Where do I build the big spire ships?

[yoghurt]

I've built the capitol and unlocked the two dreadnought designs but can't find where to build them. I should have enough shipyards. What am I missing?

Thanks,
Steven

[Tridus]

Any spire shipyard, same as the destroyer and cruiser. There are tabs for the battleship and dreadnought.

[yoghurt]

Strange, I've only ever been able to build frigates. I have 5 cities and 8 or 10 shipyards. Some kind of bug then?

[Toranth]

Strange, I've only ever been able to build frigates. I have 5 cities and 8 or 10 shipyards. Some kind of bug then?

You should be able to build Destroyers and Cruisers as soon as you've finished your first Spire City.  They require no special unlocks, just the presence of Shipyards.

Click on one of the Shipyards, and you'll see a full set of tabs.  By default, the "FF" tab, to produce Frigates, is selected.  Clicking on any other tab ("DD", "CA", etc) will switch to that class of ship.
Just make sure you're at a Shipyard, and not the original Refugee Outpost - that can only produce Frigates, no matter what you've unlocked.

See the picture below.
This is a Shipyard (upper right) and the Shipyard's production window.  The FF tab is highlighted, but you can see the other tabs.  Click on DD for Destroyers, CA for Cruisers, BB for Battleships, DN for Dreadnaughts, and COL for Spire Colony Ships.

[yoghurt]

Wow, how did I miss that? I was indeed looking mainly at the outpost.

Thanks!

[Tridus]

Oh wow. Your firepower is about to go way, way up!

Those ships all have modules and can be equipped to deadly effect. The unlocks require some other unlocks (mostly turrets and forcefields) at your science lab, and the bigger ones at the galactic capital.

One useful thing to do is to hit the CTRLs button in the bottom right and go to the ship customization screen. You can create templates for the Spire ships with the modules you want, then when you tell it to build that template at the shipyard it makes the ships and the modules automatically. Much easier to work with than building them all manually.

[ZaneWolfe]

Oh wow. Your firepower is about to go way, way up!

Those ships all have modules and can be equipped to deadly effect. The unlocks require some other unlocks (mostly turrets and forcefields) at your science lab, and the bigger ones at the galactic capital.

One useful thing to do is to hit the CTRLs button in the bottom right and go to the ship customization screen. You can create templates for the Spire ships with the modules you want, then when you tell it to build that template at the shipyard it makes the ships and the modules automatically. Much easier to work with than building them all manually.

Way up is an understatement. A 5 city fleet CAN win the game by itself at times. Assuming you can defend against the counter attacks from the HW assaults, you can just send in the FS fleet and crush most AI HW setups, assuming you have the full module unlocks.  Now I grant you there are exceptions. I've seen a few setups that even a 6-8 city FS fleet couldn't take in a single run. But even the most vicious AI HWs cant completely shutdown an FS fleet. (At least not without serious help, which with enough AIP the AI HWs can get.) It is very costly to completely refleet an FS force, since a single Dreadnought is a MILLION metal and crystal. And that is just the hull. Not counting any modules that you install. That is another part of the reason you need to take so much territory in an FS game. You NEED the economy and K to support that fleet.

[yoghurt]

Great tips guys! I was wondering why the game kept getting harder.....
Looking forward to the endgame now.