Fighters are a class of small spaceborne attack crafts that can be loaded on to ships that are labeled fighter "capacity". Crafts use one hangar slot, if present. Mobile weapons are larger than crafts, taking two (or three in the case of the Korekta) slots. There are 4 mobile weapons, which include the Manovro, Kometo, Lanterno and Korekta, which can't be earned in the first playthrough of the game.
Types[]
Strikers: Anti-ship over anti-air.
Interceptors: Anti-air over anti-ship. Often have two anti-air weapons.
Multirole: Balance between both.
Parameters[]
Size: How much space a single unit occupies.
Speed: How quick they move towards the enemy. Quicker crafts will push enemy fighters back. It is also possible for them to move behind the enemy fleet when intercepting, but will focus on the main enemy fleet after dealing with those.
Durability: How much damage can they take.
Anti-ship: Attack power versus enemy vessels.
Anti-air: Attack power when engaging opposing fighters.
Flight time: This is a "battle timer" of sorts, fighters will automatically return after it expires.
Loadouts[]
Their weapons cannot be changed. As with ship arsenal, they may come with anti-air, plasma, lasers or solid ammo. You can get a hint by looking at the names.
Strikers often have two anti-ship weapons.
Interceptors often have two anti-air weapons.
Multirole usually have one of each.
Tactics[]
It is not an understatement that large numbers of fighters can deal considerable amounts of damage to a ship when left alone and force the enemy fleets to become stationary into Anti-Air countermeasures, unless they launch fighters themselves.
When constructing a well-rounded fleet, it is important to consider fighters. A good fleet should have Strikers for hull damage and Interceptors for Anti Air. AA guns are not recommended for mainly four reasons.
- Fighters can be used to restrict the movement ability of enemy ships. This puts the player into an advantage, letting them relocate and prepare a barrage with all their guns in range.
- If you are trapped by enemy fighters, launching your own can push back enemy fighters, allowing you to move again. AA guns do not push back the enemy fighters.
- AA guns take up valuable gun slots on your ships, considering that they're not very powerful, it is not advised.
- AA guns and Dodge cannot be used at the same time. While under attack from fighters, you cannot move, leaving you susceptible to barrage attacks from the enemy.
A major weakness of deployed fighters is that, if the ship that they were launched from is destroyed, then the fighters go down with it as well. This will often make carriers a top priorty target, often above battleships. In many cases, the carriers will be placed at the back of the fleet to protect against this. A solution is to use battleships with a catapult (gravity catapult not necessary) to launch the fighters. Use more than one of these battleships, and evenly distribute the number of fighters. The maximum fighter capacity in a fleet is 120, so an all-carrier fleet is discouraged. 2 carriers or 1 carrier with a few catapult equipped non-carriers will be sufficient.
The Gravity Catapult special ability launches fighters more rapidly. Most large Nacio Carriers utilize this advanced skill.
Fighter Designs by nations[]
SMC fighters are unsurprisingly inferior to LMC ones, so early game Carrier builds around the few Carriers you can use, while possible, will be inefficient compared to a dedicated all big-guns brawling fleet, exacerbated by the lower number of ships in the first half of the game.
SMC[]
Elgava: Kretchet, Zarnica, Grif, Orlan, Berkut, Skoryi
Nova Nacio: Majesto, Komandi, Dividi
LMC fighters are varied in their models and specific capabilities, but are higly capable overall, Nacio design especially, to complement their carrier capacity.
LMC[]
Nacio: Korekta, Lanterno, Kometo, Manovro, Intrigo, Nadlo
Zenito: EA-0116, EA-0119, EA-0120, EIT-2000, EIT-1000, EOF-005, EOF-004
Lugovalos: Druantia, Murigen, Bandua
Adis: Zeeh, Nachin