Anti-Ship Missile Size preferance

[amimai (OP)]

Now I know most people use various types of missiles(for specialty roles), but I was curious what size missiles you guys generally settle on for anti-ship roles and why.

Basically what is the missile that you will pack onto your missiles barge

[AL]

In my current game I have used size 1 missiles and size 10 torpedoes almost exclusively. With max engine multipliers and at least WH:4 the size-1's become effectively a better beam-range/knife fight weapon. The torps are for long range engagements (range ~750mkm) using efficient engines on the bus and either a fat warhead stage or numerous size-1 MIRV's. I have also produced a small amount of size-2 missiles but they have yet to be tested in combat.

[Erik L]

I usually have three series of missiles, excluding AMM. Light, medium and heavy. Light go with escort ships usually. Medium are on ships that tend to operate solo/paired, and heavies go on the battle line.

As for size, light run 3-5, medium are usually 2x light, and heavy are 2x medium.

[joeclark77]

Size 4.  I like to start with a WH9 missile and increase the damage as my technology improves.

[canshow]

Size 18. They do about 56 damage a piece.

Mine go super fast with decent agility so I don't need to worry about spamming 200 missile launchers at a single target to get though PD. Even Invaders haven't been able to stop a full salvo from a small amount of launchers.

They are close range missiles though (125m km), so I will need to make adjustments to fuel capacity and ECCM capabilities.

I'm relatively inexperienced at designing in Aurora so I have a long way to go to maximize efficiency and reduce size.

[sublight]

My missiles typically come in two sizes: Size 3-4 (short range) or size 6-7 (long range).

My short ranged missiles are about as small as I can go with a WH4 at default starting tech and they stay the same size as tech improves for backward compatibility with legacy launchers. However, I usually find this size is fuel-limited rather than sensor-limited on range and design a larger more efficient long-range missile for capitol ships and PDCs.

[Iranon]

Size 1 and Size 6 typically.

Size 1, to overwhelm point defence and because they are adequate AMMs in a pinch (although I have a separate design for that).
Size 6, because that seems a good compromise (can get adequate range or some electronics without undue concessions, doesn't overburden a small fighter, sensor footprint)

I general, I try to keep ordnance interchangeable. Instead of scaling up with craft size, I will issue different versions (e.g. ships may get long-range variants where fighters get high-yield variants)

[GreatTuna]

Size 1, size 5, size 6, size 24, size 40 and size 50... Hm, where should I put the vote?

I use a lot of different missiles. Size 1, of course, makes a good spam weapon, size 5 is the mainest of main calibers, size 6 for long-range missiles, 24 for MIRVs\torpedoes, sz40 is for heavy torpedoes, and 50 is for mines.

Of course, since my modus operandi is "speed is everything" I tend to have rather short-ranged missiles. They do have good speed and to-hit chance though, and I have specialized LR missiles\MIRVs\torpedoes when I need them.

[Ostia]

I usually field Size 5 Missiles. Thats the point for me where i can get everything into a small package without missing anything and still be able to fire them in reasonable intervals..

[TheDeadlyShoe]

lately i've been running size 7-10 missiles for primary ASM armament.  I think the tiny missiles are a little sploity, so I don't use em.  I also like the earth shattering kabooms on the big missiles, and the relative ease of fitting sensors and long range is nice to have.

I've also been experimenting with AMM-MIRV variants of ASMs for burst defence capability, but have yet to use them in actual combat.  I'm not sure if they'll actually work xD

[AL]

While we're on the topic of MIRV's, do the submunitions actually need to have onboard sensors to work or do they just auto-target whatever the original missile was fired at? I had an idea a while back for making what were effectively "shotgun cartridges" in which the first missile stage would have absolutely nothing and would just spew the submunitions immediately after launch. I'm also not sure what would happen to the discarded shell in that case - does it disappear or just float around for eternity?

[sneer]

for me standard size is 4-5  , short range (50-120 mil ) high speed high warhead
in last game I experiment into strengthtening dense size 5 salvo with size 15 of same range and speed to achieve maximum shock  effect and it works as planned

[Viridia]

In the revived Cold War-esque game, size 2 for anti-fighter work, size 6 for bombers and early warships to carry. I'll probably keep the size 2 and 6 for my fighters/bombers respectively, but ships will climb higher as necessary. Not a fan of the idea of spamming hundreds of AMM's to attack, even if it did give me an idea for a story in my head.

For the Struggle of Survival campaign I'm trying to keep it low tech for now, with size 2 missiles being the only missiles seen as necessary in-character.

[GreatTuna]

While we're on the topic of MIRV's, do the submunitions actually need to have onboard sensors to work or do they just auto-target whatever the original missile was fired at? I had an idea a while back for making what were effectively "shotgun cartridges" in which the first missile stage would have absolutely nothing and would just spew the submunitions immediately after launch. I'm also not sure what would happen to the discarded shell in that case - does it disappear or just float around for eternity?

No, they don't, they lock on whatever target the main missile was aimed at.
The main missile will go for intended target and try to hit it after releasing submunitions.

[amimai (OP)]

For me i use almost exclusively size 1-2 missiles for magazine enabled designs for long haul fights

on occasions I will use more complicated MIRV type nukes with massive warheads for things like super long range (1b km+) and (short range 2-5mkm) Ship killers but these are almost exclusively mounted on box launchers (10-25msp)

but on the whole I launch 1000 1-2 size missiles for every one fat man i use