So basically, as with the HH series, once you can build SDs, there is absolutely no reason to keep building Battleships, as they're less effective in the only role they fit into?
One thing I've noticed so far in Starfire is that there's no real rock-paper-scissors to the battles - whoever has the mass advantage, wins 100% of the time. You can't swarm a battleship with escorts and expect a win - it just draws out how long it takes the battleship to shoot them all to pieces.
Is there any point in the tech level where this paradigm changes and allows for other tactics?
The relation of mass to victory is not as clear as that, in my opinion. Although, having the mass advantage does indeed help. The combatants in this case all have around the same tech levels, so that tends to give the advantage to other things, like mass in this case.
There are a couple of critical points. The introduction of larger hulls which have the same movement speed as the smaller hull almost always causes the smaller hull to be relegated to special functions, like minesweeper, assault ship, or escort. This happens with the CL/CA/BC, and as you noted the BB/SD.
Starfire tends to lean towards giving the advantage to big ships, in my opinion, although it is not completely one sided. It depends on the weapons mounted on the ships and other factors. I like this, because I like big ships. However, swarm tactics are always possible. From tech levels 1-7, the best swarm is composed of speed 8 corvettes. A well-handled swarm can run down and destroy a group of larger ships, but, if the larger ships are well handled, it can become very dangerous for the swarm. To ensure victory a swarm needs around a 150% mass advantage, and with that it can succeed. The swarm has other advantages as well. Even with the reduced construction rates in my campaign you can build a swarm quickly. And they are fast both tactically and strategically, which can be a significant advantage. They do have countervailing disadvantages, though. A swarm victory is almost always expensive in terms of lost swarm ships. And a loss is usually a disaster, with the entire force lost. And while they can almost always pick their battles, as they are faster than anything else, if backed into a corner and forced to fight things can go wrong quickly.
This equation changes at HT 8, when fighters are introduced. Fighters immediately become the new swarm attrition weapon, and they are good at it. A group of CVE's is fast and can attack from beyond missile range, never coming into range of the enemy's fleet. And if they lose their fighters, they can return to base and load more.
Finally, as you noted, the mass advantage seems overly important, but in part that is because I'm playing this solo. Whether I a good, bad, or indifferent player, I'm playing against myself so both sides have the same advantage/disadvantage. That will tend to magnify the differences between the two forces, where in a battle between two different players, the varying levels of skill and knowledge of the rules would perhaps balance out things like design differences or mass advantages.
Kurt
