| what is the point of splitting chaff? |
Wed, 28 December 2005 13:40  |
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 dreadlordnaf |
 | Crewman 1st Class |
Messages: 27
Registered: April 2005
Location: Bulgaria | |
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I understand how chaff works but in a game im currently in my opponent has all his chaff split on a planet I want to attack into like 50 different fleets. Is there a reason behind this? I understand how split fleet works if your trying to avoid being chased but what about this? Is it harder to kill say 1000 chaff split into 50 fleets than it is 1000 chaff that are in just 1 fleet?
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| Re: what is the point of splitting chaff? |
Wed, 28 December 2005 13:53  |
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The main reason for splitting chaff is to use up more enemy missiles. Chaff split into smaller fleets against beamers still gets cut to pieces.
Missiles (or torps) fire on a slot by slot basis and with chaff split into smaller fleets a slot can only target one fleet. Since there is a one missile per ship kill rate, firing a six missile slot on a BB at a 4 ship fleet can only kill 4 ships (instead of 6). If one does a little math here and knows the design of the missile ships attacking, it is possible to require the attacker to use an extra complete turn or 2 to kill all the chaff with missiles. However, once the beamers get in range the chaff will all die pretty much immediately.
Lets take a simple example of one missile BB using missiles in the 2 6x slots and in the 4x slot. Total 16 missiles. This ship fires at 16 chaff in one shot and kills them all if it has enough computers for high accuracy. However, split the 16 chaff into 6 seperate fleets of 2 and 3 ships each and the story is different. Round one the 3 slots on the BB fire killing 3 fleets - or only half the chaff. Now this BB must use another round of battle to kill the rest.
Now, the opponent here has a small dilemna since having too many fleets in a battle causes battle board overload and is a listed cheat. Anybody splitting chaff into smaller fleets must be careful to avoid overlaoding the battle board. 200 chaff split into 200 fleets has every possibility of exploiting this cheat.
Ptolemy
[Updated on: Wed, 28 December 2005 13:56]
Though we often ask how and why, we must also do to get the answers to the questions.Report message to a moderator
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| Re: what is the point of splitting chaff? |
Wed, 28 December 2005 14:29 |
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| mlaub |
 | Lieutenant |
Messages: 744
Registered: November 2003
Location: MN, USA | |
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One other reason, would be Cheap engines. Did those ships move at all?
On another note, furthering what Ptolemy says...Depending on what the fleets consist of, and orders, splitting chaff may have no effect on the battle outcome.
Also, this is one reason to equip the "wing" mounts on your missile BB's, as they fire after the slots with 6 (top first), but before the one with 4, on a BB. Thus, lessing the overall effect vs BB stack with only the 6 slots filled, or the 6 and 4 slots filled.
-Matt
Global Warming - A climatic change eagerly awaited by most Minnesotans.
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| Re: what is the point of splitting chaff? |
Thu, 29 December 2005 10:47 |
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| Quote: |
And apart from the CE idea I cant imagine a situation when splitting chaff is useful
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A missile that hits a chaff will also damage the other chaff in the same fleet, making it more vulnerable to smaller guns (torps, high init beamer)
Chaff that is split up may spread in more spots on battle board, potentially leading to an extra turn that enemy beamers won't reach your backend. Often several similar but different battle orders are given to different portions to spread it better.
...
Any time chaff is split, fast gattling beamer is more of a threat, especially combined with 5+ players on battleboard.
[Updated on: Thu, 29 December 2005 10:49] Report message to a moderator
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| Re: what is the point of splitting chaff? |
Thu, 29 December 2005 12:14 |
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| mlaub |
| Lieutenant |
Messages: 744
Registered: November 2003
Location: MN, USA | |
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| Robert wrote on Wed, 28 December 2005 22:43 |
And apart from the CE idea I cant imagine a situation when splitting chaff is useful (maybe if there are very small minefields and the player does not know about chaffsweeping)???
Anyway... I am a bit confused...
Robert
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You take a shot at running through a minefield to catch a fleet, get to a planet fast for defence, runaway, whatever...you need to go from point A to point B, through a enemy minefield.
I do this usually to a point within 16ly of a planet, then group the ships and attack. I may also target a fleet like this, as if the enemy fleet runs away, I only lose some chaff if I hit mines chasing.
Never group all your chaff together, as one minefield hit and they all go poof. Whereas, if you split the chaff in many fleets, the survival rate will approximate the % to hit a minefield.
As all the fleets are headed to the same destination, and you hope they arrive safely, then there is no intent to cheat. However, I can't remember if a following fleet follows a fleet that gets destroyed by a mine hit. If it does, it could trip off the SFD lunies. In most cases it is a legit tactic, though, and to bad so sad. 
-Matt
Global Warming - A climatic change eagerly awaited by most Minnesotans.
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| Re: what is the point of splitting chaff? |
Sat, 14 January 2006 13:16 |
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| LEit |
 | Lt. Commander |
Messages: 879
Registered: April 2003
Location: CT | |
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If you're chaff sweeping, you should send the chaff through the center of the mine field, and past it out the other side, this maximizes the odds of hitting a mine. Therefore, chaff sweepers should not end up with hundreds of seperated fleets in a battle.
Overloading the battle board cannot stop some one else from being there unless all people at the battle bring lots of fleets. The point of abusing the overloading bug is to have some of your fleet not in the battle (say bombers) but still along with the fleet.
- LEitReport message to a moderator
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