Advice on protecting unarmed ships

[Joe Cool]

If I have two fleets at the same location and they are attacked, will they fight together? If so, I could have a couple of escorts protect my valuable stellar manip ship (and NOT break formation so they stay with him) while another fleet is free to break formation and go on the offensive. Will this work?
And, if I have two fleets, one with mine sweepers, is there any way to make sure that the one with the sweepers sweeps, so the other isn't lost to mines?
Thanks!
Joe

[Loser]

Originally posted by Joe Cool:
... if I have two fleets, one with mine sweepers, is there any way to make sure that the one with the sweepers sweeps, so the other isn't lost to mines?

Yes. In sequential, send in the sweeping fleet first. In simultaineus, you need to make certain they arrive on the same 'day'.

[Joe Cool]

FYI, I ran some tests and it appears that if the sweepers arrive earlier in the turn than other fleets, the mines are swept and the fleets that follow that turn do not encounter them. This seemed to work if sweepers and other fleet start at the same location and sweepers are faster. It also seemed to work if the sweepers were equally fast, but started nearer the mine field. When the sweepers were equal in speed and equally distant, they did not sweep and the other fleet was damaged, at least on the few trials I tested.

[Suicide Junkie]

Try shift-clicking the two fleets before you order them to move into the field.

The ships will move as if they were in one single fleet for one turn.

[Slick]

Originally posted by Suicide Junkie:
The ships will move as if they were in one single fleet for one turn.

Just to be clear, are you saying that if I shift-click 2 ships (or fleets) and move/attack, they will move as a fleet for the first turn even if they have different speeds? i.e. if 1 ship has a movement of 10 while the other has a movement of 7, will the first ship "slow down" and move with the second, and only move 7 for that turn? I thought that shift-clicking was only a faster means of giving out the same order to multiple ships.

Slick.

[Thermodyne]

I have played a few games where I was up against unarmed ships, usually mine sweepers. First thing I do is to make unarmed ships a priority target; that will often kill the mine-sweepers even when you loose the battle. This has a slowing effect on the opposing fleet, as they need to replace the mine-sweepers or risk running afoul of mine fields. Adding a single weapon will defeat this tactic. It looks like this is a mistake that lots of new players make.

[Slick]

Originally posted by Thermodyne:
I have played a few games where I was up against unarmed ships, usually mine sweepers. First thing I do is to make unarmed ships a priority target; that will often kill the mine-sweepers even when you loose the battle. This has a slowing effect on the opposing fleet, as they need to replace the mine-sweepers or risk running afoul of mine fields. Adding a single weapon will defeat this tactic. It looks like this is a mistake that lots of new players make.

Ooooo. Sneaky. This might work agains me. *scribbles it down*. Would even work on my spaceyard, repair and supply ships. *pouts* I will have to keep this in mind at PBW. I will paraphrase this for the FAQ. Thanks!

Slick.

[mottlee]

Originally posted by Thermodyne:
I have played a few games where I was up against unarmed ships, usually mine sweepers. First thing I do is to make unarmed ships a priority target; that will often kill the mine-sweepers even when you loose the battle. This has a slowing effect on the opposing fleet, as they need to replace the mine-sweepers or risk running afoul of mine fields. Adding a single weapon will defeat this tactic. It looks like this is a mistake that lots of new players make.

Hmmm...Something NEW to remember!

[PvK]

Originally posted by Joe Cool:
FYI, I ran some tests and it appears that if the sweepers arrive earlier in the turn than other fleets, the mines are swept and the fleets that follow that turn do not encounter them. This seemed to work if sweepers and other fleet start at the same location and sweepers are faster. It also seemed to work if the sweepers were equally fast, but started nearer the mine field. When the sweepers were equal in speed and equally distant, they did not sweep and the other fleet was damaged, at least on the few trials I tested.

I think you may have been lucky, and it is based on fleet age or something else random, unless it has been fixed in a patch at some point. In the past however, I have seen minesweepers not manage to sweep a field simply because there weren't enough in a single fleet, even though they were the same speed and given the same movement orders, and no goofy pathfinding made their course split.

For example, one fleet can sweep 60 mines, the other can sweep 40. They move together, but they run into a field of 80 mines, and get obliterated.

It'd be great if it has been fixed, but I didn't know that it had been... and recently I thought I saw someone else lose a ship to mines when it looked to me like they had ample minesweepers (but that might've been a valid timing thing, I suppose).

PvK

[Suicide Junkie]

Originally posted by Slick:

quote:

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Originally posted by Suicide Junkie:
The ships will move as if they were in one single fleet for one turn.

Just to be clear, are you saying that if I shift-click 2 ships (or fleets) and move/attack, they will move as a fleet for the first turn even if they have different speeds? i.e. if 1 ship has a movement of 10 while the other has a movement of 7, will the first ship "slow down" and move with the second, and only move 7 for that turn? I thought that shift-clicking was only a faster means of giving out the same order to multiple ships.

Slick.

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Shift-clicking makes a virtual super-fleet for one turn. They'll slow down to let the slower guys keep up and everything.