26 Reply by MajorTom

(22 replies, posted in Starmada)

Nomad wrote:

I've been phasing Anti-Fighter weapons out of my fleet since I realized that in most cases, removing Anti-Fighter and increasing the accuracy of a weapon by 1 point leaves the cost almost identical (especially for cheap weapons - the difference becomes apparent with really heavy stuff, but is nonexistent on smaller guns), but improves performance against all targets rather than just against fighters.

And it's not that AFBs and other short-range anti-fighter weapons aren't useful in denying repeat attacks by fighters; it is just that, as with all short-range weapons, you basically end up sacrificing turns of firing (and against strikers, you only get one to sacrifice).  Granted, to date my family has largely avoided fighters and their variants as being kind of annoying (especially after the Cruise Missile Massacre when, after seeing the number of seekers I deployed at the end of turn 1, my brother simply surrendered despite having crippled my capital ship group during the shooting phase), and has instead favored big-gun navies.

(also, nice Hiigaran emblem)

Yeah, I got suckered in by the anti-fighter trait, it really is a little pointless. That'll teach me to pay attention to exactly what I am getting with each option.  The more I think about it, the more I think that having a force balanced to deal with every eventuality is the way to go.  Having a load of striker/seeker launching ships is good, unless your opponent has a ton of high ROF, high accuracy popguns.  Having nothing but big giant cannons is good unless your opponent has lots of fast little ships with really long-range guns. 
Or I could be blowing smoke out my aft end.

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27 Reply by MajorTom

(22 replies, posted in Starmada)

BeowulfJB wrote:

Welcome!
All my ship's weapons have range 18.  The heavy weapons that are designed to destroy other ships have Starship Exclusive and other weapon traits.  The secondary weapons have no weapon traits, and are able be used to shoot down fighters, strikers, etc and can also shoot at other ships.  (The idea of having short range AA weapons to shoot down these is kinda silly IMHO).  All the Strikers I use on my DDGs have speed 15.  I don't use fighters because I think they are Not really cost effective, especially against a fleet like mine or the ones my nephew & friends play in south Florida.
Cheers

The first few ships I made included some range 6 AA guns, but I agree that that is really too close to be really effective,  I've been using range 12 because I can still save a little space for heavy offensive weapons.  I have to say as well that I swear by the anti-fighter trait, I always put it on my AA guns because I think it's worth the extra space for that +1 to hit.
I haven't had a chance to use seekers or strikers yet, but I was really impressed with how powerful fighters were.  I already have a missile cruiser set up for my next game and I'll be interested to see how well it works.

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28 Topic by MajorTom

(22 replies, posted in Starmada)

Hello all, I've just started playing Starmada recently and I'm feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the sheer number of options I have for developing my game.  There are probably a dozen other threads where stuff like this is discussed, but I thought it might be worthwhile to have one place where we could all discuss our individual preferences regarding ship design styles and tactics. 

Like I said before, I'm pretty new to Starmada but I have started developing a few theories and I would love to get some more experienced players feedback.

First off, I'm coming to the conclusion that a ship should have an "ideal engagement range" If you want to put a long-range sniper cannon type deal on your heavy cruiser, it seems a waste to fill up a lot of space with short range secondary guns too.  If you are playing a fleet game, there is no reason you can't completely forgo defensive armament and just squeeze in a load of the big offensive weapons, and then assign this sniper cruiser a close-in escort or two.  It applies in reverse as well.  If you design a shorter-range battering ram type ship, don't bother putting any long-range armament on it at all, squeeze in a truckload of carronades and just make sure the ship is fast enough to dictate the engagement range.

Well, I had a few other points I was going to hit, but I sort of droned on longer than I intended, and the whole purpose of this is to start a dialogue, so I will shut up and listen intently for someone else to pipe up.

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29 Reply by MajorTom

(14 replies, posted in Starmada)

You know me friend and I were playing the other day and that exact issue came up (whether CAP can initiate a dogfight)  We kind of kicked it around a bit and decided that they could not.  This is coming from both a strict interpretation of the rules (Combat Interception is allowed to move up to half it's move and make one attack when it reaches the adjacent hex) and from a gameplay standpoint.  If Combat Interception can initiate a dogfight, that means that any anti-shipping strike can be completely neutralized for several turns (dogfights usually take us at least 2-3 turns to resolve) without even making a single attack run.  Giving the defending player the first shot is bad enough, but to let them also interrupt the strike completely tips the balance too much in the favor of the CAP. 
Although on a somewhat related note, one thing we were wondering about is movement through enemy occupied hexes.  I know it says in the rules that opposing forces can't end their turn in the same hex, but can ships or flights pass through an opposing forces location.  We were thinking about instituting a house rule where any fighter flight that passed within one hex (or through the same hex) of an enemy flight would have to make it's attack against that flight and then stop one hex beyond.  This gives some of the same elements of CAP+dogfighting, the defending player does get to put up a sort of fighter wall, but the attacker still gets to be the one that holds the initiative. 
Just a thought, we haven't playtested it, but I think something like it might have potential.

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