Space Combat Stellaris Guide

Space Combat Stellaris Guide

BASIC MECHANICS OF SHIP TO SHIP COMBAT

alright, now I know there is the temptation to let the computer complete the ship designs for you as they normally seem fairly good. THIS IS WRONG, THE COMPUTER IS AN IDIOT. Basically the computer is going to calculate what will give you the most bang, then it’ll put that on a ship. While that might seem like a great idea in a game where hard counters are all over the place it’s dumb. just dumb.

Rule 1) Design the ships yourself.

Now that we have that out of the way lets talk about counters

WHAT COUNTERS WHAT

Every weapon and armor type in Stellaris has a direct hard counter.

1) energy weapons are weak to shields, strong against armor.

2) Kinetic weapons are strong against shields, weak against armor

3) Missles are strong against both however can be countered better than any of the others with point defense systems.

so that should make it abundantly clear why you shouldn’t just go with the computers brilliant plan of 3 red lasers corvettes as the backbone of your navy. So just take a few of everything and stick them on the biggest baddest ship you can afford right?

WRONG

you see ship classes are more than just a stepping stone to more boom. Each class of ships has a level of evasiveness, as well as strengths against certain sizes of weapons. The most basic tenant to take away from this is that the smaller you are the harder you are to hit. So If you were wondering why you’re 500 level navy of destroyers is getting wrecked by a 500 level navy of corvettes you now know why. See it breaks down like this (I think)

Bombers and Fighters are very hard to hit, basically have to be shot at by small weapons

Corvettes are most easily hit by small weapons

Destroyers are most easily hit by medium and small weapons

Cruisers and Battleships are most easily hit by literally everything.

with this in mind it should be important to make your fleet as balanced as possible to assure you’ll never be frustrated as your battle ships try and fail to shoot down a single bomber squadron. A good Fleet composition I’ve found is 1-4-7-12(ish) that is to say for each battleship you should have 4 cruisers 7 destroyers and 12 Corvettes (at least). So now that we know that hard counters exist and that we shouldn’t make navies consisting solely of battleships, how should we go about creating the perfect ship.

Well, here’s the thing, any ship made to deal with all comers is going to be hilariously bad at dealing with any of them. What I’ve found is that a generic ship using the most up to date version of you’re best weapons saddled with a couple of specialized buddies are the best way to go about assuring you’re ready for all comers.

IMO, the best way to do this is to make about half of each class specialized, it doesn’t need to be exact, or equally split (if you’re running into a lot of one type) but here is and example:

for every 3 regular laser boats I have

1 – torpedo boat

1 – dedicated point defense ship

1 – shield destroying ship (kinetic weapons ship)

This means that anyone who comes at me is going to be fighting at a disadvantage as a good chunk of my fleet will be dedicated to dealing with them. Of special importance are kinetic weapon and point defense ships. Nearly all civs will use deflectors more than armor, so having a quick way to burn through those shields can make all the difference, and missiles, if not properly countered can be among the most dangerous weapons in the game. With that I can now move on to an example fleet, namely the fleet I am currently using in my most recent stellaris game.

The TL/DR is that a few of a wide variety of specialized ships that’s backbone is composed of generic heavy hitters seems to work the best. (just like a real navy)

Anyway without Further ado, The Croma Directorate Grand Fleet

I’ll move from most numerous type to least numerous.

CORVETTES

I have 81 corvettes in my Navy right now, with several different designs, all to counter specific threats. I’ll run through each in detail. first:

11 Torpedo Boat class strike corvettes – These boats are amazing as the torpedoes ignore shields and slam directly into the ship, will tear apart any fleet that doesn’t have dedicated point defense. Build: 3 Small torpedo tubes, 3 generators, 2 shields. Very basic, pretty deadly.

13 Predator Class Auto-Gun corvettes– these ships are my dedicated anti-shield ships, they tear through the shields of other corvettes and even destroyers with very little difficulty. These bad boys are 3 Auto-cannons, 3 generator 2 shield.

16 Protector Class point defense screens – as you can probably guess these are my anti-torpedo boats, I’ve probably only lost a few ships to torpedoes this game, these are mostly the reason why. 3 small point defense cannons 3 generator 2 shield

41 Raven Class Strike Corvettes– The Backbone of my navy, just a basic gunboat for dealing damage 1 medium laser 1 small point defense (I am surrounded by missile wielding civs making this necessary) 2 shields and 3 generators run this bad boy

These ships make up the majority of my fleet, but are hardly the biggest hitters next up

DESTROYERS

I Have 36 destroyers in my navy at them moment Split into 3 classes

13 – Thasher Class Assault Ships – Doubling as both my point defense and kinetic weapon platforms my Thasher class ship is 2 small point defense turrets supplemented by 3 auto cannons – 4 shields and 2 generators

15 – Dax Class Assualt Ships – The mainstay of my destroyer force, consists of a large and medium laser, 4 shields and 2 generators

8 – Torpedo Crawler Assault Boats – My torpedo ship 2 medium torpedo launcher 3 small torpedo launchers 3 shields 1 armor 2 generators.

Next up:

CRUISERS

Now this is where it’s gonna get a bit weird because hangers come into play. I’ll do my best to explain my rational. I have 6 cruisers currently

2 – Support Carrier Class Carriers – these cruisers are pulling double duty as kinetic weapons and fighter storage. each has a complement of fighters on board which is the best counter to:

1 – Support Carrier (B) Class Carriers – my Bomber Carriers. VERY good at taking out capital ships without point defense or fighter compliments. Basically this cruisers functions as my point defense and torpedo boat.

3 – Grizzly Class Cruisers – These bad boys are the the heaviest hitters yet, a significant step up from there destroyer cousins. They carry a complement of 1 large autocannon 3 medium lasers and 1 medium torpedo launcher. 5 shields and 3 generators.

Last but not least is:

THE BATTLESHIPS

Now I only have 4 in this game at the moment but I generally put them into only 2 categories

2 – Command Class Battle Barge – 6 of the largest lasers you can find please, Simple and deadly to other battleships. Finally:

2 – Fleet Carrier Class Carriers – 2 Carriers stuffed to the gills with fighters and bombers – everything else is point defense of kinetic weapons.

All and All this fleet comes in at around 15K military power.

Well I hope this has at least colored a few of you informed. Please feel free to add your own input. I am by no means sure that this is 100% correct. It’s just what has worked the best for me thus far. I’ll do my best to answer questions as they pop up.