Expansion vs turtling

[Brian Neumann]

I would go for Ion engines and missile tech around the 8000 rp mark.  Make sure your missiles have a good chance to hit a target moving at 5000km/s and bring along a lot of point defense, you will need it if you run into a larger precursor fleet.  Other npr races should have tech somewhere around the same as yours so it shouldn't be to bad.  The down side to this is that missile combat uses a LOT of missiles and you are going to need a lot of ordinance factories to keep up with use.  If you don't then you may have a problem with the NPR running you out of ammo and sailing in to destroy you because of this.

Brian

[Father Tim]

so, how low tech a player warship can be before starting expansion?

I mean, what's the absolute minimum to search for an attack fleet to have some chance of success in an early expansion centered game?

Zero.  From a non-TN start I've sent out ships with Nuclear Thermal engines and no weapons.  Anything is possible.

Some advice:
Build unarmed exploration ships and troop transports, make friends with higher-tech NPRs, conquer non-TN NPRs, avoid precursors/invaders/swarms, and write off any ships that encounters a hostile until you have an armed navy.

The point is, I don't build armed ships until my 'race' encounters a reason to do so, and I let the enemies I encounter drive my military needs - my opponents' stats determine how fast my ships need to be, how thick their defenses are and how long-ranged their weapons need to be. 

[LoSboccacc]

That's pretty much what I'm doing now as a pre TN start will leave you badly in need of resources, so hyper expand and make individual less important making individual unit worth next to nothing.

I was more thinking on actual NPR aggression. But probably one could always build a swarm of icmb drones, making the technology gap less relevant.

[Thiosk]

The point is, I don't build armed ships until my 'race' encounters a reason to do so, and I let the enemies I encounter drive my military needs - my opponents' stats determine how fast my ships need to be, how thick their defenses are and how long-ranged their weapons need to be. 

I'm presently surrounded by precursors on three fronts; theres a very long, desolate warp chain I can escape through, but its about 6 jumps to a system interesting enough for a small presence.    As such, my military is getting rather beefy   I just hope I can catch them when I get there, my drive tech is only keeping me going at about 6100 km/s right now :/

[Peter Rhodan]

you don't need drive tech - just lots of size 1 missiles - my combat group has 14 6kT corvettes with 3 MFCs adn 6 launchers and 300+ missiles....
I then have a similar force of corvettes with size 9 launchers with a long range missile that dows 5 damage - older ones have a 65mk range - my new ones have a 85mk range
I have several Awacs ships with this force - spread around - each has an active R100 sensor with 350mk range so I can see the bastards coming and a R1 with only 20+mk range - the key stat is the size 6 missile or smaller range which is 4.8mk - this is the effective range of my AMM - once incoming missiles are detected I direct half my AMM frigates to open fire (assuming a large incoming group of missiles) with each MFC on each boat targeting a different missile salvo where possible ot improve spread - I have found that 6 missiles from 1 launcher at a salvo might kill 1-2 where as 2 launchers each from different ships will do the same or better...
so then 5 secs later the other half of my AMM frigates open fire - i have 10 second re-load so they can pump out 41 missiles per 5 second round - haven't found any Precursors yet than can get missiles through - helps if you turn away too if there are lots of incoming - lengthens their flight time and allows you more AMM rounds.
14 ships firing 4 Warhead 5 missiles each generally kill even the biggest Precursor ships in two salvos - but I also have a warhead 12 size 9 missile with 14mk range I use to finish any tough nuts off...

[Peter Rhodan]

Sorry - I kept saying Frigates - my 6k tonners are my corvettes - my new 12k tonners are my frigates - build 2 designs too - one is a combo of the above with both AMM and 85mk long range 5 damage missiles - the other is armed with 6 size 9 launchers for the short range 12 damage types missile - I have met a Swarm mother ship with 600 shields ...... sheesh
my poor 3rd Rates only have 75 shields....