Imperial tactica

[Noble713]

There are so many ships available for construction in this mod that it can sometimes be difficult to find the most effective ones, or to find uses for all of them. This thread is meant to be a collection of how people use different Imperial ship designs. Feel free to start a second thread for the Rebel Alliance.

 

My general play style: Big ships, and lots of them. Fighters are annoying to control and coordinate, and they don't perform all that well against Rebel fighters anyway. I tend to just pump out heavy ships, hyperspace to the enemy's base, and engage their cap ships and shipyards.

 

TIE Interceptor: One of the only fighter types I build. Cheap, and packs more firepower than all of the other low-cost alternatives. It usually takes me 10+ squadrons to get any real results with them. Use solely for intercepting X/Y/B-Wings and as a general Combat Space Patrol. Virtually useless against ships.

 

Skipray Blastboat: I love these things. Excellent protection allows them to deliver huge torpedo salvos and survive to pull back to a carrier and rearm. Combined with the hyperdrive, they can be brutally effective hit-and-run units.

 

TIE Bomber: Take away all the cool things I said about Skipray Blastboats and you get these. Draw your own conclusions.

 

Lancer Frigate: I haven't found these to be as effective as they were in Rebellion. They are fragile and tend to draw a disproportionate amount of fire. They don't seem to kill fighters any more effectively than TIEs.

 

Carrack Light Cruiser: I don't have much experience with these. I sent 8 to take out a crippled refinery ship tonight, and all of them died in the process to a single Mediator (I know, a pretty big ship) and some fighters. Not very durable, and if they can't survive to destroy what they were sent after I don't see much use for their speed.

 

Eidolon Cruiser: A solid heavy frigate design. In the few instances where I build all-frigate fleets they are almost always the last ones to go down.

 

Imperator II: The backbone of the Imperial Navy. They could use better protection, but man they can dish out some serious firepower.

 

Sovereign: The superlaser never seems to actually hit anything. The ship is also SLOW. If you want it to get to a battle in a timely manner, hyperspace jumps are pretty much the only way. Beyond that, I sometimes wonder if the super-caps are as effective as an equal RU cost of smaller ships such as ISDs. Very long-range turbolasers.

 

Correllian Gunship: Similar to the Lancer Frigate, minus the "fire magnet" aspect.

 

I'll need to play more games using the other classes before I form any real opinions on them.

[BobTheGreat]

I tend to use strike groups of two or three ISD's or a Titan and a pair of ISD's or Allegiences as my heavy hitters. I usually escort each strike group with 2-3VSD, 4-6 Strike Cruisers, 6-8 Lancer's or Carrack Cruisers, and maybe 12-14 Correlian Heavy Gunships. In addition, several squads of Blastboats, TIE Interceptors, and TIE Defenders will tag along, either docked or guarding the other ships.

 

So, each group ends up being around 30-35 capital ships plus fighters, and three strike groups is usually plenty to squash the AI's (pending good tactics). I may also use smaller specialized groups (10-14 lancer's and some heavy gunships as fighter hunters) or build strike groups around smaller cap ships like Strike Cruisers or VSD's.

 

I agree with most of your ship reviews, but I think almost all of them have a place (some are redundant, but still useful).

 

The T/I and the Blastboat are awesome. I've even noticed that the T/I will rack up just as many kills as the T/D's, though they die quicker.

 

Lancer's are very effective in packs. You have to be careful to keep them away from capital ships, but in formation they will set up a crossfire that just rips fighter squadrens to shreds. In small numbers or in cap ship engagements, they're kinda useless, but they're awesome when you need to kill an entire wing of fighters.

 

The Carrack Cruisers are kind of the same way. They're quick and can dish out some firepower, especially in groups, but they're not very durable. I use them more as anti-corvette and escort ships than front line warships.

 

Correlian Heavy Gunships are nice. they're durable enough to survive late in the game, and can be good escorts.

 

The ISDII and Allegience are THE ships of this game. ISDI's are nice at first, but they get outclassed pretty quickly. The ISDII's kick ass, and the Allegience of course can't help but be uber.

 

The largest ships I've realistically built have been Titans. The super-caps are essentially overkill, since if you can muster the resources and time to build one, you've won the battle already anyway. Also, they are incredibly slow (Executer, not so much), but they can shoot pretty much all the way across the map (hell, they stretch half-way across it). Once they decide on a target, it simply ceases to be. The ships seriously are lumbering bringers of death. On a much larger map (>hyperspace arena), they could be useful as base-killers and general rampaging, but on the smaller maps they're just too cumbersome to be actually useful.

 

Ships I've noticed aren't worth the money to build so far are the escort shuttle, dreadnaught, enforcer, and the T/F. I'll use them once in a while if I get attacked between research stages, but they really are almost useless compared to other similar ships.

 

My one big gripe about the classes is the ISD's. I know this has been brought up before, but the ISDI and ISDII should be complimentary to each other. The ISDIII can be the "upgraded" ISD, but I and II should work with each other. the ISDI's supposedly had some positively massive turbolasers that the ISDII lacked in favor of more rounded weaponry. Used in combination, the ISDII should be something of a heavy escort for the ISDI's, who would basically ravage a base from afar while the II's kept them safe from other cap ships.

[EvilleJedi]

if you get enough ship tactics together I'll put them on the website

 

for ISD I/II the big problem is if you take the canonical approach or the more recent revisionary literature

 

in the case of the canon apporach the ISD I is an older pursuit ship, whereas the ISD II is the heavy combat varient. the more recent literature makes the ISD I to be much more powerful than the ISD II for some reason(or ignores the distinction between the clases and just says star destroyer), in reality the EP 3 literature will put this to rest finally (I expect to see an ISD I at the end of the movie, which would make ISD I's 20+ year old designs at the introduction of an ISD II)

 

my take has been that the ISD I is a slightly post clone wars desgin and the ISD II was built in conjunction with the superstar destroyer design and incorporates the weapons and improvements from the intervening years and is meant as a heavy fleet escort for SSDs such that the ISD II has heavier guns

[Evil_Greven]

As far as tactics goes, I usually go for heavy ships.

 

As fast as possible, I research to frigate designs, then Rapid Fire Lasers for Lancers. In the meantime while that is researching, usually I will get both of my destroyer yards out.

 

Next, I research for the ISD I, then immediately for the VSD I (I do not use the VSD II).

 

Last, I research for cruiser designs, and my Fighter Factory has built a duplicate of itself by this time, as well as some squadrons of TIE Bombers to provide cap defense.

 

From there, I research to ISD II, Executor-class SSD, to Assault Gunboats (my favored fighter class ships), and heavier frigate designs.

 

Typically, I will have two Allegiances out just as the Executor research is completing, and I immediately shift to that.

 

My usual fleets consist of: 1 Allegiance or Titan cruiser, 2-5 ISD I/IIs, 2-5 VSD Is, 5-10 Lancers, 5-10 Eidolans or other heavier frigate, as well as support from Assault Gunboats and Skipray Blastboats.

 

When the Executor is built.. the game is over

 

Actually, however, in some of my larger games, I've managed to LOSE the Executor-class SSD, and shortly after, a Sovereign-class SSD. I did eventually win, but they were fighting something like six cruisers (mediators and mon remondas) each, and over a dozen destroyers.. No idea how many others.

 

I do love this mod

 

Edit: The reason I like VSD Is is because of the missile salvos... I haven't noticed that they only fire one salvo... I'm pretty certain I've seen them fire multiple salvos. Usually, I keep those behind ISDs who soak up damage far better, but the VSD Is can provide an enormous boost in offense with each salvo.

 

-Greven

[Grand_Admiral_Pellaeon]

being a rebel player i condem your tactics, but they are good ill grant ya that, now i must devise counters

[Evil_Greven]

Well, on occasion when I play Rebels, I usually stick to making CC-9600 frigates. Those things are death. A fleet of 10 CC-9600s, 10 Eidolans, 10 Heavy Gunships (corvettes), and 10 or so squadrons of B-wings are usually enough to decimate an enemy base.

 

Or, as a friend of mine says, "Frig rush" heh. CC-9600s > all.

 

-Greven

[Stotherd]

I believe ISDI was a terror, planetary bombardment weapon, so had alot of slow to fire inaccurate heavy turbolasers in one direction. The ISDII was developed to be more resilient due to the growing rebel threat, with stronger ship to ship capabilities, such as more armour and faster weapons, which would be better against star fighter rushes. The ISDI will still hurt a cruiser or shipyard, but the ISDII is designed to fight of smaller fsater ships.

[EvilleJedi]

ISD I's are older ships, they were built right after the clone wars and therefore have a lot of clone warsish tech on them, IE torpedo tubes, minelayers, lots of ion cannons.

 

the ISD II was developed to essentially be the line ship for the new order and is simply a refit of the ISD I with bigger anti ship weaponry. It came out at the same time as the SSD and was designed with all of the tech that was in an SSD in mind. it originally was designed to have double the shielding, but the shielding was cut in the production version because the philosophy was that any other warship would be dead before the ISD took damage. a few ships retained or were fitted with the better shield generators during the new order though.

 

as time went on the ISD I became the pursuit and patrol ship and the ISD II stayed as the main line destroyer.

 

the ISD II subclass (the ISD III) is actually a combination of the elite version of the ISD II (the one with double the shielding) and later developments placed on all ISDs built by the remnant

 

 

this is very official information supported by many official sources.

[BobtheTomato]

Yeah, that looks about right. Heres the specifics on the shielding and weapons for the ISDI and ISDII:

 

ISDI

HULL RATING: 2272 RU

SHIELD RATING: 4800 SBD

WEAPONS:

-60 Taim & Bak Heavy Turbolaser Batteries;

-60 Borstel Ion Cannon Batteries;

-10 Phylon Tractor Beam Projectors

 

ISDII

HULL RATING: 2272 RU

SHIELD RATING: 5760 SBD

WEAPONS:

-50 Taim & Bak Heavy Turbolaser Batteries;

-50 Taim & Bak Heavy Turbolaser Cannons;

-20 Borstel Ion Cannon Batteries;

-10 Phylon Tractor Beam Projectors

 

(Don't ask what RU and SBD stand for, I don't know. The numbers give a good comparison though)

 

Simply put, the ISDII has better shielding and more powerful firepower. For further information, check this site:

http://www.hyperjump.net/swguides/sdguide/isdstat.html

[hamish1985]

i think my general tactic for all strategy games comes into play, only fighters i usually build are bombers, take them in just before your big ships arrive and do as much damage to the enimies biggest ships just to make the job easier when your big ships get into firing range, since i aint played this actual mod yet (cant seem to get it to d/l) the kinda thing i end up doing with homeworld in general is build some destroyers (vsd's for starwars imperials i suppose) just to help defend till you get some of your heaviest ships into play. when i get battlecruisers i use them in a group of 5-7, defend them with a full group of flak frigates to keep the annoying little flys away, back them up with what destroyers you have left to deal with the frigates and leave the battecruisers to do the work. i suppose in star wars terms i would build some isd's as the heavy weapons to defend at first then move onto isd's and ssd's build the likes of carrick/lancer and nebulon to deal with the fighters and use the heavy ships to lay waste to the cap ships and such vessels, this seems to be the most effective tactic i have for any real time strategy. and the thing i do in homeworld that seems to be really effective is use a battlecruiser with 2 destroyer esscorts and mibbi 5 gunship corvettes (loaded in the battlecruiser) jump them into generally undefended resource mining areas and also have a loan battle cruiser to jump in and take out damaged battlecruisers and loan destroyers. the other thing i think with homeworld is to keep a carrier with a single scout squad 2 probes of each type and about 5 resource collectors. jump it into recently cleared battle feilds (very quickly before enimies arive again) and use your scout squad to circle the area to give you a larger line of sight and the probes too, second you see enimies recall collectors and scouts and jump to safty (if they are lost tough they dont cost much to rebuild as long as you get your carrier out of the way)