First successful (kinda) use of carrier and fighters

[plasticpanzers (OP)]

I have avoided in numerous previous tries using carriers (tho i love them in other 4x games) as I could not get the hang of using them and the carriers (and their fighters) kept getting killed.  In my current game my main warships are my Constitution class cruisers which are wildly succesful with their County class
DE escorts but I was firing off enormous amounts of AMMs in one system against the 'fish'.   I had built 2 Ark Royal class carriers (Ark Royal and Hermes) I had
trained up the 31 fighters on Hermes while Ark Royal remained in reserve and brought it back into the enemy system with 8 Constitution CAs and 4 DEs.  For
some reason (mostly being I am an idiot) i hit 20min instead of 30 seconds as I was sure I had some time before an engagement would start and could see the
enemy 4 FACs and 5 DDs.   But, being an idiot, Hermes was targeted in that 20min turn (being 48000 tons) and was whacked killing it and the 31 fighters on
board.  I managed to fend off 400 plus missile attacks by firing off huge amounts of Rimfire AMMs, killed the 4 FACs when they got too close to my CAs and DEs
and retired from the system to refuel and reammuntion.   Then decided to return to Earth.

At Earth I had already started training up the new 31 fighters for Ark Royal and in a month or so went back with just Ark Royal, 4 California class missile sloops,
4 Consort class escort sloops, 4 County class DEs, and 3 Captain class fast colliers.   As I returned thru the Jump Point into the 'fish' system the 5 remaining DDs
were sitting on the Jump Point (smart ass salmon...).   Being somewhat rattled but almost 1500kps faster then them I dropped my 31 Voodoo class fighters at
the JP and burned into the system to open the range.   This is where being an idiot came into play..again.

Although I had each of the 5 squadrons of Voodoos target one enemy DD I did not assign missles to the launchers.   Lost 11 Voodoos.   No doubt some dartboard in the Ark Royal's fighter ready room has my picture on it...

As my TF shot into the system with only 4 lightly armed missile sloops for firepower all my escorts opened up with size 3 ASMs and Rimfire AMMs on the 5 enemy DDs.  I am making hits but although I told the fighters to move to the enemy ships they had not fired yet and I was a bit frantic, they just kept
'targeting' then I set them to follow and they continued to just keep 'targeting' and not fire.    Remembering that I am an idiot I double checked my fighters
and sure enough they were 'firing' weapons but had no missiles assigned to their launchers.   Once I fixed that screwup (and lost 3 more Voodoos) they
finally launced wonderful salvos of Harriers VIII S3 ASMs which tore all 5 enemy DDs to bits in less than 30 seconds.   Very satisfying....except for the lifepods
and damaged fighters I had to go back and pick up. 

But finally I have figured out how my carriers work and Hermes B is just finished so I can look forward to more idiocy while I work on the 'fish' some more...

[AL]

Good job getting a fighter/carrier doctrine working, I feel it requires a fair bit of extra tech (ie engine power multipliers) before it is really viable but it is very satisfying when you do get it all set up.
I hope you aren't manually assigning motherships for each of your fighters by hand, I can only imagine what a slog that would be. When you're using 30+ fighters you really want to be using that naval organisation screen to do those assignments en masse.

[Haji]

Of just use the fighters tab which allows you to create fighter squadrons, assign craft to them, and then manipulate the entire squadrons when it comes to assigning, launching, recovering and so on.

[plasticpanzers (OP)]

How do I post my ships without just cut and paste?  thanks!

[AL]

Well, copy and paste is normally how people share their designs. Usually they also use either the [code ] or [quote ] tags to format it better, eg:

Code: [Select]

SSF-2 class Fighter    500 tons     4 Crew     158.6 BP      TCS 10  TH 192  EM 0
19200 km/s     Armour 1-5     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 3
Maint Life 0 Years     MSP 0    AFR 100%    IFR 1.4%    1YR 14    5YR 204    Max Repair 24 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 0.1 months    Spare Berths 6   

F300-S1 Magneto-Plasma Drive (4)    Power 48    Fuel Use 1080.28%    Signature 48    Exp 30%
Fuel Capacity 75 000 Litres    Range 2.5 billion km   (36 hours at full power)

Thermal Lance (1)    Range 30 000km     TS: 19200 km/s     Power 3-3     RM 1    ROF 5        3 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
FC-F48/20 (1)    Max Range: 48 000 km   TS: 20000 km/s     79 58 38 17 0 0 0 0 0 0
Tokamak Power Cell (1)     Total Power Output 3    Armour 0    Exp 20%

M2 Compact Scanner (1)     GPS 6     Range 780k km    MCR 85k km    Resolution 1

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes


[plasticpanzers (OP)]

I know cut and paste but not code or quote tho so I end up posting just the long form of the page instead of the boxed format.

[83athom]

Click the # button that just below the font selector, then paste your design in it.