Hello! I'm about to start designing what I hope to be the backbone of my fleets (Missile Armed Cruisers, with Light to Medium Carriers as a long range reserve) and I was wondering about the bonuses Task Force officers give ships that are assigned to a particular Task Force. From what I understand the Task Force Officers only give bonuses to ships in the same system, so should I create a Task Force for each Fleet I have?
My current OOB looks like this:
HM High Command (the Task Force)
-01st Fleet
--Ships in 1st fleet (currently 2 Escort Task Groups with 6 warships for each Task Group)
--Patrol Squadrons
---Ships in Patrol Squadrons (4 Light Patrol Task Groups of 4 warships each)
-Fighter Command
--Strike Craft Squadrons
-Logistics
--Salvage ships, Colliers, Tankers, Tugs etc.
-Merchant Stuff
--Terra-forming Bases, Freighters, Colonisation ships, etc.
-System Defence
--Various Colonised Systems (currently only Sol)
---PDC's
-HM Survey Command (My survey task force)
--GEV's
--GSV's
Obviously as I only have one fleet at the moment my question isn't a pressing matter, but once I have more than one fleet what would be the best way to handle this?
My second question is regarding Strike Craft (small ships under 500 tons). I am planning on using missile armed 500 ton bombers to give my fleets a good alpha strike, but as I haven't got much combat experience I was wondering about how effective Gauss cannon turret armed fighters would be against either enemy strike craft or incoming missiles? Are they useful or would I be better off using the space for more PD?
Lastly, I was fighting an NPR - or Precursors, I'm not sure which, though I haven't been able to communicate with them so maybe it's the second - and I noticed that I had a 20 second delay between ordering my ships to open fire on incoming missiles and my ships actually shooting. Am I right in assuming this is because the grade bonus was very low? Does this delay with firing, and moving go away? Also, what does the TF Training % mean and/or do?
Thanks,
ddblackhawk