I play mainly online, but occasionally against a comp or two to try out new strategies. I've been around since 1.05 and the age of the mini dumps and even set up my router so I could host games. I can beat most people but still lose to the cream of the crop, so in a sense I've been around and know when I get beat by a better player, and know when I get beat by someone who has figured out how to exploit an unbalanced game. Which brings me too, the mass scout attack....
About a month ago I got absolutely smoked in a 1v1. The guy playing advent built a fleet of about 70% scouts, 20% flak and 10% other and tore through my more traditional lrm/carrier/flak combo. I did a bit of research and learned about scout vs. lrm damage, called it a lesson learned and figured out how to stop it from happening again.
Yesterday in a 3v3 the guy I got paired of to fight was doing something similar. Playing advent he built about 60-70% scouts, plenty of flak and a few other ships mixed in. Instead of going lrm I went light frigate with carriers and flak as support. Supposedly this would be the early game counter as frigs match up well against scouts. Even with my above average micro skills I once again lost big even though he didn't out produce me, he simply walked right through my counter. By the time I got heavy cruisers he had transitioned to about 40% scouts with lots of lrm's and HC of his own. Not even a contest.
So I decide to look into this new strategy that has easily beat me twice. I go 1v1 as advent against an unfair aggressor, not even a challenge. I could of taken the first 5 minutes of the game off and still of one. I switch over to TEC and took on two unfair aggressors, I won without even having to build a SB to protect my rear while my fleet takes out one of the comps. I simply build 2 fleets and defeated both at the same time. The only thing that held me up was making torpedo ships to kill their SB's.
Scouts costing 200 credits can easily be made in size enough to beat a lrm or frig fleet. Fighters seem to take just as long to kill a scout as they do an lrm. Add a healthy dose of flak and you have solved that problem. Add carriers with bombers to deal with their cap and HC's. SB's are easily countered if you gain the upper hand early. Then throw in support cruisers like you would a normal fleet. A damaged cap is never going to out run a fleet of scouts either.
Is there a good counter to an early game scout heavy fleet, or are scouts (at least for Advent and TEC) simply too powerful for the 200 credits they cost? What are your thoughts?
