3 quickish battle reports

[tneva82]

Since network problems prevented me from playing planned games online(sorry!) I had to settle for game with friend instead. I asked if he could try out my tournament Minbari's while I used ISA fleet. Annihilation scenario with space debris being density 8 asteroid field on left and 6" planet with 2 moons on right.

I had with me white star carrier, WSC-2 and 2 white stars. Minbari's were sharlin, tinashi and 2 tigara's. I had to deploy first so deployed front of the planet. Minbari put Tigara's and Tinashi across with Sharlin on left looking toward ISA fleet.

First turn WS carrier moved around launching fighters. Tinashi CAF'ed toward WS in case they come over the planet. And come they did! I decided to take advantage of the planets gravity well to boost trio of white stars so CAF'ed Tinashi with all of them and with help of extra speed went straight across the planet. Risky and with Sharlin CAF'ing WSC-2 this could very well be over before it begins but I was aiming to hurt the Tinashi hard and then get PAST those Minbari ships. I don't enjoy being in front of nasty front arc lasers.

As it is Tinashi crippled white star in one go(though AA and dodge survived). This DIDN'T start well. Though WSC-2 DID take out Tinashi in one go(helped by 5-6 and 1-6 criticals with neutron laser...) but of course this meant the 2 white stars couldn't now shoot...Ooops!). Tigara and Sharlin took out WSC-2 while second Tigara weakened crippled WS further.

Game didn't progress all that much better when white stars came around to shoot at sharlin. Before they could shoot rear lasers knocked out front weapons of intact white star...Though carrier knocked out Tigara and white star fighters second(blowing before that intact Tigara to pieces...24 points of damage before even doubling for DD...Nasty sets of criticals...1-6, 4-6, 6-4...End result: All fighters out as well!) things weren't that "good". Oh and nials finished off that crippled white star.

With no weapons I tried to retreat with intact WS. Alas next round of laser nastyness caused no SA critical...At this point I tried to "get the hell out of there" and moved full 15" straight into asteroid field. Guess who rolled 1? With 15 SAP TD attacks against 1 point short of crippled ship end result was predictably one white star less...

With only white star carrier(also suffering from -1AD critical) I decided to try an escape before my last ship was out as well. Afterall casualty list so far WAS equal for both sides so this wasn't massacre loss...

This time Sharlin was unable to prevent SA's(though got close...3-1 critical) so WS carrier fled the field leaving 2 flights of nials and 1 WS fighter behind.

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So looking at armageddon VP table we found out Minbari's won by whopping 9-7. Not exactly massacre victory! Methinks this might be biggest problem with 1 point armageddon games. Victory point differences will be almost neglitable. Though I'm sure tournament organisers have figured it out. But for example 5 point raid, you gain 50 points if you blow it up. 1 point armageddon, one player goes for 6 raid ships, you can gain max 12 points...Quite a difference despite blowing up extra ship.

And yes the "kamikaze attack" wasn't particulary smart. Made even more dumb when WSC-2 took Tinashi out in one salvo.

Should have just hidden behind planet for a turn and THEN make attack.

 

[tneva82]

Continuing practise games second game was Vorlons vs Centauri. Again Vorlon fleet was light cruiser and pair of destroyers while Centauri brought with them Octurion, Primus, Ellutarian and 2 darkner. That's some serious beam goodiness! Oh and lots of hull 6 ships...

For terrain we got smallish density 6 asteroids on left, medium sized density _10_ asteroid in pretty much middle and smallish dust cloud on far right.

I lost initiave so deployed light cruiser on left side of big asteroid field while destroyers prepared to take cover from laser nastyness by using that asteroid field(need to be carefull not to run INTO field though...That's one nasty asteroid field).

Centauri had Octurion on left, primus dead ahead of light cruiser(though hanging back) with Ellutarian behind. Darkners(squadroned) were on right of asteroid field.

Turn 1: Centauri lost initiave(despite Octurion's command bonus) so primus edged ahead CAF'ing against light cruiser(as a matter of fact all ships but darkners's CAF'ed against light cruiser). Ellutarian and Octurion crept forward as well. Destroyers moved behind asteroid field and turned to move out of it while darkners came around looking to attack vorlon rear.

Light cruiser opened up and I cheered when I scored 5 hits out of which 3 were criticals. 2-1, 4-1 and 5-2 later I had less reason to cheer up though that -1AD WAS handy. Did expect better from light cruiser who scored 3 criticals...Then the three centauri ships opened up in retaliation. 76 points of damage was taken from light cruiser in retaliation. OUCH! Though 11 were removed with self-repair.

Turn 2: Light cruiser crept forward keeping primus in sight. Primus and Octurion again crept forward CAF'ing that cruiser. Destroyers broke cover and headed toward Octurion(I figured light cruiser can deal with primus so destroyers could soften up octurion). Darkners came around looking at destroyers rear and cruisers flank.

Primus caused another 40 point of damage(ouh) with it's laser. I then used one destroyer against Octurion in slim hope of causing damage to weapons. Alas only 5-4 critical. Octurion caused 31 more damage...That ship is dying! In return lots more dead crew from primus and weapon fluctuations. Yikes! This is NOT going well...

Darkners caused 13 points to nearest destroyers while destroyer caused -4 speed critical and hefty damage to octurion. Still not promising. Atleast light cruiser repaired 20 points of damage which at this rate was definetly needed. Still 116 points caused. Over half-way dead and primus is STILL alive and kicking...

Turn 3: Vorlons won initiave so Ellutarian CAF'ed and moved ahead(yes the light cruiser). Light cruiser moved ahead and turned toward left to look at approaching Octurion that moved into range with matter cannons and yes, CAF'ed.

Both destroyers opted to turn toward primus(decided I would now try to disable Octurion with light cruiser first and then finish already badly crew reduced primus with destroyers). Primus found that it could not CAF as that would mean running over light cruiser(stacking) so instead went full stop. Darkners moved to hound the destroyers.

Light cruiser wasn't quite as effective as I hoped but lots of crew dead(halfway dead octurion) and -1AD atleast helped situation a LITTLE.

Since threat to octurion was gone primus tried instead. Luckily for Vorlons main lasers failed to fire so only twin-arrays opened up. Destroyer 1 then killed all crew from primus with 3-6 critical. Ellutarian fired another salvo of torpedoes for 18 point more of damage(ouh) but since primus was already dead destroyer 2 could shoot at it freely. Hurah! Not much of a damage though...

Then came the big ship. Huge chunks were tore out of light cruiser but thanks to somewhat underperforming lasers it was still alive! One darkner had it in sight and nearly took it out(198 damage) but front darkner had to settle to shoot at destroyer(phew).

Turn 4: Vorlons won initiave again. Light cruiser(knowing to be almost dead already) went straight to the teeth of Octurion. Well almost. Did manouver enough to force it to turn and thus no CAF. Not sure what use it is but there it is.

Darkners moved to flank light cruiser so destroyers went all stop since they had targets in sight now. Ellutarian moved past vorlon fleet.

Light cruiser opened up and with 6 hits and 2 criticals took out crew of Octurion in one go! Phew! Then both darkners fired at light cruiser and...One short of death!!! Unbelievable luck! Especially as ellutarian's twin arrays failed to even hit...

Could I still save the light cruiser?

Destroyers both took darkners within 1 and 2 point of destruction respectively. Both also suffered -4 speed criticals. Light cruiser regerated 14 points of badly needed hit points.

Turn 5: Vorlon won initiave(easier now that command bonus is gone). Ellutarian tried to come about, no success. Light cruiser(vary of those sentries that had been waiting me to use SA) didn't use come about but got ellutarian barely in arc anyway. Darkners, crippled and with -4 speed criticals, couldn't move much but one did get cruiser in front arc. Actually that one of them prevented second from even moving(stacking). Destroyers tried to come about. No luck. One moved so that one darkner was in sight(I hoped to blow it up and with that take second with it).

EMP pulse took out 3/4 sentries trying to attack. Last one even failed to hit the cruiser(damned weak weapons opponent cursed at this point).

With darkner looking at shooting laser at light cruiser destroyer fired up against darkner. Unsuprisingly it blew out catching second darkner and both destroyers in the blast. Unsuprisingly this took out the second darkner while only causing minimal damage in return. Well worth the exhange.

Ellutarian took cruiser within 9 point of destruction but at this point didn't matter much since cruiser repaired more than that and destroyers healed up into full strenght as well.

Turn 6: Vorlons lost initiave so one destroyer came about to look at ellutarian. Ellutarian itself came about as well and brought front arc weapons to bear against cruiser. So while second destroyer came about as well cruiser was cruel enough to APTE straight PAST the centauri ship. Mwahahaha! While this meant sentri could attack freely it was lot less damage than Ellutarians torpedoes would have done...(as it is it would have taken out the light cruiser...) Destroyers finished up that threat pretty much by causing 2 1-6 criticals, -1AD critical and crippling it as well.

Turn 7: Light cruiser moved 6" forward out of range for Ellutarian(why risk it?). Sentri tried to be hero but got splatted by EMP. Ellutarian survived initial destroyer salvo so just for heck of it fired at destroyer with minimal effect. Then it blew up with nobody in range.

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So vp's this time 12-0 for Vorlon empire. This was rather knife-edge fight as it was. Centauri maybe made mistake by concentrating on cruiser instead of taking out those destroyers first but it was gamble that VERY nearly worked. Being taken within 2 and 1 point of destruction with vorlon ship meant that it was extremely lucky to not get destroyed. Albeit centauri shooting was bit better than it should(especially when rolling d6 damage per hit) but still. That cruiser was VERY nearly taken out.

If just for example primus had been able to shoot with lasers on turn 3 it would almost certainly have done the 2 point more damage needed to take out cruiser. This would have left him Octurion, ellutarian and 2 darkners to hunt my pair of destroyers. DEFINETLY not odds _I_ would prefer...

So despite lopsided looking result game was definetly extremely close and I was quite lucky to win it. I don't think I could win this with narrower odds...

 

[tneva82]

Third test game. I decided to try out Minbari now(Sharlin, 2 Tinashi) and friend opted for Drazi(fireraptor, stormfalcon, 3 warbirds). Terrain was interestingly one large and 2 smallish dust clouds on top-left, bottom-center and top-right.

I won roll to deploy ships in hyperspace so both Tinashi's went there. With only Sharlin onboard deployment was easy. Dead center. Drazi's went on left looking to hide in big dust cloud in turn 1.

Turn 1: Sharlin moved ahead and scrambled extra flight of nials. Whole drazi fleet got inside the dust cloud. Tinashi's opened up jump points. One on center of drazi deployment zone(so far right from drazi's), one behind the drazi fleet. Shooting saw Sharlin cause 1-6 critical on right warbird of squadron so that's one immobile drazi ship. Good start!

Turn 2: While Tinashi's appeared from jump points the whole drazi fleet(except for engines disabled warbird of course) swarmed over Sharlin with everything they could. Fighters engaged with 2 dead star snake flights in exhange for 1 nial flight who got swarmed by swarm of angry drazi squadrons.

Shooting began with Sharlin targeting next warbird. Two -2 speed critical were caused and ship was crippled. One ship at a time...Fireraptor managed to beat the stealth with clean 6(ugh). -4 speed and no SA criticals were created plus hordes of damage. If it hadn't been for lots of bulkhead with basic beam and only 2 hits with big beam it could have been worse...Tinashi on right fired at stormfalcon but failed to do much more than medium damage. Stormfalcon then passed the stealth check as well(useless stealth). This resulted in destruction of mighty sharlin...

Ooops! Sharlin lost in 1 round...This is NOT good.

Okay. Sharlin good, Sharlin not invincible.

Tinashi finished up the immobilised warbird in the dust cloud.

Turn 3: Nials continued to thin the drazi fighter count while drazi fleet manouvered to bring weapons to bear. Tinashi on left finished the crippled warbird in center while lasers from it as well as second Tinashi's weapons caused final warbird to be skeleton crewed(plus no SA critical).

Turn 4: Drazi's managed to bring stormfalcon to shoot at Tinashi on right with succesfull come about(despite dust clouds). Nials took out last drazi fighters including sky serpents(poor drazi fighters were completely outclassed).

Shooting began with Tinashi in danger firing everything it had against stormfalcon. Fusion cannons caused -2 speed critical but it was lasers who proved to be nastier. Despite scoring only 2 hits they got 1 critical. It turned out to be 6-6. Rolling extra damage we learned that stormfalcon had just been crippled barely...I don't think I will write down his comment on this

Storm falcon retaliated with big nasty beam which totally ripped Tinashi apart with help of 6-5 critical. This cheered up opponent as he realised he still had fighting chance afterall!

Tinashi dented storm falcon further and finished off warbird with fusion cannons.

Turn 5: Minbari lost initiave for a change. Tinashi CAF'ed fire raptor who in turn brought his guns to bear. This could decide the game if drazi can pass 3+ stealth roll...Which they did. And which decided the game as Tinashi was totally ripped apart by brutal onslaught. It was within 7 point of destruction before nasty SAP TD beam opened up causing whopping _14_ hits. This also took out the Minbari fighters who had moved to front of fire raptor and were in explosion radius.

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Soooo...Mighty minbari fleet taken out by bunch of drazi's for loss of only 3 warbirds...Oh and crippled stormfalcon.

I think the hyperspace reserve wasn't as usefull as I thought it would have been. I might have been better off with them on board and try to thin drazi numbers in turn 1. In turn 2 when they swarmed around sharlin they could bring fearsome firepower against my flagship. 2 critical stealth rolls passed and sharlin was history. Those bigger drazi ships pack insane amount of firepower. Losing both Tinashi's to ONE ship firing was pretty demoralising to say the least...Albeit first one was somewhat lucky as it required help from critical hits but second one was just show of awesome firepower.

Oh and he didn't fail single stealth check whole game...Albeit not many checks done thorough game but he COULD have failed atleast one of them. Preferably fireraptor vs sharlin(he wasn't even within 8").

 

[Darzoni]

Your battle report demonstrates a number of things that people don't realize about the Vorlons.

1) People want to shoot the Biggest Ship first. When facing Vorlons, don't do that: Take out their initiative sinks first, because you're going to need all the firepower you have to take down their Cruisers.

2) Vorlons rely heavily upon getting criticals to weaken their opponents, allowing their ships to close in for the kill. It helps make up for their severe lack of numbers.

3) The intimidation value of a Lightning Cannon is priceless. How many opponents haven't said "Uh oh." when the Vorlon player plops down a LC or HC? It's an instant firepower magnet and distracts an easily intimidated opponent into shooting at the big guns.

4) I've said it before, I'll say it again. Destroyers and Transports are the workhorses of the Vorlon fleet list.

Anyway, the battle reports were really interesting. I hope to see more from you in the future, TNeva.