Importance of strategies and task forces with fleets

It mainly depends on the range of your missile ships versus the range of the weapon platforms + sats.

- If your range is long enough, you should tell your other ships to protect the missile ships and stay where they can't reach you. You might also try this if you think you have enough point defense ships to stop incoming missiles.
- If you don't have enough range, then trowing everything you've got into the battle will be probably as efficient as designing complex strategies IMHO.

Anyway, you should test it in the space simulator: finding out by yourself what best in a particular situation is what makes this game really fun.

I Dont Know in multiplayer, but in single player I find this Task Force think rather useless. Im tired of the default arrowhead formation, where my first ship receives all the enemy fire before the second and third ship can even fire! And thats not all. Sometimes the first ship is badly damaged and retreat, and ALL the other ships, in perfect state, loaded and ready to rumble... just follow the first ship and retreat...
So I say Break Formation, Break Formation Da*n you! and every ship attacks on her own.

I dont like formations neither task forces very much, unless theyre absolutely necesary near the end of the game, where you have millions of ships.

Ideally you'd use task forces to accomplish different tasks in a combat. For example, you might create a task force around a carrier and set its strategy to a custom one that targets fighters and other units and another another task force with larger ships with a strategy to attack other large ships etc.

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Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

Multiplayer means no tactical combat. That means all ships are going to stupidly just charge at each other or turn tail immediately.

I don't have much strategic combat experience, but I have watched my ships in tactical combat with no orders given. Sometimes, the only orders I give are "yes, do go charge at them as you would normally".

Task Force formations make my life so much easier in tactical combat. I've said this time and again in many threads so I won't repeat myself except the summary of: "Extreme Close Packed formations of almost-flat umbrella shapes." Since both sides are going to have dumb ships just charging at each other, you don't need to worry about any fancy Strafing or such that could screw a carefully planned formation.

Afterall, ideally a line of super armoured/shielded "bait" ships should be at the front; then 20 pixels behind, your Direct Fire ships; then 20 pixels behind them, your Seeker ships (along with your Leader whatever that ship is). Yes I know "20 pixels" is an arbitrary number as you can zoom in and out. Call it "the length of 1 frigate" then.

If you need my Formations_TaskForces.txt to suggest putting up on the multiplayer server/host, tell me.

Edit:

Incidentally, I always have 3 task forces in my fleets - Combat, Troops and (Non-Combat) Support. Last one being repair ships, supply ships, etc. Into Troops, I might stick in some "bait" ships (specifically designed to have the same speed as the troop transport) to take cover flak before the troop transport gets shot.

---Sig---
Playing Touhou games (Go here if interested . No, nobody else is that good/insane as that replay). No rush for SE V bug fixing.

I find the good old crossing the T tactics to be very useful, it's probably one of the faster ways to defeat a stronger opponent (I think most of the time the enemy ships would travel in a column to intercept your ships head on). You won't be able to use it in MP though, it only works when you micro-manage in tactical combat.

As a complete neutral in this issue.. *ahem*.. heh.
I have been testing a lot with strategies too. Especially with those different designs you have been pumping out. I use the combat simulator a bit. I give the ship-classes strategies to test.

Strategies ARE important. (Let just say I've been running sims on your fleet and my wormhole defenses...).
Strategies have large consequences for the number of losses on both sides.

I won't give you any tips on smashing my world though

~Myrath

It will be up soon. Not much happened yet. There has to be an 'event'
I noticed you tested the Melkar defenses... I'm very curious on how the world will hold..
Heh.. The reply reveals a lot of stuff. But it matters not. The new Anthills are ready

~Myrath