Strategic Strike

**Location:** Infinite Lagrange Wiki -> Ship -> Fighter/Corvette

**THIS IS A DRAFT/WORK IN PROGRESS!!!!** Please feel free to correct mistakes, make comments, or contribute additional material.

**See also:**

* Transporting Fighters and Corvettes
* Aircraft Summary

Strategic Strike(SS) is the ability of the carriers in a fleet to launch their aircraft to attack any and all "enemy" ships in a region of space. To execute an SS, the **flagship** of the fleet must have one of the Strategic Strike ship skills. An SS can be particularly effective for clearing scout swarms in PVP operations or areas that are infested with numerous small Privateer fleets. Attacking player fleets can be dangerous as most players run fleets that are aircraft heavy and have strong AA ships.

Due to the new reduced preparation time, it is easy and effective to stack multiple SS to lock down an area. If anyone flies in, there are many fleets to attack one target.

(unconfirmed?) The attack is performed by "waves" of aircraft. (How are the aircraft divided up into waves?) (unconfirmed?)

Since a strategic strike is executed entirely by the aircraft in a fleet, it may require a considerable amount of time for those aircraft to destroy a fleet of any significant size. As a result, aircraft participating in a strategic strike, and especially corvettes, are likely to accumulate significant amounts of experience points.

## Requirements

In order to launch a strategic strike, the fleet must have a Flagship that has one of the strategic strike enhancements:

* Strategic Strike I - covers a 90 degree wedge of space radiating out from the fleet
* Strategic Strike II - covers a 120 degree wedge of space radiating out from the fleet
* Strategic Strike III - covers a full 360 degree circular area (not necessarily around the fleet?)

Note that the flagship does not change when a fleet is reinforced - the flagship must be part of the main fleet, and not part of the reinforcements.

If a fleet is capable of executing strategic strikes, it will be marked with the icon .

A strategic strike, once launched, is set in stone. If a fleet receives additional carrier ships via reinforcement **after** the strike is launched, the aircraft on those ships will not participate in the strike.

### Ships with Strategic Strike enhancements

* Strategic Strike I
	+ CV3000 - High-Speed Carrier - automatic/default enhancement
	+ Guardian - Support Destroyer
	+ Tundra - Tactical Destroyer
	+ Ceres - Aircraft Destroyer
* Strategic Strike II
	+ Marshal Crux - Carrier - automatic/default enhancement
	+ Solar Whale - Armed Tactical Carrier - automatic/default enhancement
	+ Predator - Aircraft Cruiser
	+ Predator - Tactical Aircraft Cruiser
	+ Jaeger - Heavy Aircraft Cruiser
* Strategic Strike III
	+ CV3000 - High-Speed Carrier
	+ Marshal Crux - Carrier
	+ Solar Whale - Armed Tactical Carrier

## How it works

The Strategic Strike command cost depends on the duration:

* 30 minutes = 30 AP
* 1 hour = 50 AP
* 2 hours = 70 AP

The fleet will strike enemy fleets and structures, one at a time, attacking in a random order, in the target area for a fixed period of time - or until the player stops the strike or the fleet retreats.

**NOTE:** While a Strategic Strike can reduce the hit points of a structure (base, city, mining platform, etc) to 0, this will **NOT** destroy or occupy (depending on what it is) the structure. A regular siege fleet must fire the last shot to complete the siege.

When a fleet in the strike area is attacked by the strike aircraft, it will stop moving until the attack is resolved - either the fleet or all of the striking aircraft are destroyed. Fleets that are not under attack may continue to move within, into, or out of the strike area.

When a strike ends, there is a 2 minute cooldown - (to recover the aircraft?). This applies if the strike is cancelled early or ends normally, but does **not** apply if the fleet retreats.

## Limitations

A strategic strike, once launched, is set in stone. If a fleet receives additional carrier ships via reinforcement **after** the strike is launched, the aircraft on those ships will not participate in the strike.

(unconfirmed) I have been told that the aircraft engaged in a strategic strike do not receive some or all of the normal bonuses from their carriers. (unconfirmed)

If the Strategic Strike fighters run into a fleet with plenty of powerful aircraft, the striking aircraft may be destroyed. The Strategic Strike will continue, but without aircraft it will be wholly ineffective and it is best if the player just cancels it.

If a Strategic Strike fleet is attacked while the Strike is active, any aircraft that "return to base" will join in the defense of the fleet. If the Strike fleet wins, the Strike will continue once the attack is complete.

Unless there are other fleets around to protect a Strategic Strike fleet, if the striking fleet is in imminent danger of attack, it will generally be best for the player to cancel a Strike.

## Relative effectiveness of aircraft on attack or defense

For defense, bombers and other anti-ship aircraft are completely useless and will just be extra targets for the striking waves.

Due to the Return To Base (RTB), fighers are generally less effective than corvettes. Except that the S-Levy9- Heavy Torpedo Escort Corvette is the only corvette that **has** RTB, and the Hayreddin's Loyal - Pulsar Fighter is the only fighter that **does not**.

Spore A404 - Light Fighter, when defending against a strike, can be very effective. Reason: due to the game's lock-on mechanics, in regular combat, Spores tend to lock onto ship targets rather than aircraft targets (where they are mostly ineffective due to low DPH). When defending against an SS, there are **only** enemy aircraft targets, and Spores are quite effective against aircraft.

My experience has been that the Cellular Defender is noticeably, but not greatly, more effective than the CV-T800 - Pulsar Corvette.

Capital ships that have found to be effective against strategic strikes (**NOT AN EXHAUSTIVE LIST**):

* XenoStinger (AA variant)
* Ruby (Ion variant)
* Winged Hussar ((AA variant)
* Mare Tranquillitatis (pulse variant)
* Light Cone - Multi-Role Missile Cruiser and Light Cone - Area-Denial Anti-Aircraft Cruiser

## Updates

### 2023-11-08

In the Patch installed on this date, two significant changes were made to Strategic Strike. Here is the text from the patch notes:

```
2. Strategic Strike Rule Adjustments
(1) Removed the limit on the number of aircraft that can execute Strategic Strike. All aircraft in the fleet can now be deployed for a Strategic Strike against the same fleet.
(2) Removed the preparation time for Strategic Strikes.

```