Re:Small Ships--Why?

Tomb wrote-

8) To make them effective, try replacing some
of the beam armament with longer ranged
weapons such as: MTM, SMR-ER, Beam-3, Pulse
Torpedo. I find the P-torp DD (used in
squadrons) can make a nasty suprise - take a
run in, fire about 20 mu out, turn away. You
won't take that many casualties without the
enemy focusing a lot of firepower on you, and
you will do him some damage if you roll even
okay. And you can keep attacking (superior to
SMR-ER in terms of longevity of threat on the
battlefield - though SMRs give good one off
punch).

That is something I`ve tried. SMR armed DD`s are useful if you have a
SML/R
capitol in company. In situations like this, the DD adds it`s missiles
to
the number coming from the big boy`s, and helps you overload the PDS of
the
target (I alway like, but don`t often get, more missiles on a target
than it
has PDS).

10) I agree with the advice about trailing or
flanking. I don't agree with the "firebait" advice.
If your escorts preceed your force, they usually
are 1 RB closer, unscreened, and can be
induced to threshold with very minimal difficulty.
So very light amounts of fire render them
combat inoperative. The same fire would, if
directed at larger vessels, need to be far more
concentrated (range, sheilds, long damage
rows) to do anything useful. I can kill a large
number of beam 1 armed corvettes before
they ever see engagement range.... and thus I
destroy say 10-15% of your total NPV before
they can be combat effective (if I myself have
opted for an all large ship fleet). So try to get
long range weapons for your small guys, park
them behind the fleet (unless using them as
scouts, and once they locate the enemy, they
should be beating thrusters to get away to
safety having done their job) or off to one side,
thus presenting a threat "for later use". I don't
like small ships as PDS escorts, they tend to
attract fighters, SMs, MTs, and lots of beams
thus stripping the formation of PDS. I happen
to be a strong proponent of the light to
medium cruiser (or larger) PDS barge (if in the
kind of environment that merits heavy PDS).

Little guys with PDS are easily killed, but if in close escort of the
big
boys, they are diverting fire from the big boy`s at the same time as
providing PDS support (while they suvive). Having said that, my favorite
is
my cataphract CLE (which also means that if any of my regualrs see a
mass 50
cruiser in close escort of a heavy, it become the main target of the
beam
weapons).

Also, a question about FB1 designs. Has anybody tried the FSE SDN
(forgot
the name) with it`s fighter bays replaced with SML`s and ammo. What I`m
asking is that the extra SML`s to overload the targets PDS more useful
in
battle than the fighter groups it comes with as normal?

BIF

"Yorkshire born, yorkshire bred,
strong in arms, thick in head"