Abbai vs. EA (Crusade)

[Democratus]

I've been trying to make my Abbai fleet work against my friend but I am having real trouble. The primary issue is that I have very few weapons that can't be stopped by Interceptors. This reduces my damage per turn to a trickle - while his beam weapons continue to tear up my fleet in large chunks.

Here's what we've been playing lately. I've yet to pull off even a close game, much less a win.

EA
Omega (4 Starfury)
Omega (4 Starfury)

Abbai
Lakara
Bimith
Fetula
Bisaria
Shyarie

I've got numbres on him, which is good given the disparity in initiative. But his Heavy Lasers really kill me on the trek in and my Quad Arrays tend to do next to nothing against his tough Hull and Interceptors.

Any advice here? Any general tactical notes for the Abbai?

Thanks in advance!

 

[H]

I'm somewhat surprised to see 2 omegas as a potent fleet for sure, you can easily outsink him, and if you can close you have more than enough dice to completely overwhelm his interceptors. personally i'd drop Fetula, Bisaria, Shyarie as not at all suited to this battle. how are you doing your poinst spread though, is a a straight 1 war, or 2 battle etc as that will really make a change to the fleet you can choose. I'm going to assume 2 battle, and i'd look to take 1 bimith, 2 Milani per battle point. yeah yeah i know it sounds weak, BUT 4 milianis gives you enough fighters to tie him down whilst it's beam weapon is nice enough when the range is closed. The Bimith ytiou must get up alongside him, neutralizes the beam threat, and you will smash past those interceoptors. I'd look to have 2 squadrons of 2 milani, and us them to try and flank on either side. he then has to decide whether to go left, right, or down the middle, and something will get to him relatively unscathed. Abbai should in theory be able to handle HIS secondary weapons with their shields. Make use of the new special action to keep those shields charged. when your bimiths close, drop some mines in hi flightpath too!!

 

[Democratus]

Maybe the mines will make a difference. I'm usually so busy trying to do the shield special action. But the Bimith just doesn't seem to make much difference on the battlefield, offensively. At point blank range its broadside does an average of 4 damage to an Omega with depleted Interceptors. This is reduced to 1 damage if interceptors are full.

His fighters aren't really a big issue for me due to the large Anti-fighter ratings of my ships. I find it interesting that you suggest I take the mediocre Abbai fighters in a fleet. Their weapons are so poor - are they to be used as anti-ship platforms?

So is the plan to use the 4 beam-enabled carriers to do most of the damage?

I'm very new to this game, so forgive if my questions seem rudimentary.

Thanks!

 

[H]

hmm, I've seen the bimith do a lot more damage? i've seen almost every ship i have used take a battering.
anyhow, Milani, yup, the Kotha sucks, but to be honest I find the milani a very potent vessel, it also to my mind is better than any other abbai ship ate patrol or skirmish rvrn if you ignore the kotha. . But of course mine is one opinion!
the other option is to take the pain so to speak and just try a juyaca, one ship versus 2, I wouldn't fancy it's chances, but if it can keep it's shields up, it has a chance to go crit sishing with it's beam

 

[Kalek]

Install several nuclear weapons on one of your ships. Pretend to surrender and when they get close...boom.


Or, can your ships ram them?

If you lose two of your ships, most of your fleet remains.

 

[Triggy]

Lakaras, Milanis and Tiracas are your best ships and you really need to gang up in one go to make them work.

I can actually see why in this case your opponent goes for two Omegas - they reduce the number of arcs you can get to bear on enemy ships and with the initiative differences he can afford to only have two ships as he's very likely to line up a fore or aft shot each turn with each ship.

You need to all power to engines in the early turns and ignore any other options. Damaged ships should be moved last but still kept in the fight if possible. Also, try to keep most of your ships in a single enemy arc to reduce his return fire.

When you get close, now consider closing blast doors (you could consider this for the first two ships your move each turn early on so long as they're expendible ships). With so few enemy targets the loss of arcs makes little difference so only worry about protecting your ships and using come about to bring your ships back to bear on the enemy.

Hope this helps.

 

[Democratus]

It does help. Thanks. But I would like to know in what world a Lakara is supposed to be a match for an Omega.

I guess the League races are minor for a reason.

Flying multiple Milani carriers does, at least, give me more beam weaponry. After playing several games with lots of different races, beams seem to be the real killer. Ignoring the toughness of a ship is incredibly powerful. The fighters are a bit on the weak side, even when outnumbering the enemy 2-to-1.

 

[Da Boss]

the Lakra is a good ship (I think it could do with having 18" range on its beam)

strong shields mean that an average hit from an Omega can be absorbed as it closes (especially with the new special order)

the secondary batteries are ok but suffer a bit from being Narn ranged.

beams are big deal in ACTA - they tend to win or lose games - last night for instance..............the randomness is the problem.

I assume you are playing on aquite an open battlefield - its often fun to have terrain - gives more options and often makes it more tactical...........

Kothas may be able to tie up the auroara for a turn - but you do have good AF

if it really gets bad - get a Centauri fleet :wink:

 

[No. 1 Bear]

if it really gets bad - get a Centauri fleet

Or 2 omegas.

No but seriously

The other thing to do is if your not too bothered turn up with a mixed league fleet. Mix and match some of your best ships with some fighter carriers from Giam, that would really give him a shock. But if your going to keep it pure id say go with many milini's.

 

[Triggy]

I'd be tempted to take the following:

4 x Milani
8 x Tiraca

Seriously, the initiative sinks are good and the Tiraca can bring a lot of its forward firepower to bear on the enemy as it is mainly directed forwards. Also, it's hull 4 so any big beam hits on it are wasting their ability to ignore hull values. Finally, frankly they're expendable in the grand scheme of things!