Moo 1

[neutrino]

Don't forget, or discount, huges with Autorepair. They are great for an early game breakout if you get a decent bomb and beam along with them (sheilds help as well). One of these huges can singlehandedly capture and hold worlds and can take down entire fleets. It is not a tactic you should ALWAYS use, but it can be quite effective in the right situations nonetheless.

yup! i think a HP is likely to want Autorepair included in huge hulls; after all, the huges are expensive investment and must be protected.

when i design and build huges, i first max out on protective systems (i.e., shields, ECM, Autorepair). i then install beam weapons like Pulse Phasor (handy against fighters as it fires 3 times per round). i also install heavier beam weapons (i.e., Disruptor, Stellar Converter, the Mauler Device). that usually fills up my weapons slots #1 - #3. if i still have enough space left for #4, i then add missiles or torpedoes to provide long-range crunch power.

in the middlegame, i usually design and build the huges primarily to kill CP larges and huges w/ 'anti-fighter' equipments (i.e., Pulsars, Repulsor Beam).

i think the huges become truly fearsome in the endgame, when enough miniturisation has taken place. then, my huges are stacked w/ arrays of brutal weapons!

 

[Zed-F]

Actually, for anti-fighter work, autoblaster is probably better than pulse phasors. They miniaturize much better so you can fit a lot more on. It's true they are more vulnerable to having their effectiveness degraded by heavy shielding, but then autofire weapons aren't generally your best choice against heavily shielded targets to begin with.

As far as protecting your huges go, that's all well and good, but under most circumstances I'd still avoid the ECM. It's simply not a cost effective use of hull space or money. Maneuver and stabilizers, or Zyro/Lightning fields if you're worried about missles, would be a better option.

As far as smalls becoming obsolete in the late game, that's just not true. There are ways small ships can get around repulsor beams. One is to simply go around the repulsor ship and strike a target that doesn't have repulsors, like the planet. Another is to equip cloaking devices, as they can't be repulsed as long as they are cloaked. A third is to mount missles or other longer-ranged weapons on your fighters. And, if you have high initiative and the enemy repulsor ship doesn't have 2-space weapons, you can always have your small beamers wait for the enemy ship to come to them.

Then again, I don't like larger maps, so my games rarely last long enough to see the last third of the tech tree. Fusion engines + fusion bombs = small bomber death. Even moreso if I happened to get stabilizers.

 

[neutrino]

i max out on defensive systems for the huges, because by then, i have loads of RPs to squander. i usually do not go for the larges and the huges, unless i am filthy rich.

my preferred tactic against enemy larges and huges armed w/ Repulsar and/or Pulsar is to have some of my ships equipped w/ High Energy Focus. missiles and torps have longer range, but they do not inflict damage instantly.

as for fighters becoming obsolete, it happened to me several times, in those games where i got sucked into early wars. for example, my Psilon empire had 8 colonies and i was busy developing them. the first contact w/ the Alkaris soon followed. w/o waiting, the Alkaris launched a major invasion. i was forced to allocate RPs for fighter production. when combat started taking place, it turned out that the Alkaris outclassed me in weapons and shields. (my propulsion tech was one step superior, though.) because much of Alkari fleet lacked coordination, my inferior fighters were able to limit their advances. (i think one glaring AI weakness is that they do not manage campaigns efficiently.) but the Alkaris had a stronger economy (their empire was over twice as big as mine), which meant that they could afford a war of attrition. i had to come up w/ better fighters right away, but i had to wait for advancement in weapons tech. bloody darn .... only half of my empire was fully developed and they were committed to fighter production. RPs for my research was becoming precarious. but the game was fun as the Psilon-Alkari war was challenging!

 

[Zed-F]

Of course, there are many ways to deal with repulsor-armed ships. And of course, any individual design can become obsolete. But small hulls in general never become obsolete, which is what you seemed to say earlier.

 

[neutrino]

yeah ... i did not mean to imply that the smalls become obsolete. i should have spefically talked about how frequently a particular small design becomes obsolete, especially in the early and in the middle games.

you are right in that the smalls in general never become obsolete. i think because they are the easiest means to mass firepower. plus, they are less of a drain to your economy: you can allocate a small fraction of RPs throughout your colonies for a fighter production run at a steady pace during peaceful times. by the time war breaks out, you are ready.