Ship assessments?

from Stardock Forums
Still a newbie as I'm just finishing my 2nd game (Painful, Medium this time), and I seem to play a lot slower than others because I can only finish a game every 2 weeks.

Anyway, here's my initial assessment of the various ships and I wanted to solicit some more seasoned opinions:

Starfighter: Not worth the plastic they're built out of.

Corvette: Dead-end tech, quickly obsolete, why bother? Minor elation if I hot-wire 1 or 2 early.

Defender: Decent ship to defend a colony, especially early or if time is tight.

Battle Axe: Better ship to defend a colony. Can even give Battleships a hard time in orbit.

Cruiser: Never built any as I prefer the Frigate. Painful AI doesn't seem to build any either.

Frigate: Like it a lot. Good speed/range/hp, great fighting ship in the early game.

Battleship: Mixed feelings. I will build a few before I get Dread tech. A little light on the speed/range though.

Battlehammer: Can't make up my mind. Are these guys defenders or attackers? Jack of all trades but master of none?

Dreadnought: Awesome, love them! Most powerful ship for a long period of time.

Rangers: Great ship. Better than Dreadnought, though the exploration angle ain't worth much.

Star Hawk: Useless? Never built one.

Avatar: No experience. Haven't needed one yet ...

Overlord: No experience

Excalibur: No experience

And in the miscellaneous categories, of course Scouts, Survey ships and Sensor Drones are quite useful.

Any other opinions?
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Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Regarding the AMM's, they're great for bombardment- akin to the nuke in Civ2, but less powerful- they knock out three or four ships and destroy. Great way (and often the only way) to knock out that level 4 dreadnought that the Yor has...
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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Just realized I wasn't clear - they're basically a one and done weapon that blows and takes a few ships with it.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
In my current game the Altairians are defending their homeworld with 4 Dreads and 3 Battleships. If I nuke 'em with AMMs, what negative effects will there be on the planets in that system?
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
I don't believe that there are any negative affects to anti-matter missles.
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
I build starfighters for rushing and deterrance. Then BCs or frigates depending on situation - BCs can take out defenders, frigates are needed for battleaxes. Thing is that Turbo Phasers can be bought relatively cheaply from AI so I can get Turbo Phasers quite a while before Interstellar Tactics.

Then I move on to the Capital ships. I seldom build defenders as I practise mobile defense (no orbiting defenders on my systems). I build some battlehammers to guard my Starbases though.
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
I research straight to AMM's. They are very powerful, fast to build, and only cost 1 maint. I build hundreds, yes hundreds at a time, and I easily gain military superiority with them. I never build anything else, just AMM's and Combat Transports.
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I build lots of AMMs for cheap deterrance and planetary invasions as well.
AMMs are also excellent for arms trade.

The game is usually won once you can reach dreadnought without getting into too many wars.
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
Drizzt,

I frequently build lots of Starfighters and/or Corvettes early on, as at the higher difficulty levels, it is vitally important to maintain military "parity" vis-a-vis the computer. If you do not keep in 2nd or 3rd place on the Mil graph, you will be attacked at Crippling & Maso difficulties.

Once this immediate goal is achieved, I usually wait until Dreadnoughts are available. DN's compose my first offensive force. I sell or trade most of my SF's/'vettes off at this point, to reduce maintenance (although I do keep 8-10 SF's to combine with Hero and obtain a strong fleet bonus for its combats).

I generally prefer ships to AMM's, but they are useful to eliminate Avatars or seriously damage Overlords/Excaliburs. Since they benefit from shipyard and SB module bonuses as well, it is not uncommon late game to be able to produce 400+ ATT-strebgth AMM's. These can take out most anything - even Terror Star or a completely fortified SB. At only 300iu's, it is cheaper to expend one of them, than take a chance at losing an Avatar, OL or Excalibur.

~SDC~
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
Starfighters - agreed, waste of resources.

Corvettes & Frigates - I usually get there pretty fast, so I build them as fast as I can. It's not uncommon for me to have packs of 10 of these roaming the grid for me. By the time I'm making Rangers or better, these ships become throw-aways or trading fodder for the less fortunate races.

Transports - I usually wait until I have combat transports before I go invading.

Defenders, BattleAxes BattleHammers - good ships, but they don't get to stray too far. I'm a warmonger so that's not a useful attribute. You want a kick-butt ship to park in orbit and protect your systems? Combat Transports, baby!!!!!

Battleships - agreed, a good stop-gap until Dreadnoughts.

Dreadnought/Ranger/Avatar/Overlord/Excalibur - At this point, I just shift my building to the next level capital ship as soon as i can. Although I'll usually just build one Excalibur for show and just keep putting Overlords into production.

Phoenix - Not good in stand-up fire-fights. If you fight one-on-one battles or ambushes, then it's a good choice.

Starhawk - eh, save the money and build another Survey Ship.

Anti-Matter Missles - I've never seen mine get higher than 125 ATT. I suppose if I could build them at the 300 to 400 ATT level, I'd probably use them. But in general, I prefer ships, they can attack multiple targets and if the survive, they can (slowly) self repair.
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
Starfighters - Corvettes better in all ways

Corvettes - Good Bang for the buck, nice early attack, also very good role player later in the game

Battlecruisers - too weak, use these if your military bonus is lower than other civilizations and use to play the role that corvettes usually play

Pheonix - strategically sound - better
Transports - early rush - very effective, 1 billion pop usually takes out a planet

BattleAxe and BattleHammer - if you play defensively these ships play their role well, but not really the military deterence that you are looking for

Frigates - fast, nice range, non-capital ships real easy. frigate rush is an excellent tactic. a good role player after capital ships are in play, takes out weak ships in orbit so captial ships can do something worthwhile

BattleShip - build some of these, necessary to keep offensive power until dreadnoughts

Dreadnoughts - excellent fire power can manage 3 battle ships if it's on the offensive

Rangers - better due to speed and site

Avatar - not so great, stick with Rangers

Overlords - never use these

Excalibur - the most powerful ship and quite expensive

Phoenix - replaces the frigate later in the game. takes more damage, but doles it out too

AMM - paper tiger military and if you are inferior in military this is the way to go, defensive capital ships and AMMs stonewall ships
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
I think Starfighters are great for early deterrence (I play at Normal). They are cheap and can be produced quickly so I can soon have a little fleet of them, I leave them in orbit which gets me high enough on the strength graph to deter the AI for a long time. I can then develop in peace until I get battleships. The Starfighters are wonderful for deterrence but not much use in a fight (cheapness and speed make them ideal for chasing constructors and colony ships and disrupting trade though).

Having been able to develop peacefully I have the ability to churn out battleships and later dreadnoughts. The battleship is quite a decent sort of unit but the Dreadnoughts are seriously useful.