Armada 101 (basic game mechanisms explained) WIP

[Wenzel]

This thread is supposed to explain the basic game mechanisms to newbies. It's work in progress, so please feel free to correct any mistakes or contribute. :)


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Turrets

Each ship comes with a number of turrets.

For every 100 points of damage a ship suffers, it loses 1 of its turrets (that's why the hull-health is shown in junks of 100 points). Turrets cannot be repaired.

Turrets have 3 purposes:

• Defense against boarding assault-actions: +1% chance against boarding for each active turret (see Assaulting/Boarding)
  
• Defense against ordnances: As soon as an ordnance enters the range of a ship’s turrets (1.250), the turrets fire at the ordnance. For each turret, the ordnance has to pass one test with a failure-chance of 35%. For each failed test, the ordnance loses 1 ship.
  
• Defense against torpedoes: As soon as a torpedo enters the range of a ships’s turrets (1.250), the turrets fire at the torpedo. For each turret, the torpedo has to pass one test with a failure-chance of 10%. If the torpedo fails one of the tests, it is destroyed.

Note that whenever turrets are active, you see small tracers flying around. But these are but an indication that turrets have been active. Also, it’s often hard to gauge the effects of turrets visually, as even though the tests are carried out immediately, visually, ships of enemy ordnances and torpedoes are not destroyed immediately, but one by one.

Note that it’s useful to have ships close (turret range = 1.250) together for defense against torpedoes and ordnances. It’s perfectly possible to concentrate the turret-fire of several ships on a single torpedo or ordnance. It does not work againt boarding-assaults though.

E.g. An enemy bomber-ordnance (6 ships) targets a ship and enters the range (1.250) of its 9 turrets. The bomber-ordnance now has to pass 9 tests with a failure-chance of 35% each. It passes 6 tests and fails 3. Thus, it loses 3 ships. There is a random factor involved when it comes to determining which ships of the ordnance get destroyed (bomber-ordnances consist of bombers and escort fighters). If a bomber makes it through, it will proceed to bomb the ship and deal damage to it before it flies back to its mothership (see Ordnances).

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"Ordinary" weapons

Each weapon on your ship has a maximum range, a field of fire (front-prow/front-turret/broadside), a rate of fire and a reloading time. You can look this up in the weapon's tooltip.

When a weapon fires, the game determines the hitchance of each shot based on your faction’s accuracy at the current range (steps of 3.000 units) and special boni or mali for special weapon systems or enemy abilities (e.g. “brace for impact”). Note that some weapons always hit (lances).

If a shot misses, it will also miss visually – the shot goes off target and explodes somewhere in the space. If it hits, it will also hit visually. Note, however, that shots are indeed physics-based (thanks to Ashardalon for that info): "Missed" shots can hit if you boost into their pathing, just like you can dodge "hit" shots by boosting or turning out of the way. Similarly you can intercept shots by bodyblocking with another ship. Note that there is no friendly fire for ordinary weapons.

If the shot hits and the target has active shields, the shield will absorb the damage of the hit.

If the shot hits and the target has no active shields, the shot will have a chance to penetrate the target’s armour and inflict damage: Depending on the target’s armour value (front/side/rear), a shot can have a chance of 25% (vs 75 armour), 50% (vs 50 armour) or 75% (vs 25 armour) to penetrate and deal damage. Note that some weapons (like lances) are armour-piercing - they always have a penetration chance of 75%. If the shot fails to penetrate, no damage is dealt at all. If the shot penetrates, it deals its full damage to the target.

Also, each successfull (damage-dealing) hit triggers a critical-hit test to determine whether the target ship suffers a reduction of its combat effectiveness. The success-chance of this test depends on the weapon-system - you can look it up in the weapon's tooltip. If the test is successfull, the target suffers a critical hit (see critical hits).
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Assaulting

Whenever an assault-test succeeds, a critical hit is inflicted on the target ship (see critical hits).

There are four ways to force an assault-test upon an enemy ship (note that boarding and lightning strike share the same cool-down/timer - you have to choose between these two):

1) Boarding
All battle ships have the ability to board. If the enemy ship is at close range (2.500) to one of your ship’s broadsides (90° angle), you can board it. Visually, you’ll see that your ship launches several small boarding-crafts at the enemy ship. Note that a boarding-action will force not only one but a number of consecutive assault-tests on the enemy ship – you can look it up in your ship’s boarding-action tooltip. Generally speaking, the higher the tier of your ship, the more assault-tests its boarding-action triggers (e.g. a light cruiser triggers 2 tests, a cruiser triggers 3 tests). The chance for a successful assault by boarding is 100 minus the opposing ship’s number of active turrets minus the troop value of the opposing ship.

Note that the messages about the success or failure of the consecutive assault-tests seem to pop up with a delay. - But I think that the effects of all the assault-attempts of a boarding-actions take effect immediately. E.g. click on a ship and you can see that - if two assault actions are successfull - it will already show two damage-symbols, even though no message has popped up yet.

Note that unlike lightning strike, boarding can cause permanent critical damage (see critical hits).

E.g.: A cruiser (its boarding-action triggers 2 assault-tests) launches a boarding-action on an enemy ship that has a troop-value of 60 and 7 active turrets. The boarding-action triggers two assault-tests that have a chance of 33% each: 100 (base) – 60 (enemy troop value) – 7 (enemy active turrets).

2) Lightning Strike
All battle ships have the lightning-strike-ability. If an enemy ship is anywhere (360°) within medium range (5.000) around your ship and the enemy ship’s shields are down, you can call a lightning-strike assault-test on it The chance for a successful assault is 100 minus the opposing ship’s troop value. So, unlike boarding, turrets don’t help against lightning strikes. However, a lightning strike only triggers one assault-test, not several (like boarding). So, generally speaking, the bigger your ship, the better boarding is over lightning-strike.

Note that unlike lightning strike, boarding can only cause temporary critical damage (see critical hits).

E.g. There is a shield-less enemy ship (troop value = 70, 10 active turrets) within 5.000 range to the rear of your ship. You can issue a lightning strike which triggers one assault-test with a chance of 30%: 100 – 70 (troop value).

3) Assault ordnances
Assault ordnances can be sent out from a ships' launch-bays to assault an enemy ship over a long distance. The assault-ordnance consists of a mixture of assault-boats and escort fighters (see Ordnances). It will fly over to the target ship (and be exposed to the turret fire of any ship it is passing close-by as well as the defensive fire of the target-ship). For each assault-boat that makes it through the target ship's defensive fire, an assault-test is forced upon the target-ship. The chance is the same as for lightning strike (100-troop value).

4) Assault torpedoes (orcs)
These are torpedoes that trigger an assault action (same chance as lightning strike) if they hit a ship. Note that – like any torpedo – assault torpedoes can be shot down by turret (see turrets).


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Shields
(Note Eldar have specials shields)

Every ship has a shield that can absorb a certain amount of damage before it gets "cracked". While the shield is active, all shots that would hit the ship hit the shield instead and reduce its value. Also, these shots cannot inflict ciritical hits.

Once the shield-value hits 0, the shield is down and provides no more protection: its bar changes from a greenish blue colour (active) to violet (inactive).

An active shield regenerates 2% of its power per second if it has not been hit by enemy weapons in the last 10 seconds. An inactive shield regenerates 2% per second. Once it reaches 100%, it re-activates itself (with 100% power). Note that regeneration is based on percentage - so, regardless of the absolute absorption-power of the shield, it always takes 50 seconds to recover from 0 to 100. If the generator of a ship is temporarily or permanently damaged (see Critical hits), its shield cannot regenerate.

In addition to protection from weapons, shields also provide protection from Lightning Strike-assault actions.

Torpedoes and bomber-ordnances can penetrate shields and deal damage directly to the hull.

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Critical hits

Critical hits represent the gradual deterioriation of fire power and combat effectiveness a ship suffers when it is engaged and suffers damage. Critical hits can be caused in two (three?) ways:

• Being hit by weapons of all kinds (see "Ordinary" weapons and Torpedoes)
  
• Being assaulted (see Assaulting)
  
• Ramming (?)

If a critical hit is inflicted on a ship (see "Ordinary" weapons, Torpedoes, Assaulting), then the affected subsystem is determined first. Each ship has 4 subsystems: generators, engines, deck, weapons. I assume that there are even chances for each subsystem to be picked (25% chance for each?). If you have set a priority-target (click on an enemy ship - you can select one of its four subsystems), then you get a second test if the first test has not resulted in your prefered subsystem being picked (but the result of the second roll is binding). So, in fact, setting a priority target increases the chance of it being affected from 25% to ca. 44%.

Once a subsystem has been selected, the effects of the critial hit are determined. All the sources for critical hits have either permanent or temporary damage-potential - you can look that up in the respective weapon's or assault-ability's tooltip. If the critical hit was caused by a weapon with temporary damage-potential, then there is a 50% chance for a hull-break (50%?) or fire on board (50%?) and a 50% chance for temporary damage to the selected sub-system. If the critical hit was caused by a weapon with permanent damage-potential, then there is a chance of 25% for a hull-break (50%?) or fire on board (50%?), a 25% chance for temporary damage to the selected subsystem, and a 25% chance for permanent damage to the selected subsystem.

These are the effects of damage:

• hull break: the ship immediately takes 50 points of damage (100 for orc ships). Nothing else happens.
  
• fire on board: the fire lasts for 90 seconds and deals 1 damage per second. Fires on orc-ships last twice as long and deal twice the damage respectively. Up to 4 fires can be stacked on a single ship. All fires are put out immediately if you use the "repair"-ability of your ship.
  
• generators: The ship's shield doesn't regenerate anymore. Also, any generator-affiliated abilities (like Lightning Strike - interestingly, Warp Jump seems to be unaffected) are no longer available. If the damage is temporary, it can be repaired immediatly if you use the "repair"-ability of your ship.
  
• deck: The detection-range of your ship is reduced. The chance for insubordination (morale-test when a friendly ship gets destroyed or the ship is heavily damaged) is increased. Deck-affiliated abilities ("reload", "lock on", "brace for impact" and many more) are no longer available. If the damage is temporary, it is repaired immediatly if you use the "repair"-ability of your ship.
  
• engines: The ship's movement speed is reduced to 50% (but you can still use the boost and the boost regenerates). Engine-affiliated abilities are no longer available. If the damage is temporary, it is repaired immediatly if you use the "repair"-ability of your ship.
  
• Weapon-system: The affected weapon system can no longer fire. If the damage is temporary, it is repaired immediatly if you use the "repair"-ability of your ship.

Note that if the subsystem "weapons" is selected and suffers either temporary or permanent damage, then the game determines which weapon is affected specifically: If the critical hit has been inflicted by a weapon (not by an assault), then a weapon-system is picked randomly (even chances for all weapon-systems) on the side on which the ship has been hit. Critical damage inflicted by assaults can affect any weapon-system onboard.

Except for Eldar-ships, there is a special rule for the prow: If a weapon-system that is located at the prow gets (permanently?) damaged, then the prow as a whole and any other weapon-systems located here are destroyed as well.
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Ordnances
Ordnances are (AI-controlled) squadrons of smaller ships that can be launched from launch-bays on larger ships. Pretty cool! There are three types of ordnances in the game. Not all factions have access to all types of ordnances. If you have access to more than one, then you can launch all types from a single launch-bay (so launch-bays are not specific in terms of ordnance-type).

• Bombers: These fly over to the target ship, break through its turrets' defensive fire, and deal damage to the hull (and have a chance to cause critical hits) before they return to the mother ship.
  
• Assault boats: These fly over to the target ship, break through its turrets' defensive fire and force assault-tests upon the enemy. If the assault is successfull, a critical hit is inflicted.
  
• Fighters: These roam around the mothership and try to shoot down enemy torpedoes and enemy ordnances.

Bombers:
A bomber-ordnance usually consists of 6 small ships: 3 bombers and 3 escort fighters (see below)(exception: orcs have 6 ships that act as both - fighters and bombers). Any bomber that manages to reach its target-ship (i.e. is not shot down by enemy turrets or defensive ordnances) drops his bombs. The damage of each bomber, the number of attacks and the chance to inflict a critical hit is faction-specific and can be looked up in the tool-tip. Note that bombers ignore shields. I'm not sure if they also ignore armour (and which armour they'd use? frontal/side/rear?). Once they've dropped their bombs, they try to return to the mother-ship.

Defensive fighters:
A defensive-fighter-ordnance consits of 6 fighters. You can think of them like mobile double-turrets. They stay with their mothership and attack any enemy ordnance or torpedo that comes within a certain range of the mother-ship (ususally 6.000 units). They fly over to the threat and attack it at a range of 600. Each ship of the squadron acts like two towers: Each ship has two attacks. The chance to destroy ships of enemy ordnances is 35%, the chance to destroy a torpedo is 10%. Once the threat has been engaged, the fighters return to their mother ship - they will not attack the same target twice, unless it exits and re-enters the 6.000 radius around the carrier-ship?

Assault ordnances:
An assault-ordnance usually consists of 2 assault boats and 4 escort fighters (see below). Any assault boat that manages to break through enemy defenses (turrets, defensive fighter squadrons) and reaches the target forces an assault-test (chance = 100 - troop value of target) upon it.

(Escort fighters)
Parts of bomber- and assault-ordnances is made up of escort fighters. These can fight enemy defensive fighters and torpedoes. They act just in the same way as defensive fighters, with the exception that they always stick to their ordnance. They will engage enemy threats in a radius of 1.200 units around their ordnance.

So, if a defensive-fighter-ordnance gets within 1.200 units of an assault-ordnance, then the assault-ordnance's escorts will attack the defensive fighters. At a range of 600, the fighters engage and deal damage to each other (2 attacks per figher, 35% chance to hit). I'm not sure if assault boats can be damaged in this first engagement or only afterwards by the surviving defensive fighters?


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As it has been described above (see Turrets and Defensive fighters), ordnances can be attacked by turrets (at a range of 1.250, 1 attack per turret) and enemy fighter-ordnances (they acquire targets at ranges of 6.000 and attack at a range of 600, 2 attacks per fighter). In all cases, the chance for an ordnance to lose a ship to an attack is 35%. Which type of ship an ordnance loses (assault boat, bomber, fighter) is determined randomly among the remaining ships of the ordnance.

Note that some factions have access to ordnances of higher quality or can hire crew-members to increase the quality of ordnances: These special ordnances get a special roll to prevent (an already inflicted) hit.

If the launch-bay of an ordnance (or the mother-ship as a whole) is destroyed, the ordnance immediatly gets destroyed as well.

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Torpedoes

Almost all factions have access to torpedo launchers of varying size - ususally launching 2,4,6 torpedoes. When fired, torpedoes fan out in front of the ship and fly in straight lines until they either leave the map, hit a ship (friend or foe) or get shot down by turrets.

Whenever a torpedo enters the turret range of an enemy ship, it can be shot down (see turrets).

Torpedoes ignore shields. Also, most torpedoes are armour-piercing (so they always have a 75% chance to inflict their damage) or even ignore armour completly (Eldar torpedoes). Torpedoes can also cause critical hits just like ordinary weapons (see "ordinary" weapons and critical hits), but your priorization of a specific sub-system of an enemy ship (see critical hits) has no effect for torpedoes. (Once they're under way, they are considered to be neutral and hit any ship, friend or foe).

Special notes:
- Some torpedoes can home in on their target (e.g. Tau), but their rotation angle is limited, so that they have a hard time hitting a moving target and tend to spiral around (and may even enter the target ship's turret-range more than once).
- Some factions have special torpedoes: e.g. orcs have access to assault torpedoes that force an assault-test on a ship; the Imperium has access to melter-torpedoes that cause fires instead of direct damage.

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Insubordination

Whenever one of these two things happen, a ship has to pass an insubordination test:

• The ship reaches its "heavily damaged"-status, i.e. it is reduced to 30% of its maximum hull-health.
  
• A friendly ship gets destroyed or leaves the game via Warp-Jump.

The chance for passing the test depends on which faction you play and on what has caused the test. Some factions are more disciplined than others. Tests for being heavy damage are the hardest tests (e.g. for disciplined Eldar: 80% chance to pass), while those for friendly line ship losses are medium, and those for friendly escort ship losses are very easy to pass.

If a ship passes its insubordination test, nothing happens.

If a ship fails an insubordination test, then it automatically tries to launch a Warp-Jump and thereby flee the battle. If the Warp-Jump is currently on a cool-down, nothing happens. If not, the Warp-Jump is initiated. While the ship is charging up for the Warp-Jump, you have the option to execute the captain. Doing so will cancel the Warp-Jump (but also start the Warp-Jump-cooldown!). Moreover, the crew will start a mutiny with the following effects until the end of the game:

• Cooldowns for all special weapons/abilities are increased by 20%
  
• Combustion Gauge / turbo fuel refill speed is reduced by 20%
  
• The troop value of the ship is reduced by 10.
  
• Additionally, the ship will randomly suffer from 0 to 2 critical damages (not sure if permanent or temporary potential...)

The admiral-ship is not immune to insubordination-tests.


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Recon/detection

There are three status of intelligence for a ship:

• Identified: the ship is visible to the enemy. The enemy can click on it, check out its status and weapons, set target-priorities and can target it with special weapons and abilities.
  
• Blip: For the enemy, the ship is represented as a red dot. So the enemy knows that something is there and can track its movements, but he does not know what kind of ship it is. But most importantly: enemy ships do not fire at Blips and Blips cannot be targeted by special abilities/weapons. Blip-ships can still be hit by torpedoes or AOE-weapons. When a ship conducts a turbo-manoeuvre, it is immediatly identified (unless it has the right perk).
  
• hidden: The enemy can't see this ship at all, not even as a Blip. When one of your ships is hidden, you'll notice a fancy transparency effect around it. Note that when a hidden ship fires, it temporarily turns into a Blip. When a ship conducts a turbo-manoeuvre, it is immediatly identified (unless it has the right perk). Also, it seems as if a player's ships can never be hidden from the AI (well, there is a discussion on the forum about it). Hidden ships can be hit by torpedoes and AOE weapons.

And here is how you can affect the intelligence status of ships:

• By default (and e.g. at the start of the game) all ships are Blips.
  
• Your ships can turn from a Blip to hidden either by 1) using the "run silently" order/special ability or 2) by moving into a gas cloud or an asteroid field. If the "run silently"-order times out or you move out of your cover, your ship turns into a Blip again.
  
• All ships have a detection range (usually 5.000 units). Every ship that enters the detection range of an enemy ship is immediately identified (regardless whether it was a Blip or hidden before). Note that many weapons have a longer range than 5.000, so in order to use their full potential, you need to conduct proper recon first.
  
• Once a ship has been identified, it stays identified even if it exits the detection range of enemy ships. In order to become hidden again, it needs to use the "run silently" command or enter an asteroid field or a gas cloud.

Now, that being said, there are some widely used recon-special abilities. Most factions have access to the recon beacon and the recon probe/torpedo. The first one is stationary and can be planted anywhere within 10.000 units and has a detection radius (2.500 units) that identifies enemy ships. The second one is shot similar to a torpedo, traveling at a speed of 600 and also emits a detection radius (2.500). Note that these two recon means are really usefull because once identified, enemy ships stay identified until they manage to hide themselves.

Another famous asset is the Augur Disruptor-upgade. Once activated, it reduces the detection range of enemy ships within 7.500 units from 5.000 to 1.000. Activated in the right moment, this means that your ships will stay Blips for your enemy and he can't fire at them, while you can fire at him (if you keep 1.000 units' distance).

Last but not least, it's important to know that ordnances are always visible (so they might reveal the position of their hidden mother-ship to the enemy). The same goes for torpedoes and torpedo-esque stuff like recon-probes.

[Ashardalon]

smal corrections on weaponsfire: "missed" shots can hit if you boost into their pathing, just like you can dodge "hit" shots by boosting or turning out of the way
similarly you can intercept shots by bodyblocking with another ship

on assault boats or assault ordenances
they can be shot down like regular bombers but once arrived their succes chanse is calculated like a lightningstrike (100-troop value)

this might be helpful for you http://forum.battlefleetgothic-armada.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=15924&p=50596#p50596
no need to reinvent the weel

[Wenzel]

Originally posted by Ashardalon:

smal corrections on weaponsfire: "missed" shots can hit if you boost into their pathing, just like you can dodge "hit" shots by boosting or turning out of the way
similarly you can intercept shots by bodyblocking with another ship

on assault boats or assault ordenances
they can be shot down like regular bombers but once arrived their succes chanse is calculated like a lightningstrike (100-troop value)

this might be helpful for you http://forum.battlefleetgothic-armada.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=15924&p=50596#p50596
no need to reinvent the weel

Thanks for the correction/addition. I know the thread you linked, but I thought it could be usefull to write everything up a bit more concisely. (also this thread here in addition: http://forum.battlefleetgothic-armada.com/viewtopic.php?t=3325)

Do you know the effect of fires on board? Do they simply cause damage over time until they're either "repaired" or timed-out? If so, how much damage do they inflict? (e.g. I'm wondering whether melter torpedoes are actually useful?)

[Ashardalon]

90dmg per fire, and they stack to a maximum of 4times
orks take double damage

[Jason]

Originally posted by Ashardalon:

90dmg per fire, and they stack to a maximum of 4times
orks take double damage

not double damage from fire just double duration

[Fosil]

Originally posted by Mogli:

Thanks for the correction/addition. I know the thread you linked, but I thought it could be usefull to write everything up a bit more concisely. (also this thread here in addition: http://forum.battlefleetgothic-armada.com/viewtopic.php?t=3325)

Do you know the effect of fires on board? Do they simply cause damage over time until they're either "repaired" or timed-out? If so, how much damage do they inflict? (e.g. I'm wondering whether melter torpedoes are actually useful?)

fire has 90sec duration with 1 damage per second. fire on ork ships has 180sec duration with 1 damage per second. meltas have to succeed an armor check to start a fire and because of that they are a trap choice (even in the rare occasion that you can hit orks in their back with a melta spread and the other player has already used his emergency repairs (180sec cd, with crew upgrades 158sec cd), normal torpedos are better, because they do their damage instantly and have an additional crit chance. current ork meta is zapp spam, you don't want DoT against a fleet built for doing shield ignoring crits over time and with 1000hp battlecruisers/cruisers. you want a weapon crit on their prow asap).

[Jason]

he's right^
when people use melta torps against me its a relief

[Wenzel]

Originally posted by Fosil:

Originally posted by Mogli:

Thanks for the correction/addition. I know the thread you linked, but I thought it could be usefull to write everything up a bit more concisely. (also this thread here in addition: http://forum.battlefleetgothic-armada.com/viewtopic.php?t=3325)

Do you know the effect of fires on board? Do they simply cause damage over time until they're either "repaired" or timed-out? If so, how much damage do they inflict? (e.g. I'm wondering whether melter torpedoes are actually useful?)

fire has 90sec duration with 1 damage per second. fire on ork ships has 180sec duration with 1 damage per second. meltas have to succeed an armor check to start a fire and because of that they are a trap choice (even in the rare occasion that you can hit orks in their back with a melta spread and the other player has already used his emergency repairs (180sec cd, with crew upgrades 158sec cd), normal torpedos are better, because they do their damage instantly and have an additional crit chance. current ork meta is zapp spam, you don't want DoT against a fleet built for doing shield ignoring crits over time and with 1000hp battlecruisers/cruisers. you want a weapon crit on their prow asap).

Thanks! Very interesting insights!
Just to get this right: Ordinary torpedoes ignore armour?

[Ashardalon]

only eldar ignore armor (they also have a 50% dodge chanse)
other torpedoes reduce armor to 25 similar to lances
torpedoes also dont benefit form targetting a system, it can cause permanent crits but its purely random and isnt influenced by prioritizing a system

[Fosil]

Originally posted by Ashardalon:

only eldar ignore armor (they also have a 50% dodge chanse)
other torpedoes reduce armor to 25 similar to lances
torpedoes also dont benefit form targetting a system, it can cause permanent crits but its purely random and isnt influenced by prioritizing a system

that means only 3 of 4 torpedos penetrate and do damage in average. "brace for impact" stacks with the reduced armor for a 45% armor save against torpedos. I don`t know how "brace" interacts with eldar torpedos (probably stacking to a 20% save).

[Wenzel]

I think the base 101 (see first post) is pretty much finished and I've implemented the imput from your answers. If you find errors or think that something needs to be added, please tell me (but I want to keep it basic, not faction-specific).

Based on this guide and my experiences, I though I could also start with some very basic tips:

• Time your repair-function properly - don't use it too early. It has a large cooldown, so timing really matters. It's better to put out 3 fires and repair one termporal damage than to put out a single fire.
  
• If you can, withdraw ships that have lost their shields temporarily. Shields regenerate quickly, hulls don't. Also, a ship without a shield is prone to critical damage.
  
• To defend against ordnances (bombers, assault boats), concentrate your ships, i.e. put them close together. Each ship's turrets have a range of 1.250, and all but the best squadrons will be destroyed by the combined defensive fire of two larger ships (20+ turrets). But when concentrating beware of AOE weapons, torpedoes and accidents (ramming your own ships).
  
• Recon is key. Properly used, your ships can fire on the enemy while he can't see you and can't fire back.
  
• Use target-priorization. Destroying one ship is better than scratching two (and also triggers insubordination-tests). Also, concentrate on the subsystems that are most important to the enemy's efforts.
  
• The larger your ship (in terms of ship-level/tier) is, the more you should try to board rather than use Lightning strike. Even though the chance for a successfull crit. is slightly smaller when boarding (because of the enemy's turrets), larger ships' boarding actions trigger more than one test, easily compensating for the smaller success-chance.
  
• If an enemy ship has many weapon on its Prow (except for Eldar ships!) you might want to prioritize its weapon-systems. There is a comparatively high chance to damage the prow and all the weapons on it.
  
• Tau ships tend to have a lot of weapon-systems. This means that targeting a weapon-sub-system is not that usefull, as it will only knock out one of the many weapon-systems, decreasing the ship's firepower only slightly.

[Emmental]

Omg can you imagine if this game did have friendly fire?

[�[Dire_Venom]�]

Originally posted by Dave:

Omg can you imagine if this game did have friendly fire?

It does :P Try torping/Ramming/Blowing your ships up into each other :D
Malestroms/Plasma Bombs/Novas Homing torps etc will also damage your own ship :)))))

@OP I think this post would be suitable under the guides section

[Emmental]

Yeah but imagine criss cross of macro and lances.

[Wenzel]

Hehe I've just noticed that multi-ramming is really usefull: Full speed ahead. Bam! Stop. Enemy ship gets carried a bit further by the impact. Full speed again. Bam again! :D

Obviously it's a bit less powerfull than the first bam (depending on how much distance/speed there is for the second ram), but still better a single bam.

Also, it's easier to pull off against ships with a round/evenly shaped footprint (e.g. Tau). They have troubles evading.

Too bad orcs can't do it. This makes them bad at ramming, despite their bonus.

[Ashardalon]

induction coils ftw
also mwj a ship behind them first to sandwich it
then full stop with the first and use the two boosts of the second ship