RE: [FT] Fleet Survey #2: Best Fleets

NAC is a great fleet for campaigns. It does not rely on expendable
munitions. It has fair protection and good speed. They take a jack of
all
trades approach to ship design; few ships excel as any one task, but
work
fair for a multitude of tasks). Fighter carriers tend to be specialized.

ESU is, IMHO the best fleet out. It relies on Beams (good range/damage
mix)
for offense and screens for defense. Ships tend to have a higher
hull/mass
ratio. And like the NAC, they don't rely on expendable munitions.
Fighter
carriers tend to split between mass for fighters and weapons.

NSL can be very powerful. They rely on armor for protection which (until
FB2) provided protection from all weapons. The big drawback is that they
are
slow. Fighter carriers tend to split mass between fighters and weapons
(but
not as much as the ESU).

FSE can be powerful if played right and the player gets lucky. This
fleet
takes the most skill to play. Ships are more fragile than other fleets.
Ships are very fast, which helps some, but is generally not worth the
cost
(may have changed with FB2 Phalon). FSE relies on expendable munitions,
which REALLY hurts in a campaign. Fighter carriers are specialized.

KV is tough! Their weapons are very dangerous and have the same range as
P-Torps. They use LOTS of hull, but no armor or screens. They can turn
quickly. EXTRA dangerous in a game using vector movement.

SV interesting to play. Very flexible, but fairly fragile. Their heavy
weapons use hull as ammo, so they damage themselves for a chance to do
extra
damage to enemies. I have not played them enough yet to tell how tough
they
are. I imagine "custom-built" SV may be tougher than the standard ones.

Ph look to be fun. With an area effect weapon, they can be dangerous.
They
have a BIG drawback in the PDS area. They must use their main guns as
PDS,
so may not use it for normal fire. If I were to attack them, I would use
fighters/missiles to draw PDS fire then hit hard with normal weapons.
Their
multilayer armor will help this fleet against the KV K-guns and
penetrating
weapons.

---
Brian Bell
bkb@beol.net <mailto:bkb@beol.net>
http://members.xoom.com/rlyehable/ft/
ICQ: 12848051
AIM: Rlyehable
---

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
[mailto:owner-gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU]On Behalf Of Allan Goodall
Sent: Thursday, May 18, 2000 22:44
To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: [FT] Fleet Survey #2: Best Fleets

This is the second of two surveys I'd like to do.

So, here's the second survey: what official fleets do you think are the
"best"? And why? Are there any official fleets, from either fleet book,
that
really seem to be better than the others? Are there some that you just
like
from an aesthetic sense?

Personally, I like the design of the ESU ships in the fleet book, but
I've
never liked the figures aesthetically. I like the looks of the NSL
ships,
though. The aliens intrigue me. The Kra'vak are so "common" as far as
aliens
go, though, that I'm tempted to go for a Phalon fleet. Just my comments,
let's
hear yours...

Allan Goodall		       agoodall@interlog.com
Goodall's Grotto: http://www.interlog.com/~agoodall/

"Surprisingly, when you throw two naked women with sex
toys into a living room full of drunken men, things
always go bad." - Kyle Baker, "You Are Here"