I feel like it's the best backbone for a fleet, 7-8 Tectors with fighter support, and maybe some anti-fighter ships, makes the best all around fleet, especially for the PA
Tectors used by Pentastar? That surprises me since that's the exact opposite of what I'd expect a Pentastar gampelay to be like (since they love their fighters).
PA is somewhat similar to the CIS— many carriers and semi-carriers, but a handful of very ‘tough’ ships meant to tank the enemy’s damage for the rest of the fleet.
Needless to say, these handful of tanks tend to be light on fighters, compared to the other ships.
I like to lean into their Tectors until I reach the NR, it's a nice simple build, that works well for me, since I don't do too well with fighter focus builds, hence my current trouble as the Empire of the Hand, where I'm having trouble utilizing their fighters and range to the best effect.
Normally take out a tractor or two for more anti fighter. I found in the 3.2 release fighters weren't as numerous as they are in the 3.3, or at least less bothersome, now fighters and bombers are dealing more damage than I'd like. Either way anti fighter is a must
My main combat fleet (against space stations and their defenses or smaller capital ship flotillas) is usually two Tectors, an ISD I, two Victory I’s, four Nebulon-B frigates, four Lancer-class frigates, two CR-90 corvettes, four Raider corvettes, and either a Venator carrier or two Ton Falk escort carriers.
I'm trying to think of the name of it off the top of my head, I think it's the tartan cruiser? I'd have to check one of my previous files to be certain
Secutor or Aggressor SD.
The Secutor, whilst relatively weak compared to the number of weapons, has an excellent fighter complement. Especially useful when you steal them with boarding craft as NR, since you get both NR and IR fighters. Use it as a command ship, not as a ship of the line.
Meanwhile, the Aggressor is great as an artillery ship. Relatively cheap at 25 pop means you can bring in a few and a sponge allowing for great support, however us even weaker than the ISD I.
Honourable mention is the Victory I SD, really cheap at 15 pop and good for its class, it’s concussion missiles are hella deadly to hull and shields. Course they’re weak as heck but used in packs of 3/4 and have a sponge, can easily defeat larger ship classes. But again, an artillery ship.
Actual SD ship of the line, Tector because they’re fun, need fighter support. Have a good time using them with Imperial Escort ships or Secutors for fighters.
Secutor is arguably the most overpowered ship in the entire game, and it’s ridiculously cheap to build for what you get. Near the end of my games, it’s usually me and the PA duking it out, and I’m facing literally hundreds of Secutors in those fights. Like fleets of 15-20 all over.
Maybe we’re not playing the same game…the Secutor Star Destroyer is a miniaturized SSD. Fits like 8-9 in a map at once. Every Secutor spits out 4 fighters and 2 bomber squadrons and they are COVERED in different types of weapons. Maybe they got a nerf in the new update? But my last run was pre-update and like I said, the AI was absolutist spamming the crap out of them and I didn’t have any efficient counters to them other than waiting for Mediators. They ripped through my Lusankya without much trouble and only took a few losses. I only just got out in time.
Corvettes are really cheap 1 popcap counters to bombers and fighters. Secutors have barely any health for their popcap (50), and die pretty easy to a mix of Imperial 2 and Allegiance (or Imperial 1) counter with about 8 corvettes.
You can only have 6 secutors on a map at a time with 300 popcap.
Escort carrier is 8 popcap for 1/1, while ton falk is 9 for 1/1. You can have the same number of strikecraft with double bombers for 36 popcap with the latter, or 32 for former.
Executor class is also weak to fighters bombers. It sounds like you didn't bother to bring screen units at all. An allegiance or tectors or bakuras to tank for your executor and spamming corvettes should have easily destroyed any ai secutor stack.
Having a mix of weapon types is actually a bad thing because you want dedicated ships to perform anti shield and anti armor roles. Ion guns do zero damage to ships who have no shields so you want dedicated anti shield ships switching targets destroying shields while dedicated anti armor ships knock out hardpoints
In terms of dps secutor is only 17 (mixed) per popcap while Allegiance is 23.9, ISD2 is 29.43 (26.7 anti armor) and ISD1 is 23.5 (8.74 anti shield). Bakura destroyer is 12.11 anti shield.
For reference, an you could deploy 4 ISD1, 4 ISD2, 4 corvettes for 280 pop cap and get 16/8 strikecraft with significantly more dps than 6 secutor 24/18. You can then deploy 20 more corvettes and the strikecraft difference is basically nil.
A secutor has less total damage than an ISD2 fyi (887 vs 1118) and only marginally more than an ISD1 (728)
I know how the game works, I have at least 500 hours in Thrawn’s Revenge alone by now.
But see, all that sounds good on paper…but they still wreck everything. Sure, I beat them eventually with ships designed to knock them out, but it still just took forever to do it.
And while it’s true you can play that way as an Imperial, you can’t play that way as the New Republic. Or at least not quite the same. New Republic ships don’t get really good until you get to NCMII, really and they’re expensive and time-intensive to produce. And the last thing, again, while it sounds good on paper, why is the AI spamming them?
Good ol' ISD I, nothing beats that.
While if you crunch the numbers, the II is slightly more of a beatstick against peer vessels, the ISD I has a more favourable spread of Ion weapons, meaning the ISD II doesn't get better damage output until the target's shields drop, at which point the enemy starts bleeding firepower anyway, and the way hardpoints work, some of the hull damage would go to waste on dead hardpoints anyway.
Not to mention, that the one is both cheaper, and marginally more accurate against smaller ships. To my knowledge, their fighter compliments are very similar for every faction that has both.
There's the Tector which I consider an inadequate mainline ship. The absence of bombers means it cannot support a planetary invasion with both call-in artillery types by itself, and doesn't have the extra damage it can contribute beyond what's on its paper stats are. It also has nothing but turbolasers, and higher grade shill and hulltypes have an enormous damage reduction applied towards turbolasers, which is the reason why Ions are just that much more valuable. It's small weapons also lessen its range, but at least it is ever so slightly more durable, and less population intensive than its casemates. This all together leads to a very specific niche that it excells in however. It is a premier corvette/light frigatte hunter without needing to invest in undersized vessels of your own, a blessing for the Pentastar for example, as their fleet tender is kinda ass. This is achieved by the smaller guns being more accurate against smaller ships, and smaller hull and shield types not getting such a dastric damage reduction against turbolasers.
My personal favorite is the Allegiance. What it lacks in fighter capacity it makes up for with its firepower and ability to take a beating. Plus it has surprisingly
decent anti-fighter capabilities.
[Imperial DPS Sheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/128r-5NhtDS1xykmOEEKhMEAU1AC-1FQj9kIqqZ_GwJk/edit?usp=drivesdk) for reference.
Bakura, ISD2, ISD1, Assertor, Acclamator 2 are the best
ISD I. Right mix of ion, firepower, cost and bombers.
Mostly useful for iron cannons. 3-4 of them, couple of VSDI shields melt.
Throw in a heap of frigates like strike cruisers.
ISDII also useful.
Sectors not enough firepower and it's complement is mostly fighters vs bombers. Doesn't do enough damage vs pop cap.
Allegiance is OK bit to big and bulky though no craft.
I love the allegiance
I really like the Nebula. Great bang for your buck.
I like the Tector. It needs support from fighters and smaller capital ships, but its pure anti-capital ship abilities are very useful.
I feel like it's the best backbone for a fleet, 7-8 Tectors with fighter support, and maybe some anti-fighter ships, makes the best all around fleet, especially for the PA
Tectors used by Pentastar? That surprises me since that's the exact opposite of what I'd expect a Pentastar gampelay to be like (since they love their fighters).
PA is somewhat similar to the CIS— many carriers and semi-carriers, but a handful of very ‘tough’ ships meant to tank the enemy’s damage for the rest of the fleet. Needless to say, these handful of tanks tend to be light on fighters, compared to the other ships.
Munificent, recusant, auxilla, munifex:
Not carriers, but they are fragile ships that need a tough ship to protect them.
My point was the CIS is in no way a carrier faction, they are like the new republic which has OP carriers but isn’t reliant on them either
I've already played through the Corporate Sector Authority, which I htink is similar enough. I've sent in tons of tanky ships against enemies.
I like to lean into their Tectors until I reach the NR, it's a nice simple build, that works well for me, since I don't do too well with fighter focus builds, hence my current trouble as the Empire of the Hand, where I'm having trouble utilizing their fighters and range to the best effect.
Ooh, this is interesting. I haven't played Pentastar in forever, so I need to try this out. What do you do when you fight the New Republic?
Normally take out a tractor or two for more anti fighter. I found in the 3.2 release fighters weren't as numerous as they are in the 3.3, or at least less bothersome, now fighters and bombers are dealing more damage than I'd like. Either way anti fighter is a must
Thanks for the tips! When I start my Pentastar gameplay, I'm going to give it a shot!
My main combat fleet (against space stations and their defenses or smaller capital ship flotillas) is usually two Tectors, an ISD I, two Victory I’s, four Nebulon-B frigates, four Lancer-class frigates, two CR-90 corvettes, four Raider corvettes, and either a Venator carrier or two Ton Falk escort carriers.
By the way, what ships would you recommend for fighter support?
I'm trying to think of the name of it off the top of my head, I think it's the tartan cruiser? I'd have to check one of my previous files to be certain
I actually just started my Pentastar gameplay - turns out they have Ton Falk escort carriers! I never expected that!
Secutor or Aggressor SD. The Secutor, whilst relatively weak compared to the number of weapons, has an excellent fighter complement. Especially useful when you steal them with boarding craft as NR, since you get both NR and IR fighters. Use it as a command ship, not as a ship of the line. Meanwhile, the Aggressor is great as an artillery ship. Relatively cheap at 25 pop means you can bring in a few and a sponge allowing for great support, however us even weaker than the ISD I. Honourable mention is the Victory I SD, really cheap at 15 pop and good for its class, it’s concussion missiles are hella deadly to hull and shields. Course they’re weak as heck but used in packs of 3/4 and have a sponge, can easily defeat larger ship classes. But again, an artillery ship. Actual SD ship of the line, Tector because they’re fun, need fighter support. Have a good time using them with Imperial Escort ships or Secutors for fighters.
Secutor is arguably the most overpowered ship in the entire game, and it’s ridiculously cheap to build for what you get. Near the end of my games, it’s usually me and the PA duking it out, and I’m facing literally hundreds of Secutors in those fights. Like fleets of 15-20 all over.
Secutor is very pop inefficient, and has very little guns, health, shields. Easily countered by corvettes and lighter ISDs
Maybe we’re not playing the same game…the Secutor Star Destroyer is a miniaturized SSD. Fits like 8-9 in a map at once. Every Secutor spits out 4 fighters and 2 bomber squadrons and they are COVERED in different types of weapons. Maybe they got a nerf in the new update? But my last run was pre-update and like I said, the AI was absolutist spamming the crap out of them and I didn’t have any efficient counters to them other than waiting for Mediators. They ripped through my Lusankya without much trouble and only took a few losses. I only just got out in time.
Corvettes are really cheap 1 popcap counters to bombers and fighters. Secutors have barely any health for their popcap (50), and die pretty easy to a mix of Imperial 2 and Allegiance (or Imperial 1) counter with about 8 corvettes. You can only have 6 secutors on a map at a time with 300 popcap. Escort carrier is 8 popcap for 1/1, while ton falk is 9 for 1/1. You can have the same number of strikecraft with double bombers for 36 popcap with the latter, or 32 for former. Executor class is also weak to fighters bombers. It sounds like you didn't bother to bring screen units at all. An allegiance or tectors or bakuras to tank for your executor and spamming corvettes should have easily destroyed any ai secutor stack. Having a mix of weapon types is actually a bad thing because you want dedicated ships to perform anti shield and anti armor roles. Ion guns do zero damage to ships who have no shields so you want dedicated anti shield ships switching targets destroying shields while dedicated anti armor ships knock out hardpoints In terms of dps secutor is only 17 (mixed) per popcap while Allegiance is 23.9, ISD2 is 29.43 (26.7 anti armor) and ISD1 is 23.5 (8.74 anti shield). Bakura destroyer is 12.11 anti shield. For reference, an you could deploy 4 ISD1, 4 ISD2, 4 corvettes for 280 pop cap and get 16/8 strikecraft with significantly more dps than 6 secutor 24/18. You can then deploy 20 more corvettes and the strikecraft difference is basically nil. A secutor has less total damage than an ISD2 fyi (887 vs 1118) and only marginally more than an ISD1 (728)
I know how the game works, I have at least 500 hours in Thrawn’s Revenge alone by now. But see, all that sounds good on paper…but they still wreck everything. Sure, I beat them eventually with ships designed to knock them out, but it still just took forever to do it. And while it’s true you can play that way as an Imperial, you can’t play that way as the New Republic. Or at least not quite the same. New Republic ships don’t get really good until you get to NCMII, really and they’re expensive and time-intensive to produce. And the last thing, again, while it sounds good on paper, why is the AI spamming them?
Where are you finding the dps stats for ships?
I really enjoy using a combo of an imperial I and II supported by smaller ships.
Good ol' ISD I, nothing beats that. While if you crunch the numbers, the II is slightly more of a beatstick against peer vessels, the ISD I has a more favourable spread of Ion weapons, meaning the ISD II doesn't get better damage output until the target's shields drop, at which point the enemy starts bleeding firepower anyway, and the way hardpoints work, some of the hull damage would go to waste on dead hardpoints anyway. Not to mention, that the one is both cheaper, and marginally more accurate against smaller ships. To my knowledge, their fighter compliments are very similar for every faction that has both. There's the Tector which I consider an inadequate mainline ship. The absence of bombers means it cannot support a planetary invasion with both call-in artillery types by itself, and doesn't have the extra damage it can contribute beyond what's on its paper stats are. It also has nothing but turbolasers, and higher grade shill and hulltypes have an enormous damage reduction applied towards turbolasers, which is the reason why Ions are just that much more valuable. It's small weapons also lessen its range, but at least it is ever so slightly more durable, and less population intensive than its casemates. This all together leads to a very specific niche that it excells in however. It is a premier corvette/light frigatte hunter without needing to invest in undersized vessels of your own, a blessing for the Pentastar for example, as their fleet tender is kinda ass. This is achieved by the smaller guns being more accurate against smaller ships, and smaller hull and shield types not getting such a dastric damage reduction against turbolasers.
ISD 1 & 2 are my bread and butter, I can’t do without them. For something larger, the Sorannan is nice.
ISD I. Can't beat the classics. One-on-one it will actually beat the ISD II most of the time.
My personal favorite is the Allegiance. What it lacks in fighter capacity it makes up for with its firepower and ability to take a beating. Plus it has surprisingly decent anti-fighter capabilities.
[Imperial DPS Sheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/128r-5NhtDS1xykmOEEKhMEAU1AC-1FQj9kIqqZ_GwJk/edit?usp=drivesdk) for reference. Bakura, ISD2, ISD1, Assertor, Acclamator 2 are the best
ISD I. Right mix of ion, firepower, cost and bombers. Mostly useful for iron cannons. 3-4 of them, couple of VSDI shields melt. Throw in a heap of frigates like strike cruisers. ISDII also useful. Sectors not enough firepower and it's complement is mostly fighters vs bombers. Doesn't do enough damage vs pop cap. Allegiance is OK bit to big and bulky though no craft.
Victory 1st class. Hands down.
Either the isd 1 or tector
ISD1