I have made and posted my version of the Argo in the past...
But it has been a while.

Interesting.  have you made smaller ships, especially size one ships, harder for other ships to hit?

Even better than fighters, is using strikers.  These are much cheeper and while you are charging at the horde, these weapons are also doing the same.  Have them in flights of four.  Make sure to put level one shields on them because these cause one sixth of the hits on them to bounce off while not costing one sixth more.  All of my drones (Strikers)  have level one shields.
[We rarely use fighters down here, because they get shot down so easily, which makes them not too cost effective.]
Also, we have reserved any weapons that shoot farther than 18 to be for bases only.  Remember that weapons that shoot farther than 18 hexes are OPTIONAL. 8-)
Just do what we did:  Shipboard weapons in your games have a maximum range of 18. Period.
When you close, if there is still a horde with range 18 weapons, make sure you are close to a hex line/firing arc line to make it more difficult for single arc weapons to be able to keep firing.  Their player will have to guess which arc you will be in when you get to range 18 & Less... :geek:
Hordes Can be delt with effectively...

Which ship is that?  Was that from a Star Trek Voyager episode?

It IS Heresy...
But Heretics are welcome here and make this game more fun. 8-)

Welcome to Starmada and the Starmada forum.  I have been playing for c4 years and enjoy the game a great deal.  Before I discovered Starmada, my friends & I used to play Full Thrust.  Since I discovered Starmada, I haven't played Full Thrust any more.
Again, Welcome 

I like the idea of a fighter-bomber that gets +1 on hitting Starships, but -1 to hit fighters (& strikers, seekers, boarding pods).
Also the idea of an interceptor that gets +1 to hit fighers & etc., but -1 to hit Starships.
The addition of these two fighter traits would be invaluable.  I hope that strikers could use these too. 8-)

Hello, and welcome to the forum!
I think its great that your seven-year-old played Starmada and enjoyed it:  Awesome!!
If you are able to make forum-freindly pics of the Lego ships, I would love to see them.
I got my Dad and my nephew hooked on Starmada.  We have a lot of fun with it. 8-)

Upon viewing this information, the SJG-Fleet's Star Command HQ had one reply:
"Eeeeekkkk!!!!!" <LOL>  :?
You have seen this message b4...

I rarely use fighters.  They are simply too easy to shoot down, and rarely get to attack twice.  All of my ships have weapons that have no piercing or anything exotic.  They are reserved for AA fire.  I usually am able to shoot down most , if not all of the attacking fighters b4 they get into range.  All my weapons fire out to 18, which means that I will get at least one shot at the fighters. 8-)   
I don't put any AntiFighter batteries on my ships.  Their inability to shoot until after the fighters attacks makes them not worth their cost IMHO. :?

Hello everyone!
I am back in Jacksonville. My Nephew, Dad, and Gaming Glenn played several games of Starmada. My nephew (Psycho829) had made some excellent designs and I learned that my designs, needed to be made more lean. We had a great deal of fun.  We kept the max range of any weapon at 18, and the max tech at zero.  Most ships were speed four. 
Nearly all of our strikers were speed 15 which made them very effective.  I used "IonTorpedoStrikers: {1/3+/1/3/Piercing+1, Continuing Damage}  They can be brutal.  My nephew used something similiar.  These will strip off weapons & shields from even a big ship when it is hit by a cloud of 'em. 
Once again Armor Plating proved to be very much worth its cost. It helped protect from all weapons and will continue to be on everyone of my designs.  When calling out damage rolls, it wounded something like this: "...you take 5 hull, 2 engines, three shields, 4 weapons, and 3 (harmless) dents on yur armor plating..." :geek:
Happy New Year everyone.

I am traveling down to southern Florida again for Christmas. My gaming friends and I are playing Starmada Monday December 28th at
The Adventure Game Store owned by Gaming Glenn in Davie, Fla near Fort Lauderdale. We are playing at Noon. (We will also play on other days)
Everyone is welcome.
We will have convoy vs raider battles, fights over a planet, etc. We always have a blast when we play.

Bring your designs. There are only Five restrictions we have:
First, we don't use ammo/expendables.
Second, we don't use Piercing +3. However Piercing +1 & +2 are fine.
Third, we have now set the maximum range for Shipboard weapons at 18 hexes.  :shock: 
Fourth, the maximum Tech level in all catagories is Tech Zero.
Fifth, we Don't use the weapon ability "Repeating"