Quick side note before I get into my
Stellaris obsession, if you like corvette missile swarms, I actually like missile cruiser layouts. 1 of 2 cruiser configurations that I even think about using.
So the devs made a few changes to
Strike Craft that make them much more useful than they used to be, two things in particular.
They changed the range at which they launch from their carriers by a significant amount, meaning they have more time to deliver their damage. Strike craft now launch even before artillery is in range, they still don't hold a candle to the effectiveness of artillery, but launching sooner allows them to get out in front of their carriers much faster, allowing them to intercept the enemy more effectively. Sometimes strike craft are now the alpha strike on the enemy even before
Perdition Beams depending on how far apart the fleets are when combat starts. On top of that, strike craft are now significantly faster than they used to be, have significantly higher evasion than they used to, and have more health. Destroyed strike craft also respawn faster from their carriers, which is nice, but doesn't mean all that much except for upgraded starbases with hangar modules because fights don't usually last long enough for the respawned strike craft to make a meaningful difference in a fight before their carrier is destroyed, and all of them with it.
The second equally important big change was an overhaul of strike craft target priority. Before strike craft would shoot at some missiles, then prioritize battleships where their laughable damage would do little more than tickle them while getting torn apart by point defense, and while the rest of the enemy fleet eviscerated their carriers. Now strike craft work as mobile, accurate, point defense for their carriers first, prioritizing missiles and other strike craft, THEN instead of tickling battleships, they prioritize corvettes! This is a huge change. Their accuracy and tracking serves as a counter to corvettes, their damage in numbers is significant enough to defeat corvettes instead of doing nothing to battleships, and while prioritizing the smaller ships first, they handle the evasion tanks that their carriers have the hardest time targeting, eliminate missile platforms that are dangerous to their carriers, and help eliminate the main point defense platforms that do the most damage to them. Win win win.
Sound a little OP? Don't worry, a few glances at your after battle damage summary will dispel that rather quickly
Strike craft are still laughably ineffective at delivering damage on ships, except for corvettes which they do ok against if combat is long enough, but they are a MUCH more effective point defense than they used to be, so much so that I don't see as much a need to carry PD destroyers or PD corvettes. They are noticeably better at actually countering missiles and strike craft in the after battle report, and that damage doesn't show up in the damage break down.
Artillery is still the king of the space battlefield, especially once you get into repeatable techs, and if you get lucky and get the
Null Void Beam tech, that's pretty much the "I win" button with
Neutron Launchers and
Tachyon Lances. The alpha strike, plus fast reloads make building anything other than artillery based fleets silly, especially now that a Juggernaut has an aura that increases ship targeting range
40%!? Before a huge missile based corvette swarm would be a significant threat to an artillery fleet, but now that battleships can carry their own decent PD with strike craft, that actually target their largest threats first, the swarm is still effective, but far less so than it used to be.
There's a fair argument to be made that battleships are becoming too dominant over other fleet comps, but I don't mind. The fights look very cool, especially when both sides strike craft meet in the middle and dogfight before the big guys start throwing haymakers at each other, and I'm not up on the current meta either honestly. I imagine that missile corvette swarms are still great. I just know that as someone who has been obsessed with trying to build strike craft based fleets in Stellaris since launch (Star Wars fan, guilty), they are now more effective than they have been since the release of artillery, and I now only feel bad about replacing three L slots with 2 hangar slots on some of my battleships instead of outright revulsion, especially since there is now a
Carrier Stance for combat computers that increases carrier stand off to 150, so carriers stay safer longer and can still provide some actual damage support with an XL weapon.
Sorry for the text wall!
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