How do I fight effectively?

[Private Pyle]

Im playing with imperial on normal, mission 4 and i am struggling. Need combat tips badly.

Generally:

Lighting strike vs boarding, when do i use which.

What is a good engage distance for weapon types?

My abilites dont seem to do anything, what are the good abilites and when do i use them.

I generally cant focus down targets as fast as the AI and feel i doning something wrong.

I think im just bad at this game, all combat tips welcome.

[Mr. Fuffcans]

this is a general strategy i use for the game not for stage four in particular.

imperial navy is meant for close to medium range engagements, i set my ships to favor broadsides and set them for 3k distance then i close distance and hammer with my macro cannons (macros aren't effective past 6k, lances are longer ranged and 100% accurate but they're not as quick to reload).

don't forget to bring escorts, i don't bother with torpedo boats the torpedos are too slow and i don't like to/can't really micro too much (and if you're struggling your micro may be the problem.) bring as many of the lance ships as you can and use them to focus fire on what ever you deem the biggest threat or use them to focus on your enemies.

abilities work best when you assign a point of attack to them (engines, weapons etc) whenever i engage a ship i will usually pick to disable their engines first as most ships are faster than imperial ones and if they can't run away i can succeed in playing to my strengths. i set boarding to auto cast to limit my micro inputs.

Orks give me trouble with my strategy, focus fire is very important in dealing with them as they're extremely tough.

admitedly this isn't a nuanced strategy and likely others will have better tips, but i throw points into upgrading my gunner skills and accuracy and it really helps.

lastly use that skrimish mode, experiment with ship combinations and see what works for you in a fail free enviroment.

[Jasan Quinn]

Boarding actions are generally better than lightning strikes as they can hit through shields and make more attacks. However, keep in mind that Orks are much better at boarding than you are.

It's hard to give you definitive rules on what to do, but a good place to start is by destroying ships as fast as possible. Escorts die quickly so snipe them first, then the light cruisers. Bigger ships seem to be a more serious threat, but by killing off the little guys you can reduce the amount of firepower coming your way.

[TheHatori1]

Well, your goal is to stay around 6k against smaller ships and to always shoot at your enemy. I mean, Navy macro cannons shoot every 12 seconds, so you want to fire every 12 or 13 seconds. Also keep in mind thaz you have 2 broadsides so you want to use them both in a same time. Take 2 cruisers and park them "inside" their formation. They will shoot 4 broadsides but if enemy has 2 same vessels recieve only 1 broadside per vessel. Lighting strike is kinda bad now, because it has only temporary crit. But in general it has higher chance to succede than single boarding action, and temporary crits are not always so temporary. Broadside boarding has lower chance to succede (usually 40 or 30% against not trained guardmen, otherwise 31 for Navy and Chaos and Tau, and 21% for Orks and Marines), but also does more boarding actions -2 for light cruiser, 3 for cruiser and battlecruiser and 4 for battleship, also these crits wont be temporary. Thing is, that you can have light cruiser that has 2 lighting strikes and 2 boardings, so lighting strikes would be better choice if enemy already used emergency repair. Take a note that before temporary crits were added, you could have 3 lighting strikes, so it was better than boarding from cruiser.

[Atlan]

Hm, som advice of the "theoretical kind":

As I already realized while playing the board game, the goal is not to try to do the most damage possible!!
The trick is to get the best caused/recived damage ratio!
So there is no "fix optimal engaging distance". It depends on the enemy and on your weapons. (And on your time limitation).
That means: if you are fighting against Chaos, then yea, go in to 3k for the are bette at long range.
If you fight against Orks you can stay at 9k or higher, you will do less damage, maybe some of your ships won't even be able to shoot, not important as long as more of your ships can shoot as anemy ships.
If you have mor torpedos and the time, stay where you are and shootthem until he comes to you, won't do that much damage on long range, but even if you succed to hit with only 1 torp whil not getting hit yourself you won something...
And so on,...

Originally posted by TheHatori1:

Also keep in mind thaz you have 2 broadsides so you want to use them both in a same time.

Is a quite good thing, works well especially if you have fewer but better ships.

For the lightningstrik vs boarding thing: without any upgrades the boarding is better, but harder to use. If you set lightning strike on auto, you for sure will not get the best result, but it will be used as soon as possible and you don't have to bother. Especially for the biginning I'd do that untill you want to do more micro management. (only in data recovery you should use them per hand).

What abilities are good? Somehow most of them^^
Some personal opinion:
- you should have some sonds (wich ones are the better depends on the situation).
- On a battleship or ship you want to ram with micro warp jump is a good thing (also to bing you in position to fire a short ranged torpedo salvo at the broadside of an enemy)
- Disruptor and stasis bombs may also come in handy to initiate an assault/keep the enemy away.

[TheHatori1]

Anyways, if you want, add me on steam and i will help you if you would want to.

[Tacitus]

Regarding lightning strikes versus boarding, generally boarding is better as it has more assault actions depending on the ship class and can also hit through shields. Light cruisers get 2, cruisers 3, battlecruisers 4, and battleships 5, if I recall correctly. This means that it has more chances to damage or destroy a subsystem.

Also, note that lightning strikes will only deal temporary damage, as indicated by the orange icon. Your enemy can remove this by using the repair order. Boarding actions can deal permanent damage, which can permanently disable a subsystem for the duration of the match. Troop value is only used for defence; your troop value doesn't affect the success of assault actions that you initiate. Make sure to save your lightning strikes/boarding actions on Data Recovery missions, though!

As for basic tactics, know your enemy. (Note that this is advice for campaign, not multiplayer, as you mentioned 'normal' and 'mission 4'.) Different enemy types require different strategies. Against eldar, get in close, and ram them if you can. Don't bring a Gothic-class, because holofields are very resistant to lance fire. Against orks, try to keep your distance, and be ready to avoid rams. Against chaos, try to stay in close range (except if they have Nurgle favours, then keep your distance!) and ram from the side or rear if possible. You won't see Tau in the campaign, so you don't need to worry too much about them unless you play skirmish or multiplayer.

Personally, I like to target the most threatening ships first. For orks, that would be anything with heavy/mega kannon. I also find that in singleplayer, since the enemy always knows where you are, it works best to deploy in a corner so you don't get surrounded.

Macrocannons work best at 3k range; 6 is ok. You can find the effective range by mousing over the weapon icon. Lances are best at max range, because they always hit. Avoid using the Gothic class cruiser, because it doesn't offer anything you won't get with a Tyrant or Dominator, and the 6k lances are a bit substandard, in my opinion.

Make sure to target specific subsystems. Depending on the mission and enemy type, I like to target generators and engines first. Against chaos ships with Slaanesh or Tzeentch favours, I tend to target their deck to remove their annoying abilities. (Don't do this if they have the secondary command deck upgrade, as it won't eliminate their abilities.)

Also, pay close attention to your mission objectives. You can play Data Recovery (defender), Breakthrough (defender & attacker), and the planet assault missions like cruiser clash, to some degree (i.e. destroying all enemy ships will net you victory). On Data Recovery missions, you can mostly ignore escorts, as they can't steal the data.

Always have at least one ship with a data/recon probe.

Finally, check out the Veritatem Imperialis mod, as it makes the campaign much more enjoyable. You'll probably need to restore the vanilla configuration for multiplayer, though. Note that all the above is for campaign or single-player, not multiplayer, which would require very different tactics.

[malcontent333]

Originally posted by Ratt (Road to 1k):

Im playing with imperial on normal, mission 4 and i am struggling. Need combat tips badly.

Generally:

Lighting strike vs boarding, when do i use which.

Usually boarding with your brawlers and lightning with long range ships.

Originally posted by Ratt (Road to 1k):

What is a good engage distance for weapon types?

Largely depends on your play style and oponents.

Originally posted by Ratt (Road to 1k):

My abilites dont seem to do anything. what are the good abilites and when do i use them.

I like to give my brawlers shield regen and a bomb of some kind for skills. Upgrades like armour piercing for getting in close along with more shields and belt armour. Carriers get support skills like beacons and mutiny suppression. Upgrades are sensor range and refueling. Torpedoes can be difficult for new players to aim at long range. Use them at medium for large alpha damage. Don't be afraid to use tac cog when it gets hairy. For long range ships i also like the extra teleport attack and the imperial assassin to cause a mutiny.

Originally posted by Ratt (Road to 1k):

I generally cant focus down targets as fast as the AI and feel i doning something wrong.

I think im just bad at this game, all combat tips welcome.

Do your best to disrupt the enemy's formation by firing torpedos or dropping bombs into the middle of it or splitting off your faster ships to draw out your opponent. Target shields or engines to make it easier. Chaos and Eldar like to run silent, so often target their bridge first. Ram a lot, but brace for impact first. Try and save lock on for when the targets shields are down. You'll get the most out of the increased critical chance.

If you're still having trouble, tell us about your preferred play style and specifically when it fails you, and we can try and give targeted advice.