Shouldn't this fleet matchup be better?

[The Grumpy Buddha]

I've got a ~2000 strength fleet with 2 cruisers, 10 destroyers, 8 corvettes (something like that) with disruptors and blue lasers, and all Level II armor, no shields -- the fanatical purifier AI has two ~2200 fleets made up of just 30-or-so corvettes each, armed with PD (-75% vs armor) and kinetics (+50% vs shields, -50% vs armor) So, I figured this would be a solid matchup (and it needed to be, bcs he was invading.)

I got my butt roundly kicked -- I think they were 1000 and 1600 by the time I fled, at around 950 strength, and the first 3/4 of the battle it was just me vs one of the fleets.

Is the gist that vs Corvette swarms, cruisers aren't pulling their weight? Something else? I am not big into the warring and so definitely have not kept up with what's good and what's not these days. I guess I technically put up a decent fight, but ... I expected better given the weapon matchups.

What's the best thing to do against the corvette swarms?

(FWIW, playing the beta, not sure that matters.)

 

[Xeorm]

He's got a little over double your strength. Even if his weapons are doing 50% damage against all your stuff, he's still odds on to win. But even using kinetics vs armored ships your ships aren't all armor. He'll still do 100% damage shots to your hull. That puts him at well over the 50% mark so he's well favored to win.

As far as ship hulls are concerned, the important factor is to care about damage vs tracking. Tracking negates some amount of an opponent's evasion. Corvettes have high evasion. So you try to maximize tracking against corvettes. Destroyers come with a small increase to tracking so tend to be good, but that also requires you outfit them with small size weapons. Same with cruisers and corvettes.

 

[Tacticus101]

As noted above, he has double your strength. Looks like you were beating one of the fleets alone though.

But to me, the noticable thing is mixing Lasers and Disruptors. In my experience that is a bad idea, Disruptors ignore armour and Shields, so they are just hitting hull from the start. With Lasers they are kind of working at cross purposes, lots of the lasers damage is wasted on shields and by the time you get through the armour the ship is already dead or has retreated. Generally, i find that if using Disruptors you need to just use them or you waste a lot of damage.

Also, disruptors do far less base damage, early on, if the enemy only has tier 1 shields/armour, they are going to be less effective than just a high damage weapon.

Could also depend on what weapon size you have gone for. Large weapons on those destroyers and Cruisers are going to be wasted. A cruiser with all small weapons could be very effective.

 

[Ariphaos]

The only time you want to use disruptors or cloud lightning is if all of your weapons are disruptors or cloud lightning. Even then, it's only advantageous if the enemy has low hull and high shields/armor. Contingency, most FE's, etc. The lower damage needs to be made up for by the ability to ignore armor or shields.