Abbai Carrier Group 5 Raid

[thehod]

I was intrested in doing an Abbai Carrier group slightly similar to what a modern carrier group is today and I have 2 versions of the carrier group:

4 Bimiths, 2 Miliani. Bimiths run foward and have the fighter screen while the Milianis move first to take the hits as usually they can pump out their fighters before they are toasted from long range. I know Abbai fighters suck but the best you can do is hold off other fighters of other races or use the fighters to harass other ships.

second build is

Lakara, 2 Bimiths, 2 Miliani. Same strategy here but the Lakara is now the primary damage dealer with 1 Bimith a turn manuvering to shield it if nessesary.

 

[JayRaider]

Both are reasonable options.
But what about some initiative sinks?
If you dropped 1 Bimith you could get 4 Tiraca, under Arma point splitting.
Worth consideration.

 

[Morgoth]

The options I would go for:
1 x Lakara, 4 x Milani, 1 x Bimith
provide plenty of fighters, plenty of combat lasers as milani's are quite capable ships in their own right. Bimith to provide extra close range firepower

1 x Lakara, 3 x Milani, 2 x Marta, 2 x Tiraca

Again plenty of fighters, Plenty of Combat Lasers, Marta's are tough skirmish ships with plenty of defensive capabililties and can dive into middle of enemy. You could even swap over one/some of the Tiraca's for Bisara's if you want comm's disruptors.

Sorry but from my own experience the Bimith is just incenerated before it can close to use those big batteries - its range is a real achillies heel!! Hence my choice to use more skirmish ships and some patrol ships

 

[H]

I have to disagree with Morg on the Bimith, yes, it lacks ranged fire, but up close and personal, it's a damned tough ship, and has enough interceptors to beef it up even more. At range, beams can take it down, but unless you are facing a beam team, or bat squad, you will probably be ok! However, more Milanis yes, they are cracking little ships themselves!

 

[locarno24]

[Flicking through rulebooks]
Marata? Marata....Marata.....hmm.....where are the stats for the...
[Finds it. Jaw Drops]
Yesu! WhatTheBloodyHellfire?
A Hull 6 ship with 5 interceptors and a fighter screen in a skirmish slot? Ow!

How come I've not seen this before?

Milani carriers are very nice gunships - essentially a decent combat laser and gun platform with some free Kothas...if you want to do a 'carrier group' you'll need to pretty much exclusively field the carriers - not a bad plan, in some ways, as abbai carriers really do not need escorts; they're cheap enough to be expendable, and tough and well-armed for their size.

 

[Morgoth]

Yes the Marata is a half decent ship, it doesn't have the hitting power of the Milani but it does have awesome survivability and still carries fighters too. They make a good ship to fly into middle of enemy formations and open fire with its broadshides whilst soaking damage. They can be sent ahead of the main squadron and with special orders of close all blast doors can really take a pounding.

 

[Ripple]

hhmm...

Lakara - good solid ship that rarely can get the range it wants

Bimith - nice idea that is sadly crippled by range

Milani - fabulous ship unless you play under the tourney ruling where each kotha gives away a victory point, in that case a good ship that happens to blow up with a lot of unlaunched fighters

Marata - not fond of giving up the combat laser...otherwise see Milani

Tiraca - solid ship, though it does have the ever present hull four issue.

Brisaria - a good compliment to the Tiraca, a comm disruptor that can actually defend itself

Shyarie - a weak scout due to no stealth and no weapons, great model though...so I tend to try (never got a confirmation on whether comm disruptors take out fighters. It says fighters are taken out by a 'hit' and there is no roll to damage...not sure.)

For the carrier group I tend to agree with the above posters in that you need to field more Milanis. I thought about Bimith, six Milani, three Triaca and a Brisaria. I'd consider a Shyarie instead of the Brisaria due to the number of fighters you have to protect it...the scout roll on all those combat lasers could be big.

Ripple

 

[Banichi]

Sorry but from my own experience the Bimith is just incenerated before it can close to use those big batteries - its range is a real achillies heel!!

I used to think the same thing until one blew up my untouched dargan and halfed my primuses speed in one turn. Don't ask me how I let it get so close, it wasn't the lion of the galaxy's greatest moment.

 

[Iain McGhee]

I'd go with dropping one of the Bimiths and replacing it with Tiracas. Those combat lasers are pretty useful. Swapping out one of those for a Shyarie might be an idea to redirect fire for the laser-armed ships since they are generally low-AD.

Much as I love the Abbai, I think that a force of them without League support isn't that effective. They've too few long-ranged weapons. Against the Centauri or similar they'll frequently get trashed before they get in Quad range. And the Kotha is only really useful as an escort due to it's slow speed and weak weapons unless you're up against Raiders.

 

[thehod]

thanks for the replies I just wanted to do a themed fleet and the Abbai have great ship designs and I love their paint scheme.