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[GenericGoose]

I like mora, because it's a big carrier that's a lot harder to kill than heron, when left to AI. Can't say anything about the other 2, though brawler was brought up and I see it as extremely weak in AI hands, impossible to keep alive.

[Harmful Mechanic]

I think the key thing to remember about the Lasher is that one Lasher is an unremarkable combatant, but three or more Lashers are a menace. Fill them with machine guns and Hammers, slap SO on them, and release the cloud of concentrated hate on your enemies. If you lose some - eh, they're cheap, most of their best loadouts use cheap weapons, and on the whole they suffer less from D-mods than other ships. In the early and mid-game they're a good way to bulk out your fleet with some cheap extra hitting power.

If you're just comparing stats, yeah, nothing special. But it's cheap and robust, which is the niche.

[Goumindong]

The Mora is great. It’s a hard tank line ship with long range for 20 OP. It’s far better than the Legion which is twice as expensive for only 33% more wings. And it has a damn good tank system.

2 mora is 40 OP and 6 wings! And if an enemy attacks it it gets to turn on its tank without impacting its primary offense!

[Twilight Sentinel]

Lashers have the 'honor' of being the cheapest true warship in the game.  They're also very common and very easy to arm with only small weapon mounts.  The game's 30 fleet limit means that you'll generally want to swap them out for something that uses that limited slot better in the long run, but during the early game they're fantastic for filling a fleet out.  Want to get into a fight right away?  Buy a lasher or two and you're good to go.  If you lose them, they're cheap to replace.  That's their value: efficiency.

For the mora, a key thing is that you never have to actually use all the weapon mounts on a ship with the biggest meanest weapons you've got.  It has low OP, yes, but that just means you have to pick and choose what parts about it you want to make use of.  Use low OP interceptors or leave some of the PD mounts empty and you have a lot more to work with.  It is unique for being the toughest carrier in the game short of capital ships.

[Serenitis]

Carrierchat

Mora has 1 minute more PPT than Heron, which tbf isn't going to make much difference for most of the game.
At least until you get into the larger fleet battles, when you'll definitely start to notice that you're sending Herons back home a lot.
Heron really does need Hardened Subsystems to keep up with fleet level battles. While Mora does not. So the OP balance swings even further in favour of Mora, as Heron can barely afford things as is.

Mora can also carry a full set of Thunders and Pilum, and act as a Missile Artillery / Interdictor platform. Both roles which conveniently render Mora's lack of mobilty largely irrelevant due to the extreme range at which it can project its power.
(There's nothing stopping you doing this with a Heron, other than the knowledge you're 'wasting' a damage boosting system on things that don't really do any appreciable damage.)

Heron is still my favourte cruiser carrier, just for the combination of mobility and raw damage potential.
But I do like Mora, and will happily use beefcake beehives not only because they're good aggro sinks on the front lines, but having them carrying the fighters leaves the Herons free to carry the bombers and take full advantage of that wonderful system.

[Megas]

In long fights that take more than one round to finish, I prefer Heron because Mora is too sluggish.  It takes forever for Mora (and some other ships) to turn 180 and retreat.

Mora's best advantage is more OP than Heron, which lets the player turn it into an exploration ship/carrier hybrid if needed.  Heron is too OP starved to shove campaign mods on it.  If I did not use ships with Surveying Equipment and the like, I would likely use only Herons for cruiser-sized carriers.

[Faiter119]

I've been using the Shrike in my salvage only playthrough, and I've found it quite strong. It's more like a super-frigate than a destroyer, only costs 8 OP (Mule is 7, Hammerhead is 10, Enforcer is 9), which is pretty good I'd say. It also costs less supplies to field, and I've found it quite potent in taking out frigates and supporting attacks vs more powerful destroyers and cruisers.

Imo it plays a lot like a mini Odyssey

[intrinsic_parity]

Putting surveying equipment on even half of your civilian ships (colossi or phaetons) is already enough to get 5 supply surveys, so I don't see that as a reason to use the mora, especially since the mora costs more fuel which makes it significantly worse at exploration IMO. Fuel cost + slow speed are really the main reasons I don't like the mora.

For me the heron is an easy choice because of the ship system. Damper field is fine, but for a carrier that has very little direct firepower, I much prefer avoidance to tanking as a defensive strategy which doesn't require a ship system to be effective. I agree that PPT (and associated OP issues) is main downside of the heron, but I usually work around the OP issues by using very minimal beam loadouts with the idea that they promote safe positioning for the AI while also freeing up OP to maximize the fighter output which is the point of the ship IMO. I usually run heron with sparks or maybe broadsword + some damaging fighters (mods make this quite a bit better). If I don't have astral, then herons make good bomber platforms as well, although OP is a much bigger issue there.

[Megas]

Putting surveying equipment on even half of your civilian ships (colossi or phaetons) is already enough to get 5 supply surveys, so I don't see that as a reason to use the mora, especially since the mora costs more fuel which makes it significantly worse at exploration IMO. Fuel cost + slow speed are really the main reasons I don't like the mora.

That is no good once my most of my civvies are capital-sized late in the game (for maximum capacity in the least slots), since they need Augmented Engines instead to keep up with my fleet (and the other mod is Efficiency Overhaul), and I am not clogging more slots with additional stat-stick ships.  Apogee and Shepherd alone are not enough ships for Surveying stacking.

What I like about Mora is I can use whatever fighters and cheap-but-effective light ballistics and still have OP to spare for a campaign mod.  Heron is too OP starved to fit anything that is not combat-related if I want weapons on it.

I want fighters in my fleet, and if I want some exploration stuff, Mora has the OP to afford it.

That said, if I plan for a pure combat fleet, I dump the Moras for a bunch of Drovers (or Herons).

[Thaago]

I often find when I'm exploring that I leave most of my big hitters at home, unless I'm specifically farming a red danger system. Do you find that you need the capital size haulers/fuel ships for exploring Megas? I've sometimes run out of cargo space for low value stuff after a good vast ruins haul, but most of the time I've never felt the need for Atlas' or Prometheus' other than leaving behind metals.

I like several Colossus + burn booster (militarized or augmented) + surveying for it to match the rest of the ships for cargo and a couple of destroyers with maybe a cruiser flag for protection from minor threats. Several drams (no need for militarized leaves an extra slot) or several phaetons for fuel is enough to reach anywhere and leaves slots for surveying.

I still feel like efficiency overhaul is a trap! On a colossus (what I'm usually using for hauling) it saves 1.2 supplies per month, while surveying equipment saves 15 supplies per planet. Cutting fuel costs by 20% is nice and I'd need to look at how far a typical explore mission + detours is in order to estimate a cost savings, but fuel and tankers are relatively cheap (and unlike supplies, its usage is very predictable). Looking at an Atlas, EO saves 2 supplies/month but surveying lowers costs by 30. I suppose it also lowers crew requirements? But civi ships don't take much crew anyways (40 for collosus, 50 for atlas, so a savings of 8/10 crew).

[Kpop]

I second Thaago here. My exploration fleets are a lot different from the fleets I run when I'm expecting absolute carnage. I might bring one capital but it has augmented drive field and EO. Handicapped, sure, but still a capital if things get messy.

That said, I don't understand using Moras to fill out an exploration fleet. Bring more dmod shepherds if you want a better fleet for scanning planets. Don't have to use augmented drive field either.

[intrinsic_parity]

I prefer colossus to atlas through the entire game, as they have 45% of the cargo capacity for 30% of the upkeep. I might go atlas in the super late game once I stop caring about surveying, but I usually explore a lot in the early-mid game. Usually I have 4-6 colossus which is about 2-3 atlas equivalent, so only 2-3 fleet slots extra that let me get the full surveying bonus at cruiser burn without sacrificing combat power. I also am happy to have a bunch of apogees while exploring (3+), I think they are very good combat power per deployment point while also having tons of campaign utility.

[Megas]

I often find when I'm exploring that I leave most of my big hitters at home, unless I'm specifically farming a red danger system. Do you find that you need the capital size haulers/fuel ships for exploring Megas? I've sometimes run out of cargo space for low value stuff after a good vast ruins haul, but most of the time I've never felt the need for Atlas' or Prometheus' other than leaving behind metals.

In my last game, I started most exploration late in the game.  Early game, I raided worlds for blueprints and money (three of the industry worlds have poor defenses), and chased zombie pirates (base bounties).

For general exploration, I use a war fleet with some explorers because I expect to fight high-powered enemies (relative to my fleet) along the way.  And I want burn 20, so Augmented Engines on the biggest class of ships I have.  If I chase bounties or Ordos, I want to explore planets nearby too.

I need capital haulers when I bring multiple capitals to match the enemy.  I may use Colossus, but once I start getting lots of junk from combat, I swap for Atlas.  Also, I would like to explore the whole sector, but I explore maybe third or half at most when I obtain my final endgame fleet.  However, endgame is my favorite part of the game, so I play with a big endgame fleet for a significant amount of time.

Colossus is okay.  I use those until I need other things more (like lots of Afflictors or more Drovers).  Tankers have no such counterpart, so it is Prometheus once I bring the battleships.

My sub-capital civilians in my late game fleet are one or two Colossus III (raider ship with some capacity) and one or two Shepherds.  And two tugs - more than that eats too many fleet slots.

That said, I don't understand using Moras to fill out an exploration fleet.

Mora is still a dedicated combat carrier, even if it has exploration mods.  It can carry bombers to blast an annoying battlestation (if I do not have the ships to cheese those fights) or it can carry fighters to seek-and-destroy the annoying cowardly AI enemy ships.  What am I going to do if I remove an exploration mod from the Mora, upgrade the missiles from a cheap Hammer Rack to Typhoon Reaper pod, or add some other luxury?

[Linnis]

You guys are accurate about the lasher.

But I don't see anyone mentioning the real strength of the Mora. Its a great ship for punching low. Thats means its near invincibility against anything thats not a cruiser or larger makes it a great candidate for early fleet anchor for bounty hunting. Just rally the mora into the enemy formation with a move command and it will not only act as a distraction, its fighters with some small ballistics will also wear down frigates and destoryers alike with ease. While if you went with something like a dominator or eagle, they will have trouble when an destoryer and a few frigate surround it, or at best end up in a long stalemate.