bonus it can be a strong force to think of.

[mac5732]

My favorite is the Battle Cruiser (BC), fast enough to run when outgunned, but heavy enough to take out a BB and DN if fought right or in conjunction with a 2-1, 2BC vs 1BB or 1 DN, good all around fighting ship. Usually put lt Ca's as escorts.. 6-10 BC's with cloaking make excellent raiding forces.

just some ideas Mac

[ July 22, 2002, 20:52: Message edited by: mac5732 ]

[killer]

I use Dreadnoughts and carriers with a smatering of outher clases filling specialty roles.

[ July 23, 2002, 02:20: Message edited by: killer ]

[DirectorTsaarx]

I pretty much follow the "bigger is better" philosophy; once I reach baseships, I use fleets made up of baseships and dreadnoughts. Since I usually take Temporal (better shipyards) and bonuses in construction, it doesn't usually take that much longer to build the bigger ships. My only problem is that dreadnoughts have no defensive penalties, but baseships have a 40% defense penalty; that seems like a big jump to me, even if baseships DO get to use massive weapon mounts...

However, for specialty ships I'll usually use the smaller classes:
Plague ship is frigate or destroyer size (enough room for ECM and stealth/scattering armor, basics and a single plague bomb)
Boarding ship is destroyer or light cruiser
Dedicated point-defense ship is light cruiser or battle cruiser, depending on how big the rest of the ships in the fleet are (and how many seekers/fighters I expect in battle)
Space yard ships are cruisers (obviously), and space yard bases are space stations (again, obviously)

I also tend to stick with medium transports for population moving; they're just the right size for skimming population off 2-3 worlds and then dropping off population on the new colonies. Large transports have to visit 5-7 worlds before they're full (if you're micromanaging population loads).

[CW]

My personal favourites are dreadnoughts and battlecruisers. I play psychic most of the time and I usually keep a core of heavily armed and shielded dreadnoughts with conventional long range weapons (I call them the "rifles")supported by a whole bunch of subverter armed BCs "shotguns" that emphasis speed.

[Fyron]

Do you remember the Wiley Coyote guy with the ACME Uber-Escort strategy. ROFL! That was too funny. That might have been before you were hanging out on the forum though. What was his name anyway? I can't remmeber now. I don't think he Posts anymore.

His name was GUTB.

My only problem is that dreadnoughts have no defensive penalties, but baseships have a 40% defense penalty; that seems like a big jump to me, even if baseships DO get to use massive weapon mounts...

Remember, a Baseship is essentially a Starbase fitted with engines. That is where the 40% comes from. It is slightly more manueverable than a sitting space hulk, but not by much. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ July 23, 2002, 19:24: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[Suicide Junkie]

LCs at first.
Later, a mix of BCs and DNs.
Late in the game, all Battlemoons (in fleets of 2 or 3) to minimize the micromanagement.

[Puke]

Heavy transports.

fill half with cargo modules. pack in engines, solar sails, ecm, and stealth/scattering armor. fill the rest up with as much organic armor or shields as you can fit, maybe leaving enough space for a point defense gun or two.

guard it with a couple minesweepers, and space-to-space combat ships, and go conquer some worlds.

[Puke]

honestly though, i usually use battleships as troop transports. same size, but you can put on less cargo and more armor/shields. 1/4 of the space devoted to cargo is usually more than enough to conquer a homeworld class planet, in the unmodded game.