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Originally posted by cable_guy:
**So you say that a rebel cruiser with max mods cannot dodge missiles. I beg to differ. A maxed out cruiser, rebel or fed, would have all the maneuverability upgrades.
**
The updgraded rebel cruiser can dodge missles, but not with the same maneuvers that a fighter would use. The rebel cruiser is much larger than most other ships. The sharp turn that works for other ships does not work for the cruiser because the cruiser must travel further to get its bulk out of the missle's path. The cruiser must start its evasion earlier than other ships would, or do a more violent evasive maneuver with afterburners. In either case, the rebel must devote more time to the evasion (or recovering from the evasion) which is time not shooting at the confed.
The upgraded confed cruiser is pathetic at dodging missles, but it can dodge a few if it really had to. Not 200 though.
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cable_guy said:
**A rebel ship, once it has started a circling run outside of turret range, will be able to throw off the missiles, because it can turn tightly enough and has enough speed so that the missiles overshoot and burn up before they can come back in. 200 missiles fired quickly? Easily done. It's easy to outrun missiles launched simultaneously from 10 ships in different areas, so launched one at a time from a cruiser which may well be stationary are easy to avoid.
**
I doubt that 200 missles will kill the rebel cruiser, but 200 torpedoes are even more easily avoided by the rebel. But 200 missles + lots of torpedoes (and all the gun/turret slots filled of course) is still the best outfit that a confed cruiser pilot can get if he knows he faces a rebel cruiser.
Against a human, you cannot expect to maintain any sort of regular flight path. The upgraded confed cruiser is hardly stationary-- it does 300 {whatever EV speed units are} compared to 350 for the upgraded rebel cruiser. The confed will move around to make the rebel work harder.
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cable_guy said:
**I would take down the patrol ships, which, once they have unloaded their weapons, have two choices; do runs at the enemy cruiser, or redock and re-arm. In EV, you have infinite missiles to reload with, but since we're talking human vs human, not possible in EV, we might as well say that there is a finite number of missiles to reload with, so the rebel cruiser could dodge for as long as is necessary, or unload missiles onto the fed patrol ships or gunboats. Then fire the torpedoes or missiles into the fed, mantas redock and unload their missiles, and I believe that the more modified you make the cruisers, the less chance there is of the confederate winning the battle.
**
Humans know that sending fighters against cruisers is a waste unless they have backup (eg, the mothership is following), so that wont happen. I doubt mantas and Pt boats launch missles fast enough to do decisive damage to either cruiser, even with infinite reloads. I never had the patience to try it against the AI.
For extreme modifications you are correct that they favor the rebels. The rebel can evade all long range attacks while the confed cannot evade any long range attacks.
Armor and engine upgrades favor the confed cruiser-- they reduce the rebel maneuvering advantage, and the rebel will have to sacrifice some weapons if he wants to mount all three armors.
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