Fighter group size

[Q]

The default value for fighter Groups is 5.
In my opinion this may not be optimal for two reasons.
First a group of only 5 fighters may be incapable of damaging organic or crystalline armor (unless using rocket pods) and if you have a lot of fighters in a combat the field may be so much crowded, that not all fighter Groups get into firing distance.
Second if you have a large number of fighters in small Groups it becomes very complicated for the computer calculation. The time for combat calculation goes up very much and sometimes the game even locks. This may be less a problem with powerful hardware, but the reported problems with SEIV in later games may partially be connected to this.
So I set fighter group size to 20 or even 30 and I don't see any disadvantage.
What's your experience?

[raynor]

I'm with you, Q. I think the larger the group the better--especially against point defence cannons. In fact, I think the very best use of fighters is to launch them *before* combat, add them to the fleet and then attack.

[raynor]

Yes. Please post.

[DaftWager]

They�re in the data mod section!

I haven�t play tested them as much as I would have liked, so let me know if they work as promised. From what little testing I�ve done, (30-45 battles) they seem to do ok.

One more thing, I don�t think they work with saved empire files (didn�t for me anyway) I hope it�s not a problem.

[Nitram Draw]

I like 10-15 unit Groups. Seems to pack a pretty good punch with small DUCIII cannons. Plus I can add two shields to each one so they Last a little longer.

[DaftWager]

I�ve set my defaults to 20. It works especially well for my interceptors as they can take out a smaller fighter group easily.

I�m wondering if anyone before has done new default strategies specifically for fighters. I�ve been around here for quite a long time and haven�t seen them before.

I�ve done interceptor and fighter/bomber, and they seem to work most of the time in strategic combat. Interceptors going for other fighters first, then attack bigger ships. Fighter/bombers go for the big ships first, then helping mop up any fighters left, although neither of them attack planets (easy to change)

Anyone interested?

[dogscoff]

I see your point when fighting crtain armour types, but are you sure large Groups are better against PDC than small ones? If playing tactical I prefer to launch fightrs in small Groups, or even one at a time.

Think about it - if a PDC (or any other weapon) does 50 damage, and each fighter takes 30 damage, 20 of that damage is wasted against a single fighter, but all 50 is used against a group:

In other words it would take 9 hits to destroy 9 single fighters, but only 6 hits to waste 9 groupd fighters.




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There is an exception to every rule. Including this one.

[Nitram Draw]

That's a good strategy if you don't mind moving all those units. You could actually use un-armed/armored fighters as flak catchers.

[Q]

quote:

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Originally posted by dogscoff:
I see your point when fighting crtain armour types, but are you sure large Groups are better against PDC than small ones? If playing tactical I prefer to launch fightrs in small Groups, or even one at a time.

Think about it - if a PDC (or any other weapon) does 50 damage, and each fighter takes 30 damage, 20 of that damage is wasted against a single fighter, but all 50 is used against a group:

In other words it would take 9 hits to destroy 9 single fighters, but only 6 hits to waste 9 groupd fighters.

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You are correct in this point, but there is no fighter group launch possibility of one, so you would have to do this manually!! And I don't want to think about the time it takes to move and fire all these sigle fighters.

[nerfman]

If you have shields on your fighters, then smaller Groups may help. Damage applied to your Groups to one fighters shield then to the fighters themselves. If there is enough extra damage to destroy 2 or three fighters then it does so, not "attacking" the shields of the other 2-3. Subsequent attacks on the next turn will have the shields for say the forth fighter. Basically, once you burn through one fighters shields, all the rest of the damage is applied internally and damage that leaks to other fighters does not interact with their shields.

With this in mind, smaller sizes mean more of this "extra' damage is wasted. Also, by increasing the number of targets, you diminish your opponents ability to engage you with their normal weapons. Even w/ multiplex tracking, they can only engage a few targets regardless of size. This works even better when closing w/ heavy ships simultaniously. Of course the point defense will not really be affected since it is autonomous but timing with some standoff missile strikes can really force the same type of targetting delema on the PD guns. Saturation is key!

So my suggestion is if your enemy is killing most of your fighters with standard weapons then break up your Groups, but maybe if they are heavily armored or have lots of PD then jack up the group size.