My friend and I love sending challenges back and forth to each other, and I really didn’t notice it til he did, but missile spamming seems the best strategy in a one-on-one cruiser VS. cruiser fight.
The best example challenge he sent me was a Tribe Cruiser loaded out with several Rocket Launchers. I tried dozens of different builds against it, using Nomads and Rebels mainly, but the only two times I beat it were when I made an unholy heavy Cruiser with a s#itload of armor to make myself immune and two Armor repair systems. The other time I spammed Scramblers and just threw in two Quantum Blasters. (I refuse to use Cruiser Lasers anymore…it makes me feel dirty…)
We start out about 1,000 away from each other, give or take.
Am I missing another way to counter missile spams?
The problem is that he stuck like three shields on it as well, so I also have to throw in plasma launchers or missiles of my own. I would do Cruiser Laser spam to piss him off, but I can’t get close enough for it to work.
Cruiser lasers have a relatively short range. Even if I started as close as I possibly could, it takes me a nice while to reach him, and by the time I do, my shields have been long gone.
Also, my frigates always have two engines at the least, three prefferably. Any more than that and then they become too soft and can’t handle the incoming fire well enough.
I’ve found that 2 scramblers, some heavy shields, and lots of plasma is more than a match for moderate missile spam. Especially against rockets. I made a challenge awhile back called "Pain Sammich’ " was made to be an anti-missile spam fleet, it uses this concept, but with 3 Scramblers for some reason, a little redundant after 2 if you ask me.
Actually that brings up another question that I’ve had for a while.
As far as the three different Plasma Launchers that the Cruisers have, which ones are regarded as the best?
I know you’re talking about cruiser vs cruiser but I’m not sure that is a fair comparison. You’re breaking the paper/scissors/rock model. If he’s spamming missiles than I’d swarm him with fast shield busting fighters and make him swiss cheese.
I don’t think it’s fair on yourself to exclude frigates and fighters. I know its a chat amongst mates but missle spam does not make the best cruiser. It only makes it the best cruiser if there are no other classes in the battle space and that never ever happens. The model is broken.
Maybe, but it’s all in good fun and we both know that.
He doesn’t rely on it in normal battles, and he also sends me one on one challenges that don’t spam missiles. It’s just something we’re throwing around and trying to find solutions that are effective without just spamming armor or something.
If you are rushing him with CL you better off with engine than a scrambler.
You can try 8 howitzers, a light power, a reinforced crew, and 5 Lightweight Cruiser Engine on a Utopia. With 0.39 speed you don’t need scramblers to rush a missile spam, and you win by setting range to 100 so it park right next to him (his missile can’t fire due to minimum range).
I don’t usually use Tribe, and I have a few cruisers that actually reach speeds of .5, but they end up being too fragile and the missiles cripple them too fast. (He’s also using a painter, so the missiles still hit)
I don’t know what budget you are working on, but the whole point is you set to 100 range so he can’t fire at all once you get in. Unless he’s not using a pure long range spam and have CL of his own, in that case you can beat him with 7 Multiple Warhead Missiles and stay at 1100 range.
I have been experimenting with cloak, which would seem to be the ideal way to close with an enemy, but it seems they will be able to fire at you even if you are cloaked, (at least on the Demo, which is all I have at the moment). All cloaking seems to do is sometimes cause the enemy to go after a different target.
yeah, cloak atm isn’t an effective method of losing.
Look at the builds posted in the Lethality v Survivability thread, there’s some fast cruiser builds in there.
Actually, I think the cloak is an effective method of losing.
If you want to close with the enemy, small fast ships are what you need. Having a few fighters on escort to distract the enemy gunners can also help considerably.
A BIG fast cruiser is lunchmeat.
I’m serious about the small part.
A fast cruiser depends heavily on being hard to hit. Without that its survivability would be significantly compromised. Unless the cruiser’s speed is actually higher than all the targeting weapons’ Tracking speeds, which is not realistic in practice, it depends on being harder to hit as it goes faster. But it becomes easier to hit as it gets larger. A Panther or Utopia is much more effective as a fast cruiser than a Buffalo.
I don’t expect you to take my word for it though. Try it out. Post a challenge with large fast Buffalo cruisers and see how it does.
Can’t yet, don’t have the full game (I use a mac and own GSB via STEAM, so until it comes out i can’t post or play any :/)
But i will give it a try. I interpreted your statement to be expressing a preference for fast frigates over cruisers. I have little doubt that a rabbit or fenrir would make a better fast cruiser then a buffalo or minotaur
