Preferred Fleet Composition (Imperial Campaign)

[[AF] Cannon_Fodder]

What do you use?

For AdMech, I find mass Dictators to be very good. It brings every single weapon type to the table thanks to the added lance turrets vs. Imperial Navy cruisers. Left over points go to sword/gladius frigates for scouting. This is my preferred fleet for dealing with those annoying Eldar, I just wait for them to use up their dash and then Nova them straight to hell. Also having all ships the same makes mirco easier.

For Space Marines, I prefer the Strike Cruisers with launch bays (Mk 1 iirc). I find the vanguards are just lacking in everything, so I just scrap them. SM escorts being able to use Honor the Chapter is incredibly powerful.

For Spire's fleet I prefer focusing on macros + torpedoes + ramming to benefit from his skills (Tyrant, his Lunar, Overlords), with SM's in support to bring the launch bays + boarding (Even a single strike cruiser can pump out enough fighters to protect everything).

I'm currently toying with an Imperial Navy fleet made of nothing but Defiant and Dauntless light cruisers, but not having something that can tank makes it very micro heavy.

What do you like?

[Daliena]

AM: Dictators all day erry day, baby. Launch bays and novas on a budget for a faction that dies to a stiff breeze boarding-wise if they get up close is a good deal, and absolutely ruins the various Aeldari factions which is always good.

Space Marines: Optimal or no, I like me a Battlebarge, though I might toy with the idea of using several Strike Cruisers instead.

Navy: Put Spire (or other admiral if need be) in an Overlord, later a Retribution. Dictator to provide some fighter cover, Avenger for dakka.

[Contrador]

U just described the most workable compositions there are. I use the following for 1350 leadership
1) Main Fleet/s (1350) - Three Mars battlecruises, Two Mech Dictators + One Defiant
- Obviously its two fleets moving as one, vs AI, its unbeatable
2) Secondary Fleet/s (1000) - Retribution, Two Overlords, Two Dauntless (Lances)
- Alernative for 1000pts secondary fleet is - Ark Mech, Two Dictators, One Defiant, Two Gladius

For Spire, after two campaigns, Retribution, two Mars, two Mk1 Strike Cruisers works best for me

Edit: Reading Daliena, two Barges are boring, 4 Mk1 Cruisers for 1000pts can deal with anything.

[Alekan]

Yeah Nova cannons are best. Range, alpha, ignore armor. IMP is Dominators, AdMech is Dictator+Tyrants. Get Disruption Bombs and you can blow away anything - especially Eldar and Necron after they waste their boost.

Just blew away a 2100 Necron armada with 5 Dominators. Only took 400dmg through shields total hiding in an asteroid field. Had shots left too.

Space Marines are terrible for their points cost. I use half-strength fleets of Strike Cruiser I and II's as expendable meatshields and recon for full IMP or AdMech nova fleets.

[HeathenSW]

For AdMec I use three compositions mainly, not sure which one works better:
1) Dictators all the way, Nova escort. Classic, nothing much to add.
2) Ark and two cruisers (dictators preferably, have a fleet with tyrants, but didn't try it), Nova escorts. Ark can tank pretty good and in beta crits on BS class ships are rather minimal.
3) Three Dictators, a ton of Novas. Now Novas here are used as artillery - with Lock On! stance their crit chance in beta is 16% and that's quite nice. Hide in a Cloud™ and it'll do wonders, or chase slow enemies with silent running.
And I rerolled enough so that all my admirals have augur array upgrade, rad tempest and cybernetics orb. They are doing fine because of that :D

@Contrador here have my preferabe fleet for IM (retribution, 2 overlords, 2 lance dauntless). Thinking about pure armageddons fleet though - it worked rather nice in skirmish vs AI, especially with boosted crit chance for lances. Have a fleet full of Avengers, but although it's fun to watch sometimes it doesn't seem all that flexible and they are still being killed much more quicker than ordinary fleets.

SM I almost don't use. Only as system guard for systems where I need to have a fleet, or two fleets of some light cruisers with Strike Cruiser mkII as flagship.

[[AF] Cannon_Fodder]

Originally posted by Alekan:

Space Marines are terrible for their points cost. I use half-strength fleets of Strike Cruiser I and II's as expendable meatshields and recon for full IMP or AdMech nova fleets.

Sure, they're not as point efficient as the others, but having 3 Boarding actions per cruiser and 1 per escort (all of which ignore shields) can Hulk half of the opposition in seconds. They have a use, very much the scalpel in the tool kit, as they should be lore-wise.

[DarkFenix]

For AdMech, Dictators are really their only good ship. But I use an Ark Mechanicus as my flagship anyway, because why the hell not.

For SM, Strike Cruiser Mk2s (torpedo version) are their only point efficient ship. But I still use a Battle Barge Mk1 as a flagship because I like them.

Imp Navy have actual options. I don't bother with nova cannon ships, because I've got a whole AdMech fleet cap for nothing but nova spam. My favourite is probably Retribution flagship with Avenger spam behind that. For its point cost the Avenger is amazingly point efficient. My other fleets are Emperor flagship with Exorcists, effective, if rather boring.

[Smurf-O-Pax]

As many Nova Cannons as possible. The AI is totally helpless against it.

[sherlock]

I'm a bit confused about the recommendation for the Overlord by so many players. I calculated the DPS for all distances (assuming that 100% until 4.5, 80% after 4.5 up to 9, and so on) for the Overlord and Armageddon.

____________Overlord__Armageddon
dist____acc____DPS____DPS
0.00____1.0____18.0____18.0
4.50____0.8____14.8____15.6
9.00____0.6____11.6____13.2
13.5____0.4____8.40____10.8
18.0____0.2____5.20____2.00
22.5____0.0____0.00____0.00

As we can see, the Armageddon beats the Overlord at any distance except past 13.5, where its main batteries can no longer fire. In the sweet spot for imperial ships, the Armageddon seems to perform better and has higher crit chances for all weapons (except the lancer turrets which are identical). The DPS calculation even ignores that the heavy lance batteries of the Armageddon set the armour of the targeted ship to 50 which means they'll cause more damage than a plasma shot would.

With reload (skill) the difference increases since the Armageddon's macro batteries do 18 damage a shot, instead of the Overlords plasma batteries' 12.

What's the main argument to go for the Dominator instead of the Armageddon for people? Past 13.5 both do very little damage and both should not engage at that distance to be effective.

[Namelesswanderer]

Originally posted by sherlock:

I'm a bit confused about the recommendation for the Overlord by so many players. I calculated the DPS for all distances (assuming that 100% until 4.5, 80% after 4.5 up to 9, and so on) for the Overlord and Armageddon.

____________Overlord__Armageddon
dist____acc____DPS____DPS
0.00____1.0____18.0____18.0
4.50____0.8____14.8____15.6
9.00____0.6____11.6____13.2
13.5____0.4____8.40____10.8
18.0____0.2____5.20____2.00
22.5____0.0____0.00____0.00

As we can see, the Armageddon beats the Overlord at any distance except past 13.5, where its main batteries can no longer fire. In the sweet spot for imperial ships, the Armageddon seems to perform better and has higher crit chances for all weapons (except the lancer turrets which are identical). The DPS calculation even ignores that the heavy lance batteries of the Armageddon set the armour of the targeted ship to 50 which means they'll cause more damage than a plasma shot would.

With reload (skill) the difference increases since the Armageddon's macro batteries do 18 damage a shot, instead of the Overlords plasma batteries' 12.

What's the main argument to go for the Dominator instead of the Armageddon for people? Past 13.5 both do very little damage and both should not engage at that distance to be effective.

The Nova Cannons and cheaper cost.

Having four nova cannons is a big boon.

In the campaign I ended up with 1 Exorcist, 3-4 Dominators and the rest escorts for scouting.

The reality is that as time goes on you'll be fighting outnumbered and tagging ships out isn't really helpful either....

The Nova Cannons help even the odds by taking out or crippling ships way before you even engage.

That and then the dominators' macro batteries.

That being said...I'm open to more options but against Tyranids I find the Nova Cannon best to take out the big ones as they always successfully close the distance. I switched to an Exorcist because it's faster, has the same launch capacity as an Emperor, and carries a good amount of weapons.

I just can't figure out torpedoes properly and dealing with Tyranids with Torpedo heavy ships.

[sebasnx1]

Are you running the Beta Patch or not? because AM becomes way different with it, extra 50 percent Lance damage and accuracy cranked up to exceptional means that Lunar's and Gothic's become the way to go, there is a certain beauty about blowing the enemy bridge out at 22500 range with lock on(Because critting also became different.)

[Quelsec]

For mechanicus i use Ark + as many gothic as i can pool off. Lances+ novas+ a bulky capital ship so i dont have to lose admirals

[jerryfanfan]

I use an AM fleet of 3-4 Dictators with Rad Tempest and Tactical warp to soften up 3-fleet enemy systems. It wreaks havoc with Nova Cannons/Bombers/Rad Tempest before retreating. On cruiser clash maps it generally destroys 30% of enemy fleet, while on conquest maps it can destroy up to 60% of the enemy fleet because they bunch up in capture points. I then send in a double team of IN fleets to mop up.

[Bababooey]

One thing very usefull for SM is full Vangaurd MK1 fleet. So much boarding you can hulk multiple big ships. You can get 6 for 1k cap.