Cruisers are the bread and butter of TKF; the most versatile ships in the game. Most races use them for almost everything, almost all of the time. The cruiser is a scalpel, a difficult ship to use well and wisely, a ship of precision and a ship of intelligence, more for some races than others. They fight best and most effectively in groups, they are the primary ships of economy, patrol, exploration, intelligence, of almost every race. Cruisers can lay minefields, they can fight, they can drop clans, they are really the best ships available. And, in fleets, they can actually be used for combat against the more serious ships effectively. Federation cruisers are especially effective, (I won't go into Fed carriers... ugh) Lizards nearly so, and, used judiciously, very effective. A battle fought with torpedoes, is, sadly, just not as fun as watching a battle with carriers. What fun is it to watch a fleet of torp ships spray each other with antimatter when you can watch those little fighters go after each other and the enemy carriers? Still, as unglamorous as it might seem, this is an important thing to learn.

The big debate over which type of torps to buy, and which is better (more torp ships, vs. better quality weapons) is the biggest concern here. The following is my opinion. The primary rule for fighting with torp fleets against heavy ships is, more is better. It doesn't matter how small the torpedo is, once your high-tech torps have taken down the shields, torps will do a MINIMUM of 1 percent damage to the hull of an enemy ship, no matter how big. So, if you are fighting the really, really big ships, the more tubes you have available, the faster this is going to go. So, my advice to taking down a large carrier or heavy cruiser using torp ships is to use ships with high-tech weapons to go in fighting aggressively and take down the shields, and LOTS of medium, versatile ships to take down the hull with their cheaper torpedoes, which will for the most part do the same damage as the higher-tech torpedoes.

As for smaller enemy ships, high-tech torpedoes are far more effective, since you can take down their shields, and their hull, quickly and effectively. Fleets of small ships are especially vulnerable to high-tech torpers with carrier backup; including carrier fleets. The Patriot, in the exhausted example, is a very weak ship, it can be finished off by five direct hits with a mk7 torp, so, at default 65% miss rate, it will take only 8 torps, one volley to do it, and the sooner the Pat goes, the fewer fighters it can launch.

Against heavy carrier fleets, heavy cruisers simply do not have much of a chance. A large ship can't outrun a fighter, they don't have enough beams to take them out, and they can't afford to waste torpedoes on small groups of fighters. When you are fighting carrier or mixed fleets with cruisers, you had better make sure you have a LOT of firepower backing you up; because one carrier is easily the equal to two heavy cruisers in combat; three medium ships. Keep that ratio in mind if you must fight with cruisers instead of carriers.

 In conclusion, the best use for a cruiser in combat is against lighter and medium ships. High- tech is better when dealing with these ships, but sometimes a tradeoff for more firepower against better firepower is worth your time.