Looking for ideas.

[stormbringer3]

I've played enough so that I can now obtain a victory in Pre-Warp, normal setting, at least 50% of the tme. I'm considering trying out different strategies. For example, instead of always going for the largest ships possible, building a lot of smaller ships and swarming the enemy. I know that the favorite weapons are Titan Beams and torpedoes. I read that Dark Spire prefers phasers. Does anyone have other weapons that they like for a different strategy?
Thanks for any opinions.

[Cauldyth]

I'm always a fan of swarms of fighters. They're hypnotic to watch... [:)]

[feelotraveller]

Teekans with Super-Luxury 'weapons' is a different strategy. [;)]

[Kilravock]

I am a fan of missiles, phasers and fighters. Basically fast missile boats, big and small carriers, and fleet ships designed for massive missile barrages supported by phasers at mid range. I started to use cheap escorts with only a single gravity weapon and a fighter bay, which works well.

Gravity weapons and mass drivers are interesting too when used together to make close up brawlers.

I like using assault pods as a weapon when playing as a pirate.

Before leaders, I liked using swarms of cheap fast missile boats for fleets. It still works, but I now use small fleets of very tanky cruisers and support ships.

[Cauldyth]

And if some of these weapon choices are indeed underpowered (I'll just take people's word for it that they are) then this provides yet another way to make the game more challenging without giving the AI the cheats it gets at higher difficulty settings. It's another reason why not having everything balanced up the wazoo is a good thing!

So get out there and play those feudalistic Teekans who use rail guns and armour, but no shields or energy weapons!

[Efaferal]

I like to build with a combined arms philosophy. So I build a tank design with lots of armor and shields and a modest number of short rage weapons, lots of main thrust to close the battle. But then have another design that is all torpedos,minimal shields and lots of thrust set to stand off.

I have also tried a non-violent scheme, Only ion weapons, tractors and boarding pods. But it takes a bit of micro to keep from losing ships while pods reload. Have not won this way ... yet.

[Retreat1970]

I usually play according to what race I am. If it's rail guns and missiles so be it. The boarding pod/tractor beam idea is a good one. I'll try it.

[Mortimer14]

I prefer to keep a variety of weapons on all my ships. This way they can fire missiles while closing, torpedos at mid range, and close up weapons at close range. This way the shields are usually down by the time you get close enough to use assault pods and you thus capture more enemy vessels than you destroy.

[Kilravock]

ORIGINAL: Retreat1970

I usually play according to what race I am. If it's rail guns and missiles so be it. The boarding pod/tractor beam idea is a good one. I'll try it.

I find the key to using assault pods well is to use a weapon system that is good at destroying shields but does not have a strong alpha strike. Something like missiles. Stay away from weapons that bypass shields too. Mass drivers and gravity weapons that damage the hull don't work well with boarding. Make sure your ship capture settings in the empire policy screen is setup right too so the AI will do it on it's own if it has pods ready.

Gravity weapons can be fun to watch. I have done some experiments with ships equipped only with the ones that damage the hull (both beam and area effect). I was surprised with how effective they were against other weapons. Only the missile, torpedo, and fighter designs out classed them because they can out range the gravity weapons. It also plays havoc with the AI.