New Cap Pilot

[dawilko]

Hi guys,

I've been playing Starshatter for a few weeks now and i've reached Lnt Commander and got myself a destroyer.

My first mission is taking out a carrier, but when I approach the target ship with my "wing" of two other destroyers the ship jumps away! I then spend the next 20 mins searching for it and when I do find it the pesky ship jump away again!

Can anyone suggest a strategy, I had thought of targeting the carriers Quantum subsystem and firing on it before it jumps but I rarely get 1 main gun shot off.

Wilko

[dawilko]

Guys I could really use some advice here, I can't seem to enguage these carriers effectivly. Can someone who has played for a while shed some light on what I should be doing?

[wdboyd]

The games stock carriers are hardcoded to quantum away after taking a certain amount of damage. One simply has to chase them down and keep at it. If you can... get all your ships as close as possible and engage the carrier all at once to do the most combined damage.
 
Another consideration..... destroy all of their fighters and attack craft. Once destroyed, the carrier becomes impotent. This doesn't directly help you destroy the carrier but, campaign wise, anything destroyed is gone for good.
 
Read throughout these forums for tactical tips. Good luck.

[smaff]

Actually, your ships can be in the vicinity for any reason, not just because they'll finish off the carrier more quickly. Any craft, regardless of affiliation, that's near you increases the time taken to quantum away, and the carrier, as a large ship takes longer to quantum than a destroyer.
 
Order your ships to escort you and get close - try not to push it below the auto-run point whilst stripping any defensive armament, and then hammer it with as much as you have. Carriers are a pain, but the are essentially the most powerful unit in the game - A 4 member squad of anti-ship fighters will annihilate a destroyer, which has no option except to quantum out. Cruisers would be heavily damaged and frigates are dubious cover at best (and die rapidly if actually targetted).
 
Its actually pretty much a shame that there's not much part of minesweeping, installation assault and merchant raiding - all things that the DESRON would actually be good at.
 
Always sign of a good game when you can think of a few "if only..."s :>