Beta Frigs... a sad reality

True. I just use Scout Swarms until I can tech up to captitals. Then I just use fleets of 12-20 capital ships. Only useful frigate is the construction frigate.

The battles do seem the same after a while though...AI swarm of scout frigates vs. my swarm of scout frigates...

Sorry, double post.

I have a feeling that as we get better at the game (and hopefully that formations are introduced) garda flak frigs will preform a bigger roll.

They excell at taking out fighters/bombers, and as such could do well as escort ships. Currently they don't due to the fact that there's no way to keep them close to the ships they're supposed to be escorting.

My army usually consist of about 300 frigates and like 10 capital ships, capitals only provide support and its just usually an Sova Carrier, KoL Batleship, and Akkans.

Even the AI builds scout swarms, I've encountered over 40 at a time....

You should re-address you strategy then. 20 capital ships won't do much against a proper fleet of frigates in a MP game. Guess you guys will see this in due time. My fleets usually consist of about 450 frigates (mixture of heavy, flak, siege, and scouts) then I'll have about - on average - 5 or 6 capital ships. That's all you need. Think about modern navies. You have a lot of small frigates, one carrier and maybe 2 battleships. Realistically. frigates are the core of your fleets and should be in this game. In big numbers, scout frigates really powerful. Then take that up a step, heavy's are ridiculously good in large numbers. How many heavies does it take ot take on a capital ship? NO idea. Im sure it isn't that much though

Plus the frigates can act as cannon fodder to protect your pricey capitals, that can last you an entire game as they recharge up their shields between battles.

thats not the point. I'm not talking empty strategies like "FILL UP ON THE SCOUT FRIGS!!!" I want a little more depth than there only being one type of viable army setup. and with the current ships, thats all there is.

you can argue that scouts make for nice fodder, but they dont do shit for their worth.

well it does a mighty fine job against the AI, and there really isnt an alternative strategy.

My fleets usually consist of 1 of each cap, with about 20 scouts, 20-25 flaks, 5-10 siege for quicker bombardment, and eventually about 20 heavies. I find this works great, and have even though about no longer using fighters, but all bombers instead.

i find it amusing you guys are talking about frigs and caps in the hundreds... in a 1v1 6 caps are more than in enough (yes i'm talking about on hard) and in larger battles, maybe a 6 player game, 2 fleets of 6 each is plenty - one for each side of the map

i agree that right now frigs don't seem like much, but i got to remind everyone: beta-1, keep your pants on until we get more ships in the next few releases, right now they want glitches

I agree. Plus lets wait until multiplayer. I don't think the AI in this game is anything close to galciv2 AI yet. As advanced as galciv2's AI is, it still can't compete (in my opinion) to the human brain. In a multiplayer game, I do wonder if waiting until you can amass 20 capitals is really going to win the game when your opponent destroys you with lots of frigates while you are trying to build your capital ships...........

We shall see won't we.

if we wait how the hell are we supposed to help.
we cant, that simple.

from what I see gauss cannons and some bombers are more than enough for immense forces... it really makes me laugh some times.

Same here, good thing the devs allready said there will be more frigates. well, actually they didn't deny there won't be any more frigates, but that's the same thing.


yeah, but the again, bombers are way to strong.



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Flak frigates and scout frigates alone can defeat bombers and gauss cannons. Gauss cannons are incredibly fragile and don't do well against frigates en masse.

I really do hope their is another combat oriented frigate other then the Kodiak, or lower it in the tech tree.

thats why I usually have them target the flaks, so that there will be more than enough space for my bombers to manuver

of course if your enemy is pulling that low-damage tactic, the best move is to pull in a fleet out of nowhere and kick their asses.

I have to agree the cannons are nerfed big time. I would like to see the cannons get phase shields and have their armor base increased by 30-50% and on the bomber side either have their power and armor reduced by 20% or have them return to the mother ship after two runs to reload. Right now I look at bombers as auto heavy fighters.

I also agree on Kodak ship suggestion. It should not be so high or there should be another one lower on the tree maybe at level two that has a reasonable reduction in its base stats.

i see both sides about the gauss cannons... though the way space lanes work atm it would make the game imbalanced to increase the firepower/health/shielding of the emplacements - you could just place as many as you want around the forward phase jump entrance

on the other hand, i think a viable compensation would be to increase the gauss cannon's firepower and health as much as they want, but in return make them a huge maintenance cost (so if you build too many, then your empire doesn't bring in any cash)

The way I set up my defense now is that I place 10 gauss and 5 hangers (50%F/50%B) at the lane entrance and nothing gets through with the AI on hard and allied. I have the gauss focus on the capital ships and then the fat lady always sings. For the major planets I do 20 and 10 respectively with a small fleet for support. Then I take the war to the bad guys. I always wait until after they attach me then try to retreat then I send in my capital fleet and mop up and take a planet from them. It works nearly every time.

i do 10 qauss at the lane entrances and then scater the hangers so that if a fleet does get by the cannons they have to hunt down each and ever hanger in stead of leaving them in one spot so the fleet can just waltze over and kill them all at once

witty, danie.

Yeah I hate when the AI does that. 10 flaks takes down any number of bombers, though.

true but they have to get by the cannons first and the flaxs are gone in about 2 shots

i system has with stood 1 cruiser 10-15 flax 5-10 heavys and 5-10 scouts twice and it wasn't even finished building all the hangers yet

and i have been putting in 10 fighters and the rest in bombers

Not necessarily; the AI isn't smart enough to keep it's bombers/fighters away from flaks, and it usually never puts cannons at the exit. All you have to do is wait until the bombers reach you, obliterate, and then move in. The bombers take time to build, and can be picked off one-by-one after the initial assault.

Oh oh! Wanna know what I do with platforms?? Nothing, I don't build gauss or hangars at all, I just build 2 fleets and charge each side of the map, haven't had a problem yet with comps getting through. Besides, even on hard they are scaredy cats, they seem to run if you have a few caps in the system.