Sorry I don't need to reveleve the fog because I have Sensors Mark IV and the Eyes of the universe I see everything...

There's still a fog of war.

I used them in very early game as a mil stat boosters. 1 cheap weapon, nothing else.

That's what I use them for in every game. As soon as I've researched Space Weapons, I either use the Star Fury or makye my own and have every planet start building one as soon as its starport comes online. Also a good first thing to build on a newly conquered planet, as they keep away those pesky unescorted transports, and sometimes you can build a really cheap ship in 0 turns immediately after conquest.

Later game uses: With high-level miniaturization, weapons, defenses, and engines, a tiny hull can be a powerful warship, and a low-production planet can crank them out at a decent rate. I use them like submarines: send them raiding deep into enemy territory to take out his undefended freighters, starbases, and transports, and opportunistically forming them into wolfpacks to take down bigger prey.

Also with high-level miniaturization and engines and the advanced troop module, the tiny hull makes a great assault transport. Extremely fast to build, and it only takes 1 bil out of a planet's population when it launches, which is important on lower pop worlds. Then, at the far end, it makes your invasion force much more flexible: you can determine exactly how many bil of troops you want to use each time AND, with smaller transports, you keep more of your ships after a successful invasion.

In fact, unless I'm forced into war early in the game, I never use giant cargo hull transports anymore. When I choose my battles, it's usually after I've researched most of the miniaturization and engine techs. I design two transport ships: the Assault 1000 (1 adv. troop mod) and Assault 2000 (2 adv. troop mods), based on the tiny and small hulls, respectively. A handful of these, along with fully-researched planetary invasion and defense techs (defense techs increase your soldiering), are all you need to grab all of the planets that you can hold.

and sometimes you can build a really cheap ship in 0 turns immediately after conquest.

And sometimes you can build a really expensive ship in 0 turns immediately after conquest! Always worth checking what you can get away with.

That is true! Unfortunately, in my later-game wars, I tend to have a choice between the cheap ship and the really, really, really expensive ship. Even my constructors have gotten fairly expensive by then, but I build a few of them instead if I'm about to 'liberate' a galactic resource or two.

There's still a fog of war.

When you have star bases with ultimate survellence scanners all over your borders I think not Random50..

30/34 I can fit a medium ship with more firepower and more hit points in this fleet..

I build alot of tiny hulled ships at the beginning of the game to help scout things out. As better Tech comes available I try to keep them upgraded. When I have good miniaturization and the Survey Module Tech, I equip EACH tiny hulled PATHFINDER SCOUT with a Survey Module and I am grabbing Anomolies everywhere!!

As Tech and Miniaturization progresses I continue to upgrade these ships. I find them invaluable. When most/all the anomolies are gone I replace the Survey Module with a Torpedo or some weapon/defense. These ships now make great Constructor/Colony Ship/Transport killers.

When war is declared I move them off a bit and have them act to keep the enemy's movements known and to swoop in to kill any unescorted transports. I don't bother to add them to Fleets. They have too many other duties than combat fodder.

When you have star bases with ultimate survellence scanners all over your borders I think not Random50..

I think so!

But then I'm nosy...I want to be able to see everything everybody's up to, not just what's happening by my borders. And AIs seem to get much less annoyed by unarmed scouts in their territory than starbases.

What will happen with 1.2 and you get to shoot back after killed? A fleet of tiny ships will be able to wipe out or at least cancel fleet with bigger ships. Since you can still only hit one target, per ship, a large number of low hp ships will suck up firepower and you still get to shoot back in 1.2.

Hi!

When you have star bases with ultimate survellence scanners all over your borders I think not Random50..

AFAIK the sensor range is capped at 15 sectors. Does a fully upgraded SB see further, if you also have Eyes?
BR, Iztok

AFAIK the sensor range is capped at 15 sectors. Does a fully upgraded SB see further, if you also have Eyes? BR, Iztok

Nope.

Hey hey

In the late game, there are some AIs on Tough difficulty that still insist on trying to infiltrate unescorted troop transports through my lines. Tiny hulled/eyes/one weapon/high speed ships are perfect for chasing down and swatting unescorted enemy transports.

Anyway, that's my use.

-Dave

Hull size reference, with miniaturization, cost, hitpoints, and research points:

Hull	Size	Basic	Enhanced	Advanced	Expert	Ultimate	HP	BC	RP
Tiny	16	17	20	22	24	28	6	20	0
Small	26	28	32	36	40	45	12	40	0
Medium	38	41	47	53	58	66	16	60	1160
Large	55	60	68	77	85	96	20	100	3660
Huge	80	88	100	112	124	140	30	150	18660
Cargo	55	60	68	77	85	96	1	60	0

During a war with the Drengin with my allies the Arceans Alterians and Thalans the allies were losing, baaaadly, i mean really badly the Drengin were all over the Thalans and Alterians they were hitting my borderworlds and their tech was higher than ours, i was pumping out warships as quickly as i could but i was losing more than i was gaining.

I came up with the idea of putting a Starport on each world, even my reserach worlds and createing a figher class ship, they wouldnt take long to create... yes i'd lose alot but even worlds with only a few factories on them could build a figher in a couple of weeks.

After a few months of construction i had several "wings" of my new fighter i usually formed them into groups of 10 fighters with as many small ships as i could scrounge together, or used them as a cover for my capital ships, with these new fighters i saved more and more cap ships from destruction, and a great moment where a wing of fighters discovered 3 lightly defended transports heading for Arcean space.

I think the best use for tiny hulls is cover for larger ships, sure they die easily but if any planet can chuck them out as a good rate then whats better... loseing a fighter with 6hp that took 2 weeks to build on your main research world that would be building nothing anyway, to a doomray, or your prized huge capital ship that took months on your main shipyard.

I still lost the war but i was doing better than i had been before i started using the fighters...