As noted in a post in the bugs forum, I recent fought out a battle with a precursor ship. A disastrous battle, as a matter of fact. The Grand Fleet of the Western Alliance was composed of three 18,000 ton battlecruisers, six 8,000 ton missile cruisers, six 6,000 ton assault ships, and eighteen 5,000 ton anti-missile escorts. All ships are fairly low tech, having slightly better than basic tech (level two or three) systems.
The fleet's speed was approximately 2,000 kps, with the fastest ships, the assault ships, being capable of 6,500 kps. The battlecruisers and missile cruisers were armed with size six missile launchers, firing missiles with 400,000 km's range, 15cm offensive lasers and 10cm defensive laser turrets. The BC's, in particular, had heavy shields, and all WEstern Alliance ships depend on shields rather than armor. The assault ships were designed and built specifically for this battle. To get a top speed faster than the precursor ship's, I had to sacrifice almost all defenses. As a result they had light shields and no armor. They were armed with four 15cm lasers and were intended to get close and pound the precursor while the rest of the fleet bombarded it with long range missiles.
The precursor ship had generally unknown capabilities, but was known to possess a maximum speed of 5,500 kps and had heavy shields. The ship had destroyed two Western Alliance geo survey ships, and chased a jump ship that managed to escape the system before being caught.
The initial plan was to find the precursor and engage at long range with the cruiser's missiles. Depending on how that went the assault ships would either be held back in case the precursor tried to escape, or sent in immediately if the missile units needed help. The plan went to hell almost immediately. The precursor ship had a speed advantage of 2.75 time the WA's maximum speed advantage, which meant that it closed a lot quicker than I expected. It also didn't use missiles, which completely blew my plan out of the water. I expected it to use missiles, which was why my fleet had so many anti-missile escorts.
The WA (roleplaying) didn't know if the original attack on its geo survey ships was a mistake, so it was going in with orders to sort things out, but not to fire first. The precursor closed to approximately 250,000 km's (IIRC) and opened fire with very advanced torpedos, taking out the nearest ship, an escort. The WA fleet returned fire with its missiles, and the fleet commander panicked when he realized that his elaborate missile defense was now useless. He ordered all of his escorts and the assault ships to close on the enemy, and then turned his missile ships back towards the warp point.
The precursor's missile defense picked off a fair number of missiles closing on it, but not all, but the assault ships had a hard time hitting it. The precursor fired every fifteen to twenty seconds, taking out a ship every time it fired, but the WA's missile launchers fired every forty-five seconds, and its 15cm lasers fired every fifteen seconds. Worse, the WA's escorts couldn't close to engage with their 10cm lasers, because their max speed was 3,000 kps, and the precursor was doing its best to keep the range open.
After doing a little math, the WA admiral correctly figured out that the precursor would completely destroy the fleet before the fleet could pound its shields down, so he ordered his BC's to retreat, covered by the missile cruisers and remaining escorts and assault ships, which all set off on a tangent to draw the precursor away from the heavy ships.
In the end two of the the WA's three BC's escaped, along with the two combat jump ships waiting on the warp point. Ugly, ugly, ugly. Fortunately, the precursor doesn't seem to be able to make a jump, so the Western Alliance is safe, for now.
After this debacle, I've been trying to come up with a new strategy to engage the precursor. The WA will, over the next several years, have completed research into the next generation of weapons and defenses. During this same period they will be rebuilding their fleet. Even with the new systems, though, it is apparent that they will still be far behind the precursor's.
I noted during the battle that the precursor always engaged one ship with its torpedoes,e ven if this was massive overkill, which it usually was. This appears to be a design flaw for the precursor ship, as it can only kill one ship every 15-20 seconds. Of course, the flip side is that even with the recently developed tech, the WA can't build a ship that can withstand the precursor's firepower.
I was considering building a fleet of fast, relatively cheap, assault ships, intended to close and pick the precursor apart, while my heavy BC's stand off and snipe at it with improved missiles.
Anyone got a better idea?
Kurt
