quote:
Originally posted by Machetti:
interesting.
i just went through the 100 turns that the demo allows, came in first, but i don't think i even researched anything beyond frigate. i understand that in later game tactics that you need those space-consuming peripherals to keep up with the jones', and there's something to be said for trying to get most efficient use out of those components by having lots and lots of guns on board.
but before you get to those, there's really only one difference between a big honkin' ship and many small ones: the big ship is easier to hit, easier to target, easier to corner, and is a bigger loss if something goes wrong. with a large fleet of smaller ships, if someone gets a lucky shot in, big deal. i've got a bazillion other ships there waiting to blow you to smithereens.
i should probably keep my mouth shut. someone's liable to bLast me with my own advice. 
Remember, the real capital ships are not available in the demo. The cruiser is the largest thing you can get. While it's true that there are certain advantages to small ships, such as a free defense bonus and the simple fact of extra targets making for more chances to miss, there is an "economics of scale" with the larger ships. They do more damage per ton due to both less duplication of ship control and engines and the increasing power of weapons mounts. This "small ships" strategy may not hold in the full game, especially after combat sensors are fully researched. And anyway, you need larger ships for a lot of non-combat functions. Medium and large transports are much more effective for their maintenance costs than small transports, for example, and you need at least a battle cruiser to mount most of the Stellar Manipulation technology.