I am trying to learn to play as empire for the sole reason that i am a shield guy. I never liked armor much, and the empires shield bonuses seem perfect for me.
Except for the fact that i suck with them.
I get stomped in hard and sometimes even easy campain battles.
But there is one thing i like, which i have nicknamed the “soaker” and like the name, the ship soaks up a ton of damage.
Basically, its a mix of regenerating shields, the tough-but-low-resistance shields, and high resistance shields in battles where there are fighters on the large cruiser hull. the one that costs 230 (sorry for the descriptions, i have not got the names quite down yet.)
Just one of these, going up against small forces, never dies. Quite literally, it continually repairs its shields and i have antifighters to make sure they dont bomb it.
In medium battles, going at 4.0 speed, i have seen it last under a malstorm of fire for about a few minutes, maybe more. I dont have a great sense of time lol.
in large battles, they sit out there long enough to gain the advantage.
So heres my main problem, from what i have been testing with my minimal amount of time is that beam weapons suck, unless the shields are down. The weapon platforms could be a great weapon if i can get a good mix with them ( i had this seemingly great idea, where i have a ton of weapon platforms with All missle launchers, and 1 shield. I had cruisers and a few anti-fighter destroyers out front, on the orders of escort so they stay in front of the weapon platforms. In theory, the cruisers would take the punishment long enough for the missles to wreck havoc on the enemy fleet. So by then, my minimally protected platforms would be able to defeat the last stranglers if there were any. It didnt quite work out… enemy frigates went behind my lines after they destroyed my anti-fighter frigates, and wrecked me.)
So i havent done a lot of testing, but any good rule of thumbs to keep in mind? tips? what not to do?
Sounds like each race has their own rules that you have to follow or you will get demolished.