Guide: Combat and Battle Guide
From Astro Empires Wiki
Combat is all about getting good ratios. Ratios is a term used to describe how much fleet the opponent lost compared to how much fleet you lost, in credits. For example, if you destroyed 1000 opposing Fighters and your opponent destroyed 3 of your Heavy Cruisers, the ratio would be You:Opponent = 1500:5000 = 1:3.33. This translates as "for every 1 credit of your fleet that was destroyed, you destroyed 3.33 credits of opposing fleet".
This guide is all about getting you the best ratios possible. Why? Because if you get good ratios, you will be able to make more profit off attacks and lose less of your fleet. An especially well-constructed defense fleet can also hurt your opponent's ratios, making them less likely to attack you. (After all, attacks are all about profit. Make it hard for them to profit and they will not attack). Certain ships do better ratio-wise against certain other ships, for various reasons, and it is these advantages and disadvantages you will learn here.
Ships
Fighters
Good Against: Bombers, Heavy Bombers, Ion Bombers, Destroyers, (ANYTHING if Fighters are in a much larger amount than the enemy fleet)
Bad Against: Heavy Cruisers, Battleships, Dreadnoughts, Titans, Leviathans, Death Stars
Why use them? Fighters are good meat shields, they keep other ships/defensive structures alive a little longer. They are vital when using big ships (Titans, Leviathans and Death Stars). When gathered into massive numbers (over 500k), they are a force to be reckoned with, unless the opponent has a lot of Heavy Cruisers. Also see Fighter Drops.
Bombers
Good Against: Cruisers, Ion Bombers, Ion Frigates
Bad Against: Fighters
Why use them? Many people like using Cruisers to attack, these are good for stopping cruisers. They're also good to replace fighters with, since with a nice teched missile they have a similar attack power for the same hangar space. Meaning you can carry 2x the attack power over what fighters could. (Only suggested if you're used to mostly/always be on the attacking side)
Heavy Bombers
Good Against: Cruisers, Heavy Cruisers, Ion Bombers, Ion Frigates, Heavy Bombers
Bad Against: Fighters
Why use them? These are a required unit in most attacks against heavily defended astros. Either due to the amount of command centers, or because of a large amount of defensive turrets/rings. They are also good when either attacking a very large fleet in order to make it possible to one-shot it. Or if just to spread the losses a bit.
Ion Bombers
Good Against: Dreadnoughts, Titans, Leviathans, Death Stars
Bad Against: Pretty much everything else.
Why use them? Useful against naked, high shielded capital ships. Extremely vulnerable to fighter drops. Do not leave unattended.
Corvettes
Good Against: All Bombers, Recyclers, cruisers.
Bad Against: Battleships, Dreadnoughts, Titans, Leviathans, Death Stars.
Why use them? Good as recycler escorts, excellent at destroying recyclers and good secondary meat shield with fighters or should fighters be unavailable.
Recyclers
Good Against: Debris
Bad Against: Anything that has weapons (Everything else)
Why use them? Only use them when there is a Debris pile, otherwise don't use them. Non-Combat Unit.
Destroyers
Good Against: Cruisers, Heavy Cruisers, Recyclers, Ion Frigates, Ion Bombers.
Bad Against: Fighters, Battleships, Dreadnoughts, Titans, Leviathans, Death Stars.
Why use them? Like Heavy Bombers they are good against Cruiser & Heavy Cruiser attacks.
Frigates
Good Against: Cruisers, Heavy Cruisers, Battleships, Planetary rings(with exeption to Pring/Pshield combos).
Bad Against: Everything else.
Why use them? These are suggested to only be used by the more experienced players, and even then only if you're used to attacking fleets rather than bases. Since they're in most scenarios completely useless at attacking astros. Suggested to rather build cruisers in most cases since in order to use Frigates in the best way one need to remove more or less ALL of the unshielded units before the initial strike.
Ion Frigates
Good Against: Dreadnoughts, Titans, Leviathans, Death Stars.
Bad Against: Everything else.
Why use them? If someone is mad enough to attack one of your bases with just a Titan, Leviathan or Death Star possibly with a few fighters, destroy the fighters with more fighters and attack the bare ship with lots of Ion Frigates filled with fighters. You will lose far less than the enemy.
Ion frigates are actually a tiny bit cheaper per armor than heavy cruisers. Ion frigates are about twice as good as HCs at shooting down leviathans, and much better at shooting deathstars. In exchange, though, they die horribly to fighters. Since everyone has fighters and very few people have leviathan/deathstar fleets you actually need to worry about, ion frigates lose out to HCs. Since HCs are better in all but one metric, ion frigates are only useful for bit roles.
Scout ships
Good Against: Nothing.
Bad Against: Everything!
Why use them? Scouting around regions only. Non-combat unit.
Cruisers
Good Against: Heavy Cruisers, Battleships and Defensive Structures.
Bad Against: Bombers, Heavy Bombers, Ion Bombers, Destroyers, Frigates, Ion Frigates, Leviathan, Titan, Death Stars.
Why use them? They are very good at attacking enemy bases and mobile fleets in general. Don't use these things for defense though, as they can be bomber dropped for a hefty profit. Also keep them far away from Leviathans, otherwise you may experience the legendary 'Levi-rape'.
Carriers
Good Against: Nothing.
Bad Against: Everything!
Why use them? Use them to carry fighters, always send these things away before you have a battle otherwise they almost certainly will die. These things are very vulnerable against fighters, but are faster than their big brother, the Fleet Carrier.
Heavy Cruisers
Good Against: Fighters, Bombers, Battleship, Dreadnought, Titan, Leviathan (if you have lots of them).
Bad Against: Heavy Bombers, Ion Bombers, Destroyers, Frigates, Ion Frigates, Cruisers, Death Stars.
Why use them? Good for crushing fighters and taking down Planetary Shields if you've got good Plasma tech. Also good for taking down big ships except for Death Stars.
Battleships
Good Against: Fighters, Bombers, Corvettes, Destroyers, Titans, Leviathans, Death Stars.
Bad Against: Frigates, Cruisers.
Why use them? They are good at destroying big ships and occupying bases that have only got fighter defenses. They are also the cheapest way to clear large quantities of fighters over 17+ or so command centers and multiple prings.
Fleet Carrier
Good Against: Nothing.
Bad Against: Everything!
Why use them? Use them to carry fighters, always send these things away before you have a battle otherwise they will take damage and most of them will die. These things are not as vulnerable as Carriers and carry more fighters per credit than Carriers, but they are slower.
Dreadnoughts
Good Against: Bombers, Heavy Bombers, Corvettes, Destroyers, Frigates, Carriers
Bad Against: Cruisers, Heavy Cruisers, Ion Bombers/Frigates
Why use them? Good at stopping fighter drops. Prings + 1 dreadnought is the simplest way to make bases that are unprofitable to hit.
Titans
Good Against: Frigates, Cruisers
Bad Against: Heavy Cruisers, Battleships, Dreadnoughts, Ion Bombers/Frigates, Leviathans, Death Stars.
Why use them? Use them in a group with some fighters escorting to shield-rape cruiser fleet. Beware of larger amounts of any unit in the fleet as titans are still rather fragile at the shield-raping business. (Preferably only build these in the early states of a server or if you want to perma-farm someone)
Leviathans
Good Against: Bombers, Heavy Bombers, Corvettes, Destroyers, Frigates, Carriers, Cruisers.
Bad Against: Heavy Cruisers, Battleships, Dreadnoughts, Ion Bombers, Death Stars
Why use them? With fighter escorts use them to occupy. They are also good at defending your mobile fleet while at the fortress. Get these in packs and they will be perfect for destroying cruiser fleets.
Death Stars
Good Against: Bombers, Heavy Bombers, Frigates, Carriers, Cruisers, Heavy Cruisers
Bad Against: Battleships, Dreadnoughts, Ion Bombers/Frigates
Why use them? They are very good at defending your mobile fleet while at the fortress. They aren't very popular due to very slow speed and they can't use Jumpgates. They could be useful for attacking incoming cruiser/heavy cruiser fleets.
