will I "survive the tie"
Ah, I see - this is your main question. Sorry I missed it. I have experimented a LOT with the tie rule and am very sure I know how it produces results.
The tie rule works thusly:
1.
If all ships on both sides are destroyed simultaneously in the same round (not necessarily the first round) - then the side with the higher attack value will retain 1 ship with its highest attack value with 1 hp.
2.
If after 50 rounds of combat both sides are still alive, the side with the higher attack value automatically wins, takes no more damage, and all the ships on the side with the lower attack value are destroyed. (So, to take it to extremes, you attack a fleet of 5 enemies with values 10 attack, 300/300/300 in defense with a fleet of 5 ships 15 attack, 200/200/200 in defense. You will win. Neither side can hurt each other through 50 rounds, you have slightly higher attack. 600+hp of enemy ships just goes *poof* and you win. I have done this several times before against def heavy AIs, and it almost feels like cheating. Doesn't require you to build good ships at all.)
So, lets look at those Dreads you are fighting. with a 750 attack they will on average do 375 hp per ROUND in damage. Even your huge hulls aren't going to have 180 hp without xp, so yes, in a 2 on 1 the Korath Dread wins - it will toast both of your ships in round 1, and you might not even destroy it. (475 MA x 2 = 950 / 2 = 475 - 300 MDD = 175 avg damage... dicey, how many hp do they have??) Even if you did destroy it, you will lose on the tie rule and it will survive with 1 hp. A third huge solves your problem (kinda) because you will survive with 1 ship, trading two of your ships for one of theirs. Thats no good though, you are taking the brunt of the attrition.
What you want is a huge with 375 MDD and any attack, and then fleet them into 5. In this case, the enemy dread does on average 375 damage, and you block slightly less than all of that damage. Now you are only taking bleed through damage per round. If whatever attack you can manage x5 is not greater than 600 all is not lost, you will still do bleed through damage. But basically, to beat this ship without taking losses you want a ship with 125+MA and 375 MDD. - used in groups of 5
The other option if such is not possible for you is to go with a mixed fleet look. Build a fleet of 4 huges with 375MDD and whatever attack you can manage (all same type) and then add in one of your 450 attack ships. Your attack ship will die, but should knock out most of the defense of the enemy Dread, and hopefully your remaining firepower from your defensive capitals can clean it out in that first round. Even if not, you will have hopefully weakened it greatly so you can kill it with bleed through damage in succeeding rounds. In this way your 4 huge hull defense ships will gain xp and so hp, and you are only trading one ship for one ship. Not as good as the invincible setup above - but maybe you don't have miniturization to build a ship with the needed stats in my first scenario. A one to one trade is more palatable, but still not great. But its twice as good as trading two ships for one, no?
But, really your best option is to go with off type attack. Your base hull needs to have 375 on type defense to what the Dread is using (so MDD). Then say put as many doom rays as you can on your ship. Doom ray does 25 damage, say you can only fit 4 on your ship after defense and engines. That is only an attack of 100, so x5 is only an attack of 500, /2 = 250 facing 300 def, you lose? No. Here is why...
The sqrt of 300 is only 17, so Dreadnaught is only rolling 1-17 against each of your attacks. Doom Rays roll 1-25, so on average you will do 3+ pts of damage per doom ray (damage will increase as armor is worn away, although not by much). With your def you are taking little to no damage. But you are inflicting # of doom rays x3(+) in damage per round. With say, 4 doom rays per ship x 5 ships that is a respectable 60 damage per round, even though you never fully blast away that 300 armor. You should destroy his ship in 3-4 rounds, taking no losses. In fact, you should be able to sweep his entire force with just one fleet of five of these ships (if he isn't using fleets).
If the Dreads are fleeted, you will need to send in FLEETS of 5 all attack suicide ships to lower their numbers before attacking with your 5 fleet all def ships.
That should be what you are looking for. If you still need help, let me know.
- Wyndstar
