While we are discussing the battle and digesting the lessons learned from it, we can hold a parallel discussion on a somewhat broader topic: Fleet Strategy and Tactics, and Ship Design Philosophy.
These two topics are inter-related. Ships should be designed to fill a particular role in your intended tactical use of the fleet.
Designing ships is like designing tanks... it means seeking a balance between Speed, Firepower and Protection... and these three elements are to some extent mutually exclusive. The more armor and PD defense you put on a ship, the slower it will move and the fewer offensive weapons it can carry.
My original philosophy was predicated on the fact that in the early game, we won't be able to afford either the cash or the minerals for very many ships, so I wanted to create a compact fleet of multi-role vessels, rather than a larger fleet of more efficient but more specialized vessels. This necessarily means sacrificing some efficiency... if I equip all of my ships with both offensive armament and PD armament (rather than two separate specialized ship-types), then they all need to carry two types of active sensors, two types of fire control, and so on; which reduces the tonnage available for engines, armor and offensive weapons. On the other hand, it makes my ships better able to operate on their own, either in detached squadrons or to continue fighting even if I lose a few ships. A squadron of specialized ships becomes very vulnerable if they lose their PD ships, or their sensor ships, or whatever... break any link in the chain, and the fleet falls apart.
Multi-role ships avoid that danger, but they have their own drawbacks. I have to make compromises in other areas, such as armor and speed. So I chose to create a homogeneous 4000 kps battle-line, which would not fall apart if one or two key ships were disabled (since all are multi-role), and which all carried at least six PD launchers. This design philosophy naturally dictates my tactics (rather than having it the other way around)... I keep them all in one big mob, so that my Point Defense interlocks and each ship can protect the others; and I tend to fire full fleet salvos at individual enemy ships, rather than each ship picking a target and firing at will.
Are there any comments or criticisms of this design philosophy or its implementation?
Bear in mind that once we have the resource crisis solved and can greatly expand our Navy, I intend to shift from multi-role to purpose-built designs, with specialized PD ships, alpha-strike ships, bombardment vessels, Battle-Management (AWACS) vessels, and so on.
Hail blue emu, Dictator of Earth and Protector of Humanity! After careful consideration, I was hoping to appeal for your benevolent favor in granting me the chance to have my replacement character serve in the scout ship fleet with an eye towards eventual fleet ship command!
Sure, that's no problem.
And of course, their own badge!
