Space Battles Aide Memoire

The intercept calculator [excel version] will help you optimise your intercept of the enemy force;

• if they are unwilling to fight it is still possible to get an intercept but you may not be able to keep them in battle range for long if there is a significant difference in acceleration ability.
• coming in fast on a tail chase when the enemy are accelerating out of the system will usually facilitate a silent running approach, thus making it harder for them to detect you and avoid;
• if you come in faster than the enemy and decelerate to match velocity you can rapidly bring BBI & CAI to contact with the main enemy fleet, minimising the number of pacifier missions possible during the approach phase;
• relative speed gives an advantage, but you still need to be able to exactly match the enemy force's speed to stay within PAD range (so you need to be able to deal with them trying to avoid you);
• don't attempt to intercept unless you believe that you overmatch the enemy;

• it is prudent to keep the CVI force just beyond the ship strike range of the enemy carriers until you have gained space superiority;
• DDI are too fragile for main fleet actions, they should instead be used to prevent the escape of other DDI and deal with vessels detached from the main enemy force;
• CAI & BBI need to be protected by CSP and close as rapidly as possible with the enemy, this is best done by planning an interception point ahead of the enemy's trajectory so that you are decelerating into contact rather than accelerating;

• you need to win the pacifier superiority battle before attempting missile strikes on enemy vessels;
• forward intercept CSP is by far the most effective posture as usually you can overmatch the incoming strike team;
• close in (no more than one flight per vessel) is useful, but is very vulnerable to missile strikes, so needs to be in combination with the forward intercept if done at all;
• a tight group of vessels, but not overlapping, gives an effective CSP umbrella (in practice these ought to stack vertically, but the table layout doesn't work like that);
• Keep the carriers full or empty when doing CSP/strikes, all actions (e.g. firing/launching) are a ship at a time and better to do it in volume than dribs and drabs;
• keep some pacifiers to top up the CSP after an incoming strike;
• CSP stays up until it is attacked (or you use it to intercept an incoming strike) so you can probably get away with more than 50% of the available pacifiers in flight, but don't stretch it too far lest you get the CSP stripped off by space superiority missions in advance of the missile strike;
• make sure that the CSP that you've placed covers all the vessels in the fleet, and that it can react to an attack on as many as possible (if not all) ships;
• remember that the one shot pacifiers can be recycled through the carriers, but take care not to lose carrier flights because you've filled up the carrier with the OSPs;