52 replies to this topic

[Tropical Bob]

Such is why Wraith Squadron had to mount external launch racks for the extra TIEs when they hijacked that Carrack-class Cruiser in Wraith Squadron. Or whichever book in or near that one that they did that in.

And, at least, I'm pretty sure it was a Carrack that they nabbed.

[sargeantsandwich]

Once i attacked an Independence-class dreadnought (I think that's what it's called) with as many carracks as i could fit on the map. I took absolutely no casualties and destroyed the dreadnought. some how I always end up messing around like that right before i win a campaign.

[Zeta1127]

Wraith Squadron actually hijacked the Night Caller, a heavily modified CR90 corvette capable of carrying a few fighters, though the point is most of the smaller ships don't carry many fighters.

[Tropical Bob]

Wraith Squadron actually hijacked the Night Caller, a heavily modified CR90 corvette capable of carrying a few fighters, though the point is most of the smaller ships don't carry many fighters.

Ah, right, a CR90, my bad. Same concept though. Small hangar, so they mounted brackets on the exterior.

I really need to go back through a lot of these books. Been way too long. A few years for many of them...

[engineermdh]

Interesting thing about Night Caller was how the Wraiths modified the cargo hold to carry 9 X-wings and replaced the escape pods with their 4 TIE Fighters. Nifty bit of engineering there.

Anyway, two primary fleets I use are star destroyer based. First one takes a Dominator class and 5 Imperial class destroyers or 4 Imperials and a Venator for the fighters. The tactic for this fleet is use 4 ISDs as the primary attack force, and keep the DSD and VSD a little behind to protect the rear of the formation. They work well in this role because both have better maneuverability than ISDs and the VSD is constantly dumping fighters that can either be sent to aid the attack or guard the rear. The weakness in this fleet is if the enemy has large numbers of bombers and fighter-killer type units.

The weakness in the first fleet is covered in the second fleet using Lancer class cruisers. A VSD, DSD, and 2 ISDs are each paired with 2 Lancers to focus on anti fighter/bombers duties. The DSD and ISDs move as the primary attack with the DSD in the center and the VSD guarding the rear. Each destroyer and screening lancers move as a unit, thus hopefully causing the destroyer to take most of the hits on its stronger shields while allowing the lancer to destroy attacking bombers and fighters. The biggest problems with this fleet are capital ship pathing issues and large groups of capital/dreadnought class ships hyperspacing into the rear of the formation. My preffered pathing fix is to control each destroyer and screen as a hot-key group, though this does not always work. The solution to capital ships in the rear depends on the rest of the tactical situation, but i have found that both turning to face the new threat and scattering and then creating a pincer can work.

I haven't given up on capital ships because of pathing yet, but there are days when it makes this go less favorably. . . .

[Tropical Bob]

Yeah, the bad pathing is why I usually put something like a fighter squadron or IPV in the advance slot so I can bring my ships into a good formation.

[Shas'la]

I can't wait for the changes to carriers in 1.2 myself - I'd love to use Venators more often, but they seem to take longer to produce than a goddamn Praetor-II, pricing aside.

As for pathfinder units, I can't bring myself to do this as the Empire, for some reason. Maybe I just can't resist the sight of a reeking massive fleet coming out of hyperspace.


Apart from that, the speed values of the different ISD variants are getting really confusing - I mean, come on, a Tector-IV's maximum speed is 48 MGTL, an Imperial-IV's is either 60 or 80 MGTL (been a while since I ended up upgrading the Imperial class), and a Dominator-IV's is 90 whopping MGTL, as if it were the heavy assault variant. This is precisely why I stopped using them in unison. Watching my Dominators charge into the fray, leaving the sluggish Tectors behind might make for a good laugh or two, but losing the more expensive and slow to produce ships is a huge setback. Making this worse is the fact that although the Dominator-IV's speed is so high, it's maneuverability is in line with the other variants. When one of them tries to turn around, it ends up speeding off the formation in it's maneuver, making a mess of all the Star Destroyers in the group. The times when I do use the Dominators now, I leave them in the rear to unload whatever upgrade tier their TIE Defenders are.

Edited by Shas'la, 06 January 2011 - 03:10 PM.

[Zeta1127]

It didn't take very much to modify the Night Caller, then there is the Loran Spitball, but that is something for a different time and thread...

[Pred the Penguin]

Long time guys... if anyone remembers me.

I was under the impression that the Night Caller wasn't your average corvette.

[Zeta1127]

Long time guys... if anyone remembers me.

I was under the impression that the Night Caller wasn't your average corvette.

Yeah, the Night Caller isn't your average CR90. She was heavily modified before Wraith Squadron got a hold of her.

[engineermdh]

attempting to be a emp minelayer, ambusher and pocket carrier would definitely qualify as not average.

@Tropical Bob
Yeah I have done the pathfinder thing too and sometimes i can pause right when I find how I want to deploy so I can set my formation up how I want without having to track each unit as it comes in. But, like Shas'la I agree that it is super cool watching a huge fleet revert to real-space.

[Pred the Penguin]

Anyway I've got weird issue to report I guess.

I was playing around in singleplayer skirmish just now, Imperial vs Imperial on Battle for Coruscant (love me some ISD on ISD action ). I was nearing the end, enemy wasn't really putting up much of fight and I was stocking up Star Destroyers for the final battle.

Anyway, I warp in the Chimera and all of sudden the enemy decides to counter with it's Tectors. This in itself is insignificant because the AI has been unpredictable before. I decided to warp in Piett's Accuser to tip the odds in my balance and those two Star Destroyers coupled with several fighter/bomber squadrons laid waste to everything.

All of sudden the enemy decides call up it's damn Praetor! That really gave me a jump, but my Accuser opened up with it's proton beam canon and destroyed it before it even had a chance to launch it's squadrons... Don't have pics cause it happened waaaaay too fast.

OP much?

Edited by Pred the Penguin, 11 January 2011 - 01:26 PM.

[Tropical Bob]

That's because the hyperspace duration has a damage multiplier on it, and the proton beam already does absurd damage.

[engineermdh]

In addition to what TB said, I'm pretty sure that shields are not operational until the ship has completely reverted to real-space which means that all damage is done directly to the hull. I have also noted that most of the time the shields do not come online after a ship reverts and takes damage. One good reason never to hyper a ship right into the primary firing arc of ships unless they are already swarmed with targets.

[Tropical Bob]

I do believe shields are active, since a ship can take minor fire and have it reflected as shield damage. The multiplier is just so high that often enough, shields are gone before the ship finishes it's reversion.

Despite it being a nice tactic, you have to really be careful when bringing ships into a battle, as they can die before finishing their reversion.

[Pred the Penguin]

Wasn't aware of that. *facepalm*
But it still seems to be doing a little too much damage. Thanks for tip anyway.

[SpardaSon21]

It is a beam cannon. It is supposed to do terrible, terrible massive damage.

[Zeta1127]

It is a beam cannon. It is supposed to do terrible, terrible massive damage.

I know another StarCraft fan when I see one, no one else would use terrible, terrible damage like that.

Yeah, well at least the proton beam has the potential to destroy more than one measly hardpoint like in the vanilla games.

[SpardaSon21]

I am a StarCraft fan (sort of), but that was actually a reference to something else that happened to be referencing StarCraft. If this Pred the Penguin is the same Pred the Penguin on Hard Light Productions who has already played WoD twice already, he should get it. Although a better line would be referencing a Lucrehulk and saying "Shoot the coreship for terrible, terrible damage!".

Edited by SpardaSon21, 12 January 2011 - 08:48 PM.

[Dominator]

My favourite fleet type is different for defense and attacks. For attacks I use Two Preator Dreadnoughts and two Tector Level 4 capital ships and the huge Exector class dreadnought and two Venator destroyers and Imperial Star destroyers. For defense I use more Gamma transport ships, very effective against dreadnougths and two Praetor Dreadnoughts and 5 Tector Star destroyers and one Imperial star destroyer.