Certain people stating arguements in this forum seem to think that sheer speed or sheer firepower will win any fight. * BEEP * WRONG!! It takes an even blend of both, which could be found in a beefed up arada, Zidara, CW, or even a UE Destroyer. Seriously, a Zidara is fast for a warship, and with speed upgrades you don't NEED anything else. It has 2 phase turrets, 2 phased beamers, dispersals, and you have fighter-class speed. Pit that vs. any Azdara, and you could knock it's fragile structure backwards with a dispy and then go at it with phase turrets and beamers at full and believe me it won't have time to regenerate it's puny defense. A Zidagar fighter could be used similarly, but it has much more speed.
Also, take a CW. Suppose you sell the fighter bay. +80 tons. Buy an extra turret, sell the SAD's, buy some pursuit missiles and a repulsor. With a cargo expansion you might even have enough for some dispersals. Pit that vs. an Azdara with shield generators, or even Dospect instead, or both (as depicted with Skyblade's 10 ton dospect). If it's a skilled pilot vs. skilled pilot, then the Azdara would pass the CW firing like hell, but, at the right moment, the CW would fire the repulsor beam, accelerate and barrage the Azdara with the 'rocket-pursuit' maneuver as SilverDragon put it, only you could be rotating from rockets to missiles while holding down the firing key (the default being the space bar). Bam. Score one for the CW's. And I'll leave the Arada vs. Azdara thing for AP since he seems to confident in his Arada.
Now take a UE Destroyer. We know that the blaze fire only has decent effect on shields and phase weapons tear through shields, but there is an upside to the UE Destroyer. The blaze turrets aside from causing damage have the effect of a weaker tractor/repulsor beam, slowing the enemy down and allowing for more hits to be scored. With this in mind, say the pilot keeps the default and max number blaze turrets, 3, and maybe buys a mass expansion. A good pilot would know that Hunter missiles do basically nothing against an Azdara with a good pilot, because they turn too slow to hit an Azdara at long range and do less damage than a standard rocket. So they would naturally get sold. Replace this with say an extra rocket launcher, some more rockets (and believe me with 3 rocket launchers (the Destroyer starts out with 2) you can fire very rapidly), and maybe a turn upgrade. So, assume that the Azdara uses flyby shooting tactics. This can be effective against the light-armored and shielded Destroyer, but a well-aimed rocket combined with blaze fire will not only quickly diminish the shields of the Azdara but knock it back allowing the UE Destroyer to charge in guns blazing rockets firing, just like with the CW. Soon, no more Azdara. Simply put, any of the ships above, complete with upgrades, will blow up an Azdara even with shield generators one-on-one, with or without ease.
This should end further quarreling about speed or strength being more important. Remember, either one can be good against the AI, but a human is a whole different ballgame.
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Greetings from your friendly local cannibal, put in your town by the federal government to keep the human population in check.
If I were to face him now, I'd say he would probably beat me into the ground Goku
(This message has been edited by ESPilot (edited 09-23-2001).)