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[Agile]

A problem with Onslaught is it cannot mount very many good guns before it gets flux problems.  Also, due to its weaknesses, enemies need to die fast.  This is when missiles are handy, even if they do not last long enough.  If I decide to forsake missiles, then I get all of the flux and shield hullmods to squeeze a bit better efficiency, and I can either upgrade a needler for a heavy weapon or maybe add a couple railguns.  It lets Onslaught kill the enemies it can easily kill a bit faster, but it has no alpha to kill things fast if it really gets in trouble early (like the first wave of an Ordos fight).

I tried Pilums, and noticed it scares some AI ships away for a bit, so Pilums are mildly useful for keeping some enemy frigates at bay while Onslaught plinks away with guns.  That can be handy for those that want a bigger gun and more flux for Onslaught, instead of many 10 OP missiles plus Expanded Missile Racks.

Yeah this right here is why, after playing a Onslaught heavy fleet, I stopped. They rely way too much on missiles (who are very limited currently) to really do much against equivalent targets. I was fine when I mixed more carriers into my Onslaught fleet, but Onslaughts with some cruisers and/or destroyers really doesn't pay off as the Onslaught is just ... not good at sustained fighting.

Its a shame since the Onslaught is so well balanced.

[Megas]

Conquest is better than Onslaught at sustained fighting.  Locusts with Expanded Missile Racks last much longer, and it can pack enough firepower at both sides where it counts.  Also mobile enough to escape from traps Onslaught cannot.  Onslaught's only strength is it can burst very well with missiles and mass needlers (and maybe TPCs).

[Igncom1]

Assuming you can kit it correctly anyway.  I should really raid some more.

[sotanaht]

Conquest is better than Onslaught at sustained fighting.  Locusts with Expanded Missile Racks last much longer, and it can pack enough firepower at both sides where it counts.  Also mobile enough to escape from traps Onslaught cannot.  Onslaught's only strength is it can burst very well with missiles and mass needlers (and maybe TPCs).

Burst > Sustain.  If you kill your enemies, you win.

[Megas]

Burst > Sustain.  If you kill your enemies, you win.

Not in big fights that last more than two minutes, like... every endgame fight (such as max strength Ordos, bounties, or expeditions).  Fights late in the game are big and long enough that multi-round combat is likely unless your fleet is very powerful AND map size is at max (500).

In fights that big, bursting to victory is impossible because there are too many strong enemies.  The best a burst ship can do is kill few key enemies immediately, but there will probably still be a huge slog left to go.

Conquest's Locusts can last much of the first round.  Onslaught will run out of Annihilators quickly, and player had better hope Onslaught kills enough before that happens.  Both will probably be out by round two if combat lasts for more than one round.

[sotanaht]

Burst > Sustain.  If you kill your enemies, you win.

Not in big fights that last more than two minutes, like... every endgame fight (such as max strength Ordos, bounties, or expeditions).  Fights late in the game are big and long enough that multi-round combat is likely unless your fleet is very powerful AND map size is at max (500).

In fights that big, bursting to victory is impossible because there are too many strong enemies.  The best a burst ship can do is kill few key enemies immediately, but there will probably still be a huge slog left to go.

Conquest's Locusts can last much of the first round.  Onslaught will run out of Annihilators quickly, and player had better hope Onslaught kills enough before that happens.  Both will probably be out by round two if combat lasts for more than one round.

The only fights that go to round 2 are against fleets so massive that even after the enemy forces retreat, they still can't escape.  That doesn't ever happen with Remnants because they cannot retreat.

[Megas]

Multi-round combat is mainly the player full retreating to reset peak performance as soon as it expires, not the enemy.  That is the main reason to edge-camp (if fleet is not strong enough), to retreat ships immediately after they run out of peak performance.  AI will happily stay and play chicken with PPT/CR wars - don't play that game!  Happens if too many smaller ships (Drover, any ship with Unreliable Subsystems) or phase ships (Doom) time out, or if map size is small (about default size) that fights are a long drawn out series of duels.

If my lose my Doom support (or other critical ships) because they time out too soon, and I need them to win, I will full retreat to reset the peak performance clocks for the whole fleet.  Rarely, I may full retreat to reset command points too.  (I only did that once or twice.)

[TaLaR]

Yep, if you want your fleet to be a true ship-grinding machine to defeat tens of pirate or expeditions fleets in one go, you have to optimize for multi-round combat. Which means no missiles allowed.

[sotanaht]

Yep, if you want your fleet to be a true ship-grinding machine to defeat tens of pirate or expeditions fleets in one go, you have to optimize for multi-round combat. Which means no missiles allowed.

It's true, even with extremely high battle size settings and never retreating yourself, you still end up forced into multi-round combat if the enemy fleet is that huge.  Well maybe not "forced" exactly, after a round you can simply leave combat, taking no further CR loss (no harass or pursuit), but abandoning any loot that you might have gained.  The AI retreats when X% of its fleet is destroyed, but if 100-X% is still greater than the clean disengage threshold they won't disengage (maybe if they destroy enough of your ships, but I doubt they WOULD retreat in that case)

I don't really try to optimize for that sort of thing.  I'd have to carry spare ships for starters just because of deployment CR, which also sort of gets around your missile limitation anyway.  I only fight fleets I can beat in one go, MAYBE 2 if I'm defending one of my stations or something, but usually the second wave is just trash anyway.

[TaLaR]

Yep, if you want your fleet to be a true ship-grinding machine to defeat tens of pirate or expeditions fleets in one go, you have to optimize for multi-round combat. Which means no missiles allowed.

It's true, even with extremely high battle size settings and never retreating yourself, you still end up forced into multi-round combat if the enemy fleet is that huge.  Well maybe not "forced" exactly, after a round you can simply leave combat, taking no further CR loss (no harass or pursuit), but abandoning any loot that you might have gained.  The AI retreats when X% of its fleet is destroyed, but if 100-X% is still greater than the clean disengage threshold they won't disengage (maybe if they destroy enough of your ships, but I doubt they WOULD retreat in that case)

I don't really try to optimize for that sort of thing.  I'd have to carry spare ships for starters just because of deployment CR, which also sort of gets around your missile limitation anyway.  I only fight fleets I can beat in one go, MAYBE 2 if I'm defending one of my stations or something, but usually the second wave is just trash anyway.

I don't Ironman, but pirates do tend to appear as surprise horde when you enter/leave their systems. So situation where you have to fight many fleets of them without a way to avoid it (beside reloading) do happen.

Spare ships don't really solve the problem. A missile ship is good only for 1 deployment, most non-missile ships are good for 3-4. You also can't move officers from one ship to another between rounds (while I simply keep deploying same officer).