What's the difference between Surround and Standoff when in battle? What are the benefits of each? In what situations would you use either?

 

also, does anyone have, or can anyone give me a concise explanations on the formations?

 

eg: Hammer, Anvil, Left Hook, Right Hook

 

how does one use them? Do you have to combine them with either Surround/Standoff to get a desired affect?

 

thanks

I still don't understand all the formations/manuevers stuff... I have noticed with alot of fighters surrond generally works really well... its stupid to have fighters standoff unless their bombers your trying to protect...besides swarm looks way cooler . I think the attack patterns just determine how your fleet spreads out since ships automatically turn to fire from the best side they can(the side they have the most guns on, or the best guns on) so essentially your either ordering your fighter wing/capital ship group up, down, left or right... so if your trying to surrond maybe send half of your ships left and half right. Hopefully an expert on the subject will reply shortly .

I'm not so sure anyone's going to reply to this.

 

Perhaps if you standoff with Imperial capitals they will keep their nose to the target (bonus for their bow firing arc) and Surround would give you either broadside for use with rebel capitals

 

as far as fighter surround/stanbdoff, I don't know

From my experiance, the stand off is best used for capital ships you want to keep out of the reach of opposing weaponry, and exploits longer weapon ranges on specific ships' ie a ISD having more range than a corvette type of thing. Surround simply gets ships and fighters 'in the midst of the fray.' You do more damage but are right in it. So dangerous for Capital ships if your uncertain about the outcome of a battle. If you retreat, you can be fairly certain some ships will be left behind, whether by Ion fire or damage.

 

Look at how much faster fighters damage capital ships in a tactical battle if you set them to surround....

 

 

The anvil, hook, etc are simply manuevers you can pull off in a tactical battle, the worth of which are a little tricky to explain. I guess you just have to practise , play around a bit, and figure out for your self; bearing in mind it is a 3D tactical battle, and the clever commander exploits his terrain.

There's also a slight bug that can help slow down an opposing fleet trying to escape a system. Send one of the task forces, preferably the 1 in an anvil, standoff, attack capital ships, it supposedly allows you to get into firing range for a pot shot while they are on the way out.

I remember reading about using anvil to chase ships escaping before to catch them for pot shots however when I use it I haven't managed to catch them yet. Maybe I should used it with right hook .