How do you use Orbital Habitats?

[blue emu (OP)]

How about this doctrine: ...

It would certainly work, since the MIRVed warheads will be almost impossible to intercept at that speed... unless the enemy can spot the size-20 drones in time to knock them out before they seperate.

It's a pity that you can't pack a bigger punch into your warheads, though... strength-3 only penetrates one layer of armor.

I've been having some success with size-24 planetary bombardment monitors, for knocking out enemy PDCs at very long range. I use two different types of MIRV missiles, with different speeds and travel times. Since my launchers are not heavily miniaturized, I can fire a salvo of the slower MIRVs, reload, then fire a salvo of the faster MIRVs. If my range-to-target and second-salvo firing delay are calculated properly, the faster MIRVs overtake the slower MIRVs just as they reach the proper range to deploy their warheads. This puts two full salvos of MIRVed warheads into a single time-on-target barrage, saturating the opponent's point defense and guaranteeing that plenty of warheads get through the PD screen, no matter how tight it is.

[Peter Rhodan]

I like the MIRVs except that at 9mk separation range even at 100,000k you are going to need a lot to get through estimated 16-18 AMM salvos - admitted ly my AMMs only have a speed of 50,000k but it's going to take a lot!  They are nice but I think the fighters are  a better bet - especially as my next generation of MFCs will be able to see the Size 20 jobbies at about 12mk.

Great thing about this game - lots of possibilities

[blue emu (OP)]

One of the main drawbacks of Fighters is the number of Officers that they require, if you want them all commanded. Three Carriers loaded with Fighters require 156 Officers (instead of three!).

[welchbloke]

One of the main drawbacks of Fighters is the number of Officers that they require, if you want them all commanded. Three Carriers loaded with Fighters require 156 Officers (instead of three!).

I like this fact as I can use the fighter commands to season my officers a bit. Whilst they are commanding there is the random chancethat they can advance in useful stats like crew training rating. That makes them more useful for commanding the bigger ships later on.

[jseah]

Ok, my AMMs are 6mkm range with a speed of 69kkm/s so my missiles are a bit higher tech.  

I find it gets a bit hard to up the range beyond that if I want to retain a decent to-hit chance at the same speed ASM.

Against a 100kkm/s ASM?  I have a 19% to hit chance.  Since the drone ships will easily flush all their drones at me by the time I get to them, chances are, I've run out of AMMs.  

[Peter Rhodan]

good points except the drones are size 20 so you have 20 AMMs for every drone in the same missile capacity.... or 6 per MIRV

Oh and my AMMs do 50k but have a range of 35mk - the best I can get is 58k with 9mk range - I will have to await the next engine upgrade....

[Hawkeye]

I like the MIRVs except that at 9mk separation range even at 100,000k you are going to need a lot to get through estimated 16-18 AMM salvos - admitted ly my AMMs only have a speed of 50,000k but it's going to take a lot!  They are nice but I think the fighters are  a better bet - especially as my next generation of MFCs will be able to see the Size 20 jobbies at about 12mk.

Great thing about this game - lots of possibilities

Do you mean to shorten the separation range?
I would rather have that range _increased_ to lower the risk of the bus getting shot down before separation. A size 20 missile will be seen quite some way out and even if the enemy doesn´t have long ranged AMMs he would quickly adapt to this (assuming a human enemy, of course)

This all depends on the state of the game, obviously. Early game, a separation range of 5 mkm will probably be suffice, mid game 9mkm looks ok, late game, I would go up to as much as 20 mkm

Note: I have encoutered Precursors with AMM-ranges of 15+ mkm

[Charlie Beeler]

Do you mean to shorten the separation range?
I would rather have that range _increased_ to lower the risk of the bus getting shot down before separation. A size 20 missile will be seen quite some way out and even if the enemy doesn´t have long ranged AMMs he would quickly adapt to this (assuming a human enemy, of course)

This all depends on the state of the game, obviously. Early game, a separation range of 5 mkm will probably be suffice, mid game 9mkm looks ok, late game, I would go up to as much as 20 mkm

Note: I have encoutered Precursors with AMM-ranges of 15+ mkm

I've been playing tag with Precursors using 40mkm AMM's  with speed a little over 40k kps.

[Charlie Beeler]

I like this fact as I can use the fighter commands to season my officers a bit. Whilst they are commanding there is the random chancethat they can advance in useful stats like crew training rating. That makes them more useful for commanding the bigger ships later on.

Agreed.  And to address the high junior officer requirements add more naval academies.  For flavor add a new lowest officer range that is equivilant to lieutenant.  It does require a lot of manual assignment, but well worth it in the long run.

[Peter Rhodan]

Interesting - the Precursors in my game all have 23.5mk AMMs

[voknaar]

Interesting - the Precursors in my game all have 23.5mk AMMs

I have a feeling they are spawned based on the tech the empire that explored the system they are in. Theres definatly multiple variations of the same roll within the precurser fleet.

[jseah]

I would rather have that range _increased_ to lower the risk of the bus getting shot down before separation. A size 20 missile will be seen quite some way out and even if the enemy doesn´t have long ranged AMMs he would quickly adapt to this (assuming a human enemy, of course)

This all depends on the state of the game, obviously. Early game, a separation range of 5 mkm will probably be suffice, mid game 9mkm looks ok, late game, I would go up to as much as 20 mkm

And of course, if the separation range don't work, you could always use a longer ranged submunition.  Cuts into the speed but the submunition is always going to be better than a 60mkm ASM.  I suppose I need a better drone engine if I want this to work though since drone engine power is 3 or 4 tech levels behind missile engine. 

[Father Tim]

One of the main drawbacks of Fighters is the number of Officers that they require, if you want them all commanded. Three Carriers loaded with Fighters require 156 Officers (instead of three!).

No, three carriers require the exact same number of officers as 153 fighters:  Zero.

No ship requires an officer in command.  Thus, it is actually bonus that fighters & FACs give you all those extra officer slots.