Abbai

[chainmailler]

I was thinking about starting this fleet, and I was wondering what are peoples past experianes with them, they are very defensive but the shields don't strike me as very effective, general advice would be apprecaiteed.

-Joey

 

[Da Boss]

they are apparently good as small ship swarms

The shields are actually good because like dodge, Stealth and to a certain extent interceptors they prevent damage and criticals.

 

[B_Steele]

I use them a great deal, mostly with the Juyaca as the flagship a Lakara backing it up, maybe a Bimith or two, then several Shyrarie scouts.

Alot of people will whine and complain that the Bimith is terrible, but as mine have MANY kills painted on their hulls, I tend to disagree. It just requires the right strategy and timing to unload.

And, welcome to the Fish Head Navy!

-Bry

 

[tschuma]

We have banned them from our group, they are that good. I kow everyone says that they need help, but not in our group!

If you setup in several waves, then your opponent has no real chance to kill anyone. As you hit one and knock it's shields down, it peels off to regen and then your are faced with a second line of ships. Actually a neat setup. I watched the Abbai chase the Shadowes off the table! Maybe not the correct fleet for the Shadow player, but neat all the same.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Burger]

If you setup in several waves, then your opponent has no real chance to kill anyone.

If your opponent falls for a cheap trick like that, then they deserve to lose!
Either that, or your opponent is Tank

 

[H]

Our local Abbai player has never lost a battle, he has had 90% of his fleet mauled by turn two, and still won!
Many people disregard the Abbai as week and flimsy, but they have some excelent ships, the Milani contrary to opinion is a great skirmish ship, and the Juyaca can be extremely nasty (though it takes an age to get into range!) the bimith is a bit poor, but P+P will repair it. The Brivoki is quite a beast but isn't fielded a great deal. The biggest issue is a naff fighter, otherwise, I highly rate the Abbai fleet.

 

[chainmailler]

So you think that their figthers are more useful escort ships aganist other fighters or gogin out and attacking ships?

 

[Target]

They have weak weapons so can't really hurt ships, can't intercept & dogfight of 0, so aren't good at that, too slow, can't even keep up with skirmish carrier which launches them. This is real bugbear of mine of why all fighters are so slow. I really hate that about ACTA fighters.
There isn't really too much going for them except thay come in 8's but wait thats 8VP's if/when they get killed.

 

[Ripple]

I see the rah rah brigade is out for the Abbai. I'd not be snide but since those of us whose groups' actually find them weak are whiners, I guess I should say something equally derogatory about the kiss ass brigade.

Our group has found Burger to be closer to correct than the rest. They can be tough if your opponents don't allocate their fire well and manipulate range well, but most folks seem able to figure them out after a try or two and spank them around, though the games do tend to be longer.

Tiraca - star of the fleet, great ship
Brisaria - good ship, one or two in larger fights is enough
Shyarie - tougher to use due to lack of Stealth, but fun in larger fights

Milani - great little ship, but the weak kotha makes it feel you don't quite get your money
Marata - just lacks punch, especially with the current beam rules

Bimith - decent ship once P&P comes out

Lakara - tends to struggle to get it's beam to bear, and rarely gets to fire it's other guns at all

Juyaca - strong ship, held back by slowness. Typically disabled by a couple of turns of beam fire from equivalent ships, so only a turn or two of fire.

Brivioki - nasty weapons suite, no real complains here, though the kotha could suck less of course.

So, they can make a very strong swarm fleet, with the medium/larger builds suffering more than usually vs fleets that out sink them, due to limited threat sphere. Once you get to Arm. ships they do well again as the range opens up and they get a good threat sphere again.

Kotha are best used as a AF extension platform for you escorts. It fixes your dogfight score issue, as each fighter gets AF dice.

Table size matters a lot with this fleet, as does terrain density. If you can space yourself well you can get a good strike in, but the attack then run to regen never seems to work on anything but a Tiraca here or there.

Ripple

 

[Burger]

There isn't really too much going for them except thay come in 8's but wait thats 8VP's if/when they get killed.

That is fixed in P&P, too. For each entire wing's worth of fighters you kill, you get 1 patrol point's worth of VPs.

And yay, there was much rejoicing!

 

[H]

I see the rah rah brigade is out for the Abbai. I'd not be snide but since those of us whose groups' actually find them weak are whiners, I guess I should say something equally derogatory about the kiss ass brigade.

Our group has found Burger to be closer to correct than the rest. They can be tough if your opponents don't allocate their fire well and manipulate range well, but most folks seem able to figure them out after a try or two and spank them around, though the games do tend to be longer.

Tiraca - star of the fleet, great ship
Brisaria - good ship, one or two in larger fights is enough
Shyarie - tougher to use due to lack of Stealth, but fun in larger fights

Milani - great little ship, but the weak kotha makes it feel you don't quite get your money
Marata - just lacks punch, especially with the current beam rules

Bimith - decent ship once P&P comes out

Lakara - tends to struggle to get it's beam to bear, and rarely gets to fire it's other guns at all

Juyaca - strong ship, held back by slowness. Typically disabled by a couple of turns of beam fire from equivalent ships, so only a turn or two of fire.

Brivioki - nasty weapons suite, no real complains here, though the kotha could suck less of course.

So, they can make a very strong swarm fleet, with the medium/larger builds suffering more than usually vs fleets that out sink them, due to limited threat sphere. Once you get to Arm. ships they do well again as the range opens up and they get a good threat sphere again.

Kotha are best used as a AF extension platform for you escorts. It fixes your dogfight score issue, as each fighter gets AF dice.

Table size matters a lot with this fleet, as does terrain density. If you can space yourself well you can get a good strike in, but the attack then run to regen never seems to work on anything but a Tiraca here or there.

Ripple

I do apologise, perhaps I should be less rah rah and say, our abbai player has never lost, that makes everyoneone he plays shit?
if you want to call a genuine opinion about a fleet kiss ass, thats fine, I don't really see any need for it, but cool go for it, knock yourself out

 

[katadder]

I have to say I have never had problems playing as abbai myself although currently I try to limit my bimith useage. that will change with P&P and more will be seen.

this is not kiss assing or rah rahing, its just simple facts that the abbai are not as bad as alot of people think. yes they can be hard to play but that doesnt make them rubbish. would prefer to use abbai over drazi.

 

[tschuma]

[/quote]

I do apologise, perhaps I should be less rah rah and say, our abbai player has never lost, that makes everyoneone he plays ****?
if you want to call a genuine opinion about a fleet kiss ass, thats fine, I don't really see any need for it, but cool go for it, knock yourself out[/quote]



Thanks Hiffano, my thoughts exactly.

 

[chainmailler]

whats this P&P all about? never heard of it.

 

[Greg Smith]

Powers & Principalities is the forthcoming supplement for ACTA, playtest rules are available for open playtesting. It is due for release in February.

 

[H]

whats this P&P all about? never heard of it.

been being talked about for many many months and playtested and allsorts

 

[Ripple]

The rah rah comments was mostly directed at Mongoose Steele who refered to us who see issues as 'whiners'... thus earning a sharp return. Please read the whole comment and apologies to anyone who took the comment as applying specifically to them when it was directed elsewhere.

I don't have a huge issue with the local positive responses to the fleet, but there seem to be as many folks who have huge issues with them as have huge successes with them. That makes me wonder what the issue is. Are there local tactics that radically change the fleet outcomes, is it a fleet choice issue, is it a typical opposing fleet issue? Are the games played completely to the last turn or 'decided' early one way or the other?

Ripple

 

[Burger]

It would be interesting to see a write-up of an Abbai fleet winning a battle, by someone who considers them to be great. And another of them losing so badly, by someone who consistently loses with them. Preferably against the same opposing fleet, something fairly "ordinary" such as Centauri, using TBS and re-rolling 6-5 and 6-6 crits. Then we can see what is going on.

TBF Mongoose Steele only mentioned whining in reference to the Bimith, not the Abbai fleet overall...

 

[Arch Lector Petrovski]

Sounds interesting, but I think if you swap the writers rounds t would be more inteesting. So have the person who doesn't like them writing about their win and the person who does writing about their loss.

 

[Burger]

Sounds interesting, but I think if you swap the writers rounds t would be more inteesting. So have the person who doesn't like them writing about their win and the person who does writing about their loss.

But what we want to see, is how the Abbai fans win so much, and why the haters lose so much. Reversing the roles wouldn't show us this, it would just show one "lucky" battle which is not the norm. It might be interesting, but wouldn't achieve our objective which is to find out how the winners win, and why the losers lose.