Engines and battle

Are they beneficial in battle?

No, they take up space that could be used by more weapons or shields. Hold on there, Warp, that's not the whole story. They do allow you to have more battles as you can have a battle for every move that your ship can make.

Are they required at all?

No. You can build designs without them. You just go slower.

I still happen to beat the AI with my faster hunting pack of 4 frigates, 2 Warp engines and ONLY weapons on each.

At the first hits in a war, this is the best strategy. The AI did not adapted to your weaponry, so it defenses are low, and you can usually wipe most of its fleet in the first strike. After, even if they hit you, they don'T hold for long.

Never underestimate first strike. Like AD&D: Initiative is the key to close-call battles

Until they use adapted defenses. Then, you either use your great speed to run (always usefull) and bring slower but more powerfully built ships, or you update ($)

Still, it makes you win the first days of the war, taking control of a handfull of colony, and if you are lucky(and you used your Hunting Pack to wipe most of his military), you can take a hold on a peace treaty with many advantages to you.

I'm with Cikomyr on this one, you can really run circles round the enemy with faster ships, makes it easier to protect your planets from invasion too as you can intercept much more efficiently.

Several times i've held more powerful civilisations at bay by avoiding their combat fleets and only fighting their transports/escorts until such a point as i could get an advantage.

Faster Ships means more attacks... and if you attack you can bring don 2 or 3 ships in the first, so the opponente has less firepower. I use to create fleets that have 17- 21 moves per turn when I reach the warp engine tech. Mobility is the key to dominate large distances, and I play only gigantic type galaxies.
So: engines don't put on your fleets more firepower, but increase your tactical advantage... develop logistic and you can get many fleets that on the first attack destroy the opponent ( 10 medium size cruiser are a devastating power)

Engines will affect how often you can engage in battle (essentially 1 fight per mp, assuming you're next to a stack of enemies), and they allow you to get to the battle.

But they don't affect the outcome.

This is why there's Destroyers (fast, lightly armed ships meant to blow up smaller enemies), and Cruisers (slower, heavily armed ships meant to blow up Destroyers and other Cruisers).

I mainly stick with Destroyer-type designs (minimum 2 engines - personal rule) since I generally have the tech advantage to compensate and my tactics generally involve large amounts of maneuvering. But, if you're falling behind or at par tech-wise you might have to build Cruiser-types or Battleship-types.

Thank you for all your replies! I can see their use now.

Now I will change my strategy and give those Drengins what they deserve.

Basicaly I generaly have 3 speed setups

Speed1, theis are usualy my Planet defence units, since the odds of them getting anyplace interesting is non existant, the space is used up by Weapons and armor since obviously if they are protecting a planet I dont need them to see or travel very far and filling any odd slots is just a waist of production, I also tend to use Speed1 and slow speed to build SWAK (Space Warning and Control) units

Slow speed, generaly theis are my "assualt" units since they can often get to places where I want to fight and still have a decent enough payload to put down most Defending units, occasialy also a

Fast units, Either Raiders or interceptors(Raiders use 1 or more suport modules for range, Interceptors strictly stay close to home and use that space for Speed or firepower)

Very Fast units, used to help clear larger maps with sensors and occasionaly to pull units away from the boarder, or in the case of troop transports, to let thoes hang back out of range untill y ou can clear a fleet from around a target planet

Basicaly I generaly have 3 speed setups Speed1, theis are usualy my Planet defence units, since the odds of them getting anyplace interesting is non existant, the space is used up by Weapons and armor since obviously if they are protecting a planet I dont need them to see or travel very far and filling any odd slots is just a waist of production, I also tend to use Speed1 and slow speed to build SWAK (Space Warning and Control) units Slow speed, generaly theis are my "assualt" units since they can often get to places where I want to fight and still have a decent enough payload to put down most Defending units, occasialy also a Fast units, Either Raiders or interceptors(Raiders use 1 or more suport modules for range, Interceptors strictly stay close to home and use that space for Speed or firepower) Very Fast units, used to help clear larger maps with sensors and occasionaly to pull units away from the boarder, or in the case of troop transports, to let thoes hang back out of range untill y ou can clear a fleet from around a target planet

This is fairly close to what I do. System Defense Ships need no engines or life support modules. I use that space to mount weapons and defenses. What you get are powerful defenders at a cheap price.

Medium speed ships are great for occupying space - either your space or space you're attacking. I often use it for border security and/or as a rear guard for my assault ships.

Fast colony ships and transports are also very useful. As my minuturization improves, I add more engines rather than weapons on my those types.


Fast ships give you a responsive defense capability or a rapid assault force.

My ships are set up similarly. I'll have some sort of defender with 0-1 engines on it, depending on how late in the game it is. I use a medium speed ship for near defense and interception of enemy ships heading for my planets. Assault ships are slightly faster. Constructors are always as fast as I can make them go, and my transports are nearly as fast. I'd rather put two troop modules and go 12 speed than put 3 troop modules and move at 4. The exception is when I can build a transport with the same speed as my assault ships that rides along with them for protection; then I can tack a few more troop pods on.

Why wouldn't you just build fast ships? If you have a fast ship, it can be used in all 3 roles. Need defense? Just move some attack ships to the rear. War going well? Move those defenive units up.

Ships are classified in weapons value. So if you eliminate the other 2 classes, you can build the faster ships and make up for the loss in weapon loadout.

I think it really depends on how powerful your enemies are. If your enemies are really sticking it to you, you have to specialize more to compete. Slow ships are good for garrison because they will have the same amount of firepower as the faster ships (or more), and so can be last-ditch (solo) defenders in a pinch, while you would need a fleet of equivalent faster ships to defend with the same ability. And from an economic perspective specializing is cheaper, leaving your economy stronger.

My fleet of starships usually is fast. Rarely do I have slow ships. Even my battleships usually carry two engines. The only exception to this rule are defender type starships, and dreadnaughts (huge class ships with 1 engine). I've fought humungous wars where I only won because of sheer technological edge and speed. In nearly every battle, I was outnumbered 3 to 1, and was fighting three different nations at once. Had I not the speed I had, especially on my strikefighters and interceptors, I most likely would've lost at least half of my Empire. A Single Raven battleship of mine carried 3 Nano Rippers, 2 Warp Drive IIIs, and 3 Barriers, and it could easily take on any fleet of frigates and fighters and fight battle after battle after battle and defend multiple planets and starbases.

Speed is essential to any dynamic defense, and or, where you don't want to spend more than 20% of your income on your military... (Going for a tech victory ) Slow speed ships with just firepower and defense require you to buy more to protect planets because you have to station them at every planet. A small group of fast ships can quickly move from hotspot to hotspot. Military Starbases outfitted with Defense Assist (as opposed to attack), can make your dynamic defense even more impenetrable.

I caution against fast ships however, if you do NOT have a technological edge in firepower and at least an equivalent in defense tech. Without a technological edge, you need to devote more space to weaponry and defense, and so a more static defense broken down into sectors (ie, x amount of star systems that are close together form a sector), with a few fast ships to quickly reinforce is more in order.

Military Starbases and Planetary defenses are very useful and not very expensive if you're losing the technological battle and can't spare the economic points away from military to fund more research into better weapons and defense.