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Author Topic: How do deal with shield fighter swams  (Read 3029 times)

wei270

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How do deal with shield fighter swams
« on: September 21, 2019, 01:41:58 AM »

I find that i had trouble trying to moving in an AI fleet when i don't have the fighter superiority, i mean if you have the fighter superiority the game seem pretty easy, but if you don't the moment you try to move in your formation is broken apart and not all ships can defend each other so that one or two ships always get swarmed and destroyed. Shield fighters make it worst as your flak gunned are not that effective vs them. so what do you do when you face heavy carrier ai fleets.
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Igncom1

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Re: How do deal with shield fighter swams
« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2019, 01:54:43 AM »

Basic machine guns do kinetic damage that is highly effective vs shields! Very good against shielded fighters.

Otherwise yeah, carriers are very powerful at the moment as they are both deadly and very distracting to the AI. I'd focus on bring escort interceptors to help defend like wasps (they drop proximity mines that vaporise most fighters.)

Flak cannons a vulcan guns are best vs missiles as they do frag damage which gets a huge penalty vs shields and armour. So HE weapons, kinetic weapons or energy weapons are all better vs fighter craft.
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Sunders are the best ship in the game.

sotanaht

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Re: How do deal with shield fighter swams
« Reply #2 on: September 21, 2019, 02:06:55 AM »

I mostly just ignore them.  They die to my fleets main weapons incidentally as those ships travel.  The AI can't concentrate enough fighter firepower to be a big threat to the kind of ships I use.

So I'm reviewing a video fighting against a remnant ordo with 2 Radiants and 20 fighter wings, with vanilla-only ships (I go over the vanilla DP cap, but only a little, I have max battle size set to 1000 but deploy only 325 out of 555).  What I see happening is that all the enemy fighters cluster in between my fleet and the enemy on the first clash and die to a combination of Autopulse, Terminator Drones, and standing in the way of a Khopesh Bombing Run.  40 seconds into the fight I see only 13 surviving enemy fighters out of the original 20 wings of fighters (a few more reinforcements are on the way).  After that, fighters aren't a problem for the rest of the fight.

Only Remnants rely heavily on shielded fighters in vanilla.  Persian League uses enough fighters that I consider them a threat (more than remnants), but most of those aren't shielded.

Here's the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emofF78HPCM
« Last Edit: September 21, 2019, 02:14:29 AM by sotanaht »
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wei270

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Re: How do deal with shield fighter swams
« Reply #3 on: September 21, 2019, 02:54:29 AM »

ok thx i see the problem now flaks are really not that impressive vs shield fighters, and i tend to use smaller ships so that if they do get behind my ships i am in trouble, but bigger ships has less problem with that.
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Daynen

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Re: How do deal with shield fighter swams
« Reply #4 on: September 26, 2019, 09:45:40 PM »

Flaks aren't that impressive to begin with; they miss too often.  Basic machine guns, while short range, have great rate of fire and burn shields quickly.  If you happen to be running anything with large missile slots, a Locust launcher or two will absolutely MOW fighters of all shapes and sizes.  If your craft have small energy slots, PD lasers are reliable; they don't miss and tend to do well against all fighters, shields or no.
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Plantissue

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Re: How do deal with shield fighter swams
« Reply #5 on: September 27, 2019, 04:48:28 AM »

Honestly speaking, it isn't that the AI using fighters are powerful, but that the player themselves using fighters or massing them is powerful.
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Modo44

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Re: How do deal with shield fighter swams
« Reply #6 on: September 27, 2019, 05:31:58 AM »

If you don't have a missile slots, basic Swarmer launchers will also help with fighter swarms. Weak in singles, but then, you wouldn't bring just one...
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Thaago

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Re: How do deal with shield fighter swams
« Reply #7 on: September 27, 2019, 10:43:08 AM »

Railguns will overload most shielded fighters in one hit, though sparks are so fast that they dodge a decent amount of the time.
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Terethall

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Re: How do deal with shield fighter swams
« Reply #8 on: September 27, 2019, 01:13:19 PM »

ok thx i see the problem now flaks are really not that impressive vs shield fighters, and i tend to use smaller ships so that if they do get behind my ships i am in trouble, but bigger ships has less problem with that.

Basically -- think of fighters less as missiles and more as very weak and nimble frigates. You wouldn't rely on two vulcans to kill a Hound or three PD lasers to kill a Kite, so don't expect one of them to kill a fighter. Frag damage type is useful for things without shields and armor, so missiles, some of the weakest fighters without shields, and in special use cases, larger enemy ships after armor is stripped (locust is actually a decent finisher for this reason).

Non fragmentation PD is generally more expensive flux wise and OP wise when comparing on raw dps, though, so it can be useful to have a mix . Though generally I think everyone agrees that the burst PD laser is the best all around due to balanced damage type, high armor pen, reasonable flux ratio, accuracy, and range, even with a high-ish OP cost...
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Lucky33

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Re: How do deal with shield fighter swams
« Reply #9 on: October 05, 2019, 01:11:46 AM »

So I'm reviewing a video fighting against a remnant ordo with 2 Radiants and 20 fighter wings, with vanilla-only ships (I go over the vanilla DP cap, but only a little, I have max battle size set to 1000 but deploy only 325 out of 555).

Thats more than twice the vanilla DP cap (its 300 for both fleets not only yours). So you deploy six hi-tech capitals to fight fleet with only two Radiants. With such ratio Im not sure why would you even bother to start a fight less bring it out as an example of anything but overpowered steamrolling.
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