Apollo Class Fighter

Apollo Class Fighter Production information Ore Cost 6,000 Crystal Cost 2,500 Hydrogen Cost 0 Technical specifications Hull Rating 850 Shield Rating 25 Weapons Rating 150 Cargo capacity 100 Base Speed 10,000 Hydrogen Consumption 75 Engine unit(s) Pulse Drive Requirements Shipyard 3 Armor Tech 2 Pulse Drive 2
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The Apollo Class Fighter is an upgrade to the Artemis Class with better defenses and a significantly more powerful weapons system. It also rapid fires against the Atlas Class, meaning that it can deter raids by very low-level players and it helps defeat players who use the Atlas for fodder.

Evaluation

ADVANTAGES

The Apollo is one of the most cost-effective —in terms of initial investment— offensive units in the game. It has the highest ratio of Weapons rating to build cost (converted resources) of any ship (except the single-use Empusa, where available). Consequently, with all military technologies being equal, 1,000 Apollos will defeat the number of Artemis, Poseidon Class, Athena Class, Hades Class, or Prometheus Class units that can be purchased with the same converted resources expended to purchase the Apollos. (Given the rapid-fire of the Hades vs. the Apollo, this specific result is not intuitive, but it is so in actuality.) Because of this, the Apollo appears to be one of the most resource-effective ships in the game for defending a point target, such as a planet or an Hephaestus Class Attack Platform.

The Apollo is an important complement to the Artemis because the presence of Apollos can break the rapid-fire chain of the Poseidon, which devastates pure-Artemis fodder. Furthermore, unlike Artemis, the Apollo is strong enough to damage the Large Decoy and Thanatos. The Ineffectiveness Rule prevents the Artemis from doing any damage to these units, but a sufficient number of Apollos can defeat them.

Apollos conveniently travel at exactly the same speed as the upgraded Atlas for farming lightly defended planets.

DISADVANTAGES

Individual Apollos cannot stand against heavy fleet units. Although the Apollo has a heavier hull and shield than the Artemis, it is still the case that every other attack or defense unit can overcome its shield to damage its hull, and units heavier than the Poseidon will generally destroy an Apollo in one shot. So, to be effective vs. heavy units, Apollos must be used in large numbers to swarm the opponent's fleet. Apollo losses are to be expected, which, along with the high fuel costs, make it one of the least cost-effective ships in terms of ongoing attack operations.

An Apollo is substantially more costly than an Artemis. Each Apollo costs twice as much Ore and two and a half times as much Crystal as an Artemis, and each Apollo requires more than three times as much Hydrogen fuel to reach a target as an Artemis.

Because of the relative costs of the Apollo and the Artemis, when used for fodder, it is common to predominate with Artemis and have a lesser number of Apollos. The optimal ratio of Artemis to Apollo depends upon whether the opposing force has either substantial Poseidons, which have rapid-fire vs. the Artemis, substantial Hades, which have rapid-fire vs. the Apollo, neither, or both. It is helpful to use a combat simulator, such as BattleCalc or Battlementat, to determine the optimal mix of fodder to deploy vs. a specific opponent.

A force that is heavily-weighted toward Apollos can suffer substantial losses vs. the popular Hades Class, due to the Hades' rapid-fire vs. the Apollo. As previously noted, a fleet of Apollos will defeat a converted-resource-equivalent fleet of Hades (with a loss of more than two-thirds of the Apollos), but in practice such evenly matched battles are usually avoided.

For example, 6,600 Apollos cost about as much as 500 Hades. In a head-to-head battle between two fleets of this size, with equal & balanced AWS, while all of the Hades are destroyed, about 4,600 of the Apollos are also destroyed. This is a very expensive battle, but one worth fighting for the Apollos owner if a more-precious resource (such as a Heph with outbound fleets) is being protected by the Apollos. In this case, the Apollos largely provide deterrence against an attack. In a more typical battle, the attacking side will be about three times as large as the target. So, it would be more typical to send perhaps 19,800 Apollos against 500 Hades, with the result that only 2,100 or so Apollos are lost: but this is more than 10% of the Apollos sent, and still rather an expensive battle. On the other hand, if the tables are turned and 1,500 Hades are sent against 6,600 Apollos, the Apollos are not only all destroyed, but no Hades are lost. As you would expect, a similar result (very few lost attacking Hades) is achieved if a Hades-only defensive force is attacked by 3x that number of Hades.

On top of this, 6,600 Apollos have a fuel consumption (495,000) larger than that even of the 1,500 Hades force (375,000) that can wipe it out handily, and the Hades are faster as well.

Due to the Ineffectiveness Rule, Apollo cannot damage Zeus or Hephaestus Class Attack Platform.

Statistics

Cost

Ore: 6,000
Crystal: 2,500
Hydrogen: 0
Debris Value
Ore: 1,800
Crystal: 750

Specifications

Hull Rating: 850
Shield Rating: 25
Weapons Rating: 150
Cargo Capacity: 100
Base Speed: 10,000
Hydrogen Consumption: 75
Engine Type: Pulse Drive

Rapid Fire

On Others
Atlas Class x 3
Charon Class x 5
Hermes Class x 5
Solar Satellite x 5

Against Apollo
Hades Class x 4
Thanatos Class x 20
Zeus Class x 100

Requirements

		Research Lab 1
Capitol 2		Energy Tech 1		Research Lab 2		Research Lab 2
Shipyard 3			Pulse Drive 2			Armor Tech 2
			Apollo Class Fighter

Other Information

The logo on the left side of the ship is almost identical to the one seen on Federation starships in the Star Trek series and movies. The logo is almost identical in shape to that of the Macross Saga when turned sideways.

See Also

• Ships
• Shipyard
• Missions
• Buildings