Newbie question on fighters and capturing planets

[Chronon]

My first venture into PBW is as a replacement player, and I find myself with an empire that is oriented around fighters. This not my usual play style - I prefer to use fewer large ships - but since I have the technology I might as well use it.

My question is, what weapons should I use on the fighters when I'm trying to capture a planet? Should I go with bombs, rocket pods, or other planetary weapons and risk glassing it? Or, should I go with regular direct fire weapons with a better rate of fire?

I'm sure this topic has been covered before, but my search of the forum yielded no threads. I'd love to hear any and all advice. Thanks!

Oh, BTW, it's pretty early in the game (turn 50 or so), and I have fighters level one, organics level two, and small weapons level one. And I will, of course, build a troop transport, fill it to the gills with troops, and send it in with the light carrier and escort ships.

[geoschmo]

If you have a troop transport with the fleet and your fleet strategy is set to capture planet, then your fighters should cease firing on the planet as soon as the weapons platforms are gone. All fighter weapons and all planetary waepons in the unmodded game are direct fire weapons.

Missles and anything listed as a seeker weapon are things wqhich will give you a risk of accidental glassing. Fighters are refered to as seekers sometimes because they can be targetted by PDC, but they aren't really any more than sats are which can also be targeted by PDC.

Geoschmo

[Fyron]

You can accidentally glass a low population world that has tons of weapon platforms, esp. using weapons with a high damage value (or large fighter stacks ).

[Chronon]

Thanks Geoschmo and Imperator Fyron for the advice and good information on planet capture.

I think I'll go with the ship/planetary weapons rather than the purely planetary ones. That will give my fighters more flexibility. Do either of you like rocket pods - one shot massive destruction - or do you go with the one-shot-per turn weapons?

[geoschmo]

Personally I like rocket pods at least until I get large fighters with shields. DUC's or whatever will give more total damage for 30 rounds of combat, but since fighters get slaughtered by PDC and ships weapons they aren't likely to live more than a few combat rounds anyway.

The exception might be against a race that uses a lot of fighters too. There you might want your fighters to be able to take out some of his fighters. Rocket pods can only target ships.

Geoschmo

[Phoenix-D]

Rocket pods all the way. Especially on warp points! "Hello!" -200 fighters with Rocket Pods III fire-

Phoenix-D