 Effective Stacks |
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A little known fact about fleet formations is the maximum effective stack sizes. When I refer to stack sizes, I am talking about how many ships you have stacked onto one slot of your fleet formation.
A common commander can only effectively fire with 1100 frigates, 1000 cruisers, and 900 battleships. If you stack anymore in that grouping, the excess ships will add to the shield and structure numbers for the stack, but not participate in any damage dealing. A stack of 2000 cruisers will have double the 'life' of a 1000 stack, but deal the exact same amount of damage.
Named commanders that have been merged into multiple stars have increased stack sizes, however that will be covered on the commanders page.
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Fleet Formations |
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Having a proper fleet formation can make or break your attacks. Below I have selected some of the more standard formations that I have found to be extremely effective. We'll cover their strengths and weaknesses.
This is the standard diagonal formation, and is by far the most effective for smaller fleets. With this formation, no matter which side you are attacked from, the opposing fleet will have 3 ships to spread their damage on, rather than focusing on one on the edge and doing serious damage to it. Likewise, when you attack, you have the advantage of shooting on three opposing rows. The downside to the formation is that attack power diminishes with distance, so whichever fleet is in the back will do 25% less damage than the fleet in the front row.
This is a pretty versatile X formation. As with the diagonal above, no matter which direction your fleet gets attacked from, the damage will be spread across 3 rows. Unfortunately, your middle stack will be hit no matter which side you are hit from - you may want to put extra ships there to beef up their shields. Another downside is that during attacking, the left and right sides will receive two volleys, while the center will only receive one.
The arrow formation is my personal favorite, however it takes more ships than the above two. With this formation style, you can place tank ships in the front to absorb damage, or as I have done, simply stack more ships in the front. No matter which angle you are hit from, damage is spread, and after the first few rounds, you will likely only receive damage from the front - which is why you have the stacks a little bigger. During attacks, the enemy will receive 2 volleys on every row.
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Fleet Settings |
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Here is an explanation of the different fleet settings, as with formations, sometimes the correct setting can make or break you in an instance or attack. If you are unsure what I'm referring to, the above fleet formation examples are all set to 'Min Range' and 'Closest Target'.
| Ranges |
| Min Range | This is the setting that you want your tank fleets to be set to. That is, the ships you WANT to be taking damage. If you only have one fleet, avoid this setting. |
| Max Range | This should be your default setting. This will keep your ships at a distance to the enemy, and perhaps out of harms way if you use a tank fleet or if your enemy is using very close range weapons. |
When constructing a ship, after you select your weaponry, look at the Distance setting. For example, most Directional Weapons (lasers) are 2-5. So if your fleet is set to Min Range, they will try to remain 2 spaces away from their target, and with Max Range, 5 spaces.
| Targets |
| Closest Target | Pretty straight forward, your fleets will attack whichever fleet is the closest in range. This may not be the best setting, as you may want to take out specific fleets first - as with the other settings. |
| Commander | This setting will have your fleet target the highest level Commander in the enemy's force. This could be useful if that commander is providing buffs or extra abilities to others in their force. |
| Max Attack Power | This will cause your fleet to attack the opposing fleet which causes the most damage. Incredibly useful if there is a fleet in an instance which far out-shoots any others. Also, if you have an opponent using a tank fleet, this setting will bypass them completely. |
| Min Attack Power | This setting is the opposite of the above, and will target the fleet which causes the least damage. This may be useful if you want to quickly eliminate tanks or smaller pestering fleets. |
| Max Durability | This setting targets the opposing fleet with the most hit points (shields and structures). This could be the fleet with the most numbers or the fleet with the most hit points - either way, it's likely to be your opponents tank fleet. |
| Min Durability | This will attack the fleet with the lowest hit points, useful if you want to eliminate fleets from the battle quickly - however it should be noted that the fleet with the least hit points can change round to round as you damage other ships. |
| Def. Structures | This setting should be reserved strictly for your fleets equipped with Planetary Weapons. As the name suggests, these fleets will bypass other ships and go for the actual defensive structures of the enemy. |
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