Fleet battle, he has FIFTEEN SHIPS, I HAVE EIGHT.



You can guess how that goes. And even if I have eight, then another fleet of seven, another, it doesn't matter. You need a big fleet to fight a big fleet, not three fleets one third the size. IT DON'T WORK OUT THAT WAY.



Because he kills my ships, I don't kill his.



WTF. What do I have to do to increase my FLEET SIZE?



Because if I can't do that I'm just going to keep getting clobbered.



Even if I have upgraded ship, and a hero - fleet score of 2600 is going to beat the hell outa fleet score of 1600.



What is the trick with this? I'm assuming there's something I can research but I'm not finding it.

Idaho wrote:
Fleet battle, he has FIFTEEN SHIPS, I HAVE EIGHT.

Yup. Welcome to the world of pacifist factions. Your more military-oriented neighbors are going to have huge bonuses in fleet size, or ship cost, or the deadliness of their weapons. In order to fight them, you've got to use the advantages of your faction instead...

You need a big fleet to fight a big fleet, not three fleets one third the size. IT DON'T WORK OUT THAT WAY.

When you're the Amoeba or the Automatons or whatever, then yes, you do (probably) use multiple fleets, and yes, you do make it work out that way. Use your factional advantages; you should have better tech, or better economics, or better industry. Probably a few other advantages, like the Automaton's bonus to ship HP. And, if possible, recruit an ally to your cause as well!

Because he kills my ships, I don't kill his.

Here's a basic bit of multi-fleet strategy: Start with one fleet that has decent HP and defensive bonuses, stick to defensive cards, and use the "Nosebreaker" targeting tactic. You'll be focussing all your fire on one ship at a time, and hopefully be able to take out one or two of them. Preferably, do this again with a second fleet; then, go for blood with your third fleet. The more leaders you can assign to these fleets, the better your results will be (and the more likely that some of your ships will survive), but you should be able to eventually make headway even with unled fleets.



But yeah, the real key here is your military strategy. When you're the underdog, you've gotta try to hit him where he's weak, pick off straggler fleets, use hit-and-run tactics (the "Offensive Retreat" card can be a great way to whittle down an invading fleet while minimizing your own losses). In short, you've gotta get creative.

There are two research advances in the top branch that give you +2 to fleet size each.



There is a research advance in the left branch that gives you +3 to fleet size.



There is another research advance in the left branch that gives you +1 for each new ship design researched. Ship designs are found in the lower branch.



There is yet another research advance in the left branch that gives you +4 to fleet size. However, the game is usually over before I research this one.



If you create a custom race, you can select under FLEET the trait Big Fleets to give your either +1 (cost = 10 race points) or +3 (cost = 25 race points) to fleet size. The Cravers have the +3 version of this, and they are a very dangerous neighbor.



You can compete with the Cravers or any race without having exact parity of numbers. You'll need to make it up with quality via race attributes, military tech advances, and/or pilot heroes. However, if you have the Cravers as neighbors, you better research those early fleet size techs soon; you can't afford to fall too far behind.



Another way to improve the quality of your ships is to use Tonnage Modules (right size of tech tree). However, these modules are expensive and can more than double the cost of a ship (unless you are lucky enough to get four hexaferrums). Usually, I will eventually use the modules once quality becomes more important than the ability to crank out enough ships quickly.

Just as a heads up, the tech says something like +3 command points. I didn't realize what it actually did at first.

Thanks for the good tips.



Are the Amoeba not a good race to be playing in terms of military?



I'm so tired of getting clobbered.

Idaho wrote:
Are the Amoeba not a good race to be playing in terms of military?

Well, pretty much. Most of the Amoeba advantages involve diplomacy and trade. I don't think they have a single military advantage, although they don't have any specific disadvantages.



The Cravers and Hissho probably have the greatest amount of military-oriented faction benefits. The Sheredyn and United Empire also have strong military advantages, along with a lot of economic bonuses.



You can still have an Amoeba empire with a strong military, you've just gotta work a little harder to get your military up and running than if you were playing another faction.



(I enjoy doing the reverse, taking a race like the Hissho and going for an economic or wonder victory. )