system
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human
[space warfare]Are dreadnoughts pointless?

I have heard that many smaller ships are better because they can be in many places at once or one place at once, a dreadnought can only be in one place at a time. I hear that dreadnoughts have a psychological effect and I sometimes wonder if the psychological impact of a dreadnought is so so much more than a massive fleet of smaller ships. I guess one advantage is that there are always a limited amount of captains to command the ships, and if you pass a certain number of captains you are more susceptible to betrayal. If you have a dreadnought you only need one captain, but with smaller ships you would need dozens or hundreds. In a game I don't think that the limitations of captains can be represented for the most part in a war command game where you choose what ships to build. So what purpose can a dreadnought serve?
gpt
What's a Dreadnought?  (I ask that because while it's a badass name - it's a design philosophy that hasn't seen traction since *before World War II*.  It's been outclassed and replaced by more useful designs.)  They pretty much became obsolete as soon as air forces became a thing, as a ship with only large guns can't shoot down even a simple prop plane without being very, very lucky  - and why send every battleship out with multiple escort vessels when your battleship can *be* the escort vessel for your carrier?

But that's on a planet.

In Space, there's a few different approaches, some realistic - many not.

Some just replicate submarine warfare (Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan's final battle is a submarine fight).

Some replicate WWII battles (Pretty much every Star Wars space battle) with lots of fighter craft and carriers with other large escort vessels.

And some take realistic - if boring - approaches where a ship notes an enemy ship, the Captain orders the ship to fire and change position, then goes and take a nap with orders to wake him in 8 hours - when the light from the impact is due to reach their ship and they find out if they missed.

(seriously - in the real world, ships are "nose to nose" if they're a few hundred feet apart.  In space, "nose to nose" would be for ships the size of a city bus to be as far apart as the Earth and the Moon.  If you can look out a window and see your opponent in space, it's the equivalent of tanks with their barrels touching each other, or enemy soldiers literally touching nose to nose)

That last is the place where a dreadnought style ship might make sense.  Space battles are all about knowing where your target will be, so you need a lot of computers to predict their path - and you need a lot of firepower to put in the air between you and the target so you cover all your bases.

But that's with light-speed weaponry.  What about fighter craft?  That's something that could fly to the enemy and change direction more readily.

But that requires a pilot, and life support, and an assumption of return.  That's dumb.  Slap an AI in there, pack the rest with guidance and explosives and call it done.  Why launch fighter craft when you can FIRE ZE MISSILES!

Then the Captain has a nap.

So.. less Dreadnought with giant railguns, more missileboats with racks and racks and racks of missiles piloted by algorithms.