Question about attacking

Robert,

I have had ships defending a planet shoot down a couple of my attackers just fine. I THINK that what you're running into is the way that GalCiv does ship combat. Attacker gets the first shot. If the defender survives, it gets to shoot back. Combat continues until somebody dies, but it's all resolved on-screen as a single exchange. You may just have a situation with an attack force that's so overwhelming that the defender of the planet never gets a chance to fire.

As I said, I THINK this is the way it works, but don't quote me just yet. Any of the Masters of the Metaverse care to chime in on what's happening here?

Thats a good point! I guess it's a trade of to get the systems defence bonuses. And another thing too, I can't handle the fact that you can't select a particular ship in a stacked force to single out for atttack (or at least I can't see a way to single one out?).

re: Obi Wan's point, I'm not sure that's right i.e. try parking a ship right next to a system with a defending ship. The ship in orbit can't attack without leaving orbit . . . Jedi are kewl!

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Cotal,

Easy one. Unstack before you attack. Then, restack after the fight before you end your turn. Just two mouse clicks, but what a difference...

When a stack attacks, ALL of the ships lose a move point, even though only one attacks. You can get more shots by unstacking before you start shooting, AND pick who fires and when.

Unfortunately, you can't decide which ship to shoot at if the defenders are stacked (aargh...).

Jumped by Cotal during my reply! (Hmmm....)



Yes, we are. Thanks!
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So I take it that stacked ships, not in orbit, firing back before they are destroyed is a bug in version 1.05?

All defending ships fire back if they are not destroyed by the attacker's first attack.

The only difference is that stacked ships in space get the questionable fleet defense bonus while those in orbit don't.

I was wondering what was going on. One Arcean dreadnaught destroyed a mixed bag of star fighters, frigates and defenders orbiting a planet, all in one turn without ever getting shot, while elsewhere another dreadnaught was attacking a mixed stack in space and only got in one shot before before the stack shot back and destroyed the dreadnaught. Both dreadnaughts were at full hp.

The second scenario is definitely the work of the fleet defense bonus. Try pitting a medium to big stack of starfighters against enemy Rangers and Avatars. I'm certain you will be victorious.

I thought there was no bonus, I remember someone posting that you don't get a bonus, so attacking something like a battleship with a bunch of starfighters stacked would get you killed.

Figure this out. There is no fleet attack bonus but there is a fleet defense bonus.

The FDB is definitely in 1.05. I'll try it out in 1.09 to see if it is still there.

Why don't ships that are orbiting get the same defense bonus? As with production overhead shouldn't there be some defense overhead augmentation (before planetary defenses) when the ships are defending a planet. As it is right now, whenever I see an enemy fleet coming I quickly unorbit all ships, except a scout to keep the transports from getting in. The enemy fleet always goes for the unorbited stack first.

Don't forget you get an attractive bonus to your orbited ships' attack. You have to weigh which is the better deal.

The attack bonus don't mean squat though if your ships don't survive the the attack. At least when the ships of off planet they fire back!

Is it possible to group the ships in orbit into a fleet (like in space, by selecting and clicking the fleet buton)? I can't remember if the buton is there or not when in orbit. :notsure:

~SDC~

Yeah, it's kind of the reverse of the attacker getting a bonus when invading a planet. :notsure:

You can't fleet ships in orbit. I've tried that.

The argument for invasion advantage to the attacker is all the heavy assault hardware that supposedly comes with the transport. Defenders can get an advantage but that is only through building expensive defensive structures. It is also so much easier for attackers to spend 1000bc on mass drivers to get that extra oomph.

Making a Fleet has several effects:
They move together
- less micromanagement
They attack together
- all ships lose one movement point
- less micromanagement
They defend together
- all ships defended against attacker
- many ships maybe destroyed in one attack
- fleet defense bonus

Placing a ship into orbit has several effects:
Protects system from transport attack
Receives a 50% increase to attack rating
- easiest way to increase military rating for that paper tiger
- good defensively if your ships have high HP
- bad defensively if your ships have low HP
- bad if it turns a defensive ship into a non-defensive ship and lose that +1/2 DEF to attack when defending
Does not move
- less micromanagement
Cannot fleet ships in orbit

I can confirm that the Fleet Defense Bug is fixed in the beta build.

I had 100 precursor corvettes. Baited Dreg Avatars to attack.

In 1.05, the Avatars would not have stood a chance against them due to the FDB.

In the beta build, the Avatars took out as many corvettes as they had movement points in each turn with minimal damage to themselves.

Thks for the info Ray.
There goes my defense strategy in my current game...
I guess I'll just have to go back hiding under the desk during ennemy attacks. And hope for the best...
~SDC~
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