TEC Fleet Make Up/Use
How do you organize your fleet(s)
I'm fairly new to the game and I play generally single player (mp I hate getting smoked EVERYtime) - usually random medium maps on normal AI difficulty. I usually play as TR or TL. I understand the basics of aggressive expansion (I forever see The Joker's face when I hear those words) and general fleet make up. I've read many threads here and it has changed my style to where I think I can successfully take on higher difficulty or larger maps, and I'm thankful for that. Typically my SP games, on medium maps, lasts in the 6-10 hour range. Last night I did a small map in less than 2 hours with some strategy changes I read here.
Once I've expanded to a good sized empire - one in which I have several gravity wells, trade routes, and hopefully a choke point under my control - I generally merge my fleet into 1 large armada. I can't speak to "early" or "mid" game cuz I don't quite know when those points are, but I can say that by this time in the game I usually have 3 caps (Akkan, Sova, and 1 more, often Marza for planet bombing, sometimes Dunov/Kol/Sova, but never Corsev) and many sub-cruiser ships. Sometimes I am starting to build the Titan factory, sometimes at this point I don't have the research completed yet. I usually don't end up building Kodiaks (not sure why I don't) but I usually have some Percherons and I've opened up the SB ship (forget it's name). I don't always have repair ships opened or built. Typically my fleet is LRF heavy with corvettes and LF making up the rest, with some cruiser carriers and siege ships.
What I'm wondering is how you folks organize your fleet in terms of battles. I usually take my merged fleet and rush where ever I'm going (I've usually scouted first, either with corvettes or scouts). Do the more seasoned players "ctrl-#" aspects of your fleet and arrange them differently? Sometimes I will do this with my strikecraft (ctrl+0) so I can find/assign them quickly. Create sub-sections of the fleet based on ship types or attack groups of various types, sending them at multiple targets? I typically attack the most dangerous enemy ship with everything, blow it to bits, then move on. Often, once I've taken out 1 or more of their cap ships, the rest of the fleet retreats. In those cases I usually clean up the grav well and wait for them to come back (which they often do, even to look and retreat right away). I'll pop them at that point or go chasing them after the grav well is mine. Point is, I usually have 1 massive block of ships moving together and I never veer from that arrangement except where LRF's hang back and corvettes swoop in and out (and of course my strikecraft).
I ask because I feel like I'm doing something wrong with how I work my battles, despite my singleplayer victory record. Having played online a couple times and getting destroyed as if I walked into the middle of a game, rather than starting at the same time as everyone else, I feel like I need to improve something if I want to try MP again. Same goes for some of the larger SP maps where I feel like I'm expanding but still end up getting wiped by enemies I've not seen and can't handle because I have 1 large fleet.