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I advocate a mixed fleet for the simple reason that I have seen my expensive best-best be scuttled once too often by some impact ship appearing out of nowhere. If you choose to try to control sea lanes with ships (pre air power) it is a simple fact that more is better. If IODs are available or if the weapon to armour ratio is somewhere near survivability I may build attack and defense ships.
The other method I use is the attack swarm. This accepts that every ship is vulnerable if the enemy gets the first shot so the plan is to have several cheap best weapon ships travel together. Yes, these ships get killed (but they are cheap) and they invariably then destroy the attacker.
Once Air Power comes into play there is a whole new dynamic since any non AAA ship near an enemy city can be a sitting duck. So post air power
1. add AAA and good armour to ships or
2. use air cover or
3 pull back out of enemy air range
Once I have Air Power the ships role in preventing seabourne invasion or probing is somewhat redundant. Choppers and needles do that so much better. The ships role becomes
1. taking seabases
2. Sentry duty on the quiet sides of the empire-- essentially a roving sensor to avoid suprises (what I wouldn't give for the ability to build sensors at sea)
3. Naval bombardment with air cover (preparing to take the base)
For these roles I am unlikely to put much armour on the ship at all.
The Naval aspect of this game is quite unlike CIV2. In Civ, that vet battleship was a powerhouse. One battleship could empty a city with multiple attacks and (undamaged) could defend itself with a good chance of survival against anything. I also loved suprising a group of ships with a cruiser and taking out them all but I often thought that Naval power was disproportionately strong.
In SMAC the idea of seabases gives a new role to the navy but generally I see the navy as a weak sister to air and even ground forces. Without a huge tech lead there seemes to almost no point in the game when a ship has even a 50% of surviving against even the first attack against it. I find the concept of bombarding cities (weakening defenders and destroying enhancements) to be more realistic, but the reality is that naval might has been played down in this game vs CIV.
Overall I think i like the Smac naval concept better. We all know that the design workshop was a major innovation but here I guess I like the concept of getting away from super units ( In Civ the first nation with a battleship could change the game). The vulnerability of the ships in SMAC, I think, better approximates the vulnerability of ships in real life.
The other method I use is the attack swarm. This accepts that every ship is vulnerable if the enemy gets the first shot so the plan is to have several cheap best weapon ships travel together. Yes, these ships get killed (but they are cheap) and they invariably then destroy the attacker.
Once Air Power comes into play there is a whole new dynamic since any non AAA ship near an enemy city can be a sitting duck. So post air power
1. add AAA and good armour to ships or
2. use air cover or
3 pull back out of enemy air range
Once I have Air Power the ships role in preventing seabourne invasion or probing is somewhat redundant. Choppers and needles do that so much better. The ships role becomes
1. taking seabases
2. Sentry duty on the quiet sides of the empire-- essentially a roving sensor to avoid suprises (what I wouldn't give for the ability to build sensors at sea)
3. Naval bombardment with air cover (preparing to take the base)
For these roles I am unlikely to put much armour on the ship at all.
The Naval aspect of this game is quite unlike CIV2. In Civ, that vet battleship was a powerhouse. One battleship could empty a city with multiple attacks and (undamaged) could defend itself with a good chance of survival against anything. I also loved suprising a group of ships with a cruiser and taking out them all but I often thought that Naval power was disproportionately strong.
In SMAC the idea of seabases gives a new role to the navy but generally I see the navy as a weak sister to air and even ground forces. Without a huge tech lead there seemes to almost no point in the game when a ship has even a 50% of surviving against even the first attack against it. I find the concept of bombarding cities (weakening defenders and destroying enhancements) to be more realistic, but the reality is that naval might has been played down in this game vs CIV.
Overall I think i like the Smac naval concept better. We all know that the design workshop was a major innovation but here I guess I like the concept of getting away from super units ( In Civ the first nation with a battleship could change the game). The vulnerability of the ships in SMAC, I think, better approximates the vulnerability of ships in real life.
. I always build a navy of some proportions as I love grabbing the Geothermal Shallows (and Mt. Planet along) for myself. Repair Carriers are good, just remember to accompany it with a fleet of support ships (AAA/SAM cruiser and several regular battleships(13/6/6)). The carrier should have bombers and interceptors on a 2/1 basis, plus a planet buster if you can manage it(jus' in case). If you have the manufacturing capability, consider bringing along Drop Troops and a sea colony pod. That way, when your task force has arrived at the hotzone (fx the Monsoon jungle), you build a base short distance away from the coast and, when you have emptied an enemy base of defenders w. your bombers, use your front-line base to airlift into the enemy city.
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