How would you set up your combat fleet?

[Valykry]

I have a few ideas how I would set one up, but most of the information I would be working with is guesswork and assumptions.
My current idea is set up the biggest ships (XL) as the heavy hitters meant to hammer stations and other large ships, and smaller ships (M) to be set up with weaponry to swat the pesky fighters. With those bases covered, I'm not sure if fighters would really have a place, as it's been my previous experience that they die too easily to be worth much unless you have a massive swarm, and at that point, a larger ship can do the same job with higher survivability.

But with that in mind, can the XL ships be equipped to swat the flies just as effectively? Perhaps have one XL equipped to swat the S and M ships away from itself and another XL as the second XL takes care of the bigger fish? Or maybe just balance them so each ship is equally covering all bases, and just bring a few more to make up for it?

What would be the most efficient? In effectiveness, if not cost.

[Kackstift]

5+Asgard have no weakness(OOS), each additional one increases the speed of emptying a sector.
In sector battles there is something different.. each ship becomes extremely ineffective and hinders itself or others in the fleet.

[Valykry]

So this game still suffers from the need to avoid fighting alongside your fleet then...?

Does this effect also apply to enemy ships as well, more or less balancing the problem? Or would my presence essentially turn what would be a one sided battle into a fight for survival?

[Wraith]

It doesn’t you can totally stay and watch in sector I done it for multiple patches already

My usual fleet consists of 1 carrier, 4 destroyers and it fighter subordinates

Most issue with the game when fighting is pretty much gone except one.

And that is when fighting stations
If you want to fight station make sure to fight in a position where most of the modules are visible

For Xenon this is from above or below

The main reason being that module targeting can cause destroyers to charge in if their next target is on the other side of the station.

[lnomsim]

What Wraith said.

As long as you are only fighting other ships, you can be there, actually, it's best if you are, especially when fighting other capital ships, this way it's easier to prioritize your targets and subsystems (something you cannot do while OOS)

If you are fighting against a swarm of S/M ships, it's best to not give any orders and keep your fleet still. If you put enough high turning rate/fast travelling rounds on your ships, they should deal with the swarm "easily", of course, a carrier with its own swarm of fighters would make things easier.

No Matter what, outfit even your anti-capital ships with some air-defence weapons, even if it fails more often than not, having some anti-missile defence is always a good thing.

Having two L ships with anti-capital weaponry should do a quick job on enemies L ships.
I mostly fight only against Xenons, and I know that alone with a single L ship, I can deal with around 2 to 3 Ks.

Though I don't stand a chance an I. (I actually deal with them with heavy outfitted S or M ships. Boost toward their back, travel to the tail, and do a quick job of the S turrets there, there are plenty of blind spots. Then move carefully toward the superstructure near the engines, and destroy them. Optionally deal with the S and M turrets that can still hit you. And finally, the hardest part, kill their two L shield generator.

After this, it doesn't matter what kind of ships you have in your fleet, they'll make a quick job killing it. if they survived long enough before you did all that :D

[Lucifer69]

You can take your time organizing fleets to perfection, or just send in a ton of Asgards and not worry about it. Virtually no weakness once you get enough of them. In player hands, the beam/ battery gives you immunity to stations.

As for actual wing order, I like to designate a fighter wing boss. Give it six ships on attack. Give each of those two set to defend. Give each of those an additional ship set to defend. I use these wings as reinforcements/ patrols. You can substitute corvettes as the leaders of each wing and give them each one additional corvette/ gunboat set to defend.

For carriers, I have it a bit simpler. Each fighter set to attack/ intercept has two defend wingmen. I don't give my mediums subordinates here. They just blow their loads and go back home. I use carriers and auxiliary for bomber fleets so these guys are mostly just a faster/ cheaper substitute for sending in all my Asgards. Though I do have one Raptor and Monitor as a mobile dock and resupply for all of my modded player ships.

I don't find the need to support my destroyers. If anything, a couple gunboats for extra flak and shard batteries set to defend (or pulse if friendly fire is a concern). I like the Peregrine Sentinel for this.

Carrier Lead
Alpha
-Fighter Attack
--Fighter Defend
---Fighter Defend
Beta
-Corvette Attack
-Corvette Attack
Gamma
-Destroyer Attack
--Gunboat Defend
--Gunboat Defend
Delta
-Auxiliary Supply
--Gunboat Defend
--Gunboat Defend

Something like this and expand as needed. Keep in mind the formations won't mean much once they travel or attack something.

[Rhingeim]

Basically, couple Raptors with flaks (each one will have 100 anti-air turrets)

Fill each of them with fighter, 50/50 anti-air and anti-capital with rockets or torpedoes.

Support this with auxiliary ship. Or two

Add 5+ Asgards

Add 20+ destroyers with L plasma and M flaks.

Setup attack all enemies for weapon groups.

This will basically delete enemies.

[Lucifer69]

Large turrets set to attack all enemies is a waste. IMO. Unless you have L Beam/ Pulse but... no need for this when filling the Mediums with flak or pulse is already enough to kill fighters.

Destroyers have enough shields to not care about them. If you can afford a destroyer then you can also afford a couple fighters, corvettes, or gunboats to cover it. This way the destroyer is free to go plasma.

[Caramio]

Originally posted by Lucifer69:

Large turrets set to attack all enemies is a waste. IMO. Unless you have L Beam/ Pulse but... no need for this when filling the Mediums with flak or pulse is already enough to kill fighters.

Destroyers have enough shields to not care about them. If you can afford a destroyer then you can also afford a couple fighters, corvettes, or gunboats to cover it. This way the destroyer is free to go plasma.

yes you can afford but cant afford to lose it ^_^ which is mostly situation if they left for defend or intercept

[Lucifer69]

Lose it? Even the Rattlesnake can largely ignore fighters. Unless it's 10 to 20 of them then maybe a single Rattlesnake will get overwhelmed. Assign a couple mediums to it with the right equipment and it won't be an issue any more. The destroyer's medium turrets plus the corvettes/ gunboats will make short work of fighters and heavier ships.

It won't take many. Each of my destroyers has no trouble clearing out small fry with just two peregrine sentinels covering them. That's an extra 8 flak turrets and 4 shard batteries on top of the highest shield medium ship that can also chase down the enemy. If I really expect a rough fight, I'll give them a couple fighters too.

That said, whatever works for you I say. Even if setting everything to attack all enemies isn't very efficient. Hell, if you can afford to make even one Asgard you are at the point of just mass producing them. It's the only ship you need. You can ram a Xenon I with it and spam the battery/ beam without caring about the turrets and smaller ships. The beam can almost instra gib everything in the game that isn't the I or a station module. Two or three is almost enough to clear a sector.

[Caramio]

I didnt meant you will lose destroyer i especially meant defend, intercept for info on fighter, corvettes but oh well. You get what you want i guess

Long story short best info on forums you can get is Asgard or Rattlesnake for combat recomendations

Also its fun to watch your support ships following enemies into distance away from your destroyer and watching them getting swarmed ^_^

[Valykry]

Speaking of the Asgard, how does it compare to the Raptor? From what I can tell, it is comparable in most areas, except far less shielding but far more hull, and an insane number of turrets. Is the lack of shielding bad enough that the hull and weapon mounts don't offset it?

Asgard | Raptor
Hull: 275k vs 590k
Shield:. 543k vs 110k
Turrets. 22 vs 101

[MasterShake]

Raptor is a carrier. Asgard is a battleship. How can you compare them otherwise? What do you expect?

To the topic. As much as I would like to add carrier and fighters to the fray, I have a feeling, I just can't afford it. It's money, it's logistics, it's micromanagement. I don't have full circled wharf with missile productions nor I'm intergalactic magnate, I'm just a humble roamer/occasional mercenary. This carrier won't do anyrhing special against xenon (and I'm focused there for now) that destroyers can't, and honestly probably even full 40S fleet of fighters would be so swarmed in the process, it would just hurt my soul. Destroyers at least have enough shields to form a defensive line and hold it until swarm is finished. They are also reliable for manual control, so I can easily change formations and tasks on the go.
Carriers is another league for me for now both in expense and skillz.

[Valykry]

Didn't realize it was a carrier. Just what I've found while googling around.

[Lucifer69]

The glaring issue you neglect with the comparing the Asgard to anything is that overpowered beam. At close range, it can strip the Raptor of it's shields with just a single beam hit. It wouldn't even matter if every turret on the Raptor was in range and line of sight. The shields of the Asgard will last long after the Raptor is dead. Even if the Raptor survives the initial beam, you have battery/ turrets to help finish it off while on cooldown.

The Raptor needs a fleet of support to survive, and that's assuming the Asgard isn't controlled by the player because I would ignore everything and target it first. Likely before it launches a single ship. With a shield capacity and beam damage mod, you can guarantee everything dies.

Luckily the ai is rather dumb with the Asgard (or any ship for that matter). This way the ship doesn't steam roll a whole sector with minimal support. You need to send multiple Asgards, even if you control one of them.

[Wraith]

The Asgard is OP OOS.
A carrier with a full fleet of fighter (any carrier except the E variant of Paranid) can take down an Asgard IS pretty easily.