Transports ?

[Ragnarok]

So, i often read how people use transport to bring ships somewhere. I have to understand what exactly the uses for a transport ship are.
Can you guys please describe just a few situations were transports are good and how oyu use them ?

- thanks

[Mánagarmr]

Deep scouting. A group of scouts, even a full cap of Scouts I and II, can only get so far. Stuff all the scouts in transports and send it on its merry way. Even more transports increase the buffer. Once the transport is about to blow up, unload the scouts and send them on their way. They can now get further.

There are several transport strategies, but that's the only one I'm using.

[Kahuna]

Transports are fast, cheap and durable. I use them to move my fleet, attack and scout.

Moving ships like Missile Frigates and Plasma Siege Starships can be painfully slow. Especially if the distance is long and/or you need to go to defend one of your planets from an incoming wave and/or destroy a Mining Golem.

They can also be used when attacking. For example.. I spot a Super Hybrid 4 hops away from one of my planets. I can just transport my fleet to the planet where the Super Hybrid is without my ships taking any damage.

Transports also help you to scout planets you otherwise couldn't scout. Put a cap of MarkII scouts (20) into a Transport and send the Transport where you want. When the Transport is destroyed pause the game and move your scouts. That way you can scout few extra hops. Very useful. In my current game I've almost scouted the whole map.

EDIT: Oh and they help you destroy Data Centers! Transport your fleet on a planet with a Data Center. Destroy the Data Center. Gtfo

[Hearteater]

Transports are excellent for moving slower units: Missile Frigates, Eyebots, and such.  When a CPA is about to hit, I often put my entire mobile force into Transports so I can quickly respond to various threats.  In fact I recommend having enough Transports to pack up everything and keeping them nearby your fleet.  They take a little time to build and with them you can much more easily support your systems.  Note that Transport IIs heal the ships in them, which can be very useful for cloaking teams in enemy systems.  They are, unfortunately, a touch expensive in terms of energy.

[Martyn van Buren]

And skipping planets!  Suppose you have a nasty Mk IV world with nothing particularly valuable on it but you want to get at an ARS or something on the other side of it.  Well, you could spend half an hour throwing ships at it to cut a way through, or you could just throw a fleet into transports and go straight to where you want to be.  Transports are very fast and have a good deal of health; I find they can safely get across pretty much any single world up to and including core planets.  In fact, I almost always use transports to get across the core worlds when I'm attack the AI homeworlds.

EDIT: You'll also really want them when you play fallen spire, since spire ships are very powerful and very slow; transports make it possible to get them to the front lines to fight in between exo-waves and then pull them back if your defenses are having trouble.

[Varone]

I use them when i destroy the tachyon guardian of the wormhole i want to enter and then send through my transports with a cloaker starship. You can cloak your entire fleet this way.

[Bognor]

They're great when attacking planets with Eyes.  If zombies start pouring out, you just rush your low-mark, high-cap ships into transports, removing them from the ship count and stopping the deluge.