Railguns have a counter, it's fleet play. However, fleet play is overall weak right now. Boosters make everything fast and capable of getting out of a bad position before taking damage.
As we saw in the second August tournament, the highest level of play is presently "who has the best booster wall."
A fast wall has a good chance of killing anything:
- It can ram smaller ships to isolate them at little risk to itself, and boost away from flankers.
- It can spin to shrug off clingers and drop them in its kill zone.
- It can out-traverse a diagonal, broadsider, or railgun/missile barge to cling to the side (see Oneye vs. Pyraeus).
It is possible to counter-play any of these strategies, but in each case the fast wall has the initiative.
How did we get here? Diagonal laser triangles, which dominated the low-mid skill tiers and have a good chance against walls, were demand-nerfed. They had an important niche at the highest levels of play, were not overpowered, but are now extinct. The introduction of boosters alone was potentially enough to take them out of favor, the weapon rebalance went a few steps further.
We should understand that the game has to be balanced at different skill levels, not only building skill but command skill. Some matchups are one-sided at "newbie" tier but swing the other way at higher levels of play. Railguns are especially powerful when the opponent does not (or can not) take advantage of their mass handicap.
How do we improve the command skills of mid-tier players? Excellent question! Practicing against the AI really doesn't prepare anyone for the emergent strategies of multiplayer Cosmo.
