1. I was wondering about a few other ships and if you would send them in a raiding force? I was wondering about a group of Anti-Structure Cruisers to go in and take out production and resource facilities. I dont know about their speed, and I'm sure they don't have much in the survivability, but from what I understand they could do a lot of damage real quick. Does with the Subjugator or Ogrov have an advantage in this area?
This can work, but bombers in light carriers are prefered because they can rejoin your main battle fleet after the raid. Ogrovs are useless for defending or in antiship battles, so be careful about dedicating too much fleet supply to them. When they do work they work brilliantly though.
2. Do you send in any support ships to protect a raiding force? 20 Light Carriers seems to be a lot of resources to not back up in some sort of way. The obvious choice would be Flak Frigates so you can invest to protect your carriers from enemy bombers and maybe some defensive cruisers to protect them. While it may seem like a no brainer, it would seem that the more resources you put to your raiding force, the weaker your main fleet is. And considering the role of the raiding force is to hit and run, just how much support do you give to such a force?
Don't really need any with carriers. If you use antistructure ships flak and repair cruisers can be a good idea.
Any good Caps from any of the three races that lend themselves effectively to supporting raiding forces? Sort of along the lines of of question #2, a Cap ship you send off to support a raiding force won't be supporting your main fleet. In addition, I would think this would leave the Cap ship in question to retribution. That all being said, I was thinking of ships like the Akkan could go with some Ogrovs in and with the enhanced range from the Akkan, allow them to stay at the edge of the gravity well. That and with Armistice, it a fleet pops in that catches you off-guard, you can always use the ability and get your raiding force to safety.
The Akkan (targeting uplink), Sova (embargo), Rapture (battle meditation) and maybe the Desolator (bombardment platforms) are the only cap ships that could both really support a raiding group and actually get built. The Marauder is also good for this but you really should never build one in the first place.
That said, you're right that you should only send them in if you really have nothing else to use them for, as they are usually better in your main fleet (though raiding can be a good source of XP in the rare situation you have your enemy completely pinned but they can't help you finish him any faster).
