Effectiveness of Patrol Level Ships

[Iron Panda]

Does anyone use patrol level ships on a regular basis? It seems that they are only useful as rank and file ships on lower priority levels or fodder in general. Is it a good idea to forego patrol ships in favor of the more durable skirmish level ships?

Thanks!

 

[Triggy]

This very much depends on the fleet and what Priority Level of game you're playing. The following are some genuinely good Patrol ships:

Vree Vaarl
Centauri Corvan
Abbai Tiraca
Drakh Scout

And some outright poor ones:

Centauri Haven
EA Tethys
Raider Modified Freighter
Vree Xaar

With the others in between. If you have a good, solid Patrol ship then you can even build a fleet around it (e.g. the Abbai swarm) but their biggest roles seem to be as initiative sinks and scouts (if available), whilst hopefully not being too big a drain in terms of reducing the number of Fleet Allocation Points you have left to spend on the bigger stuff. Of course, in smaller games, they are no longer support ships but they become the core of your fleet and as such have to pull their own weight even more so. Good luck trying them out

 

[prelude_to_war]

The Hermes probably rates as one of the top Patrol level ships, especially for EA where initiative sinks are a requirement for borsighted weaponry. Throw in the missiles (and the choice of missile variants), a t-bolt and even jump capability and you have the recipe for a nasty ship.

 

[Ripple]

Yeah...the hermes...current center of conflict...

As stated it depends on the race, but almost all races are much stronger if they have a few ships to move where placement is forgiving. If you are blessed with a Patrol hull capable of acting as a bombardment ship, scout or fast flanker you will use them. I personally don't rate the Tiraca as a good ship, as you will almost certainly lose it due to its short range. But it is fine for tourney where your survival rate is irrelevant, but for campaign swarms are often not economically feasible.

Ripple

 

[Triggy]

Yeah...the hermes...current center of conflict...

As stated it depends on the race, but almost all races are much stronger if they have a few ships to move where placement is forgiving. If you are blessed with a Patrol hull capable of acting as a bombardment ship, scout or fast flanker you will use them. I personally don't rate the Tiraca as a good ship, as you will almost certainly lose it due to its short range. But it is fine for tourney where your survival rate is irrelevant, but for campaign swarms are often not economically feasible.

Ripple

Yeah, you're bang on about the Tiraca only being a good ship when you can afford to lose it! I suppose to some degree that applies to Patrol PL ships as a whole and they are less valuable in High PL games in campaigns (but still invaluable in low PL games).

 

[Celisasu]

The Hermes is an odd sort of good patrol ship. It gets better as priority levels rise.

 

[lastbesthope]

It has a fleet niche, which is what's supposed to happen in a fleet combat game

LBH