Why use basic frigate?

I haven't really gotten the rock paper scissors formulas yet myself.. after getting used to WiC, this system feels quite different. I guess after 10 games or so you get a very good feeling of what works well against what else.

I've picked up the game yesterday and haven't even finished my first game, but from what I can tell basic frigates are good at everything equally, so while they are not the best at anything, they are good at everything. Or so I believe

The missile ships counter light frigates. Light frigates counter support ships.

Yea, I don't know about you guys, but I basically dominate the small and middle maps with a large basic frigate force and capital ships. I just feel that my time and money is better spent on building a quick stike team to expand and keep my enemies on the defensive rather then wait to research cruisers. I mean, researching them takes foreverm and if you jsut put your resources into civil research you can produce a massive capital/frigate army that is just devastiating. So many ways to play so little time!

Light frigates principal advantage seems to comes in that they are available very early, and they are very inexpensive.

Catching lasers mostly.

This.

And if you are playing TEC, you can spam the suckers out by the truckload.

The counter system is not explicitly (R/P/S) style. I made a large post on this recently but I can't seem to find the link Anyways, the light frigates definately have their uses, even late game. Consider what they can do against antimatter dependant units for example...

I like them for holding onto planets from pirates and other miscreants while my early capital goes off killing evildoers and taking their planets.

While they may not be powerful, the basic frigate can really make the difference if you need to hold onto a system that's not been built up, and you don't have a large navy yet, these can help a system last long enough to get the big guns there.

I like and love basic frigate, but best when used large number, reason they are cheap and powerful in the team, (though they sort of die slowing), But they are not great in alone or even few 4 or 5, but 8 or more, it's useful at least, and they are good looking any, I did read maunal, at least TEC, Basic frigate is people who are "Green" if good they move to other ship more powerful, I guess. But it's not wise build full of them, just build some in your fleet, and build this need to be if enemy attack somewhere to help defence while major fleet busy somewhere other, they cheap and fast.

Frigs do not require crystal so they are good option for crystal tight maps .Plus they get some nice abilities down the line. But essentially I agree missile>frig.

Seems like they are best used to counter support type ships...even then missile frigates seem more useful overall. Perhaps worth comprising your main force out of missile frigates with a few basic frigates later on to quickly reach and counter the support type cruisers.

Is the advantage not obvious?

They come early game and they're cheap, their upgrade tree is fairly short on the tiering list and cost low supply. You can field them en masse and that alone is an advantage since this game is a DPS race so the more damage you can field the better. Furthermore, the game uses soft counters and therefore there isn't any one thing that will completely annihilate without effort an armada of light frigates.

That being said, diversification is still better.

Light frigs don't cost crystal. Pretty much no other ship can touch that except your scouts.
There isn't a huge reason to make them, but there isn't a huge reason to NOT make them to have more targets and more guns.

Also a lot of races have nice abilities to research for them.

Cobalts/Skirmishers/Discipline Vessels are pretty good vs Strikecraft, because they have medium armor! Bombers and fighters receive damage penalty vs them, 50% and 75% respectively. So they are useful They also are pretty handy at clearing planets of the natives, and they don't require crystal to build.

On top of that they get some upgrades down the tech tree.

I'm still figuring it out too, but Advent Disciples at least are awesome, even in endgame. They get Steal Antimatter and Transfer Antimatter, making them effective antimatter batteries for your capital ships.

In a straight up fight in the endgame, you'll probably lose most of them, but it all works out. I fought a roughly equal AI fleet, with the exception of his advantage in capital ships-- he had 5, I had 3-- and I won, because of the Disciples. His capital ships couldn't do anything, especially his carriers, between Steal Antimatter and the battleship's Combust Antimatter.

When the fight was over, I had 3 capital ships and a bunch of heavy cruisers, but I'd won with minimal losses compared to the complete extermination the AI took. Yay for disciples!

And they're also a speedy way of getting reserves from a production point into a fight, since they turn and move quickly accross a gravity well. They are also so cheap that you can afford to build them almost constantly, which is vital for holding off the eneamy when you are expanded beyond about 8 planets. By that point its not about the fleets you have, but how fast you can replace and redeploy your losses, you'll be fielding fleets about 70% (hopefully) the strength of your attackers and the way to win such a battle is to force your opponent to waste firepower killing easily replaced light frigates.

With auto-using of transfer antimater will they prioritize giving it to your cap ships, or will they just give it to each other?..

Usually the right way to go is to use these cheap little guys to screw up your enemy's targeting. Let them soak up the damage: they can be replaced easily and have little xp gain for enemy cap ships.

Of course you want to have supporting missile frigates to mutilate your enemy's task force but hey that's obvious.

Most of my fleets are basic frigate, rocket frigate and then a few of the others - but the main part are basic and rocket frigates. And it works good so far.

After some research the basic frigate can deplete the antimatter of capital ships or other frigates and some races can even transfer it to your other ships.

I have found that if you send them in fleets of 15 into a battle they are great at hitting repair stations, hangers and cannons. This while the main fleet is knocking off other ships. In small numbers I find their use limited.

I usually start the game, and build around 5 frigates to support my first capital ship, this is great for clearing out planet from neutral forces. While the capital ship can handle 10 or so basic ships, it will take a long time and the ship will be badly damaged. These 5 frigates make all the difference.

With the Vasari I emphasize the use of the basic frigate. I tech up their repair power and with a bit of micromanagement I can stand agaisnt a fleet of cruisers. Of course, if the opponent is micromanaging then I will have issues, but not without doing a lot of damage to their fleet.

I like the basic frigate, it usually holds me over pretty well. Mostly their purpose is to elimate support ships, but with proper management you can devastate the enemy.

I can't say if this remains true for all races, I've only really played around with the Vasari, but:

I think the basic frigs stay important throughout all phases of a single game. Early on, they are very effective at complementing the firepower of Capital ships; and if backed up by a few missile boats they work great as well at clearing out neutral forces. In later game against AI opponents, if used in moderate numbers, they provide a cheap screen of bodies for the AI to shoot at and a steady flow of damage. Against Human opponents, making use of these basic frigs takes a lil bit more finesse but still can be effective.

Still, best use (for me anyway) is having many basic frigs hold the front line and soak up the enemy fire, while missile ships do the real damage from afar.

Basic frigates are awesome eventough advent is maybe a little OP as yesterday i was playing a game and wastrying out a strategy where i just got disciples and a bunch of captial ships to effectifly use antimatter steal and transfer it takes a lot of macro and ive made it work 5 out of 6 times the 6th time the dude just refuesed to build captial ships deneying me my natimatter and build a bunch of carriers with bombers to take out captial shiipe and he used the tec frigate to sheld them . Vasari have repair dont they so maybe u could macro them in and out making a cycle of eat up dmg repair come back and switch off and TEc frigate is the best damm cannon fodder in the game put them in a tight formation and literly use them as shields for Capitails or in a bunch of 20 or so they can take down temple's pretty fast which for me seem the thing to harass as they cost a lot and they prevent resouce and are pretty weak