The more I experiment with fleet formations, the more I feel that flying my whole fleet in a dense block is more effective. In this way you can overlap many fields of fire and increase the survivability of individual ships through obstruction and presenting a large number of targets for your opponent. True, it can harm some objectives, but flying a dense ball of murder and obliterating the enemy fleet will win you the game anyway.

Has anyone got some advice/experience they wish to share regarding fleet formations and positioning?

I'm still trying to fly in semi formation without colliding or obstructing myself. I probably should just keep messing with the tool for practice instead of playing the game against myself more often.

This generally makes sense. Most navies in the real world maneuver in formations. (Of course real navies guns far out range their movement.) I would expect that people that can successfully maintain a fleet in formation without colliding with itself would do well. I will have to watch for that in battle reports.

Thanks,
Duncan

The only problem I have found with tight formations is that you sometimes handcuff yourself in which order you can activate your ships.

Against 2 VSD's close together I will swing everything to 1 side (except Dodonna) trying to get both VSD's to turn towards me. That will put them 1 behind the other.

Then he has no choice but to activate the front 1 before the back one.

And As I found out the hard way I had a ship with Leia behind a guppy, and I had them too close going too fast, and I had no choice but to activate the guppy first when I needed it to go 2nd.

It does take some practice to fly them in formations.

For me it depends on the nature of the enemy deployment. If he's spread out - absolutely keep your stuff in a block, it means you can fight half his force or less with your whole force. Or, it can be ok to spread out if you know part of your force can overwhelm part of his - if there is a Neb B trying to flank you (just an example) then dispatch a Gladiator to take it out, because you know it can win that fight alone. Just some thoughts.

For me it depends on the nature of the enemy deployment. If he's spread out - absolutely keep your stuff in a block, it means you can fight half his force or less with your whole force. Or, it can be ok to spread out if you know part of your force can overwhelm part of his - if there is a Neb B trying to flank you (just an example) then dispatch a Gladiator to take it out, because know it can win that fight alone. Just some thoughts.

Never miss a good chance to attack half the enemy flet with your entire fleet. That's the stuff dreams are made of.

I find based on how close your formation is flying makes you have to move certain ships first. That ship may not be the one you feel is at best advantage to move first but then you must to avoid a collision.

I'm toying with how best to implement "Great Age of Sail" style Line of battle tactics, and if they could be used effectively.

I'm toying with how best to implement "Great Age of Sail" style Line of battle tactics, and if they could be used effectively.

That's my experience at least.

In my experience it's a bad idea - especially the conga line, which is simply a recipe for a domino effect. All your opponent needs to do is to do something to block the front ship from moving, and the rest of them will plow into it and one another.

I once did what I called an 'advanced sway' conga line, where the ships turn in alternate directions each turn. It looked funny, and made it so that each ship had an 'out', in case the front ship got blocked, but it didn't do much for my firing arc positioning.

I've had far more luck getting my ships to concentrate in on another person's formation by having my ships come around them like jaws. You can see the beginning of it here:

In this battle, the rebels did a form of conga line with the Assault Frigates coming in behind the escort frigates. That's Demolisher with Engine Techs on the right flank. Those two GSDs on the right flank swung in to bite down on the conga line, brutalizing each ship in turn, while my anvil ships (the GSD on the left and the VSD had cover from the rear rebel ships firing through the escort frigates.

I'm using age of sail tactics to great effect in my games. Assault Frigates are made for line of battle whilst Imps favour line abreast and working out how to mitigate the Imps forward firepower whilst approaching in column is a big part of the fun of Assault Frigates for me. Only reason I'm holding off on picking up a third Assault Frigate is that I want to see what Wave 2 brings to the table before committing to any further purchases.

The "conga" is certainly vulnerable to blocking but I find Speed 3 and widespread access to command tokens from Garm Bel-Iblis reduces the impact of those problems. It can also be well worth switching to a staggered Echelon formation on the approach if blocking looks probable to help free up ones direction of travel and decouple the normal activation of ships from front to back in a column formation.

Lessons hard learnt flying a VSD fleet:

- Leave room for the fighters clear of where you are about to move!

- Deployment is the single most important "move" you make. If done badly is almost impossible to recover

- Come up with a plan at the start of the game and stick to it

- Your first two moves define the entire game, so make sure they support the plan!

I fly two VSD in the center flanked by fast GSD. Hasn't failed yet.

I do a "diagonal conga". Sort of like this:

V

...V

E....V

E = enemy

It's a tad predictable as it doesn't turn well, but allows to you avoid bumps, provides flexibility of movement order, and if directed properly gives multiple arcs on a few ships.

I'm using age of sail tactics to great effect in my games. Assault Frigates are made for line of battle whilst Imps favour line abreast and working out how to mitigate the Imps forward firepower whilst approaching in column is a big part of the fun of Assault Frigates for me. Only reason I'm holding off on picking up a third Assault Frigate is that I want to see what Wave 2 brings to the table before committing to any further purchases.

The "conga" is certainly vulnerable to blocking but I find Speed 3 and widespread access to command tokens from Garm Bel-Iblis reduces the impact of those problems. It can also be well worth switching to a staggered Echelon formation on the approach if blocking looks probable to help free up ones direction of travel and decouple the normal activation of ships from front to back in a column formation.

I tend to play Imperials mostly, and a big problem has been the enemy flanking and forcing my formation to turn and become a conga line. I tried using just movement orders for the first few turns and that seemed to help, allowing me to get a better position at the cost of sending the fighters screaming forwards. Another challenge with the 'wall' of VSDs is that the enemy tends to get a good punching and then fly right past to repair, meaning I can't get the kill.

Therefore I am thinking of using a different formation:

Enemy

V. V.

G.

The Victory SDs advance at flank speed and maneuver to get a good angle, then the GSD lurking behind acts as the 'sweeper', following up to kill off whatever the Victorys mauled but couldn't quite kill. Acts as a good disincentive for corvettes to try and outflank also, or they get some black dice in the face! Add fighters to keep the enemy bombers busy.

I tend to play Imperials mostly, and a big problem has been the enemy flanking and forcing my formation to turn and become a conga line. I tried using just movement orders for the first few turns and that seemed to help, allowing me to get a better position at the cost of sending the fighters screaming forwards. Another challenge with the 'wall' of VSDs is that the enemy tends to get a good punching and then fly right past to repair, meaning I can't get the kill.

Therefore I am thinking of using a different formation:

Enemy

V. V.

G.

The Victory SDs advance at flank speed and maneuver to get a good angle, then the GSD lurking behind acts as the 'sweeper', following up to kill off whatever the Victorys mauled but couldn't quite kill. Acts as a good disincentive for corvettes to try and outflank also, or they get some black dice in the face! Add fighters to keep the enemy bombers busy.

I have been thinking about this for a couple of days and haven't got to try it yet!

Enemy

V. V.

G.

It's certainly interesting. How has it been working out for you?

I tend to play Imperials mostly, and a big problem has been the enemy flanking and forcing my formation to turn and become a conga line. I tried using just movement orders for the first few turns and that seemed to help, allowing me to get a better position at the cost of sending the fighters screaming forwards. Another challenge with the 'wall' of VSDs is that the enemy tends to get a good punching and then fly right past to repair, meaning I can't get the kill.

Therefore I am thinking of using a different formation:

Enemy

V. V.

G.

The Victory SDs advance at flank speed and maneuver to get a good angle, then the GSD lurking behind acts as the 'sweeper', following up to kill off whatever the Victorys mauled but couldn't quite kill. Acts as a good disincentive for corvettes to try and outflank also, or they get some black dice in the face! Add fighters to keep the enemy bombers busy.

Holding the GSD behind a line of VSD's has worked well for me. Opponents have a healthy respect for its potential damage output. And they know they can kill it faster than a VSD. If it's in front in a VVG list, it tends to get hammered early on.

Edited for clarity

Enemy

V. V.

G.

It's certainly interesting. How has it been working out for you?

Sadly, I haven't had the chance to try this yet. This is purely based on theory hammer, where I have used a VVG list several times. In all those games I ran the Demolisher forward to try and eat some enemy ships but he just got destroyed without doing as much as I hoped. Plus the Victorys alone struggle to get the kill - hence my thinking to try the Gladiator sweeper next time!

In my experience it's a bad idea - especially the conga line, which is simply a recipe for a domino effect. All your opponent needs to do is to do something to block the front ship from moving, and the rest of them will plow into it and one another.

I once did what I called an 'advanced sway' conga line, where the ships turn in alternate directions each turn. It looked funny, and made it so that each ship had an 'out', in case the front ship got blocked, but it didn't do much for my firing arc positioning.

I've had far more luck getting my ships to concentrate in on another person's formation by having my ships come around them like jaws. You can see the beginning of it here:

In this battle, the rebels did a form of conga line with the Assault Frigates coming in behind the escort frigates. That's Demolisher with Engine Techs on the right flank. Those two GSDs on the right flank swung in to bite down on the conga line, brutalizing each ship in turn, while my anvil ships (the GSD on the left and the VSD had cover from the rear rebel ships firing through the escort frigates.