It is clear that early in the game we all start with small corvette-class ships, with this poll though I want to see how your typical mid-late game fleet looks like. Some people prefer particular ship classes and stick to them, others mix ships in their fleets, some stick to small ships in grater numbers till the end, others go for bigger and bigger ships and previous designs become obsolete to them. Put in different loadout preferences and you get quite diverse fleets. This poll however focuses on their composition in terms of ship classes but if you want to share some ingenious class-loadout combinations that you've tested and find effective, feel free to do so.

Also have in mind before voting that I'm interested in your average fleet composition, if you have 15 fleets and 1-2 differ from the rest, comprise of different ships, with heroes leading them etc., I'm interested in the other 13-14 fleets' composition.

So far I prefer a 1:2 ratio of Cruisers/Battleships built to survive to Destroyers loaded to the gills with weapons.

I go with, 4 Dreadnoughts and 3 cruisers.

I call the Dreadnoughts "Death" and give them a mix of all 3 weapon types, then call teh Cruisers Support and give them lots of defence and give them the job of healing.

Used to prefer as many dreadnoughts as possible, but got destroyed when the opponent showed up with lotsa smaller ships. Now its as many destroyers and battleships.

Dreadnoughts, dreadnoughts and more dreadnoughts. If you do it right, choose the most efficient weapons (IMO = Beams) and the correct defense for the situation, these massive ships can be invincible.

Add a good hero, repairs & good shields and there's nothing that can stop you

For the people who voted large ships, can you give your feedback on the threads which claim destroyer spam rules? If there is something they have missed, please let us know. I go with about equal numbers of destroyers (offense only) and cruisers (ground attack modules only).



/#/endless-space/forum/33-strategy-guides/thread/14004-attrition-combat-the-defenseless-destroyer-rush-why-and-how-to-address-it

/#/endless-space/forum/33-strategy-guides/thread/14003-combat-order

mmmmm...destroyer spam. I'm hungry, sorry. I'm a noob so I end up with mostly cruisers.

davea wrote:
For the people who voted large ships, can you give your feedback on the threads which claim destroyer spam rules? If there is something they have missed, please let us know. I go with about equal numbers of destroyers (offense only) and cruisers (ground attack modules only).



/#/endless-space/forum/33-strategy-guides/thread/14004-attrition-combat-the-defenseless-destroyer-rush-why-and-how-to-address-it

/#/endless-space/forum/33-strategy-guides/thread/14003-combat-order

I actually think it's very complex and depending on the circumstances either one can come out on top. The problem with fleets of smaller ships is that they die really easily and as they die the fleet loses a lot of firepower. On the other hand, Big ships don't lost their firepower unless they are destroyed. For this reason missiles prove ineffective against smaller ships, because they can only attack 1 ship per phase resulting in massive overkill and wasted damage. Beams and kinetics can rapidly switch targets in order to minimize wasted damage output. Also take into account the effects of battle cards, a single card can add massive multiplier to attack and defence of single big ship. by comparison smaller ships don't gain much benefit from certain cards (defensive cards in-particular). Finally take into account that the HP of big ships can be repaired while smaller ships have to be rebuilt, for this reason the repair card also gives large ships a massive advantage. The longer a battle lasts, generally the quicker the big ships will gain the upper hand.

Dreadnoughts. Dreadnoughts. Dreadnoughts

I love the design of Sophano Dreadnoughts.

very mixed fleets. Don't really have a ratio. 2 or 3 dreads, more often just one, with a mix of BBs and CRs. LIke to keep my hull count up and the 4cp for a dread makes for too small fleets. I also throw a 3 or 4 DDs in a screening elements for the enemy to waste missile launches on. Presuming they actually survived the first salvo. I don't tend to rush to Dreads. My fleet mix doesn't have a prob eating them with just BBs as my flags. This regardless of race played so far.

Max Beam Destroyer spam has yet to fail me me once since I started using it so that.