Newcomer question about speed

Nope, they just give your ships more move points on the map as you've seen. There's no effect beside that.

The effect is that you can get to more ships and planets per turn in a battle.
If you can destroy 5 fleets or disarm 5 planets in a turn, vs 1 ship or planet, then speed helps in a battle.

Speed helps in wars, not battles

Details, details...

  

k, thanks, because that *does* affect my strategy.

Basically, I'm trying to figure out how to get the most bang for my buck.

Basically, I'm trying to figure out how to get the most bang for my buck

Speed is HUGE -- always try to maintain the manuverabilty edge.

maneuverability and visibility (sensors)

ninjas > *

Another opportunity for improvement to the design! Speed should give an advantage in battle. As a simple first step: give whichever side has a speed advantage (slowest ship compared to slowest ship) a +1 on their combat stats.

"Speed is HUGE -- always try to maintain the manuverabilty edge."

It looks good for, say, a quick reaction force to incoming invasions, but if I'm the one doing the invading, then I prefer power.

"If you can destroy 5 fleets or disarm 5 planets in a turn, vs 1 ship or planet, then speed helps in a battle."

Assuming I've got a vastly superior fleet, I suppose that is true - I can keep moving after a battle and engage more enemies.

Sometimes this is true, but recently the AI has been good at keeping up in terms of strength and size, so my fleets are usually almost dead after a battle, even after a win. They're often not good enough for more than one battle.

Usually taking over 5 planets at a time involves parallel production rather than fast ships: Each of my largest planets produces the ships to invade a planet, so if I have 5 planets, each producing a fleet, I use them to take over 5 enemy planets.

"As a simple first step: give whichever side has a speed advantage (slowest ship compared to slowest ship) a +1 on their combat stats."

I was thinking more that the individual ships would have some sort of bonus - ie, the small/fast ships could outmaneuver the large/slow ships.

Right now, there doesn't seem to be so much of a "rock/scissors/paper" effect with the ship sizes as much as with the beam/projectile/missile arrangement. It seems that choosing my weapons and defenses is much more important than choosing between lots of small ships or a few large ships.

Assuming I've got a vastly superior fleet, I suppose that is true - I can keep moving after a battle and engage more enemies. Sometimes this is true, but recently the AI has been good at keeping up in terms of strength and size, so my fleets are usually almost dead after a battle, even after a win. They're often not good enough for more than one battle.

Then the extra speed is good for a fast retreat so the damaged ships can get out of harms way. The faster you can get them back in orbit, the faster they will be repaired and back in action.

And damaged ships, once repaired, have experience points that help in their next battle.

ok

Hi,

I love speed, but its overall value depends.

In a recent game, for example, I was evil (mmm, evil) and had my Psyonic Beams, medium hull and warp engines. I could have filled my ship with an overwhelming number of PBs, but saw that a single, expensive ship wouldn't serve me as well as fleets of less expensive, less offensive ships. IIRC, my level of miniaturization allowed me to fit 5 PBs and one engine on a ship. For nearly the same cost, I could build *two* ships, each with only 2 PBs but 4 engines. I needed the hit points, and preferred less expensive ships, because simultaneous fire was killing one of my ships in most significant battles. My fleets travelled at speed 15, allowing them to strike, retreat and reform. Or possibly reform and not retreat. Or do reconnaissance in force.

My ability to control the battlefield through maneuver meant that I almost always chose which battles to fight. Adding an extra combat bonus to speed seems gratuitous; it's valuable enough.

I might have made a different choice had I faced a different composition of AI fleets, or if I had better defensive techs.