Difference between Attack and Intercept with commander?

[sebbelino]

What is the difference and what does intercept mean in this context?

[RaideR]

Intercept, fighters only attacking S-M classes
Bombmbaring only vs L XL
Defend its really tricky one, and not really to use< all who defending will respond only if defended target will get shot, but they wont care if they will get shot< so you might losse ships without a fight
Attack with commander, well, whatever commander is attacking, generally in my experience is one to use, but depend what you are attacking

[Persony Person]

Attack means they'll only attack the target of the commander.

Intercept means that your ships will automatically engage enemy S and M class ships within a certain range of the commander.

[zpc]

Originally posted by Persony Person:

Attack means they'll only attack the target of the commander.

Intercept means that your ships will automatically engage enemy S and M class ships within a certain range of the commander.

In short: I often find myself assigning S & M to "intercept"; L / XL to "bombard" - as it works way better then "attack".

"Attack" is only useful if you give direct orders to the fleet leader - or have that one on a "guard position" / "guard station" like behaviour. Everything else is too passive IMHO.

[TwinChops]

And none of them make them defend themself. Build some ships to test this, was a nice looking shield wall (the formation) and they all got slowly killed one by one because they where set to attack with commander wich had the order to do ... nothing.

[zpc]

Originally posted by TwinChops:

And none of them make them defend themself. Build some ships to test this, was a nice looking shield wall (the formation) and they all got slowly killed one by one because they where set to attack with commander wich had the order to do ... nothing.

That's why it's a good idea to assign one or two wingmen. E.g.:

Carrier
|- alpha (intercept)
|  |- fighter
|  |  |- alpha (defend)
|  |     |- wingmen
|  |     |- wingmen
|  |- fighter
|  |   |- alpha (defend)
|  |     |- wingmen
|  |     |- wingmen
|- beta (attack)
|  |- fighter
|  |  |- alpha (defend)
|  |     |- wingmen
|  |     |- wingmen
|  |- fighter
|  |  |- alpha (defend)
|  |     |- wingmen
|  |     |- wingmen
|  | ...

It only takes one grazing shot to interrupt an attacker hammering target. Xenon N / M have the nasty tactic to "hover" besides a target and focus fire on it (devastating if they do that as a team) - but as soon as they are attacked, they switch to evasive manoveurs.

[Persony Person]

Originally posted by zpc:

Originally posted by Persony Person:

Attack means they'll only attack the target of the commander.

Intercept means that your ships will automatically engage enemy S and M class ships within a certain range of the commander.

In short: I often find myself assigning S & M to "intercept"; L / XL to "bombard" - as it works way better then "attack".

"Attack" is only useful if you give direct orders to the fleet leader - or have that one on a "guard position" / "guard station" like behaviour. Everything else is too passive IMHO.

The Timelines scenarios that involved large fleets opened my eyes as to how useful the Attack command can be. Before that I had struggles understanding in where it could work and always used intercept.

Its great for small fighter/bomber wings in where the lead is on intercept, but not so much for large groups and amalgamations of ships. That's where intercept as a whole is better.

Thinking of revamping my 7 ship patrols (1 M ship, 6 S ships) where the M ship is the patrol lead flanked by 2 fighter wings with the leads on intercept and the other 2 fighters in the wing on attack. Before I just dumped all the fighters on Intercept, all in one wing and thought nothing of it.

[sebbelino]

Thanks!