Discussion of Frigates & Cruisers

from Sins Forums
Hey everyone,

I just wanted to see what others thought. Currently I find that I don't really use many of the frigates and cruisers available. This is based on only playing against the AI, not multiplayer, which does not interest me.

I typically skip or produce very few of the following:

Scout Frigate-It's just too weak to stand up in a fight, and too much of a pain to micro-manage it's exploration. And setting it to auto-explore results in it being killed all the time.


Siege Frigate-Too weak to stand up in a fight, beelines for the planet and gets killed quickly by defenders. I just use my capships for planetary bombardmant


Colonizing Frigate-Again, too weak to stand up in a fight and generally gets itself killed unless I'm micro-managing. I'd rather use a cap ship with the colonizing ability


Anti-Fighter Frigate-Typically not utilized in very large numbers, as I usually require ships that can destroy other ships. Fighters & Bombers aren't too big an issue.


Light Carrier Cruiser-My problem with these is that they only field one squadron of fighters or bombers. They also tend to hang back from the rest of the fleet, making them sitting ducks for any enemies that jump into the system, as they don't have any firepower of their own.





I would really like to see less ship classes/types and more combined rolls for many of them. I don't see why a Carrier wouldn't have gun batteries of it's own. I don't see why a Frigate would be produced that can only bomb a planet or only defeat fighters, etc.

If I recall from Star Wars Rebellion (a game for the PC) there was a Nebulon-B Frigate that could hold it's own against fighters or larger ships.

I just think if I was designing a war fleet in real life I wouldn't make each ship so specialized. Look at today's planes. They can tackle air or ground targets, although some of them are better at one or the other, but still capable of doing both. Same with battleships, carriers, etc.


So what does everyone else think? Remember, this is based only on solo play against the AI, not multiplayer.
28,034 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
yup thats your problem. if you continue to have that mindset on those ships you will get pounded very quickly. just a quick summary.

scout: yeah, they get destroyed, so build more, they're cheap anyway. almost the most imporant thing in strategy games is information. knowing that your enemy has a huge fleet waiting just next to you is about as valuable as a small fleet.

siege: try them. seriously. wait until most of the major fight is over, then bring them in. or inlcude them in smaller raid groups. capships alone take a long time to finish off planets, time you often dont have. also, if you are having trouble with them running into defense lines, try "hold position" and manually order them in. its a bit of micro, but not terrible.

colony: well, you don't immediately take them with your fleet do you? they can only really be used when the enemy planet has been wiped out, so they usually dont even have enemy contact the way I use them.

anti fighter frigs: trust me, when you see some players having 25+ light carriers plus capships, you will wish you had built them. although in my experience they don't even do their job extremely well, but that's another matter entirely.

light carriers: again, try them, they are quite useful if you know how to use them. of course you need to be careful with stationing them, as if an enemy jumps out right next to them, they're space dust.

no, in general I like the system as it is.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
So what does everyone else think? Remember, this is based only on solo play against the AI, not multiplayer.


That's the big problem though.

The current AI is so bad that you'll easily can win every game by just using capital ships.

This of course makes using frigates superfluous.

I would really like to see less ship classes/types and more combined rolls for many of them. I don't see why a Carrier wouldn't have gun batteries of it's own. I don't see why a Frigate would be produced that can only bomb a planet or only defeat fighters, etc.


Balance mostly. Also specialization is often better then jack-of-all-trades ships.

The thing is, different ships fulfill different roles for which they need to be different. Flak frigates for example, need to be fast and agile with a high firing rate to effectively combat bombers and fighters. An anti-ship frigate needs to be sturdy and powerful. Those roles exclude each other.

A planet bombardment frigate only needs to be sturdy to survive long enough to destroy the planet, it just doesn't need weapons against other ships since even if it had those weapons, it would first not be very effective at fighting other frigates and secondly it would conflict with it's primary role which is to bombard planets.

Or the carrier, it's primary role is to field a squadron of fighters/bombers and replace their losses. For this it doesn't need to be very fast or powerful. It has to stay out of harms way to do it's role effectively, which is to carry fighters/bombers.

But all in all, most frigates get useful when playing against a competent enemy. Sadly, the AI is not a competent enemy, so the frigates aren't that useful against them compared to capital ships or even needed against them.
Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
My first Scout Frigate (TEC) usually last the entire game, when you activate auto explore, also click hold position, that way, it does not engage the enemy, but rather only scouts! <3
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Thanks LordKosc, I didn't know that.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
Pretty much what they said. Better AI is in work hopefully, but to truly test your fleets you need to go up against a human opponent. I agree with you that against the AI all you really need is the cap ships. Sometimes the AI will surprise you, but that is rare.

The Scout is cheap, and quick to build so if it gets toasted just build more of them, or build a swarm, and have then all auto explore. Like Kosc said use hold position to keep them from auto engaging. You cant plan attacks, or defense without intelligence so this would make the scout very important.

Colony Frig i pretty much agree with you that there is no need for it if you have an Akkan, or Evacuator as a flagship, But if you want to colonize quickly they make good backup colonizers, or if there is an out of the way planet you dont want to take your cap ships to.

Siege Frigs are self explanatory. Their sole purpose is to nuke planets. Bring them in after the defenses are gone. Planet will be yours that much faster. Also you can move your fleet on to another objective, and have siege frigs, and a colonizer jump in.

Do not underestimate the power of the Light Carrier. If used properly these things can be deadly (everyone remembers the beta 2 LC spam). If you have no flak frigates, and run into a horde 25 or more of these your ether dead, or running away.

Flak Frigs are the counter to the Carriers. The carriers are useless without their strike craft. Build them. Use them. You will thank us later

By themselves a particular frigate is vulnerable, but if used in groups with other frigs (with the exception of the siege frig) You can form a formidable strike force's to augment your cap ship fleets. Combine some of the cruisers along with it for repair, and buff/debuff ability's.







Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

Or the carrier, it's primary role is to field a squadron of fighters/bombers and replace their losses. For this it doesn't need to be very fast or powerful. It has to stay out of harms way to do it's role effectively, which is to carry fighters/bombers.


More importantly, anything set up to field fighters probably isn't all that well set up for ship-to-ship combat. Nice, wide, undefended fighter bays are a must to launch / recover / maintain fighters, but are a nightmare to defend. Thats a simple extension of the fact that fighters these days require a -- very! -- specialized craft to handle the role of a carrier.
The Scout is cheap, and quick to build so if it gets toasted just build more of them, or build a swarm, and have then all auto explore.


Don't they all head to the exact same place, or has that gotten fixed?

Fighters & Bombers aren't too big an issue.


Sorry, but... Rofflecopter! While strike craft are of the most use in a stars gravity well, they are a powerfuladdition to your forces anywhere on the field of battle.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
Don't they all head to the exact same place, or has that gotten fixed?


Yep, they all pick separate destinations.
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top


Yep, they all pick separate destinations.


Cool -- I got really tired of manually sending them to a dozen different places.
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
I've been building two scouts at the start of the game and setting them to auto since beta 3 came out.
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
Most people have covered everything that needs to be said but I'll add this:

I was in a 3 player FFA recently, and I had 3 planets to my neighbors 6 and 5 or so.

Meaning they had double my economy... I built 8 Siege Frigates, took my fleet, and at the right time I hit an enemy HW and anhilated the planet in about 4 minutes.

Crippling him, he was soon crushed. I was then crushed by the remaining opponent.

THe use fo the siege frigate is obvious... you simply cannot kill planets quickly like that with capital ships, and the whole rapid insertion would not have been possible without...

a 200 credit Scout Ship.
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
I've been building two scouts at the start of the game and setting them to auto since beta 3 came out.


Er, thats not what I'm talking about. Build a half dozen scouts, select them all, then turn on autocast. They all (used) to head for the exact same place.