What am I doing wrong with my fleet? Losing battles

NEED MORE BOMBERS!

Seriously, the strike craft, specifically bombers, are a bit OP right now. Plus the AI can't handle them well. Also, Sovas and Akkans are better then Kols (sadly) so use them instead.

Too many Captial Ships.

Build alot more Frigates/Cruisers.

Your DPS is alot lower than the CPU, so your losing the battle.

Well I got rid of 4 kols and a few kodiaks and built a couple Sovas and some cruiser carries. Had about 40 bombers and 12 fighters. Still got wiped out. Have you guys played a medium-large galaxy with 5 hard enemies?

Hard? No, unfair or higher usually. Still need more bombers.

PS -Ue_Carbon hates strike craft and he will agree with me on this.

Yes.

Still not enough Frigates.

You just replaced a Cap for a Cap. You need more than just Caps as the bulk of your fleet.

Most games if you build more than 4, your over doing them.

A healthy bulk of your fleet supply should be frigates.

Having a good group of Flak Frigates will help thin out fighters who are thinning out your Bombers. You need fighters to counter the AI's Bombers so your Heavy Cruiser dont get popped in a pass or two.

You need more than just 4 of each support Cruiser. 5 is the bare min I would go, 10ish is a safe bet.

You have no LRF, or even LF to counter the AI's resepctive units.

Long Story short, Not enough DPS. Not enough Frigates/Cruisers.

In one of the last big multiplayer games I was down to my last planet but I had most of my fleet intact at a heavily fortified desert planet. I technically never lost that match become I had around around 40 Advent drone hosts with over 100 bomber squadrons, plus additional ones from my capitalships and hangar defenses. That was a medium large random map I believe, with 2 hard AI and 3 other people (for the record this is by no means a normal multiplayer game).

Its very rare you get to even 5 capitalships in a serious game, let alone 12. While some of the capitalships can bring decent DPS at higher levels, notably the carriers, if they're not all at least level 6 they're going to be holding you back. Plus with that many it will take them forever to level up because the experience is shared between them all. Better to just use a few until they hit level 10 (at which they will no longer get more XP), then build another one if you really want to.

Just cutting 7 capitalships would free up 350 fleet supply. Thats almost 90 LRMs, 35 Kodiaks, or 25 carrier cruisers. 7 capitalships have no where near that much firepower.

If you're still not convinced, take a screenshot of the Empire tree so we can see just what you fleet is and what you're up against.

That's for robotics cruisers, I would never have more than 4 cielios in a single fleet.

Didn't even notice the lack of LRFs. Good call. Oh and Hoshiko's are your friends. Build more.

If your gonna go the bomber route you need at least 50 Cruiser Carriers to make it useful even in heavy fighter cover.

Yes, I dislike spaming bombers. The AI is just as easily beat with a well balanced fleet.

No matter what way you pick, the point remains is your DPS is super low, b/c the bulk of his fleet are Caps. Caps have horrible DPS compared to Frigates/Cruisers. Hence we are back to what I was saying, Less Caps.

The extra 1 isnt gonna make or break you. Better to have an extra to help keep all those ships embolden and in case one get targeted early.

Embolden is really not that good of an ability, even if it can be put on a lot of your fleet at the same time. What should make the celio worthwhile is Designate target, but the stupid channeling autotarget issue means your celios will all pick the same target. Though Zombie found a pretty cool way to redesign the ability to fix it, should be in the next version of E4X, but that's no help to vanilla players.

It's hard to say what the problem is without actually being able to see the game and to see the AI player's fleet, composition, and defenses.  Maybe you should upload a replay of that game.  (I probably won't look at it, but some of the other people might.)

That doesn't necessarily mean that it's good experience.  When you play against AI offline in single player, your opponents (AI) essentially have Down Syndrome.  In contrast, to truly gain valuable experience that will allow you to decimate the AI with ease, you need to play real games--online multiplayer--against human opponents without any silly AIs.  After you learn the game and get up to speed you'll find that real games are more intense, more suspenseful, more interesting, more challenging, more meaningful, and more fulfilling.  You can choose to play against opponents capable of real strategy and tactics or against AI opponents that are essentially retarded.

In fact, with Rebellion coming out soon, now would be a great time to get online and to start learning how to play against legitimate opponents.  If you start now, by the time Rebellion is released you'll be a pro.

(Sorry folks, I couldn't help myself.  I think it's really sad when someone has owned the game for years and only played the AI.)

Whats LRF? Long range frigate? Ok, I'll get rid of more capital ships.

Toddwp-im a mean bondified rapist killer who wants to treat girls right, who plans about robbing banks, building companies and donating money to charity because im just me. I take everything into account and learn-i can be a bastard during that process but its the learning and realization of the problems you have that determines your victory. 

Time:

You have stopped to perceive time in game. In the sense that you have the time to build up this fleet thinking your enemy does not have the time to bulk up and upgrade as-well. Your best defense is offense. Attack before your enemy is strong enough to repel you because your idea of sitting back and turtling a  fleet composed of caps is your own undoing and some ai's are a bitch if you let them build up and upgrade.

The guys here will tell you what units to build but make sure you dig around for counters to all unit types so you can understand whats needed and ways to excute massive unit productions through front-line 2-3 frigate factories and scuttling the ones behind you for trade. 

Goodluck

( Actually i'd prefer you die some more and learn your lesson first but for now im wishing you good luck because i love you. dont listen to the others if they try convince you i don't love you or what im telling you is wrong. Im a loving person and tell the truth that nobody wants to know.  )

Yes, the TEC version is the Javelis.

@ Riddleking - We love you to.

Wow. Scuttled all but 4 caps. Built LRFs, Cobalts, cruiser carriers. Had 55 bombers and 15 fighters. 15 robot cruisers, 4 Cielos. Still got wiped out but it took longer for the enemy to do so. Not sure what to do now

At this point, its just sounding like your opponent has more ships than you, or maybe you're fighting right next to a starbase or something. Could you post what ships and defensive structures are on the planet you're attacking?

Are you fighting in their grav well?

Are you fighting in their culture?

Post a screenshot of your fleet?

Are you fighting a much larger fleet?

Are you fighting on your planet in your own culture and under some repair bays?

Why didnt you build some flak?

How many Frigates did you have?

Is there a Starbase involved?

I could go on, but its getting hard to direct you on how to turn this around with the little information you given us.

BUILD MOAR SHIPS!

The messed up thing here is that they're right about DPS and caps and all that. At the same time, I'm a cap whore and so tend toward those when playing the AI more than anything. I know better in MP and adjust accordingly.Obviously I start producing cruisers up the yin yang when I max out on caps, but the point is that where you're fighting 5 hard AIs, I'm playing against half a dozen unfair AIs and still eating them up.

I think the first issue (aside from raw DPS) is that you're going big or going home. Kols and Kodiaks are nice, but without support ships, they're toast in a situation where all players have had time to build up. With caps, I like leaning on Sovas for reaching and touching someone, Dunovs for regenerating damaged comrades, and even a couple of lvl 6+ Marzas to barrage enemy frigates and cruisers into scrap. Kols are good damage sinks, but you don't need many to get the enemy's attention.

As for frigates/cruisers (the preferred method), you need to get a lot of Hoshikos to keep your guys in good repair and cause the enemy a little torment. Javelis' have great DPS, but need to be kept out of the close fray. Percherons will fill in for a Sova and chew them up via bombers. Gardas only do light damage, but are tough and can get 360 degrees of fire if you sink them into the enemy numbers. Cielos help, but a little goes a long way.

So I think, amongst frigates/cruisers, that you need lots of Percherons to dig into them, Gardas to cover the carriers and run aground of the enemy forces to slow them should they get too close, Javelis' to pelt them as they approach and while they deal with the Gardas/Kodiaks, Kodiaks for point, Hoshiko's to keep them all in a good way, and a few Cielo for good measure.

All units should be on Hold Ground so that you can micromanage them. The AI tends to spray fire every which way. Kodiaks to take point, with Javelis', Cielos and Hoshikos immediately behind for support. Gardas and Percherons can hang back, the Gardas ready to move forward and assist the Kodiaks on a moment's notice.

Let the enemy come to you so flak thins out the enemy strike craft and your bombers are given time to do some extra damage. If the enemy is big on frigates and cruisers, a couple of Marzas are nice to use Missile Barrage (on manual) when the forces are all within range to maximize the damage. Kodiaks shouldn't bury themselves in the enemy ranks, but can take it. Javelis' should be kept out of direct fire if possible. Gardas are yours to sink into the enemy numbers if their strike craft thin out.

I'm sure there's more I can say, but this is all speculation and is completely driven toward late, single player games. Micromanaging your fleet gets into a lot of detail and depends on what race you're against and their composition. If nothing else, always scout a grav well and consider what they have before you make any large moves.

As for the rest of you guys, try not to be too critical of me. We're all equally in the dark, and I figure he's played the same battle enough times where one more idea couldn't hurt. Besides, this is dealing with an AI and I know that it would handle this composition with insanely less grace than any human.