Re: Roles of various ship classes

> Sure. But a thrust 8 heavy cruiser costs 50% more than a thrust 4
heavy
> cruiser, and three thrust 4 cruisers with turreted batteries will most
> likely eat your two thrust 8 cruisers (one PT-armed and one
> escort-swatter).

It is closer to 4:3 in cost ratio.  Seriously, if we are using
4 Mass for Pulse Torpedos, 4 mass for 2 Arc A Beams, 5 Mass for
3 arc A Beams, I'll take two Pulse Torpedo Cruisers and an
escort swatter with Thrust 8 vs almost any 4 cruisers with
thrust 4 you care to put them against.	At the very least it
will be an even fight, and having faster ships gives me
the ability to run away or pursue, a very useful strategic
option.

I'll take Level-3 shields, 2 PTs and a PDAF, and
Level-3 shields, A PC Beam and A CS Beam and a PDAF

> > True, but the escort-swatter would also have good shields as
> > well.  Their fleet role would be duel with less heavily shielded
> > cruisers and escorts.  I ran a 3 shield Heavy Cruiser with
> > 2 A Beams and ripped apart a Cruiser-Escort squadron built on
> > twice its points.
> 
> :-) Beam-armed or PT-armed? :-)

Beam armed.  If they had been PT-armed the cruiser would not
have survived some rather poor ship handling I did at first.

> > My favorite way to destroy SMP ships is to hit them while they
> > are out of submunition range.
> 
> While I agree with the theory, I have to ask: What speeds to you fly
at? My
> table is big enough for speeds of 40 or higher, which gives any
capitals a
> very limited time to shoot any SMP ships even with AA batteries -
provided,
> of course, that the attack boats manage to position themselves
properly and
> don't overshoot. One salvo at range 40 or more usually isn't enough...

I have to ask, if that is the speed you are flying at, how do you
manage to be within good SMP range at all?  Even an 8 thrust ship
can't do a U-turn if it misses on the first pass.  If the target
is spread out in a large fleet I can see a few successful SMP
strikes.  Thrust 2 ships can't dodge usefully, but that just
proves my point about the advantages of faster cruisers.  Like
missiles, a good defense against submunition ships is a lot
of speed, as the area of their most effective range is close
to that of missiles.

> Yes. I go with the system in the FT book - each player fires one ship
in
> turn. That ensures that the big ships can fire early if they want to.
> 
> Oerjan Ohlson

Michael Sandy