ship designs in mid and late game

[Garth Vader]

I have had a lot of games, especially on impossible and custom AI races where they have researched the whole tree by turn 230 or so.

That produces huge AI fleets that I can't touch until I have finished researching.

[vmxa1]

I am sure you can see any number of things with use of the editor to make map and civs. I have seen them show up with big strong fleets in T250 range, but they had not finished the tech tree on me, if they had, I am toast. I tend to rely on staying alive to about that point and then start to thin them out (non tele). I am making better ships than them at that point. (impossble level) When I get smoked, it is usually much earlier than that time. Last time, it was klac as neighbors and they showed up with a fleet too big for me (turn appx 115), but is was not an advance design, just more than I had.

[BraerFox]

Cannons (not Hvy) are great for point defense. Just 2 or 3 will end worries about missles and fighters/bombers.

AF disruptors or plain disruptors are great for knocking down the planetary defenses. But, for ship killing, even in late game I still prefer Phasors. By the time you get that far up the tech tree, miniturization has set in, and you can pack a lot of them into a titan. When possible use ATU and SA, as it becomes very lethal.

When referring to "EMP" as bypassing armour, I presume you're reerring to emissions guidance. If not, please enlighten me.

[vmxa1]

Braefox, all that you say is true. I do not worry much about PD. When I go on the offense, I do not expect them to do much damage and I can take the lose of a few BB anyway. Ipack as many phasors or disrupters as I can and then blasters as an after thought or cannons.

[bazi643]

true!
but why disrupters?
does anyone know a more effective waepon than heavy, autofiring phasors???

[vmxa1]

Phasors are often ineffective against planets late in the game. I stick phasors on my BB and disrupters on my titans. One DS with 1 converter todestroy planets. Now I can handle anything. Phasors for ship to ship, disrupters for planets.

[bazi643]

youre right,
phasors are not the most effective weapon against planets, but they are that effective against all other things that i dosnt makes much diiference. i think planets are not important, because a missile base or something does not do much damage and is even whith a phasor destroyed easily ( exept a clever computer did build a barrier shield, than its usefull to use other weapons)


the converter i use only to destroy planets, because than its impossible to recolonize it.

[Sikander]

I usually use batteries of both weapons on my ships in the late game. This makes it simpler to divide the fleet, or for a ship to use it's disrupter to knock down the shields of an enemy vessel and it's phasors to do the main damage when the AI is using a lot of hard shields and other shield enhancements (as happened to me recently). The stellar converter is nice, as it once and for all solves the planetary defence problem.

[vmxa1]

Sikander you are correct. The only thing for me is I will start my final purge and will not split my fleet. I may take a few to do a job here or there.

[bakalov]

For the late game the most destructive ship in my opinion is:

The 5 offensive specials:
Achiles Targeting
High Energy Focus
Structural Analyzer
Rangemaster Unit
Battle Scanner

+ heavy auto-firing Disrupters (miniaturized if possible

You can also throw in Hyper X Capacitors for double firepower for first turn (and battles with such ships does not last longer usually :-)

Such ship punches through the planet barrier shields too

Another clever ship is one having time warp facilitator + phasing cloak - if played properly the enemy may be unable to target it.

[vmxa1]

True, but I never use rangemanster and seldom achiles, in favor of extra weapons.
TWF can use cool. I do not use Hyper X much.

[bakalov]

For Mass Driver / Class I discussion

I usually get mass driver and class III. With auto fire and good computer and/or battle scanner mass drivers are pretty powerful for the early game ....

[vmxa1]

Originally posted by bakalov
For Mass Driver / Class I discussion

I usually get mass driver and class III. With auto fire and good computer and/or battle scanner mass drivers are pretty powerful for the early game ....

Yup that will work early. Here is the sad tale for us non creative races.
Ecm Jammer - Mass driver - Class I shields
Warp dissapator - Radiation Shield - Class III

The first one is one you can take any one and I will not argue. None are great. Since I have no computer and won't have any for awhile, I am in no great rush to get Mass Driver as it will not hit much without a good computer. Class I gives only a 10% boost and it will not be boosting much as I will not have much armor anyway, so I am willing to skip it also. Lately I have started to use the jammer, I did not use to. I am not sold on any of this stuff and will chance as things dictate. What is going on, am I attacked and by what, if no one them take the jammer.
I have stumbled around on the next one as I often want that rad shield for radiated planets, but if I skipped Class I, I hate to skip Class III as well, but I have when I hought I could get away with it.
So you see how I am not often in a position to use that ship as I am missing the computers and may not have a shield or even mass drivers. It is rough to not be creative. The saddest part is you do not get auto fire until the weapon has had two miniturizations. Non creative will have a longer wait for this and not get it soon enough to be used on lasers or mass drivers. More pain, very sad. This why I often have to resort to ships with no HV mounted beams in the early going, only way to get enough to do serious damage.

[bakalov]

If I play uncreative I would not take negative (-) Ship Attack Bonus; Then a leader with weaponry + Battle Scanner can compensate for the worse computer .....

I can't understand why you are saying that an uncreative should wait longer for AF modifications? When you Research Force Fields III you will get auto fire on mass drivers, no matter what tech you picked. And a non-creative race will have 8 more free race picks which should be used to gain another advantages :-)

I would definitely take Mass Driver, Inertial Stabilizer & Class III. If you have Class III and inertial stabilizer you can rotate your ship during battle to take damage with all shields and it will be very difficult to kill. This is in addition to the defence boost. Pd AF Mass drivers can be used to kill missiles quite successfully too.
At least the early missiles :-) I always combine Hv + Pd; Another good use of Pd is when you see that you are winning and want to capture an enemy ship, you can fire on it only with the Pds and hope to immobilize it and board it instead of killing ....

[vmxa1]

The reason is that you must have researched two size reduction techs. Non creative picks may force you to not get them in a timely matter. It does nothave too, but for me it often does.