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The speed advantage of cruisers can make a tremendous difference in most situations.
For campaign transports, the cruiser chassis is the way to go. That extra speed is a teriffic way to land a surprise marine assault from a good distance from shore. And certainly you want your escorts on cruiser chassis to keep up with the transports.
And where combat units are concerned, consider the key word "disengage." On the ocean, you get no defensive bonuses such as perimeter defenses, tachyon fields, or the inherent bonus of simply being in a base. It just weapon vs. armor. That means that attacks are likely to succeed. Disengaging becomes a strong lever to use to your advantage.
When you're pressing into enemy waters, you want groups consisting of multiple cruisers. I've found that three to four works pretty well. If one is attacked, it might be able to disengage. The survivors in the group can then counter-strike.
If you're guarding your home coast, you don't want the enemy disengaging from your attacks and slipping away due to your limited mobility, so use cruisers as patrols there, too.
Sometimes, however, I'll leave foils in coastal or sea bases, and never take them out of those bases, even if that means foregoing pursuit of a disengaged, damaged enemy vessel. Sometimes this is more cost-effective than outfitting full combat cruisers and putting them on patrol duty; I'll settle for distrupting enemy plans with damage, and not necessarily destruction.
Offensive seagoing probes are always on the cruiser chassis once you know the technology. Their best means of survival is to out-run anything that spots them, since they're pretty helpless in battle. And like the transport, the ability to sweep in from a distance is quite good.
For early mid-game supremacy, the Maritime Control Center and cruisers are the way to go. Once choppers arrive, air power becomes dominant, and combat ships take a back seat.
I agree with Fitz and generally keep sea crawlers and sea formers on a foil chassis. They don't need the extra speed, and they can't disengage when attacked anyway. Keeps the design workshop uncluttered by having only the one chassis for these types.
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