| Re: Boosters - why DDs? |
Wed, 11 June 2014 08:56   |
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mrvan wrote on Wed, 11 June 2014 14:03I generally use priv colonizers once I reach con 4, but I guess in terms of saving resources it might be better to use a re-usable freighter plus a DD or colony ship colonizer, so less resources are 'wasted' in the colonization. What do you guys use?
Depends...
# Nearby in safe territory I use for colonizations what's cheapest: small colonizer
# Farther away or with only the slightest chance to meet hostiles I use a priv with shields and col-pod plus 1-2 armed DDs (optional with a 2nd fuel pod if needed). If I think it necessary, I might even send 2 DDs, 2 privs with colonizer module plus 2 privs with fuel pods. Due to the stacked armor and shields this is a colonisation fleet not easily stopped. The price is quite high but usually it pays back not only by a successful colonisation of an important planet close by or in enemy territory but also by forcing the enemy to escort all his freighters... obviously my sent DDs will have a secondary role after having successfully escorted the colonisation fleet.
A medium freighter or small colonizer on the other hand can easily be shot down even against a superiour escort force when using the battle orders to target freighters first. And this is really fun: everybody who once succeeded in shooting down the single small colonizer in a bigger fleet and watched all this now purposeless ships knows what I am talking about.
# Last third of the game I use a large freighter design with shields and colonisation pod (which, by then, is my single standard freighter... a bit more expensive but at that time shipslots are more important than resources)
The logic behind it: pop and especially colonisation endevours are much too important to endanger them due to a few saved resources.
mrvan wrote on Wed, 11 June 2014 14:03Other advantage of DD: you can add cheap lasers (but it might not catch unarmed ships anyway?)
True enough... a DD might be even too slow to catch a scout. But early on a DD with the primary role of an escort/fuel booster doesn't need speed, the enemy is coming to the slow DD or the slow ships it is escorting.
And for its secondary role; freighters are slow and even slower when loaded, so even a slow DD has a chance (you might need 2 DDs nevertheless to shoot down a shielded priv with blue or xray lasers, though).
[Updated on: Wed, 11 June 2014 09:05] Report message to a moderator
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