Orbital Fleet manager to the rescue

I never used this before. In my latest game on *tough I declared war on the Drengin and They were more prepared than I had calculated. One of my size 20 planets was deep in their territory from early in the game. I had only 5 "Home Defense" ships with particle beams, and one Destroyer with Harpoon II missiles in orbit.
The Drengin fleet came and wiped out a fleet of 4 of those Destroyers on the way to my planet. When I saw this I rush built the Orbital Fleet Manager (which my spies stole from the Torians ).
When the Drengin fleet attacked the planet, my weak little Home defense ships were dealing out a steady 2-5 damage and my Destroyer much more than normal. In the end, I lost no ships and the Drengin lost six. The same six who had just olbiterated a mucvh stronger fleet!

I normally never rely on planetary defenses aside form one or two "transport deterrents" on each planet. But now I know at the harder levels the OFM can help a weak group of ships become a deadly fleet for the occasional (or not so occasional) defense.








* whichever is above "challenging"
15,698 views 10 replies
Reply #1 Top
I don't know what exactly you mean but I'm getting the sense that it's not your orbital fleet manager that really saved your ass but it was your planetary defenses ??? Or, you might of have a military starbase nearby that gaved you extra firepower or defences ??? The only thing an OFM does is that it acts like the " create fleet " button when your in outer space.
Reply #2 Top
Well usually your ships will only take on theirs one at a time, but with the fleet manager it combines all the ships in orbit. End result is a higher offense and defense rating.
Reply #3 Top
The thing you have to watch is that the number of ships that can fleet together to defend the planet is still limited by logistics. If you have a full starport for example, chances are that not all the defenders will be in the fight.
Reply #4 Top
It is not OFM helping you. All it does is fleet up the ships in orbit. It does not make them any stronger. Like serpico said you must have some kind of bonus in play.

Actually I don't build the OFM very often. My garrison ships are not much good in a fleet battle and I would rather have them fight individually and have the better ships in fleet near the planet do the heavy lifting.
Reply #5 Top
I like the Orbital Fleet Manager. It makes my enemies easier to kill (because they use it a lot) and my lack of such "improvements" makes me tougher. It's like a bonus you get by not being a moron.
Reply #6 Top
Any ship defending a planet gets a bonus, so instead of a fleet of four-powers outside the planet he will have a fleet of six-powers defending the planet. Just park a ship on a planet and watch its power go up.
Reply #7 Top
I always use an net of Scouts/ Spy Ships,
SO, I see an invasion fleet coming a mile away ...
I then Intercept them ...
I have noticed the AI uses the OFM pretty often ...
IT NEVER helps ... I KICK THIER BUTTs ANWAY !!!!!!

Lt Byram
Reply #8 Top
To the contrary, I had a HUGE fleet of ships. I'm talkin' dozens of ships. And they were all pretty decent ships, when compared to the others I had faced. I attacked the Drengin, who had four worlds, and even though they had no armor/sheild/pd, they wiped the floor with my fleets. Barely conquered them. I admit I had some Star Furys and Defenders in their, but only a few. Because they could put three or four ships with between 4 and 7 attack together I couldn't pound them one by one like usual, it sucked. My huge galactic fleet was cut down to 1/4th its former glory. Don't tell me OFM are useless.
Reply #9 Top
WATT version was your battle ...

I still am at 1.1wattever ....
Reply #10 Top
It was 1.2b. THAT's why it mattered. All the naysayers will see once the patch comes out. Defense DOES matter, MUhhahahahahahah!