size of fleets midgame

[Slick]

Originally posted by minipol:

Now for the questions:

1. Is there a way to replay the combat in simultaneous?

2. What's a decent size of a fleet for midgame attacks? My fleet included about 4 missile ships
( missile IV ) and 12 beam ships (APB VI mostly).
As it seems, this was not enough.

3. What's the best way to test if a fleet is going to do the correct thing? I now use the combat simulator to achieve this.

1. Click on the Log (F10), select the battle, then on the right hand side of the log a button will light up for combat replay. There are some problems with this as it shows positions and firings and movement. It does NOT show updates when components are damaged.

2. Size is determined by mission. Ship & fleet configuration are arguably more important than fleet size. A finely tuned small fleet can take out a much larger fleet - I have seen it happen many times. Although, any fleet can be overcome by sheer numbers. Build your fleets to suit your intended targets. If you want to capture planets, I suggest not using missile ships since they will most likely glass the planet due to the way they work. Use 20-50 beam ships with 10 or so various support (supply, repair, minesweeping, etc.) and 1 heavily shielded/armored troop transport. It need not have weapons because when you use the fleet strategy of capture planet (and the troop transport has a strategy of capture planet), the troop transport will hang back while your fleet will moves in to destroy defenses. Once defenses are cleared, the fleet will stop attacking and the TT will move in to drop troops. If you are attacking a homeworld or heavily defended planets, you will need a beefier fleet. If you are attacking smaller or lightly defended planets, you can get away with less. For your capture planet fleet, use "attack" instead of "move" orders in simultaneous games when directing the fleet to the planet(s).

3. Yea, the simulator is ok, but it doesn't model everything exactly like a battle. i.e. it doesn't use experience, and there are other quirks, like you can only simulate planets/storms/etc from your home system. My opinion is the best way is determined with trial & error unfortunately. Or you can just get your butt whipped by a human and learn that way - I have learned most of my good tactics and strategies by playing humans.

Slick.

[ February 25, 2003, 19:06: Message edited by: Slick ]