[Spaceships] Combat Examples?

[apoc527]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

I'd suggest attributing the need for standoff warheads to close-in defense technologies that are so good they really do make the swarm of KK warheads option simply hopeless.

This isn't even an unrealistic or superscience-required idea, either IMO. If you can make lasers and AIs, you can make super accurate point defense lasers. If you can do that, you can probably make highly effective tracking radars. If you can do both, you can probably very accurately predict which pieces of weapon will impact you and which will not. Vaporize accordingly. Stand-off weapons bypass this level of effective close-in defense because (1) they don't need to impact and thus any of them can be dangerous, and (2) the point defense lasers lose power with range, probably fairly rapidly, if they are small and designed to engage only targets that will collide.