I finally played an ISA campaign. I wanted to wait for the version with the new Dreadnought and the FFS but as it have been a while now... I'll do without.
Just like last time i went with a carrier fleet, it wasn't mindless Dart spam this time though. 4 Idaho carriers and the rest filled with random ISA fighters.
I had quite a bunch of drones but i think it was a mistake as they were armed with srms. I was wondering why my carriers always had a buzzing cloud of drones around them, probably all waiting to reload their missiles. If i knew earlier, i would rather use F-135 as my backbone fighters, at least they don't clog my carriers launch bays like the drones and seems to have very similar performances.
Same thing with the F-61. The stinger missile is cool and all but they need constant reloading and i'd rather prefer my carriers to take care of my bombers first. The F-61P seems better as a cannon fodder crafts, the 4 blasters seems decent and at least they fight 'till death.
For the bombing, the B-202 appears as the only real choice. They hit hard but their wide profile make them vulnerable. And without cannon fodder to keep PDs busy, their hellfire torpedo ends up usually intercepted. I rather prefer swarms of A-110, they don't hit as hard but their rocket pods still pack a decent punch and are harder to avoid/intercept. AC-300 aren't bad either for that job, huge flying tanks and actually pretty fast for their size.
I managed to make the RSF occasionally spawn a Russia class in their fleets. I fielded a bunch of F-171, expecting their EMP srms to disable its monster PD system. Doesn't looked very effective unfortunately. That thing is so freaky to fight, i love it. I Hope the new RSF Dreadnought will be as brutal as the old one.
For my Idahos carriers, all of them were missile boats. Tigersharks LRMs plus a bunch of Barracudas can take down Cruisers at the start of the battle, the first wave of fighter ensure the enemy PDs are too busy to notice the big missiles coming their way. My flagship Idaho was armed with torpedoes rather than LRMs, perfect to snipe Moscow and Russia classes.
By the way, despite having my AI carriers missiles not on autofire, they always go trigger happy and unload everything at the start of the fight, is it normal?
This fleet worked very well. Fighters to tank, missiles to hurt, pretty good. Unfortunately it went horribly wrong when i attacked an UIN fleet. Their fortress shields ruined my entire strategy as i couldn't burst them through the raw power of my missiles. I'll try a carrier fleet with them, it'll probably do wonders.