Newbie: Spaceships 101

Well, battleships are good for exactly as long as it takes you to research and build some dreadnoughts.

As for the monsters, I think you need the dreadnoughts. Otherwise, just lead them into another empire. They're not very fast, so it shouldn't be too hard to stay ahead of them.

~SDC~

Er, "battleships are good against monsters for exactly as long as it takes..."

They're still good otherwise, since they have deterrent value. They're pretty worthless once the AI starts wandering around with overlords and rangers or what-have-you. That is, unless you have +300-500% military bonuses. But in that case, you're killing the monsters with corvettes.

~SDC~

So at what point should I even think about building ships other then trade, constructors, and science?

Battleships (only a couple) then focus on Dreadnoughts until I research better?

What about defense? It seems like there are no good defensive ships prior to the battleship (which isn't defensive anyhow).

On the contrary, battle axes are very good on the defense, as are the defenders before them.

You should start building defenders as soon as you get them (one-two to each system), build some corvettes when you get those. Build battle axes for every system when you get them, build battle cruisers and frigates if you're at war and get the techs.

When you get to battleships, how many you build is determined by the same factors that determine whether you build star fighters and corvettes: Do you need military strength to keep the other civs from going to war with you? Do you need ships to fight a war that the other civs declared because you were too weak to fight them and couldn't or wouldn't pay their extortion? Do you need to take out another empire right that moment?

You should be building military ships throughout the game. It's just that the battleships are the first really powerful ships, and dreadnoughts are cheaper to build than battleships (but cost more maintenance).

If you go with what you ask about in your message, the other races will demand money, tech, systems, etc. from you.

Oh - you can also use older ships as gifts to another civ when you want to improve relations, or you can simply sell them.

~SDC~

You said be sure to get the techs - this poses another related question.

If I have a BattleAxe (2 attack, 5 defense) and I research a tech that gives +10 attack, where does that tech go? Do only new ships get it (can old ones be upgraded?) or is the +10 unrelated to the core stats: 2/5?

(thanks for your patience, this info is quite helpful)

The +10 attack is +10% to your attack "ability." You can look at your abilities in your Domestic screen, "Stats" tab, upper left.

It adds 10% to the attack rating of all your ships. So your Battleaxe would get a 2.2 (which is meaningless without other bonuses - GalCiv always rounds down). On the other hand, an Avatar would go from an Attack of 14 to an attack of 15.4 (or 15). Of course, by the time you get Avatars, you'll probably have sufficiently high bonuses that they'll show up on all of your ships.

Anyway, when you upgrade attack, defense, hit points, movement, range, or repair, all of your ships are automatically upgraded. You don't need to refit or replace them.

~SDC~

For defense, unless I am currently at war which means of course I need more ships, I generally have one defender and one Battleaxe per system. These I build right when I get the tech to build them. Occasionaly adding something extra like a Battle Cruiser or Battle Hammer at key systems. Also Once I ge the better ships during peace time I make one fleet that includes a few represenatives of the best current ship plus what had been in the fleet before and not destroyed yet. If I go to war, which doesnt happen every game, I start haveing my high production planets pump out masses of the best possible ships and group them into fleets. Depending on my finances these extra fleets are often disbanded after the war.

~SDC~