Sins Forums
I am playing the most updated version of entrenchment. But I have read a lot on this board about the Siege frigates are not worth cost. I see very few when playing online.
With the newest update are they worth it? vs ai? vs other players?
I have found this to be a very personal opinion, some like to use them to supplement (and if you go only one or two caps at a time this works) while others (like myself) like to go big with the caps (5 or more) and sieges are worthless
caps: may be used for heavy fighting as well, but low dps against planet health (except marza, vulkoras and lvl 6 radiance)
siege frigates: very vulnerable, but kill planet population extremely fast. i.e. send in 5-7 siege frigates at an unguarded enemy home in multiplayer and you will kill almost everyone, but also you will lose the frigs due to scout or lrm counter.
=> you got to balance your decision and ask yourself whether the one or the other will help you better.
Siege frigates are largely still usually not worth using. If you need 2-3 extra units for planet bombing, then they're worth buying. Especially with Advent, whose Purge Vessels are the cheapest siege frigate, and their capital ships aren't great for bombing.
TEC doesn't really need to use siege frigates, as buying a Marza with Raze Planet is usually far faster and cheaper than five siege frigates. And Vasari sieges are almost useless, because one Vulkoras is already the most efficient siege cap.
So really, if you need just a few bombers, get siege frigates. Otherwise, don't bother.
Siege frigates are fragile as tissue paper. If the enemy has any firepower at all in the gravity well you shouldn't use them. Siege-class capital ships offer very similar bombard ability but vastly superior hull strength. If you want combat bombardment, you must go with caps.
The time to use siege frigates is when there is a planet with lots of hit points that needs taking down, but your capital ships are either needed elsewhere or don't have enough firepower to bring it down fast enough for your liking. They're a convenience unit, in other words. You cannot invest too heavily in them or else your fleet won't be strong enough.
Every siege frigate you build reduces your combat strength from what it could have been if you built combat units. Even if you do successfully "snipe" out an enemy planet, they will just recolonize it. If you don't have the military force to push their fleet back, you've only dealt some economic damage but have failed to make any tactical gains. I've experimented with siege frigates once or twice, but the bottom line is that they're so expensive and easy to counter that even if you do succeed in taking out a planet you usually can't do that much with it.
Pretty much that sums it up. It's not a bad idea to mix in say 1-3 once you have a decent sized fleet of say 2 caps and 100 frigs. You can send the fleet to fight somewhere else and let the seige frigs seige, or you can take down a planet even quicker, but overall, they're just not worth the investment. Against any opponent. Stick to caps with seiging abilities. Advent is the race I make an exception for here, but I usually choose a second cap over say 2-4 seige frigs.
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