Smudges Strategy Pointers (Short Fleet Guide)

[Smudge]

Cathaar CR Fleet
This will be the most productive fleet in the game in my eyes. The 2 Cathaar crusiers (Tarantula and Roach) are both have init 1and they target Frigates and Destroyers respective. This means that any non Cathaar possible anti CR is frozen; Barghest, Ghosts and Buccs all fire after Taras and Roachs, which make them a mighty foe. The only ship capable of targetting them is with the Cathaar Scarab. This will mean that Cath vs Cath battles will be less likely and any Cath CR fleets coming in, Scarabs will be used for defence. However, with Tara's and Roachs in numbers along with Hornets, a Cathaar CR fleet will be a difficult fleet to defend against. The one ship which can go up against Cath CR are Rogues

Terran Defence
Every galaxy will be wanting an active Terran in gal. The destroyer class Pegasus, which targets corvettes, has an init of 4. This means that it fires against all corvettes before they get a chance to target, with the exception of Fireblades and Arrowheads. This means that the Pegasus will be valuable ship for in-gal defence

Xandathrii Battleship Attacks
The Xandathrii battleship (the Broadsword), will be pivotal for battles against other races, with particular interest vs Terran Battleships. With the lowest anti BS (outside of Cathaars), the Xan BS/DE fleet will be looking for Terrans to pick off at due to the init levels.

Zikonian Stealing
Zikonian Stealing this round is going to be more interesting. With them finally getting a fighter class stealing ship (the Cutlass), that will make the first few days play (post protection) more interesting with different fleets possible. The Pirate (Battleship class, targeting and stealing Frigates) will be used against Cathaars as it will be a 0 loss attack (Black Widows targeting BS with EMP)

Well I hope you've enjoyed our time together and any feedback on this would be happily recieved as this is the first Strat. post I've written.

Edit: I modified the title of the thread a little just to make it more obvious what you are talking about and thus more useful for readers. I hope you dont mind -UN

[Gate]

Originally Posted by Smudge

Cathaar CR Fleet
The only ship capable of targetting them is with the Cathaar Scarab. This will mean that Cath vs Cath battles will be less likely and any Cath CR fleets coming in, Scarabs will be used for defence.

Personally, I disagree with this part. Even though it is quite efficient (far more so than the black widow vs terran BS for instance), the scarab will not be a hugely important anti CR ship IMO. In previous rounds it fired before roach/tarantula and so was absolutely vital to open up defending ships to return fire (in various rounds these have included drakes, bombers, peacekeepers etc). Under current stats, you need to stun every single cath cruiser to prevent them from capping roids and tbh, I don't think many caths will be able to afford enough scarabs to completely nullify another cath's spending on tarantulas and roaches + pods. In fact, as a cath, I'd be really tempted to hit other caths because I'm guaranteed that no matter how many resources the target spends, I would get free roids. Cath CR will have problems against defending guardians and rogues (or, if scarabs are sent to nullify rogues, then vipers/fireblades/wyverns) meaning they are not all that difficult to defend against IMO.

From a cath PoV, I think the spider/frigate fleet is actually the meanest thing you have. You can hit xands with it and it stuns all potential defence except for ingal tarantulas and syrens. Very tasty!

Otherwise; I personally favour zik FI and terran BS fleets. Terran BS are tough as hell and very hard to stop (I disagree with your broadsword assessment too, it's purely a defence ship IMO, as you can hit terrans with just xand frigates anyway!), whilst there should be plenty of zik FI in the uni, so targets should be under a lot of pressure to get defence. And with enough FI, you can nullify small numbers of harpies/arrowheads too! Oh yeah, xand FI/CO fleets are also really nasty things to deal with, but they don't have all that many targets so I left them out.

[isildurx]

I kinda disagree with the zik FIs.
The arrow is going to be such a fking bitch this round. Clearly it will be one of the most produced ships in my opinion, and they badly fk over zik FIs.

[Stoom]

I think Mantis will be more used then scarab, esp since Cr don't target Bs and Mantis kills.
Also agree with Gate on the Broadsword, that's more a def ship then used for offence (like Mantis).
What I didn't get is if you ment the Pirate to be an attack ship? Since it would be easy to just send Fr away. For ingal def it will be like the marauder last round (probably even better). Only Fr targeting Pirates are BW and that means 0 loss.

[Gate]

Originally Posted by isildurx

The arrow is going to be such a fking bitch this round. Clearly it will be one of the most produced ships in my opinion, and they badly fk over zik FIs.

However, it's one of the most important attack ships too... so it's quite likely to be out and it's very hard to fake. And with arrows, it's almost all or nothing due to them getting stolen back; meaning a lot of arrows must be sent to cover each call, meaning DCs have less fleets available to cover other calls. Unlike previous rounds when all you needed to stop xand FI was a handful of sentinels!

As a zik I would also know that stealing xand corvettes is very important; fireblades can help remove the thread of cath DE/CR combos, whislt arrowheads can help deal with xan FI/CO combos and really toughen my planet up. So I do think that zik FI will perform very well. Particularly as terrans should be capping a lot of roids; as always, they have good attack fleets and they're most vulnerable to zik FI!

[Random]

Originally Posted by Smudge

Xandathrii Battleship Attacks
The Xandathrii battleship (the Broadsword), will be pivotal for battles against other races, with particular interest vs Terran Battleships. With the lowest anti BS (outside of Cathaars), the Xan BS/DE fleet will be looking for Terrans to pick off at due to the init levels.

What a waste that would be since Xan don't have BS pods.

I was gonna say something earlier but I was hoping you would have realized the mistake sooner.

[isildurx]

Very nice post Gate

If you refer to the xan roiding fleet, the only way i can see a co attack fleet succeeding much is if you send fighters with it(since Recluse\Thiefs\Pheonixes\Tzens all are 0 loss anti xan co), making the way open to all kinds of low eta anti fi def.

I particularly see any really good atatck combos for xan this round, theyre however gonna be a bitch to take roids from(if youre not a big cath cr h0e)

[Gate]

Originally Posted by isildurx

If you refer to the xan roiding fleet, the only way i can see a co attack fleet succeeding much is if you send fighters with it(since Recluse\Thiefs\Pheonixes\Tzens all are 0 loss anti xan co), making the way open to all kinds of low eta anti fi def.

Actually, I reckon the xand CO fleet is going to be quite difficult to stop for an alliance too; just that it really doesn't have that many targets like you say!

The recluse doesn't actually kill anything, so we're probably going to be seeing caths getting hit quite a bit by xand CO (we all remember how 'effective' the beetle has been against xan FI in previous rounds, right? ), whilst xand FI/CO can hit ziks easily enough. I'd expect some ziks don't even bother wasting their time on assassins so FI won't be needed (or, very few sacrificial ones will be). Since terrans will be wanting pegs, I think a lot of them won't build that many phoenix (like some xands building lancers > arrowheads last round!), so CO could be surprisingly difficult for DCs even though on paper it doesn't look that great. And considering xand FR is ripped apart by pulsars easily enough, I think we will see quite a lot of xands go the CO route...

But overall I'm agreeing with you, xands don't seem to be quite so strong in attack as the other races are, but as always they can cause nasty damage and so are hopefully more likely to hang on to their rocks!

[Banned]

Originally Posted by Gate

In fact, as a cath, I'd be really tempted to hit other caths because I'm guaranteed that no matter how many resources the target spends, I would get free roids.

Mantis?

[furball]

Well, this round the Mantis is a ship which targets BS->CR, so there's a definite use for it compared to the Guardian, which was hopeless unless used on in-gal defence. Since the Scarab's initiative change has made it a lot less useful, then we may see DCs asking their Caths to build Mantis instead (if the Cath isn't using Scarabs on attack).

[isildurx]

Well Gate.

I am pretty sure atleast later in the round any medium\large planet(i always do atleast) builds a nice amount of 0 loss killers, so im pretty sure as the round goes on Pheonixes will be a very popular ship.

As for people building Interceptors and Harpys im not sure how much will be built, will be interesting to see imo.

[Gate]

Originally Posted by Banned

Mantis?

Hah, obviously, my mistake. I got far too distracted about the whole scarab thing. And I agree with furby, as a DC I'd definitely prefer to see guardians offered than scarabs!

[isildurx]

Who wouldnt?

Zero loss ships are great, and chances of loadsa mantis raoming around the uni is pretty high.

Overall i see most races are good at defending their own planet, the probability of which race being 'best' in my opinion will depend partly on how the uni ratios look like. Theyre pretty even atm, but who knows what might happen.

[Marv]

<3 Smudge

[Cannon_Fodder]

The scarabs worth is reduced by the inits of cath cr, but it is almost twice as effective per resource as the mantis

[Bromcrysal]

That depends on your definition of effective... In terms of stopping more ships in a battle, yes, the scarab is more effective. But since this game is not a single battle, I would rate kill ships highter than emp. Personally, I'd be sorely torn if I had to choose between killing half an attacking fleet, and EMPing all of it.

Of course, it's entirely possible that I don't know what I'm talking about

[Explode]

Originally Posted by Smudge

Cathaar CR Fleet
This will be the most productive fleet in the game in my eyes. The 2 Cathaar crusiers (Tarantula and Roach) are both have init 1and they target Frigates and Destroyers respective. This means that any non Cathaar possible anti CR is frozen; Barghest, Ghosts, Buccs and Rogues all fire after Taras and Roachs, which make them a mighty foe. The only ship capable of targetting them is with the Cathaar Scarab. This will mean that Cath vs Cath battles will be less likely and any Cath CR fleets coming in, Scarabs will be used for defence. However, with Tara's and Roachs in numbers along with Hornets, a Cathaar CR fleet will be a difficult fleet to defend against.

Terran Defence
Every galaxy will be wanting an active Terran in gal. The destroyer class Pegasus, which targets corvettes, has an init of 4. This means that it fires against all corvettes before they get a chance to target, with the exception of Fireblades and Arrowheads. This means that the Pegasus will be valuable ship for in-gal defence

Xandathrii Battleship Attacks
The Xandathrii battleship (the Broadsword), will be pivotal for battles against other races, with particular interest vs Terran Battleships. With the lowest anti BS (outside of Cathaars), the Xan BS/DE fleet will be looking for Terrans to pick off at due to the init levels.

Zikonian Stealing
Zikonian Stealing this round is going to be more interesting. With them finally getting a fighter class stealing ship (the Cutlass), that will make the first few days play (post protection) more interesting with different fleets possible. The Pirate (Battleship class, targeting and stealing Frigates) will be used against Cathaars as it will be a 0 loss attack (Black Widows targeting BS with EMP)

Well I hope you've enjoyed our time together and any feedback on this would be happily recieved as this is the first Strat. post I've written.

haha....i like the way you think...
im liken the strats your throwing out...keep them coming...