I'd like some help making proper use of the Battle Control Window (F8). I just got stomped in my first battle. I think I know what I did wrong*, but I also don't think I was setting things up on the screen properly.
1) My main problem was switching over from targeted fire to PD. When I set my ships for "Area Fire", should they target any missile salvo that comes within range? (In my case, a single x64 salvo. ) Or do I need to Assign that salvo as my designated target? And repeat with every interval?
2) Is there a smooth way to deal with being unable to get a lock because of ECM? I got a lot of fire cancellation event text every interval and finally told my ships to Cease Fire while I tried to close the distance.
Thanks
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So, venturing out of my home system, I came across a wreck and some aliens. (Likely the robo-spoilers. ) My vaporized survey ship told me there were two ~14k vessels, one with 16 Gauss cannons. I had starting equipment of 10cm lasers (range 30k) and detection equipment copied from the Wiki, but with lower tech.
After upping my force to around a dozen 8K ships, mostly laser cruisers, plus a searchlight and a jump cruiser, I moseyed into the valley of death. The plan was to hopefully whittle them away slowly from outside range, or failing that, take them down with numbers.
I had two detection perimeters. As I approached the inner planets, the first one, tuned for above 10K saw nothing. The second, picked up a 9K vessel right at the edge of my firing range. Unfortunately, its high speed (10K) and powerful 30 ECM kept me from firing on it. But it ran away and, sensing fear, I continued on towards the two larger ships.
Again, I entered the 30K range and tried to prepare my lasers. Again, they could not be brought to bear, even against stationary ships. (Those things never moved. Speed 0 all of the encounter. ) I slowly closed, hoping I would get firing solutions before I passed within range of the Gauss cannon. But the guns were not what should have worried me.
At the last moment, I detected a single salvo of 64x AMMs. I wrestled with the PD system and no one even tried to fire. More waves of missiles came, eventually destroying one ship. I managed a few counter-battery fires, eliminating one or two missiles on some of the waves. Realizing I would be overwhelmed, I had the ships reverse course. But it was too late and, one after another, they were blown apart.
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Things I learned:
-A few ranks of armor are extremely effective. With 3 levels, it took 3 salvos to start getting internal damage.
-I want to see further. I think I'm starting to understand what I want out of sensors. Likely some of my problem was missiles not spending enough time detected.
-Tracking is important. The other problem, even with turreted lasers and Gauss cannons, the missiles were going too fast.
-ECM is powerful. I don't know how close I would have needed to get to fire.