Ad Astra! ... an Aurora Forum Game, run by blue emu

[TheExecuter]

So much for the carrier navy...

I think its clear that the idea of using fighters to 'extend the range' of our ship killing missiles isn't working as well as we'd hoped.

Well, at least against precursors, anyway.

[GrimPagan]

The thing is, the fighers are infront of the main fleet, if they had been kept closer they would been less likely to be targeted.

[blue emu]

Yes, there's only a million km separation between the the rocks and the main fleet. The Prix can cover that distance in 105 seconds. Only 75 seconds if our fleet is moving towards them, which we must do in order to get within firing range.

I don't think we're taking a beating because of bad tactics... we're taking a beating because the Prix are light-years ahead of us in tech, and instead of finding one or two of them in this system, we ran into nine of them.

The thing is, the fighters are in front of the main fleet, if they had been kept closer they would been less likely to be targeted.

What's the point of preserving the Fighters at the cost of losing our battle-fleet and carriers? We need the carriers to re-arm the fighters. They are too small to carry any reloads.

[BwenGun]

Also as the fighters get faster, and their fire-control becomes longer they'll become a lot more dangerous.

[GaiusC]

Well, I once encountered both an anti-missile Precursor ship and one of their PCDs. I got hit by more than 2500 missiles. Just to give you an idea.

Second, as I hinted to earlier, these are anti-missile missiles, and they seem to act quite opportunistically. The Prix don't know if we fire missiles at them, they don't have long distance stuff, so they launch their size-1 missiles preemptively. I have the feeling they hit the first enemy target they meet.
This means that if you can maintain a fire of 1, 2X1 or 3X1 missiles (ideally size-1 missiles, the most expendable and cheapest) going straight beyond your most advanced ships, the entire 19X1 missile salvos will hit your lone missile and go to waste.
In your current situation, they're probably out of range. In which case, the best solution is probably to designate a waypoint some 2-3m km beyond the Rocks and fighters, fire your own anti-missile at them, one at a time, and hope the Prix missiles will go for the decoys.

EDIT: Given the way the battle goes on, a safe bet is that the 2 (or 3?) other classes of Prix ships, which are unknown right now, are beam ships, and probably command/sensor ships. In which case, we mus hope that we manage to exhaust their anti-missile stock before we come to point-blank, because their beam ships will be nasty until they're shot down in a couple of turns - so, firing missiles way beyond the beam ships range is a must.

[Forgiven]

Indeed, and if they had not shot size 1 missiles, but something larger, we might have wanted to use AMM on them, even ones going for rocks (though perhaps not, but it certainly was option, hindsight is no good for this match though.)

[blue emu]

Tactic wise, it's rather apparent atm that the Rocks should have closed on enemy alone for bit while longer. But no use in crying over spilled milk.

That said, deploying rock-class ships further ahead of the main fleet next time, and in greater number, would be ideal. They certainly have become proven concepts.

True... but remember that when we made our plans and entered this system, the Rocks were still an unproven concept. We didn't know if they were worth building, let alone worth basing a battle-plan around.

[blue emu]

Well, I once encountered both an anti-missile Precursor ship and one of their PCDs. I got hit by more than 2500 missiles. Just to give you an idea.

Second, as I hinted to earlier, these are anti-missile missiles, and they seem to act quite opportunistically. The Prix don't know if we fire missiles at them, they don't have long distance stuff, so they launch their size-1 missiles preemptively. I have the feeling they hit the first enemy target they meet.
This means that if you can maintain a fire of 1, 2X1 or 3X1 missiles (ideally size-1 missiles, the most expendable and cheapest) going straight beyond your most advanced ships, the entire 19X1 missile salvos will hit your lone missile and go to waste.
In your current situation, they're probably out of range. In which case, the best solution is probably to designate a waypoint some 2-3m km beyond the Rocks and fighters, fire your own anti-missile at them, one at a time, and hope the Prix missiles will go for the decoys.

The target is designated at launch-time, though. These are not homing missiles... if they were, we would have lost all of our fighters to the first half-dozen salvos, since the surplus missiles in each salvo would have re-targeted.

[Guillaume HJ]

Oh, definitely I'm aware we did not know this.

I'm jotting down notes (and beaming them to high command back on earth since it's dubious I'll report in person) for later use.

[TheExecuter]

The target is designated at launch-time, though. These are not homing missiles... if they were, we would have lost all of our fighters to the first half-dozen salvos, since the surplus missiles in each salvo would have re-targeted.

He's saying that the prix will target ANY thing that is hostile and in the order of advance according to its own sensors.

If we were to fire a single missile ahead of the rocks, that missile would be the focus of the NEXT Prix PD missile salvo. Obviously, we'd still have to weather the storm of missiles ALREADY fired, but any further salvos would be wasted on our singuler 'decoy' missile.

[stamasd]

I vote we start firing single or double AMMs into the blue sky. Oh wait, it's not blue in space...

[GaiusC]

The target is designated at launch-time, though. These are not homing missiles... if they were, we would have lost all of our fighters to the first half-dozen salvos, since the surplus missiles in each salvo would have re-targeted.

I'm not 100% sure. I need to fight another of their anti-missile ship to be sure.
Still, the point remains: by diverting their precious anti-missile on salvos of a single of our missiles, we gain with a ratio of 1 vs 19, roughly. I expect a single anti-missile missile of ours to be more expandable than even a fighter.

Basically, what TheExecuter said. We'll get hit by a few missile salvos, and then we'll be more or less fine until we run out of cheap missiles - or until they exhaust their reserves and we can nuke them.

[Tvrtko I]

I love our Rocky-esque approach to this fight:

[blue emu]

OK, I've started doing that.

Two more Fighters down, two more incoming salvos spotted... the thirty-second and thirty-third.

I'm not 100% sure. I need to fight another of their anti-missile ship to be sure.

According to SteveW, the Predecessors will be different in every game. In your earlier game, they might have used homing missiles. I'm giving it a try, anyway. Not sure they'll even be able to spot my missile, though. It only runs out about six million km.

If we were to fire a single missile ahead of the rocks, that missile would be the focus of the NEXT Prix PD missile salvo.

Assuming that they can even spot a missile-sized target at nearly ten million km, yes.

[blue emu]

Lt-Commander BwenGun dies in a nuclear fireball, and another incoming salvo is spotted, the thirty-fourth.

[Sapphire]

Lt-Commander BwenGun dies in a nuclear fireball, and another incoming salvo is spotted, the thirty-fourth.

Ha! That teach BwenGun and his men for requesting permission to withdraw from the field of honour by pretending to be a madman!

[Lord Strange]

We need a "Crying Platypus" medal for all those who have fallen against the numerous and evil prix!

[GaiusC]

Well, we can try this for at least a few salvos, until the first one either are hit or run out of fuel. I suppose we can spare 10 or 15 missiles, considering the situation, can we?

[Väinö I]

Might be too late now, but how about manually launching missiles at some random waypoint in the general direction of prix? That would draw some PD fire.

(Edit) Oh NVM, missed GaiusC's post.

[Guillaume HJ]

That bring up an interesting possibility for later experimentation...how, exactly, do these MIRV missiles work? Is the splitting into multiple warheads automated, or can we order it manually?

And what's the range on the warheads themselves?

Assuming we can "split up" the MIRV manually, One could see a concept for a weapon where those massive MIRVs are fired ahead of the fleet to draw fire, then breaking up at the last second if there's anything enemy within range. . Though possibly the missiles would remain active after that? Hmmmmm.é Possibly worth considering the possibilities, at least.