[Mars]

8 STerPulses will be a massacre as well. Hell, the thing would probably be pretty good at taking on Sancti in groups in a pinch.

[Snail]

Gattler from long range.

[Mars]

Gattler from long range.

Yeah, I personally think that everything that's wrong with cruisers is wrong with these things, but who knows, they may surprise us.

[Snail]

Actually I think the Cretheus has potential to be quite beast - if they are deployed with other ships. The Aeolus is pretty scary as it is, these seem to take the idea of a compact PD gunboat even further.

[Mars]

Well, the Hyperion and Aeolus are both fairly good with point defenses,  the difference is, they have enough hitpoints to actually typically make a jump before they're destroyed. The trouble I see with the Creth is that it's so small that a Uhlan armed with Gats and Hellfires is likely to be able to destroy the thing without even disabling it.

[Buckshee Rounds]

Gattler from long range.

Which the Shivans don't have, possibly the single reason why cruisers are still flying.

IIRC from VD the Cretheus is specifically an escort gunboat albeit one that needs escorting itself. In fluff language I'd say it's an economical stand-in for two or three fighter wings.

[Snail]

Well, the Hyperion and Aeolus are both fairly good with point defenses,  the difference is, they have enough hitpoints to actually typically make a jump before they're destroyed. The trouble I see with the Creth is that it's so small that a Uhlan armed with Gats and Hellfires is likely to be able to destroy the thing without even disabling it.

Well that's kind of the point. Time and resources spent killing Cretheuses probably isn't worth it, since it allows other more crucial ships (convoys, corvettes, destroyers) to escape or survive long enough for help to come.

[Commander Zane]

Gattler from long range.

Which the Shivans don't have, possibly the single reason why cruisers are still flying.

But they have Basilisks galore and the Shivan Hornet.
And a wing of those letting salvo after salvo loose will put even an Aeolus at half full before they're destroyed.

[Mars]

Just realized that you can destroy the vessels in Collateral Damage. Bring the GTVA potential losses up to 13 corvettes, 11 cruisers. Lists updated.

[Buckshee Rounds]

Gattler from long range.

Which the Shivans don't have, possibly the single reason why cruisers are still flying.

But they have Basilisks galore and the Shivan Hornet.
And a wing of those letting salvo after salvo loose will put even an Aeolus at half full before they're destroyed.

Vey true, but at least the Cretheus would be able to retaliate in that scenario, if only briefly.

[General Battuta]

Of course capships would have slightly more of a chance in those scenarios if they had countermeasures 

[crizza]

Question: I've seen a stiletto being intercepted by flak fire...why isn't this possible with Trebs and other stuff, are they too fast?

[General Battuta]

Stiletto has the 'bomb' flag and thus can be destroyed, Trebuchets don't and are thus invincible.

[headdie]

Question: I've seen a stiletto being intercepted by flak fire...why isn't this possible with Trebs and other stuff, are they too fast?

Stiletto has the bomb flag in the weapons.tbl, meaning you and fighters can also target and intercept them. all non anti-capship/subsystem missiles don't.

edit

bah beaten to it

[Destiny]

Yeah, I always facepalmed when my Stilettos were intercepted by the NTD Vindicator's Terran Turrets.

[MatthTheGeek]

Cretheus would have most of the same disavantages than standard cruisers, yes. But they would be also overall cheaper, require MUCH less crew, would probably have a better subspace mobility (AFAIK, at least in BP, smaller = better subspace mobility, sprint jump drives aside) and also present a much smaller and faster target for enemy capital ships. Which basically compensates for the lack of anti-capital ship weapons (noone will regret the SGreens) and overall vulnerability to enemy fire.

Like fighters and bombers, and contrary to corvettes, those things are expendable. Better have a small ship (or even a handful of them) with small cost and small crew (probably numbering in a few hundreds at most) to sacrifice than a fully-armed cruiser with several thousands on board.

[Fury]

The funny thing about beams is that target's size and speed doesn't really matter. As long as game decides that this beam hits its target, it will hit no matter how small and how fast the target is. Which essentially means that Cretheus or any other small(ish) ship targetable by huge beams is going down as easily as any other cruiser. Even easier if they have less hitpoints, which they are bound to have.

[Destiny]

Well...the UEF doesn't deploy beams. Against a projectile moving at 1000m/s, I dodge Lucifer Shivan Super Lasers with a huge freaking Deimos from 8.3k away head-on (can't dodge crap with broadsides), but eventually I blew up when I closed the distance. Shunted all power on my ETS to engines though, I didn't have any guns to shoot with.

[The E]

Irrelevant. If they can't hit you with their main guns, that's what the Apocalypse is for. If they can't hit you with the Apocalypse, that's what the Hydra is for.

[Commander Zane]

What if the Hydra doesn't work?