More Strategy question

It uses the Fleet first of all, though an individual task force can have its own strat. The default ship strategy will never be used unless it breaks formation.

Like I'll always have atleast 2 task forces in my fleets - 1 for the warships and 1 for the non-combatants (repair ships, supply ships). The warship task force will have a modified Optimal Range strat and the non-combatant one will have a modified Don't Get Hurt strat. Neither will use their own ship strats unless they break the formation.

I have found that even if task forces break formation(which they do at the start of any combat), the ships still use the task force strategy...this is in the Balance mod.

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I modify every strat I've ever used to fit my needs and the first need is to NOT break the formation. What you have to understand about fleets and task forces is this: each task force has a leader and, if the formation isn't broken, all other ships in that task force will follow that leader wherever he goes. He leads, they follow. (Which is why its a good thing to make your leader ship a heavily armored/shielded one as he'll be first in)

All my warship task forces uses a modified Optimal Range strat with the very first thing being don't break the formation and then changing all the retreat options to never, then its just the engagement distance and amount of damage done. My non-combatant task forces all stay in formation as well except that all their retreat options are set to immediately (except that one about leaving the sector until defeated) and all engagement distances are set to "do not engage".

I have one more strat I use all the time for Colony Ships and such - its a custom strat I call GTFO. Its basically exactly like the modified Don't Get Hurt strat I use for my non-combatant task forces except the "Don't leave sector until defeated" is set to false. I want them to retreat as soon as they are engaged and make for the border! Heh.

The default_warptransit-types (or some such) has settings that occasionally override strats. If I ever figure out the pattern, I may tinker with it.

There are no fleet strats - only TF strats. And the fleet formations apply to the TFs within them. If there's only one TF, fleet formation does basically nothing.

TF strats override individual ship strats for ships within the TF. They actually are the same as the ship strats, but they're applied to the whole TF.

If a ship is not part of a TF, it follows the ship strat assigned to its class.

AI ships all use default strats. Changing your strats has no effect on them. So that's one more advantage the human has.

At the risk of appearing immodest, I suggest taking a look at my doctrines. I don't claim they're perfect, but they're better than stock and nobody's suggested any specific improvements yet.
http://www.spaceempires.net/home/ftopict-3301.html

I've never ran simulations with it but, on the other hand, I don't have problems killing other fleets with mine either. I think that trumps whatever the simulations say. And I don't take undue losses either. There have been bugs with the simulator before and I only trust it to give a rough approximation at best personally.

One thing though, my fleets tend to have one generic type + a specialized PD ship. That one generic type might encompass cruisers and/or battleships/dreadnoughts but have very similar weaponry layouts, just more of them and shields/armor.

As for my formation, I usually just use Wall or Double Wall. Works like a charm for me.

I'll give it a try. But ponder this - if it turns out that the fleets that broke formation do better in the simulations but my fleets in the real game do better than the other fleets I come against, which is right? The real game, or the simulation that says I'm wrong? I put forth that the real game is the real test, simulations are just that - imaginary things that might/should happen but not necessarily what WILL happen.

Anyways, I'll set up some simulations and tell you my results (not that it will change my style of play because I know what works for me).

According to MM, the fleet strategy always overruns the ship's design strategy.

I suggest a setting be added to strategies, to allow the ship's design strategy to override the fleet strategy when the formation is broken.

Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

To be honest, I don't care too much for any of the strategies. Namely, because I use short weapons range. When the ships stay in fleet formation, I am lucky if half my fleet engages during the first couple of vollies. So I use tactical combat with break formation and multi select the attack ships, then give them a close-by move order so they all stack up before anyone engages. This has given me the best results so far. Being stacked, a necessary amount of ships fire at the approaching enemy, and once destroyed, the remainder of the stack target the next one. It causes a faster attrition of enemy forces than anything I have seen while they are in fleet formations. I don't have to give individual orders either. Once they get in the stack, I turn auto-move back on and they move in a tight group and target each enemy ship as it approaches. The combined power of a unified first volley, and having the PD grouped, has given me some very satisfactory results. About the only other command I give during combat is withdrawing the "lead" ship the AI targeted before it gets TOO damaged. I am sure I can edit the ship strategies to remove the extra pull back step of the lead ship, but I haven't done that yet.

1.66 stock.

I know in the Balance Mod the AI ships love to ram, even loaded colony ships, with great effect. I've learned to forget about point blank (my favorite), short range, and optimal range and stick to max range. Even then they were a challenge.

I've done my share of testing formations in the simulator. First of all, the simulator makes formation testing difficult. For example, if the lead ship isn't slower then the rest, the formation will not even form up properly.

The stock formations are too loose, and many of them aren't put together in a way that is tactically advantageous.

The medium and tight versions of my 'scoop' and 'Fighting M' formations perform very well in the exact test you mentioned: perfectly equal forces with one breaking vs. one maintaining formation. This applies to seeker (surprised me), DF, and mixed ships. Due to 'the luck of the turn' they do lose 1/4 to 1/3 of the time. An inopportune turn by the leader can certainly mean bad news.

Another surprise from these tests was the margin of victory: no matter which side wins, they nearly always sustain less than 50% damage.

And as for ramming fighters, it was probably one of my recommendations you read. I have developed a strat specifically geared to ram fighters. You don't need a warhead in order to ram. I would guess it's either a flaw with the simulator or some detail in your strat/design combination. Very likely to be the former.

My strats & formations are available as "Dvoongar's Doctrines".

Just thought of one more thing:

Is your ship capable of catching the fighters? It doesn't need to be faster than they are, but it's got to be quick enough to catch them while they're turning around.

I hadn't thought of this before; but my perspective on this may not be the best because I always play with my doctrines in effect in order to continually test and refine them. But fighters under the doctrines are set to nearly always engage at short or point blank. I think stock is set to medium range.

I have read of other players ramming fighters successfully, so it isn't something that's restricted to my own games. Might try a test with a handful of ships, or even design a slow fighter for the simulator test.

That is my understanding as well. I don't like the situation. A dishonest host could even exploit this set-up to a limited extent. Luckily, I haven't heard of any such animal being involved in SEV.

Bummer.

That's all I can think of, so let's blame the simulator.

I tend to find I lose 1 or 2 fighters when I send them after unarmed colony ships the AI occasionally sends wandering into my systems, as the colony ship strategy is set to ram I assume thats how I lost them.

With regard to strategies, are there any guides or suggestions as to what to change and if so, where would I find it/them?

Don't think fighters can ram. It looks like ships can without the warheads, at least in BM.