Arrived back from my hols and now can't decide if I should continue this AAR or start a new one with the lessons I've learned using the latest version. The Tau Ceti aliens are much too tough for my current tech and also the organisation of my empire leaves alot to be desired.
In my last game before my hols I did almost hold my own against the Tau Ceti but the whole missile salvo thing confuses me. Can anyone explain how it works and and strategies for using missiles both AMM and ASM in battles.
Thanks also please let me know if you have thoughts on my decision to conclude the AAR.
Ok, regarding missile salvos:
A single salvo is the number of missiles fired from a number of missile launchers, which are all assigned to a single missile-fire-control
Then there is, what I like to call volley. This is the total amount of missiles, a fleet can launch at the enemy.
There are pros and cons to the size of salvos:
If your enemy has a lot of AMM-launchers, but very few AMM-Missile-Fire-Controls, lots of small salvos are your friend, as he probably won´t have time enough to launch against all of your salvos.
Example:
Your missile-cruiser mounts 8 launchers and 4 MFCs. Your fleet has 3 cruisers.
This means, you can lauch a total of 12 salvos of 2 missiles each --> volley size: 24.
If your enemy can launch a total of 20 AMMs per 10 seconds, but only has 2 MFCs for them, he can only engage two of your salvos per 10 sec.
If your salvos have to face his AMMs for, say 40 seconds, this means he can only engage 8 of your salvos, the other 4 will go in without being targeted by AMMs.
In addition, while the enemy is targeting salvo 7 and 8, your next volley may allready be inside his AMM envelope, thus even more salvos will go in unengaged in your second voley.
The drawback of this tactic is, of course, you need a lot of Missile-Fire-Controls yourself, which means space, that could be used for more launchers, if you used larger-but-less salvos.
In the example above, removing two of the MFCs could enable you to put two additonal launchers on your cruisers, giving you 6 salvos of 5 missiles each --> volley size: 30
I don´t think there is much debate about voley-size. The bigger the better (up to a point, where wastage/overkill sets in)
Re. continuing or starting new:
I´d say continue. Your AAR was/is about what mistakes to avoid and making those mistakes and showing their consequences is probably the best way of doing this.
Oh, and fighting against impossible odds can be fun