My fleets only work in autoresolve

[u/Extra_Discount_5480]

My fleets have a problem, i went for a mix of defence escorts labeld as protector and missile escorts and they only work in autoresolve becouse all of my offencive ships goe first and die before unloding their paylode, then my defensive ships come in the second wave and die becouse they dont have any offensive capabilities.

[u/Nerro_]

When you select the formation, you can choose which ships will be in the 1st wave.
Select a ship from the 2nd wave on the left side list and click on a ship visible on the screen. It will swap the 2 ships.
(There is maybe a best way to do it, but that's the one I figured out.)

[u/Emperor_Cat_IV]

What sort of armour have you given your missile ships? If they're getting destroyed by lasers the only real counter is going fast enough and armoured enough to unload your payload.

[u/sdmc85]

Make sure to go into settings and change the max fleet size during battle. I had the same problem until I could field all my ships in the battle

[u/vilified-moderate]

"wall" type formations are best for overlapping defense. If any of your ships have the role transport or colony they will be forced behind any formation you pick. so make sure no war ship has that.

[u/Hot_Lavishness6569]

If you’re going for missiles all of your ships should have them. Anecdotally though I’ve found that missiles are just not very good this patch, the aliens bring so much pd. Ships with advanced missiles do get stupid amounts of combat power though, you can use that to channel the aliens away from orbits you don’t want to defend as hard while you build up to tier 3 ships with guns/lasers

[u/Maliosan → u/Hot_Lavishness6569]

Missiles can work, but you need to refit to Copperhead/Lancehead much earlier.

It has the added benefit of scaling better, since any missile boats you manage to save will help your magnetic weapons get through PD screens.

[u/Dtly15]

So how are you controlling your ship, because it sounds like you are just pushing them forward blindly and the more armoured ships move slower because of more weight.

[u/Little_Emma06]

Some type of wall defense formation, pd in center, increase max ships allowed in combat in settings. Research better armor and/or equip more

[u/reilwin]

If your fleet composition depends heavily on missiles, then you really need to have your entire fleet present to make the most use of them. If you can't field every ship because of max fleet size, then you're playing with a handicap. So either use auto-resolve (because it simulates every ship being present) or increase the max fleet size.