Combat Question - Weird Result

[pirlantota]

Good morning,

not sure if this is the right forum, but I have a combat question (this is not a bitching question, trying to figure out what happend).

I was playing the latest version of UDM as the Romulans. Xindi had just joined, giving me 6 Aquatic Carriers.

So the following battle happened

Romulans
- 6 scouts
- 6 Aquatic Carriers

All green in experience

Federation
- 1 Light Cruiser (also only showing 1 pip, so green in XP)

Difficulty setting: Impossible

The battle starts, the scouts fight with the cruisers, because they were cloaked they started close to cruiser, dealing light damage, but cruiser killed the six scouts after several turns. No biggy, my big ships had arrived, so I assumed the cruiser would be doomed (scouts had knocked its shields down to 500).

After several turns more of 6 cruisers vs 1 light, one of my aquatic cruisers dies and I notice the fed cruiser is back at 670 shield strenght.

So how is this happening? Is it like in Civ4 the famous spearmen vs tank and my guys just rolled poorly in the attack? Do minors deal little to no damage? Did the cruiser immediately get XP during battle when it made a kill and did the scouts give him enough XP to be able to deal with the Aqua Carriers?

Just trying to figure out why 1 fed light cruiser had no problems with 6 rom scouts and 6 aqua carriers.

Again, not bitchnig, trying to learn stuff here.

[adi]

famous spearmen vs tank

I totally hear you; that's why when that happens to me in Civ4 i just quit the game instantly.
... and start playing BOTF because it is more "reasonable" when it comes to battles;

I haven't played TC's latest UDM so i am not familiar with the ship stats; but for the last 2 years i have played the previous UDM and i know the new one's ships are mostly based on it. Also i played a lot with the ship stats.
In short you had 12 combat useless ships against a combat ship; scouts are not for combat (i know they were in vanilla, especially the cloaked ones); and the minors ship not so much either; i always scrap the minors ships; except maybe for the yridian scouts if i don't play Rom or Kling. I see no reason to keep the minors ships; i don't know what the scrape reward is in the latest UDM, in the one i play, for scraping 6 Xindi cruisers i would probably get enough money to buy 1 of my early cruisers; and that is very worth it for me.

It is all coming down to weapon accuracy against defense; that would give chance to hit; i don't think the Xindi cruisers hit much and the feds cruiser shields recharged; all shields recharge at 10% per battle turn.

If you want "proof" just open UE, and look at the ships stats; compare the weap accu of your scouts and Xindi cruisers against the defense of the fed cruiser;

And you were playing impossible; AI ships get a combat bonus on impossible; i don't know how much (TC may know) but it is definitely noticeable;
The other day i was Feds against Dom on impossible; i had 4 cruisers and one lvl 2 destroyer against their 2 cruisers and a TT(they were building an outpost on my door step); my and their cruisers were identical on stats (i set those stats), destroyer had slightly better stats but a bit less shields hull and firepower. I lost the destroyer and 2 cruisers for their tt and one cruiser; the other retreated; and they hailed me in the first round; so basically i got a free round.

Welcome to Impossible!

But just hang in there; every xp pip gives your ships +5 defence; which is huge for early ships and soon will tip the balance in your favor; i don't know how much XP affects weapon accu but i am sure it does.

Just don't expect to win a battle on impossible with equal forces and XP.

[pirlantota]

Thats good information

I will check those stats and if they suck, scrapping ftw

Thanks for the reply....lets hunt those fed basterds! Were is my D'deridex!

[Dewbacca]

I just tested a theory and it worked out positively, but it's one instance.

Game setting Impossible, I had 24 Klingon "escorts", 8 attack cruisers and 2 "Cruisers" decloaking on 3 Dom Cruisers, one of which was quite impressive with vet crew and 1600 shields.

The 3 cruiser skipped out with guns blazing after two rounds point blank from my fleet, their hulls untouched. I tried several maneuvers, directing firing patterns solo... nothing touched them. Some maneuvers saved a few of my scouts... but most did not, and ALWAYS had a few losses for the effort.

My theory? I hit auto and it would SEEM my ships got the aforementioned AI boost, and my fleet sans the one decent Cruiser (Imperial Battleship needed upgraded and forgot to redirect the rest of fleet from pointless battle).

My 24 escorts and 8 attack cruisers wiped all three Dom cruisers on auto. No losses.

Did my guys get the "AI" boost for impossible? I ask the experts...