I decided to play an experimental campaign using only autopilot (except for early game) and trying to exploit the advantages of the leadership and tech skills. I went with ORA for this campaign, mostly because i haven't had the chance to try them yet, and because i thought space broadsides would work well with this strategy. This'll be a little different than my usual feedback posts, since i didn't really piloted any ships, i don't really have a precise opinions about them. Instead, i'll talk about my choices and my feeling about the ORA fleet i build.
As Tartiflette can probably attest from my moans of frustration on the Discord chat, early game was hard. I got careless with my starter Mirth in the beginning, and lost it quickly to pirates. I failed to find another one for a long while, and relied instead on the Bliss frigates. Big mistake, the Bliss is pretty much a trap option for early game. It is fairly slow at 120su (as much as a Lasher), and while his compact fortress shield works well to tank alpha strikes, it deals quite poorly being pressured. It is more or less hard-countered by the fast and numerous pirates i encountered.
So yeah, it didn't went well. I had to restart after a few fights.
I got myself a Harmony destroyer for my second start, making things easier. Its exceptional mobility was very useful to catch even the swiftest frigates, and while getting the whole broadside trick took me a little bit, it worked quite well. As much as i wanted to try those ORA blasters, i knew from my tests in the simulator those would not work for early game skirmishes. Instead, i went first for a bread and butter IR pulse/Ion cannon boat with Safety Override, which i later upgrade to an asymmetrical phase lance boat. That was also the moment i realised how important Accelerated Shield is for ORA, they needs to cover their long profile as quickly as possible to avoid taking unnecessary damage. Extend shield is nice too, but as i eventually learned that ORA needs more hullmods that they can afford.
After grinding a sufficient amount of pirates with my Harmony, my hard earned money was spent on a pair of Communion carriers, something to relieve some pressure off my Bliss frigates. I couldn't quite afford the Fervor gunships though, so i went for the cheap Talon option, this also allowed me to stack ECM package and Nav Relay on them. The Communions made my life much easier, and from there money started to roll in much quicker, allowing me to grow further the fleet. I felt confident enough in letting the AI pilot the flagship, letting me command the rest of the fleet thanks to the Operation Center hullmod.
As i was very satisfied with the performances of my Harmony, i decided to add a few more to my band, as well as a bunch of Bliss frigates (why was i even bothering with those anyway?). It was also the time i felt i could try those long range ORA blasters. I was disappointed with the results. Obviously my fleet wasn't quite big enough to to drown the screen in a Touhou-esque amount of bullets, but still, the very slow projectiles made the Lithany/Eschewal too unreliable to catch frigates/destroyers, even in large numbers. I find the solution by looking at Orikson's ORA tournament's fleet. If i can't hit a moving enemy, perhaps i can hit one that stays still? It's time to load on ion weaponry.
I wasn't too hot about dedicating precious mounts to ion weapons, so i let that duty to fighters. A bunch of Claws and Xyphos suddenly drastically increased the precision of my ships. Because of this reason, i found Converted Hangar to be invaluable for ORA, and all my destroyers/cruisers were soon accompanied by their own Xyphos wings, bringing solid point defenses as a bonus. I also replaced most of my cheap interceptors with Fervor gunships too, those proved very useful for my fleet as well. The Choirs brought a welcome, if small, amount of EMP, the flares distracted the PDs from the blaster shots (Lithany Throwers's projectiles are like missiles for those that don't know) and the Calling launcher brought... Erh, more dakka? Never enough of that.
Things were going smoothly so far, i added a few more ships, some Sanctuary destroyers, which fulfilled a very similar role to my Harmonies. Also a longbows loaded Felicity carrier, which became my new command center. In battle, my fleet was separated in three groups, the larger carrier group, compromised of Communions, Sanctuaries and the Felicity, which was used as an anvil to push the enemy's fleet where i wanted. And then two smaller squad of Harmonies and Bliss, hunting the stragglers that my "anvil" managed to separate from the main group. Despite not participating directly in battles, my fleet was able to take down even high-levels bounties, including IBBs with those tactics.
As time went on however, battles began to drag on longer that i wanted to. My blaster spam started to show its limit against heavier armor, and i needed to quickly improve my fleet's overall firepower to keep going. I experimented a few different loadouts for my Harmonies that were forming the bulk of my fleet. I went with a few Typhoons launchers in the Synergy slots. I'm usually not that keen on unreliable, unguided torpedoes but since my numerous Xyphos were able to paralyse whatever i was focusing on, i thought it would work well enough. And it did, although the limited ammo would cause me issues in prolonged engagements.
I eventually got myself some more cruisers, two more Felicity, both loaded with Tridents and Daggers, since i still needed more raw damage. Also a pair of Revelation and an Elevation. Those three were outfitted as mobile artillery, it was a good chance for me to try the Invocation Launcher. The ability to fire a long range, guided projectile going over my own ships is amazing, there's no reason for my cruisers not to be constantly firing that thing. As such, Advanced Turret Gyros tends to be mandatory on the Revelation to constantly keep track of the target. Sadly, even with lvl 3 loadout design, choosing where to invest my OPs was getting tricky. Accelerated shields, ITU, Converted Hangar, Advanced gyros, extended shields... I wanted them all, but it would be at the cost of my capacity/dissipation. My support ships probably didn't needed those too much, but my frontline destroyers? Difficult choices... I preferred to sacrifice a few hullmods (Extended shields, Extended racks) for a bit more flux capacity, in case they end up in tricky situations.
The other ships i purchased throughout the end game were just more of the same. The Enlightenment battleship was "just" a heavier Revelation. The Beatitude cruiser, a slower but punchier Harmony. Similar loadouts, similar roles. Oh, and i still had Bliss frigates still laying around somehow, they didn't fulfilled any purpose asides from cannon fodder. I didn't even needed them as dedicated PD platforms, similar to the Centurion/Monitor, since ORA carriers comes with a built-in Wasp interceptors, and the bucketload of Xyphos i fielded resolved all potential issues about missiles and fighters.
Unfortunately for me, this strat eventually showed its limit against end-game opponents. Being always outnumbered, my shrinking deployment point capacity prevented me from deploying a sufficient amount of ships to properly control the battlefield. Since my tactics about surrounding a target and finishing it with torpedoes couldn't work anymore, i was stuck on the defensive all the time, only saved by my long range artillery, until CR started to wear me down. Of course, a player controlled flagship surely would have done the trick in this situation, but given i was too busy playing with plastic soldiers aboard my operation center...
I still managed to get to the final IBB, but gave up trying to take down the three mod-battleships. Not enough ships, not enough CR, not enough hullmods, not enough of everything. That was still quite a surprisingly fun campaign, and it inspired me quite a bit in how to properly build fleets.
I would have liked if ORA had more options for fleet-wide support options. I know Tyrador have a fighter AOE buff hullmod, and somehow hoped for something similar during this campaign, especially since ORA ships rely so heavily on each others. Ideally though, Alex should try to develop a bit more the global in-battle bonuses like Nav Relay and ECM, the idea is good but sadly currently too limited in my opinion. If you have ideas for "support' abilities for ORA though, i certainly won't complain.