Is There an Effective use to Beam Weapons?

[Gyrfalcon (OP)]

Hey all,

I've been playing around with Aurora for a while, but one thing I've come across several times is that in my games beam weapons (anything aside from missiles really) are ineffective to the point of uselessness.  Coming up against missile-armed AI ships, any fleet of mine using energy weapons is torn to shreds without ever managing to close range.  Meanwhile, my missile-armed designs are wildly more successful, and can at least inflict some damage, even when outmatched.  Without having far-superior engine technology to allow the fleet to close to the short ranges even high-tech laser designs offer, is there any point to using beam weapons outside of RP purposes?

[symon]

So far I've found that a pair of quad 10cm laser turrets with decent PD fire control can down an awful lot of missiles. I've had great success vs missiles with a fleet of nine Frigates armed with these and a few 12cm long range lasers.

Then when you do manage to close, the 5 second firing of the turrets is lethal! You don't need PD anymore as you can shred the missile ships before they reload. Eight lasers per ship means a lot of damage!

The trick seems to be don't skimp fire control. Devote space to it.

[Brian Neumann]

The other problem with missile ships is the expense of keeping them supplied with missiles.  I have had several battles where my beam armed fleet with support from point defense missile ships have survived major enemy missile attacks and then chased the missile ships back to their supply point.  While they may get a second attack in, I usually wipe out whatever they are defending.  When I analyze the ship designs that I have seen and the missiles they used against me I generally find that the combined cost of ships and missiles was easily twice that of my fleet, including my missiles as well.

Missile armed fleets are great for fighting against the precursors and other single system threats.  Against another decent sized npr I usually find that I can not afford to keep my missile ships armed with the newest missiles, nor can I build them fast enough to replentish the magazines on a continues basis.  Steve has done this deliberatly to reduce the dominance of missile ships in the game as compared to starfire.

Brian

[Hawkeye]

Something to remember re. beam armed ships.
As you allready noticed, you have to cross the enemies missile envelope. This means, your ships have to survive the enemies missiles. To do this, you have to have two things:
1) A decent missile defense (PD-Turrets on as many ships as possible, some dedicated AMM boats) and
2) Shields/Armor.
For 2), big(er) ships are realy good. A 15.000t ship with tech-level 4 or 5 in armor can easily have 10+ armor. To get through that much armor is a real bitch with missiles.

To be faster than the enemy is a bonus (ok, a rather big one), but not absolutely necessary. You can let the enemy run it´s magazines dry and then follow them to their base

[UnLimiTeD]

For a good Anti-Missile Defense, if your focusing on beams, Gauss Cannons rule supreme.
If you have a little Missile research, build AMMs (Size 1, 1 point Warhead) with R1 Firecontrols, and have dedicated AMM ships.
If you want to focus on just one weapon, Lasers are the way to go, small calibers have High DPS and good fire rate, High calibers have awesome armor penetration.

If you want to quickly exaust enemy missile supplies, get one of your standard freighter designs, slap 2 CiWS and 20 levels of armor on it, activate the transponder, and charge the enemy fleet.

[Starkiller]

Well, my Caesar class BCs have 4 twin 10 cm laser turrets for PD, two twin 15 cm laser turrets for PD or antiship, and 10 size 2 missle launchers. I went up against a Precursor dreadnaught, which, oddly enough, was a
pure energy platform. I shredded it with the missles until it's speed was so low, that I closed to laser range and finished her off with laser salvos. While laser are good for PD, they also are good for administering the
'coup de grace' and saving some missles.

Eric