r/Highfleet • u/BloodStormWolf • 1d ago
My personal fleet (Somewhat Vanilla-Like)
Wolfgang, The Carrier Flagship. Complete with 9 of each fighter, 8 KH-15s, and a passable amount of 57 and 30mm defences.
The Vulpenia 1, an aging model of Fast Attack Craft intended to serve more as a bomber off of the deck of heavier cargo ships that need their own defence, or as light garrison.
During fleet action, the Vulpenia 1 served little use other than to die to cruise missiles, so the Enhanced Defense Version arms it for picket work against strikes for little cost.
Lacking in any combat ability, the Enhanced Combat Version arms the Vulpenia with a 100mm, flares, FSS, and 4 missiles to allow it to kill even medium cruisers for little cost.
The Catapult is a missile carrier, simply intended to carry 4 KH-15s+Ps for softening up strike groups to be finished off by other ships, as well as being able to tank missiles
The Stormbringer is the brute force of the fleet, able to easily 1v5 cruisers of it's size using 220mm missiles. Have killed Varyags and their 2 cruiser escorts in testing.
The Coyote is the fleet's answer to Lightning assaults, being a far more expensive but far more survivable counterpart, able to tank heavy fire that would kill a lightning.
I wanted these all to be vanilla-esque in nature, meaning I wouldn't simply strip all armor unrequired or such and do some shenanigans for the absolute best craft. Most have lore written for them in my head, with the Vulpenia series originally being made for use by a small native group of nomads for the nation these ships hail from, as they otherwise were defenseless (albeit in my mind they would use nuclear-thermal engines for that). All ships prove effective against medium mode so far, often winning fights. The Stormbringer kills everything with at best 2k in damage, the Coyote can do the same for light-medium craft, and the Vulpens serve a great auxiliary to either hold Troposphere Comms or to perform bomb runs on cruisers to take one or two out. Their survival rate in campaign so far is 60%, one died to engine flameouts against 37mm and the other one ate a missile that simply ignroed the flares in it's face. Catapult is unused, I just made it for if I ever accumulate enough bonus to get bored and nuke every strike group.
Any thoughts?
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u/Anozumi 23h ago
I think by your definition of Vanilla the ships work fine, the looks tho I think could be done a bit better but that’s a matter of personal taste. The Coyote and Vulpenias are more interesting but the test are still a big brick-ish and imo a bit messy (I like some uniformity in my fuel tanks and engine arrangement on my flagships) but again that’s personal taste! They look like they function to what you need them to do!
If you dont mind some critiques, the Vulpenias seem a bit underarmed, maybe upping their gun count to 2 might help? The Coyote has a lot of speed too, you could add some armor if you wanted, going down to 350 or 300 is still silent strike capable. Do you pair them with any tenkers btw? Usually I pair them with a tanker that has 3000 range. A solo ships should usually have around 1500 range to be able to get to the next cities
The Catapult I would remove the guns entirely since it’s not supposed to get into a fight. That would save space and weight. Stormbringer I think the aesthetics could be improved from a brick to something a bit nicer.
Also you technically don’t need crew quarters, it’s a useless stat right now. And full ammo and generators provide the same ammo/more power than 2 of the halves combined for less weight.
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u/BloodStormWolf 22h ago
The brick is something I'm working on, with some difficulty. I dont want any armor gap vulnerabilities for my large ships, and I'm struggling to not simply make something that is basically a rectangle with a few slopes on the deck. The Wolfgang's ugliness is likely because I refused to rework it and wanted to take it into campaign immediately. I wanted the back half to be very Sevastapol/Strat Heavy Cruiser, and the front to be a multi-layered deck with a layer of horizontal tanks below it as contrast, but I didnt design it with good positioning and thus its quite ugly. + The chassis really, really makes it worse, but it would break its legs without the extra stick.
Catapult, definitely doesn't strictly need guns, but its there for anti-missile work. Of course, optimally, it shouldn't be shooting at missiles, but vanilla ships plan for it, and I plan for it too due to my skill issue and violence against strike groups. Most lost games of mine are to around 20 cruise missiles I just cant stop. 57mm seem to be more effective vs missiles than 30mm, due to range and them being more likely to kill them. This is based on other's opinion and only rough testing from myself, though.
The Vulpenia's low gun count is because I wanted the smallest craft I could imagine being considered warship, to garrison Tropos. The whole vanilla rule meant no empty ships with no guns and one thruster that sit there, it needed to be capable of enforcing its holding with some armament and actually landing, so I made a real ship. It works as good chaff vs cruise missiles as well, and for quick cheeky bombing when required. I take 3-5 and use them as expendables when needed. I couldnt redesign to have two guns in a way I liked and kept it at 5k. The EDV evolved from me learning that they ate cruise missiles really good, meaning for an extra 2k I effectively doubled how many missiles they ate. And helped stop air raids. ECV evolved from them not working well in combat with only one gun, so I added an AK-100 to kill Courageous or Sloggers easy, 4 missiles to kill anything from Flowers to Boreys, and NKs so they can actually land kills. They're the same price as a rook but are actually useful, and I can usually sacrifice one to kill two cruisers. Maybe even have it escape, but, Vulpenias are tragically unlucky in my games (missiles ignoring flares, engines not re-flaming in time, etc)
The Coyote I keep at 400 km/h for reasons of intercepting traders and because I find it about where I like to be in terms of mostly relying on dodging. Extra armor is an upgrade I would consider, if not for the Palashes. Any hits will destroy the super expensive APS, So I prefer to remain faster so it can dodge rounds to let the Palash recharge, and not get damaged at all. If the Coyote is being damaged, either its a 57mm so it shrugs it off, or its fighting a target that the Stormbringer really should be As for the range, You're right, I probably need to develop a tanker. My current fleet has none. Just a Wolfgang, Stormbringer, Coyote, 3 ECVs and 3 EDVs.
As for crew quarters, Vanilla-esque rule has me keep them at 100%. I want the fleet to be believable in my little story and lore, just a personal thing. Yes, I try to use the 2x2 variants when possible. If I dont, its usually because I really really really wanted FSS there
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u/Anozumi 18h ago
I see I see, that explains helps view the way the ships were made!
It seems like you deal with a lot of missile strikes, maybe it would be worth making a ship that has more sprints and a FCR and/or A-100s? That way you could take the missile defense away from a ship like the Catapult and Vulpenia. And instead of sacrificing a ship or repair cost/time, you can have a ship that takes down multiple missiles without any damage.
I still think the Vulpenias are undergunned, but that’s more of a playstyle thing xD.
You can also catch trade ships if they land at a city. If you wait an hour or so, you can silent strike them like normal garrisson. A dedicated tanker (like something that fills the role of a Skylark) would be good to pair with a Coyote. The IRST (or a small fcr) can help you detect and trade ships incoming.
As for aesthetics, that’s where you can experiment! You already know of the discord so, lots of inspiration there!
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u/bambush331 1d ago
Cool
The catapult needs a backup manœuvrable engine, i’d swap the 2 NK for 4 D30 because if just one of those engines goes down you won’t be able to steer the ship and park it for repairs or even just flee combat reliably
The fact you use a single gun on a lot of your ships tells me your tactical battles must be a real headache lol, I use an all purpose cruiser (costing 60k) for those fights equipped with 8 Ak100, it one shots almost every light ships and can take a strike group on its own and I can have 4 of them, very comfortable and easy to use imo