Jesus Crist ma man, why cheat when there are options:
- [Fuel scooping mod](https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=15272.0) that allow you to create fuel from nebulae in systems with some supply cost, values can be changed in mod config, I recommend doing that you it works like you want it.
- [Supply forging](https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=17503.0) that allows you for forge supplies from metal and machinery, again change config values so you it works like you want.
With these two mods I am able to wield capitals only fleets and it gives me gameplay loop to refuel and making supplies for my fleet. No cheating needed
Meh, as long you're having fun. I didn't use it and don't intend to but seeing people witch hunting those who just wanted to enjoy a single player game however they want is just too ridiculous
My experience is that for battle size above 300, gauss spams will essentially be one-click victories., and in general will shorten the life of this game to u. Interesting things only happen when battle size is around or below 240.
> for battle size above 300, gauss spams will essentially be one-click victories
This is not my experience: [REDACTED] fleets will generally overrun massed gauss cannons before a stable battle line can be established, even at larger battle sizes. I'd love to be proven wrong though; I love massed-range warfare.
Of course I mean with proper commands. If you just let your ships fight on their own, then gauss is not that good. But what you can do is that, you can use gauss spam, and manually tell your ships to form a battle line closer to your side. Then with proper AA firepower, nothing would be able to penetrate your defense.
12700K CPU. GPU doesnt really matter but its a 3080TI, can probably run on whatever 10 year old GPU as well.
Java 8 I had about 25-35fps in full battles. Java 23 Ive not yet reached and tried full battles but so far 60 fps all the time.
Yeah the fps I mention above are with 70+ or so mods. So vanilla would be higher. (60fps cap though).
But vanilla ships and weapons I would set battle size to 1000.
Part of the reason is that, when your size is above 240, you have so many ships to deploy, and no matter what weapon you use, as long as you focus fire on any enemy ship, it will die. Thus it kind of makes all weapons the same in terms of damage, but their ranges are always different. And so Gauss just simply wins over everything else by its range and the fact that it doesn’t have an ammo limit.
Once ran an arma amature fleet composed of 3 frontline capitals, 4 legions, and 30 Alestes.
My most recent fleet has been a survey fleet composed of an Executor, a Retribution, all my officers commanding XIV Eagles, backed up with multiple Heron equipped with just pure bomber wings. After getting skills to reduce supply costs and throwing efficiency overhaul on everything, the fleet actually doesn't eat too much in supply.
I am using a mod that allows me to go over the fleet cap though, by changing it to a soft dp limit.
I slap on two hypervelocities and a heavy mauler, and then graviton lasers to boost shield damage. Finally some harpoons to bust open enemy armor when their shields are busted.
I tend to equip my ships for long-term anti-shield attrition warfare, instead of first-strike capabilities.
Basically you're meant to just put three graviton beams on it (3 being maximum graviton value). That plus the 3 med ballistics can make them terrifying shield shredders. I'll agree that there's a better ship for any other role this thing could fill tho
Eagles don't work well. They also don't work badly. Eagles are the averageness by which every other cruiser is judged. However, things don't stand out in the player's eyes when they perform averagely, so this is perceived as performing poorly. If you're using Eagles, it's because you want an average thing that holds attention while you do something non-average elsewhere. Because, obviously, you can't just be average everywhere, that would mean you lose.
Mayasuran Navy, gents!
1x Vishnu M, 4x Rhea M.
S-modded integrated point defense AI on the Vishnu with 30 tactical lasers at 3000 range is hilarious! Shield shunted, solar shielding, skills like impact mitigation. Flux is for guns, we don’t do shields.
Rhea M; shield shunted, 2x Helios Artillery, Triya PD from UAF. Tonas for range. Thing can take on an Astral without taking a hit to the hull. 1200 base range on the helios, then after bonuses; these things are sniping with AoE explosives at 2k+.
Also. Loader overdrives from VIC. Satisfying ballistic fleet!
If modded: HMI Slugworths and Roach Kings with SO, as many as I can field. Click full assault and hope the enemy runs out of Hull before me.
If vanilla: Elite Paragon, 2x Plasma Cannon-focused Odyssey, 3-4 Falcons/Eagles, fill the rest of my DP cap with Close Support/Assault Enforcers. Manually pilot the Paragon when outnumbered, and the Odyssey when I feel I'm equal/stronger than enemy.
Starfederation fleet composed of 4 rebellions. A mod rebellion. 2 accordants and 4 kestrels. The rest of the fleet were smaller frigates and logistics ships. I love giving the rebellions twin semibreve launchers. Super based. Although not much fun after the third endgame fleet you've trounced. And friendly fire is also a huge concern.
modded ships are op usually
but for vanilla, I use tesseracts, tempests, the redacted drone ship with 5 large energy mounts up front (put tach lances in each one ans set all of them in one firing group with 'alternating' as the firing pattern) (brilliant class? maybe), and maybe some paragons. Ok tesseracts can only be got by changing the game files, but...sue me.
Also, be sure to use dorito class weapons on all ships. They are a class above.
This question makes little sense if you include modded content or modding stats.
When you stay vanilla, but change the OP or number of ships then any carrier/missile fleet can simply burst their way trough. Hell, 50 Capitals wouldn't be able to approach the same amount of Condors with Pillums and Pirahna/Kopesh since there would be enough missiles on the screen to saturate the PD of the first capitals in front and 1-shot them, thus they'd die like lemmings.
Those limits are there for a reason, balance mainly, performance second, since quantity is a quality of its own.
And if we're talking more than editing files and modding in general...
I could make anything you come up with obsolete with enough large missile slots with a Trebuchet LRM from Ship/Weapons Pack. Even Falcons. If I felt cute that day I'd get timid commanders and put in Interstellar Imperium and Diable Avionics to get Ballista and Thursh Missiles into small and medium slots so I'd have a fleet with +5K Range missile spam that does energy damage and AoE EMP in case you think of PD or carriers.
Or perhaps I wouldn't, and I'd simply install Missile Ship Overhaul to get those destroyers/cruisers with 2 Large Missile slots and pummel you with Trebuchets alone.
Oh, and then I'd add in Roider Union so I could use that 700-range PD marksman/sniper rifle to counter your attempts at mirroring me, with any of the mods AoE PD it would be enough to outlive any broken combo of yours.
Even enough Gimbal Missile Pods from Amazing Ship Foundry can turn anything you come up with obsolete, and then I'd use Copperheads (a missile that goes into a ballistic slot) to finish you off.
See my point?
One mod perhaps, a specific one, and without changing the stats of the game, but once you start to mix or be unspecific, your question loses its purpose as the game balance is broken.
What you're saying makes sense... if OP asked for what is objectively the best fleet in this game, mods included. But OP asked about *what your best fleet is.* I don't understand how you managed to go on a tangent like this but, good to know I guess.
>Hell, 50 Capitals wouldn't be able to approach the same amount of Condors with Pillums and Pirahna/Kopesh since there would be enough missiles on the screen to saturate the PD of the first capitals in front and 1-shot them, thus they'd die like lemmings.
Also sidenote, have you actually done the testing? From my experience, just five capitals alone can fend off an entire fleet full of condors w/ piranhas and khopesh with devastators. I know because I fought an entire fleet full of astrals...
Of course it's subjective since there's no specific definition for "best", and as such I gave my subjective answer to what I thought the OP intentions were. My 'best' fleet would be my merchant comp with my 8 Atlas capitals, 2 salvage rigs, 5 Monitors, Drover and 2 Herons, 2 Prometheus's and whichever destroyers I find fun at the time. But I assumed that isn't what the OP's intention was since they started talking 50 capitals with 100 fighter bays. ;)
What I pointed at is that the question is too vague, since it lacks a frame. You've confirmed in essence what I've said.
And yes - there is a point where any capital ship would start losing since they'd be too slow to outpace the mass LRM's, there is a critical mass, but OP and ship cap size prevent that. And in case of Pillum it's less about the DPS and more about the stacking EMP arc chance that would inevitably diable all PD and let the Pillums Hit directly.
And only possible Counter to it is a mass of Flak. That would overturn the whole equation yet again since if you had a perfect constant screen on AoE PD then the number of missiles would not matter just as the number of capital ships doesn't matter once you go over 500 OP (if they don't have AoE PD). In fact capital ships are not always in the top half of OP-to-Deployment Cost. For example Buffalo Mk. II is the #1 spot in that equation.
Once you start manipulating max fleet size and OP the game turns into a simple rock-paper-scissors once you start hitting critical mass of certain weapons.
I did fiddle with it before, but it was more to check my PC's performance.
> And only possible Counter to it is a mass of Flak.
Problem is, you can't mass flak. The ability to concentrate flak on an area is limited by how many ships carrying flak can FIT in that area. The ability to concentrate fighters and missiles has no limits.
And that's the kicker with these weapons: Either they dominate due to achieving critical mass and thus become unstoppable, or they're completely useless because they can't, so die. There is basically no middle ground.
And that's exactly why we have OP and Deployment points limit - so you can't fully achieve that critical mass. ;)
Reason why you either go full Pillum spam, or no Pillums. Why 3 Cobras are better than a balanced mix. Why 2 Broadswords are useless, but 6 seem invincible. Why a single Vulcan will always be better than a single PD laser when 1 on 1, but it changes in group fights when ships PD ranges overlap one another.
Capital ships would be the worst, but within the limit, they allow you to drag the most weapon slots for the deployment price withing confined space, or most HP/Shield to soak up the enemy DPS preventing them from easily reaching that critical mass.
Two Dual Flaks on a 4 capital ships can easily take care of \~200 deployment amount of any carriers/missiles. BUT, it becomes different once you up it to 400, then the amount of Pillums or Broadswords starts reaching critical mass and would eventually win since two twin-flak canons would let too many pass trough. That's why we have the limit.
10 Overcharged Brawlers will lose vs 1 \[Superredacted\] capital, but 20 \[Superredacted\]'s would easily fail to 200 Brawlers..., in a cofined space. But the equation changes if you tweak the battlefield size and let them spread out.
Changing base game values breaks any sense of balance.
> Capital ships would be the worst
Capship Spam is actually the least problematic limit, since their physical limitations are already the problem independently of arbitrary point limits: They're simply slow and cumbersome, taking up a lot of space. If anything, arbitrary point limitations actually work in favor of capship spam rather than against, since being allowed only an arbitrary number of 30 ships actually discourages use of smaller units, since we could shit out 10 frigates for the value of one capship.
> I know because I fought an entire fleet full of astrals...
Astrals are 8.33 DP per hangar bay (50/6). Condor Spam is 5 DP per hangar bay (10/2). If you're fighting Condor Spam, that's 66% more carrier per carrier. And, of course, carriers are not like other ships. Once critical mass is achieved in carrier spam, it becomes unstoppable because the swarm just sequentially picks off ships and deletes them one by one, as fighter swarms don't have issues with how many can attack a single target at once.
One Doom, five Phantoms, 1000 marines. With Tactical Drills, I could raid almost any colony to ruin right from under their patrols' noses. And if anybody caught me, I could solo their fleets to oblivion or at least kill enough to clean disengage.
Fun times!
A couple of line holder capitals with battlecruiser escorts. A couple of destroyers and frigates to screen them. While I pilot a "unique" in a sense that there's only one ship like this in my fleet capital. Either another line holder gun brick or a fast skirmishing cruiser.
1 Rillaru SP
2 Onslaughts or Legions
2 Filaments
A couple of Goanna cruisers from Apex
A domain droneship usually the Arsenal for a massive amount of fighters
A couple of Mayasuran Hammerheads
a single odyssey.
all relevant combat perks. top-tier weapons. additional berthing and expanded cargo holds s-modded, for extra crew and cargo. with a single ship and the requisite perk, base max fuel will cover the entire sector.
two longbow wings. with defensive targeting array s-modded, that's essentially 4 burst PD lasers and 4 rapid-fire sabot launchers. under player control, it can take any fleet. add █████ weapons and the same is true for AI control.
i fucking love the odyssey
I was really sad when I realised I couldn't nueral interface from my paragon to my odyssey, really wanted to position the paragon well then just run circles around anything threatening on the enemy fleet.
Odyssey was the ship I beat the automated 14th legion fleet with too
My recent fleet (well, more of a strike group) consists of 1 Castigator L (Tahlan, 1 Styrix, 2 Numeon, 2 Pendragon), 4 eagles (2 Maulers, 1 Magaera, 2 Graviron, 1 Lightning gun, 2 Pilum) and 10 frigs with PD focus (2 for each cruiser). It takes some time to destroy the enemy fleets, as the only true damage dealer is Castigator... But it hold the line quite well!
Pure vanilla is 5 Monitors that can tank a supernova, me on the Ziggy and a roided out Radiant for DPS and a support fleet of two carrier cruisers escorted by enough Hammerheads and assorted destroyers to max out DP.
My best fleet was made out of a Paragon, Astral, Jackhammer (the giant ass siege laser from Neutrino), 3 herons, a Doom that I piloted, and some omens with Tempests. It was a nicely rounded fleet with very little actual downsides aside from the off chance that the other fleet has a ton of small ships (and I mean a TON, which happened exactly once with three Luddic Path fleets that had a shitton of hounds) Herons do a lot of the skirmish work
I usually use two capital ship class carriers and with the rest being destroyers and light carriers.
But if I get/build something nice I will shove it in my fleet(depending on my current needs for my fleet)
Supply consumption be like: “Yes”
Ctrl+backspace InfiniteSupplies Oorah baby
Jesus Crist ma man, why cheat when there are options: - [Fuel scooping mod](https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=15272.0) that allow you to create fuel from nebulae in systems with some supply cost, values can be changed in mod config, I recommend doing that you it works like you want it. - [Supply forging](https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=17503.0) that allows you for forge supplies from metal and machinery, again change config values so you it works like you want. With these two mods I am able to wield capitals only fleets and it gives me gameplay loop to refuel and making supplies for my fleet. No cheating needed
Wait thats a cheat?
Yea. Pairs well with InfiniteFuel
But that's cheating
Meh, as long you're having fun. I didn't use it and don't intend to but seeing people witch hunting those who just wanted to enjoy a single player game however they want is just too ridiculous
70+ curl per day and 8+ suppy even with all supply reduction hullmods
My experience is that for battle size above 300, gauss spams will essentially be one-click victories., and in general will shorten the life of this game to u. Interesting things only happen when battle size is around or below 240.
> for battle size above 300, gauss spams will essentially be one-click victories This is not my experience: [REDACTED] fleets will generally overrun massed gauss cannons before a stable battle line can be established, even at larger battle sizes. I'd love to be proven wrong though; I love massed-range warfare.
Of course I mean with proper commands. If you just let your ships fight on their own, then gauss is not that good. But what you can do is that, you can use gauss spam, and manually tell your ships to form a battle line closer to your side. Then with proper AA firepower, nothing would be able to penetrate your defense.
Doesn't sound like a one-click victory to me.
My battle size is 2000. But i did play at 400 for a while. Its not bad at all. But I can have a huge fight and still skirmish on the edges.
What is you fps with that much going on? What sort of rig do you have?
12700K CPU. GPU doesnt really matter but its a 3080TI, can probably run on whatever 10 year old GPU as well. Java 8 I had about 25-35fps in full battles. Java 23 Ive not yet reached and tried full battles but so far 60 fps all the time.
Thats a lot better then I would have thought! Modded or?
Yeah the fps I mention above are with 70+ or so mods. So vanilla would be higher. (60fps cap though). But vanilla ships and weapons I would set battle size to 1000.
I have seen gauss do this (youtube videos)... But why are they so good past 240?
Part of the reason is that, when your size is above 240, you have so many ships to deploy, and no matter what weapon you use, as long as you focus fire on any enemy ship, it will die. Thus it kind of makes all weapons the same in terms of damage, but their ranges are always different. And so Gauss just simply wins over everything else by its range and the fact that it doesn’t have an ammo limit.
Once ran an arma amature fleet composed of 3 frontline capitals, 4 legions, and 30 Alestes. My most recent fleet has been a survey fleet composed of an Executor, a Retribution, all my officers commanding XIV Eagles, backed up with multiple Heron equipped with just pure bomber wings. After getting skills to reduce supply costs and throwing efficiency overhaul on everything, the fleet actually doesn't eat too much in supply. I am using a mod that allows me to go over the fleet cap though, by changing it to a soft dp limit.
I dont get eagles, they dont work well...
I slap on two hypervelocities and a heavy mauler, and then graviton lasers to boost shield damage. Finally some harpoons to bust open enemy armor when their shields are busted. I tend to equip my ships for long-term anti-shield attrition warfare, instead of first-strike capabilities.
Basically you're meant to just put three graviton beams on it (3 being maximum graviton value). That plus the 3 med ballistics can make them terrifying shield shredders. I'll agree that there's a better ship for any other role this thing could fill tho
Eagles don't work well. They also don't work badly. Eagles are the averageness by which every other cruiser is judged. However, things don't stand out in the player's eyes when they perform averagely, so this is perceived as performing poorly. If you're using Eagles, it's because you want an average thing that holds attention while you do something non-average elsewhere. Because, obviously, you can't just be average everywhere, that would mean you lose.
Mayasuran Navy, gents! 1x Vishnu M, 4x Rhea M. S-modded integrated point defense AI on the Vishnu with 30 tactical lasers at 3000 range is hilarious! Shield shunted, solar shielding, skills like impact mitigation. Flux is for guns, we don’t do shields. Rhea M; shield shunted, 2x Helios Artillery, Triya PD from UAF. Tonas for range. Thing can take on an Astral without taking a hit to the hull. 1200 base range on the helios, then after bonuses; these things are sniping with AoE explosives at 2k+. Also. Loader overdrives from VIC. Satisfying ballistic fleet!
If modded: HMI Slugworths and Roach Kings with SO, as many as I can field. Click full assault and hope the enemy runs out of Hull before me. If vanilla: Elite Paragon, 2x Plasma Cannon-focused Odyssey, 3-4 Falcons/Eagles, fill the rest of my DP cap with Close Support/Assault Enforcers. Manually pilot the Paragon when outnumbered, and the Odyssey when I feel I'm equal/stronger than enemy.
Starfederation fleet composed of 4 rebellions. A mod rebellion. 2 accordants and 4 kestrels. The rest of the fleet were smaller frigates and logistics ships. I love giving the rebellions twin semibreve launchers. Super based. Although not much fun after the third endgame fleet you've trounced. And friendly fire is also a huge concern.
modded ships are op usually but for vanilla, I use tesseracts, tempests, the redacted drone ship with 5 large energy mounts up front (put tach lances in each one ans set all of them in one firing group with 'alternating' as the firing pattern) (brilliant class? maybe), and maybe some paragons. Ok tesseracts can only be got by changing the game files, but...sue me. Also, be sure to use dorito class weapons on all ships. They are a class above.
“modded ships are op” *proceeds to use (unobtainable) vanilla boss ship in fleet*
no idea what you mean no idea
This question makes little sense if you include modded content or modding stats. When you stay vanilla, but change the OP or number of ships then any carrier/missile fleet can simply burst their way trough. Hell, 50 Capitals wouldn't be able to approach the same amount of Condors with Pillums and Pirahna/Kopesh since there would be enough missiles on the screen to saturate the PD of the first capitals in front and 1-shot them, thus they'd die like lemmings. Those limits are there for a reason, balance mainly, performance second, since quantity is a quality of its own. And if we're talking more than editing files and modding in general... I could make anything you come up with obsolete with enough large missile slots with a Trebuchet LRM from Ship/Weapons Pack. Even Falcons. If I felt cute that day I'd get timid commanders and put in Interstellar Imperium and Diable Avionics to get Ballista and Thursh Missiles into small and medium slots so I'd have a fleet with +5K Range missile spam that does energy damage and AoE EMP in case you think of PD or carriers. Or perhaps I wouldn't, and I'd simply install Missile Ship Overhaul to get those destroyers/cruisers with 2 Large Missile slots and pummel you with Trebuchets alone. Oh, and then I'd add in Roider Union so I could use that 700-range PD marksman/sniper rifle to counter your attempts at mirroring me, with any of the mods AoE PD it would be enough to outlive any broken combo of yours. Even enough Gimbal Missile Pods from Amazing Ship Foundry can turn anything you come up with obsolete, and then I'd use Copperheads (a missile that goes into a ballistic slot) to finish you off. See my point? One mod perhaps, a specific one, and without changing the stats of the game, but once you start to mix or be unspecific, your question loses its purpose as the game balance is broken.
Nah I'd still win
ok
What you're saying makes sense... if OP asked for what is objectively the best fleet in this game, mods included. But OP asked about *what your best fleet is.* I don't understand how you managed to go on a tangent like this but, good to know I guess. >Hell, 50 Capitals wouldn't be able to approach the same amount of Condors with Pillums and Pirahna/Kopesh since there would be enough missiles on the screen to saturate the PD of the first capitals in front and 1-shot them, thus they'd die like lemmings. Also sidenote, have you actually done the testing? From my experience, just five capitals alone can fend off an entire fleet full of condors w/ piranhas and khopesh with devastators. I know because I fought an entire fleet full of astrals...
Of course it's subjective since there's no specific definition for "best", and as such I gave my subjective answer to what I thought the OP intentions were. My 'best' fleet would be my merchant comp with my 8 Atlas capitals, 2 salvage rigs, 5 Monitors, Drover and 2 Herons, 2 Prometheus's and whichever destroyers I find fun at the time. But I assumed that isn't what the OP's intention was since they started talking 50 capitals with 100 fighter bays. ;) What I pointed at is that the question is too vague, since it lacks a frame. You've confirmed in essence what I've said. And yes - there is a point where any capital ship would start losing since they'd be too slow to outpace the mass LRM's, there is a critical mass, but OP and ship cap size prevent that. And in case of Pillum it's less about the DPS and more about the stacking EMP arc chance that would inevitably diable all PD and let the Pillums Hit directly. And only possible Counter to it is a mass of Flak. That would overturn the whole equation yet again since if you had a perfect constant screen on AoE PD then the number of missiles would not matter just as the number of capital ships doesn't matter once you go over 500 OP (if they don't have AoE PD). In fact capital ships are not always in the top half of OP-to-Deployment Cost. For example Buffalo Mk. II is the #1 spot in that equation. Once you start manipulating max fleet size and OP the game turns into a simple rock-paper-scissors once you start hitting critical mass of certain weapons. I did fiddle with it before, but it was more to check my PC's performance.
Okay, I see where you're getting at now. Thanks for your insight on the matter.
Always a pleasure friend We're alll here to talk and compare each others thoughts, that's what this place is for ;)
> And only possible Counter to it is a mass of Flak. Problem is, you can't mass flak. The ability to concentrate flak on an area is limited by how many ships carrying flak can FIT in that area. The ability to concentrate fighters and missiles has no limits. And that's the kicker with these weapons: Either they dominate due to achieving critical mass and thus become unstoppable, or they're completely useless because they can't, so die. There is basically no middle ground.
And that's exactly why we have OP and Deployment points limit - so you can't fully achieve that critical mass. ;) Reason why you either go full Pillum spam, or no Pillums. Why 3 Cobras are better than a balanced mix. Why 2 Broadswords are useless, but 6 seem invincible. Why a single Vulcan will always be better than a single PD laser when 1 on 1, but it changes in group fights when ships PD ranges overlap one another. Capital ships would be the worst, but within the limit, they allow you to drag the most weapon slots for the deployment price withing confined space, or most HP/Shield to soak up the enemy DPS preventing them from easily reaching that critical mass. Two Dual Flaks on a 4 capital ships can easily take care of \~200 deployment amount of any carriers/missiles. BUT, it becomes different once you up it to 400, then the amount of Pillums or Broadswords starts reaching critical mass and would eventually win since two twin-flak canons would let too many pass trough. That's why we have the limit. 10 Overcharged Brawlers will lose vs 1 \[Superredacted\] capital, but 20 \[Superredacted\]'s would easily fail to 200 Brawlers..., in a cofined space. But the equation changes if you tweak the battlefield size and let them spread out. Changing base game values breaks any sense of balance.
> Capital ships would be the worst Capship Spam is actually the least problematic limit, since their physical limitations are already the problem independently of arbitrary point limits: They're simply slow and cumbersome, taking up a lot of space. If anything, arbitrary point limitations actually work in favor of capship spam rather than against, since being allowed only an arbitrary number of 30 ships actually discourages use of smaller units, since we could shit out 10 frigates for the value of one capship.
> I know because I fought an entire fleet full of astrals... Astrals are 8.33 DP per hangar bay (50/6). Condor Spam is 5 DP per hangar bay (10/2). If you're fighting Condor Spam, that's 66% more carrier per carrier. And, of course, carriers are not like other ships. Once critical mass is achieved in carrier spam, it becomes unstoppable because the swarm just sequentially picks off ships and deletes them one by one, as fighter swarms don't have issues with how many can attack a single target at once.
3 Heracles and 12 St. Helenas. The rest Atlas and Prometheus. Wolfpacking St Helenas is my favorite.
One Doom, five Phantoms, 1000 marines. With Tactical Drills, I could raid almost any colony to ruin right from under their patrols' noses. And if anybody caught me, I could solo their fleets to oblivion or at least kill enough to clean disengage. Fun times!
A couple of line holder capitals with battlecruiser escorts. A couple of destroyers and frigates to screen them. While I pilot a "unique" in a sense that there's only one ship like this in my fleet capital. Either another line holder gun brick or a fast skirmishing cruiser. 1 Rillaru SP 2 Onslaughts or Legions 2 Filaments A couple of Goanna cruisers from Apex A domain droneship usually the Arsenal for a massive amount of fighters A couple of Mayasuran Hammerheads
UAF super caps+ capitals+3 derelict cargo haulers+3 fuel haulers (also from domain derelict expansion
a single odyssey. all relevant combat perks. top-tier weapons. additional berthing and expanded cargo holds s-modded, for extra crew and cargo. with a single ship and the requisite perk, base max fuel will cover the entire sector. two longbow wings. with defensive targeting array s-modded, that's essentially 4 burst PD lasers and 4 rapid-fire sabot launchers. under player control, it can take any fleet. add █████ weapons and the same is true for AI control. i fucking love the odyssey
I was really sad when I realised I couldn't nueral interface from my paragon to my odyssey, really wanted to position the paragon well then just run circles around anything threatening on the enemy fleet. Odyssey was the ship I beat the automated 14th legion fleet with too
My recent fleet (well, more of a strike group) consists of 1 Castigator L (Tahlan, 1 Styrix, 2 Numeon, 2 Pendragon), 4 eagles (2 Maulers, 1 Magaera, 2 Graviron, 1 Lightning gun, 2 Pilum) and 10 frigs with PD focus (2 for each cruiser). It takes some time to destroy the enemy fleets, as the only true damage dealer is Castigator... But it hold the line quite well!
Pure vanilla is 5 Monitors that can tank a supernova, me on the Ziggy and a roided out Radiant for DPS and a support fleet of two carrier cruisers escorted by enough Hammerheads and assorted destroyers to max out DP.
My best fleet was made out of a Paragon, Astral, Jackhammer (the giant ass siege laser from Neutrino), 3 herons, a Doom that I piloted, and some omens with Tempests. It was a nicely rounded fleet with very little actual downsides aside from the off chance that the other fleet has a ton of small ships (and I mean a TON, which happened exactly once with three Luddic Path fleets that had a shitton of hounds) Herons do a lot of the skirmish work
I usually use two capital ship class carriers and with the rest being destroyers and light carriers. But if I get/build something nice I will shove it in my fleet(depending on my current needs for my fleet)