Tactics/Strategies?

[♔ןoן♔ sardukar]

Anyone want to share their tactics, tips any ship combos you found helpful or cool.

I find 2 raptors launching rockets at the rear of a cylon cruiser backed up with a viper squad to work out pretty well.

2 adamants stacked one on top the other and move them in sync, good screening force for first contact which is usually against fighters.

I got some questions:
Which colonial ship has the best forward guns?

Can anyone enlighten me as to how the weapon ranges work ie is the outer green band mean shots can target and the red is too close so firing bad? or is the red optimal range?

Is there anyway of reducing the range that you can be identified ie does reducing your DEF bar
make a difference? anyone noticed?

[Team Triss]

Increasing DEF or ATK definitely affects shot range, though I can't speak to what the range band colors mean.

I'm early game still and haven't unlocked much, but after mission 4 when you can unlock torpedoes, two Manticores striking the same target with torpedoes is a pretty powerful alpha strike. Will melt a Nemesis in short order.

[Meatay]

I don't know what the bands mean but I've been thinking of them as accuraccy and that seems to work for me if I treat them that way.

I also keep a few of the manticore's around for their single but powerful and long range forward gun. I think the Battlestars or the gunships have the best actual forward guns, even if their side guns are stronger, but the manitcore is cheap and disposable. early on and even later for me.

As far as tactics, I treat most of my fights like old school naval warfare and move the big ships off to one side as I engage so that they can open up with their broadsides. Then I let the manticores and fighters roam around the battlefield engaging the best target each turn. I focus fire on a single target with the big ships, and I use missiles/manitcores/fighters and armor piercers (later) to soften up the next enemy ship. Then after the target dies, focus fire on the ship that the missiles softened up and rinse and repeat. I try to go for the ships that can hurt me the most and save the smaller enemy ships for later or to be cleaned up by my smaller ships. It requires a lot of micromanegment and being sure everyone has a good shot, but seems to work.

As previoulsy mentioned, the slider for attach or defence is super handy so use it on the defence setting when you are trying to get the enemy resolved and when you are getting boarded or hacked. Then be sure you are on attack setting on all ships that are just shooting at the enemy. It seems to increase their accuracy but absolutely increases range.

[Igorok]

I have just finishet the 7th mission and started using Artemis Battleship. They have been a complete dissapointment, as for a ship that cost as 4 Admants you only get double missiles/fighters and some litle extra armor (i gues its something like 15 more on the sides) . As far as I have experienced after three Battles with them (including mission 7), only flak cannons seem worth the price, as they are the best counter for missiles (and so, Manticores).

Maybe I'm just using them wrong, so I will explain my tactics so that you can correct me:

My pre-Artemis fleet consisted on one/two manticores at the sides and one stack (a vertical line) of three Adamant or two stacks of two forming in line. As Meatay, I use them as naval warsips, taking the enemy from one side with their broadsides. I usually focus fire on the first ship detected and throw all misiles to the second one while vipers destroy all the raiders (and the help to finish crippled ships). I also use Manticores as support ships, moving around the battlefield and chasing some Nemesis if needed. Once one target is destroyed by the adamant stacks, I switch them to the next and so on.

In the case of the Artemis, I tried to put it in front on my artemis formation so that it could fire its front cannons and take out missiles (although I still use it as a ship of the line). With this, it was blown up at the initial stage of the mission 7. Then I tried to put it behind the Adamants and it survived the whole mission without a single scratch. Although I also used better fleet positioning in the second time, so maybe using Artemis at the front of the line its actually a viable strategy.

PD: What about rangers and minotaurs? Are they worth unlocking/building?

[mecampbell30]

Originally posted by Igorok:

PD: What about rangers and minotaurs? Are they worth unlocking/building?

Rangers have reduced cooldown for missiles and a significant broadside. More front armor than an Adamant. Useful if you like missile/torpedo spam.

Minataurs are deadly against large-ish ships because of the huge ammount of guns, but its very vulnerable to missile fire and fighters. Only bring them if you're sure you can take care of those two threats.

[Valkyrie3145]

For me the strategy falls into

two main areas: dishing out damage, and reducing/mitigating incoming damage
and three phases: Setup, Initial contact, and barrage, main battle

For all, thinking of Age of Sail ships of the line is useful but the 3D component cannot be ignored. There is no benefit for hitting a ship from multiple angles as their armor will absorb the hits and it will simply take longer to punch through. Concentrating fire on individual ships melts their armor on one side and can often deliver significant damage or a kill to the hull. In early game I pounce on one ships at a time using the Manticores as a wolf pack. In middle game I use my Line ships to deliver consistent pressure while the attendant manticores strike through the formation. Middle-Late game is where it can get very interesting.

For damage mitigation, the AI's tend to focus on support ships first, carriers, rangers, adamants, etc. For this reason, I try to place them in a second row behind the main row with a window to shoot through. This puts the AI's target at additional range reducing accuracy, which tends to draw them into the heavier fire of the front row, and also allows the support ships to easily slip behind a line ship to act as a shield. Note, you can shift these arrangements as the enemy switches targets. Your ships can usually still fire a full volley even while switching battle lines.

Send some fighters/Manticores out early to scout their force so Guided Missile ships can open up early. It really only takes 3-5 missile barrages to kill the base Cylon hacking frigates if they all can hit the same side (easy to do when they are still advancing to range)

Keep the main fleet back and turn your battle line to "cross the T" of the enemy fleet about a turn or two before they are in range allowing you to usually get at least a partial turn of fire advantage before they begin to turn and broadside. Ideally, the AI will continue to engage you in a line head on and you shoot each down in turn. Again, initial placement can encourage this behavior. If the enemy engages with fighters first, consider this part of the inital contact as they will ID you for missile ships in the rear. Turn to face them and feel free to fucs the fire of an entire fleet to ensure that they are removed and your fighters are free to defend or engage as they please.

Cylons will tend to shoot all available missiles at the first available opportunity so have fighters ready to defend. I usually pump up ship defense for this round and try to position them to turn into or away from the initial barrage saving their precious side armor. (Another good use for a stray Manticore with fighter cover is to attract the initial barrage by being the only thing in range/Dradis ID)

After the first missile barrage fighters should move to engage other fighters or light assault ships like any remaining missile frigates. Eliminating the missile loaded ships early allows you the option to retreat to range if needed and for your fighters to be free to attack.

After the first enemy missile barrage go full Attack circling the enemy fleet. Focus the entire fleet on the target of choice and melt them each in turn. You can reverse your battle lines as needed to protect damaged ships /armor but you usually lose a turn doing it so try and avoid it if possible by shifting damaged ships to the second line and covering with an undamaged ship.

Once you get Sweepers, good god the fun begins. One or two well-placed sweeper squadrons can eliminate an entire first and second missile barrage. That difference can win a battle outright.

Strategy with Flak enabled ships differs a little but the main trick I am noticing is to huddle near and slightly behind the Battlestar, call it battle line 1.5. Any missile barrages can be encouraged to fly through the Battlestar's flak screen with some clever placement and save your fleet allowing fighters to continue harassing and your missiles to continue flying. Clustering makes you vulnerable to area effects, read nukes, and can make it difficult to evade a ram but does concentrate your fire so you have a better chance of melting through a ship's armor on one side and getting to the soft goodies inside.

Take careful notice of where the gun emplacements are located on each model. Many guns have limited vertical firing arcs and can only hit things above or below their midlines. Manticore should attack from above and try to fall through the formation to retreat with their top sides facing the enemy, their rear guns dont shoot down all that well.

Most of the colonial line ships shoot more level or up so they stack the other way. Some later ships have forward arcs and so can still dish some damage out when switching directions if they turn aggressively into the enemy rather than away. This will close the range and increase incoming accuracy so beware!

If it gets ugly for a particular ship I like to have them hit the boosters and fly away from combat using the battle line as cover and taking the fastest root to gain range on enemy ships while secondarily shifting the angle to hit undamaged armor (if any is left). Note that you will still have about a turn or so of the same damage output you got before so plan ahead if a ship needs to leave.

Haven't played much with the Raptors or mines so I cant comment too much there.
So far I think I prefer Rangers over Gunships because they can "multi-task". Missile-equipped ships can engage, and often kill, one target with missiles while the fleet pummels a second. Plus if you can ID ships early then the Rangers can get in hits before the shooting starts.

Haven't played Cylons yet so I'm no good there though I imagine the strategy is analogous. The strategy works pretty good against colonials too, can take some adaptation for different ship strengths etc. Setup is key.

Love to read more from y'all, take suggestions/refinements, or answer questions. Still learning a lot myself but fortunately, as mentioned above, many tactics from traditional naval engagements still apply.

[Veritas]

Broadside stacking is the best offensive tactic. You can't rely solely on ships with forward guns.

Torpedoes in campaign are really strong.

Flak is your strongest defensive tool

[ncaa|Seawolf]

On 8000 multiplayer rounds, spam manticore with nuke and get a single jupiter to prevent death

and kill everything