I'm new to acta and need some advice on beating a Drakh fleet. I'm using Gaim and just can't seem to do significant damage through their gravetic energy grids. My local wargames club has 3 Drakh players out of 6 (including me) acta players, all of whom have started playing since 2ed (so even basic tactics might be new to us).
Advice for a noob?
- Thread starter inq101
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Joe_Dracos
Mongoose
Well I would use the Photon bombs on the smaller ships and then slam those swarms of fighters into the big ships and use criticals to knock it down a few pegs... then board them.... alot....
Tried that, ended up with most of their raders destroyed of crippled, no fighters left and a couple of bruised Drakh cruisers slowly repairing while they disected my queen ships. Maybe it was just bad dice-rolls.Joe_Dracos said:
Nah, next fleet'll be the Narn :lol:Digger said:
Locutus9956
Mongoose
Actually Digger, beams arent really anything special against Drakh, their hull scores tend to be relatively low for a ship of their class so personally Id say non beam, SAP and AP weapons would be the way to go! Narns should do quite well frankly (Emines are rather nasty against ships now and the narn variety tend to inflict loads of damage to the point of laughing at a few points reduction from GEGs (and also handily ignoring dodge on all those raiders).
3 Drakh fleets out of 6 players though? Did they all start coming to your club already having those fleets or did they all get into it after they knew each other? I'd give them a slap for being so boring and unoriginal (I've got nothing against drakh personally but most people I know like to when getting into a game specifically go for a fleet/army that noone else is doing yet just to add a bit of variety
)
ps. Digger actually no there are more beams and longer range ones to boot on most Narn fleets now than most centauri fleets. The days of the cheesy beam team are over, so Im afraid you might actually have to maneuver your Centauri now rather than just deploy them and shout 'fire' :twisted:
3 Drakh fleets out of 6 players though? Did they all start coming to your club already having those fleets or did they all get into it after they knew each other? I'd give them a slap for being so boring and unoriginal (I've got nothing against drakh personally but most people I know like to when getting into a game specifically go for a fleet/army that noone else is doing yet just to add a bit of variety
)ps. Digger actually no there are more beams and longer range ones to boot on most Narn fleets now than most centauri fleets. The days of the cheesy beam team are over, so Im afraid you might actually have to maneuver your Centauri now rather than just deploy them and shout 'fire' :twisted:
That is kind of my fault. I was looking through the fleet book and asked what huge hangers did in front of two of the more impressionable players. The third guy already had a Drakh fleet.Locutus9956 said:3 Drakh fleets out of 6 players though? Did they all start coming to your club already having those fleets or did they all get into it after they knew each other? I'd give them a slap for being so boring and unoriginal (I've got nothing against drakh personally but most people I know like to when getting into a game specifically go for a fleet/army that noone else is doing yet just to add a bit of variety
Still, the campaign should be fun, especialy watching the Drakh vs Drakh fights.
Locutus9956
Mongoose
hehe yeah I kind of guessed thats what happened, every club has its share of munchkiny players who find out about a powerful rule a race has and go 'OOOOH I think Ill play them, theyre sick and wrong!'
Still best way to cure them of this tendancy is to blow the crap out of their fleets repeatedly
(If your playing Narns, try multiple Dag'Kars now and see how long a swarm of raiders live unde a hail of triple damage emines 
)
Im sure youll enjoy the campaign anyway, ACTA is frankly at its best in campaign play!
Oh as for offering some actual advice, well most of my ACTA experience comes from 1st edition and I've yet to fight with or against Gaim but from what I DO know about the game (and the Gaim for that matter (it is in fact pronounced the same way as 'game' (Sheridan says so in the show)) Well....
The Gaim rely primarily on 3 weapons. Lasers, Photon Bombs, and Fighters.
Now fighters firing their weapons, suffer from the fact that GEGs, espeically on the larger Drakh ships tend to completely negate their attacks, unless they get lucky and roll a critical hit. It should be noted that if you get a crit any damage from that attack die including the base damage from the hit itself are totally unafected by GEGs. Now the REAL power of the Gaim fighters though is in their use as suicide fighters, the key here is that they become precice and so 1 in 3 of them plowing into a drakh ship will get a crit and ignore GEGs entirely! So first off, Id advise suicide fightering the bejesus out of them. Drakh lack their own fighters and have no antifighter systems on their ships and so have basically got no way of stopping them. Smaller drakh ships are inredibly vulnerable to this and the larger ones can easily be critted to the point of uselessness too though their more powerful GEGs can render even suicide fighter attacks innefective if they fail to score a crit (in fact I need to check the book but its possible suicide fighters may ingore GEGs anyway but I dont believe so).
However in any case ALL fighters should be used as missiles vs Drakh as your regular ones short of the odd crit arent even capable of hurting ANY Drakh ship.
Your Photon Bombs are not particularly potent anti ship weapons and are primarily designed to clear enemy fighter cover for your crewed missiles to go in and do their 'thing' but they can still be useful. Focuse them on swarms of lighter drakh ships as they are unlikely to do anything to the larger vessels.
Lastly your lasers, these are probably your best friend here as they are the best weapon you have for inflicting large damage on a single volley (the key to defeating GEG protected ships) Even still I would advise focusing your fire on the smaller drakh ships first rather than going for the big ones from the word go, the majority of drakh firepower (in my experience) is in their raiders, and the quickest way to reduce the damage your taking in return is to knock out the small fragile heavily armed ships as fast as you can leaving you to focus all your firepower on the big boys.
Lastly, boarding. This is often overlooked but for Gaim vs Drakh this is probably your best weapon. Look at the Drakh fleet carefully and you will notice a few things:
1) they have no fighters and no antifighter weapons. The only way they can take out breaching pods is to fire on them directly with their main weapons. If your Drakh opponent knows hes going to be facing Gaim expect lots of light raiders as they at least have 'accurate' guns but even these are of limited use as they must move BEFORE your fighters and are quite short ranged
2) Drakh ships have virtually no troops. Seriously. Even the mothership, an ARMAGEDDON level ship has a mere THREE troops. All you need to do is get 3 breaching pods into contact to be on an even footing with the defenders and without any real way of stopping those pods before they get there.....
Looking everything over on both lists I would have to say: The Srunnka Assault ship is your bestest friend in the whole wide world.
It has LOADS of troops so if any of the big drakh ships are stupid enough to move less than half their original speed anywehre near it you can possitively eat them. It also carries 14, yes FOURTEEN flights of breaching pods. On a raid level ship! And just to add icing to the cake, out of all Gaim ships, it has the heaviest direct damage weapons.
In fact in all honesty I would say in a campaign with 3 drakh players the majority of your fleet should be made up of these! Just remember that vs other fleets with their own interceptors and antifighter guns breaching pods tend to get slaughtered before they reach their target. Drakh though are a big buggered.....
So yeah overall:
Sage Advice part 1: Board them, board the HELL out of them.
Sage Advice part 2: Mmmmmm Srunnka, you liiiiike the Srunnka, you want MORE Srunnkas
Still best way to cure them of this tendancy is to blow the crap out of their fleets repeatedly
(If your playing Narns, try multiple Dag'Kars now and see how long a swarm of raiders live unde a hail of triple damage emines )Im sure youll enjoy the campaign anyway, ACTA is frankly at its best in campaign play!
Oh as for offering some actual advice, well most of my ACTA experience comes from 1st edition and I've yet to fight with or against Gaim but from what I DO know about the game (and the Gaim for that matter (it is in fact pronounced the same way as 'game' (Sheridan says so in the show)
) Well....The Gaim rely primarily on 3 weapons. Lasers, Photon Bombs, and Fighters.
Now fighters firing their weapons, suffer from the fact that GEGs, espeically on the larger Drakh ships tend to completely negate their attacks, unless they get lucky and roll a critical hit. It should be noted that if you get a crit any damage from that attack die including the base damage from the hit itself are totally unafected by GEGs. Now the REAL power of the Gaim fighters though is in their use as suicide fighters, the key here is that they become precice and so 1 in 3 of them plowing into a drakh ship will get a crit and ignore GEGs entirely! So first off, Id advise suicide fightering the bejesus out of them. Drakh lack their own fighters and have no antifighter systems on their ships and so have basically got no way of stopping them. Smaller drakh ships are inredibly vulnerable to this and the larger ones can easily be critted to the point of uselessness too though their more powerful GEGs can render even suicide fighter attacks innefective if they fail to score a crit (in fact I need to check the book but its possible suicide fighters may ingore GEGs anyway but I dont believe so).
However in any case ALL fighters should be used as missiles vs Drakh as your regular ones short of the odd crit arent even capable of hurting ANY Drakh ship.
Your Photon Bombs are not particularly potent anti ship weapons and are primarily designed to clear enemy fighter cover for your crewed missiles to go in and do their 'thing' but they can still be useful. Focuse them on swarms of lighter drakh ships as they are unlikely to do anything to the larger vessels.
Lastly your lasers, these are probably your best friend here as they are the best weapon you have for inflicting large damage on a single volley (the key to defeating GEG protected ships) Even still I would advise focusing your fire on the smaller drakh ships first rather than going for the big ones from the word go, the majority of drakh firepower (in my experience) is in their raiders, and the quickest way to reduce the damage your taking in return is to knock out the small fragile heavily armed ships as fast as you can leaving you to focus all your firepower on the big boys.
Lastly, boarding. This is often overlooked but for Gaim vs Drakh this is probably your best weapon. Look at the Drakh fleet carefully and you will notice a few things:
1) they have no fighters and no antifighter weapons. The only way they can take out breaching pods is to fire on them directly with their main weapons. If your Drakh opponent knows hes going to be facing Gaim expect lots of light raiders as they at least have 'accurate' guns but even these are of limited use as they must move BEFORE your fighters and are quite short ranged
2) Drakh ships have virtually no troops. Seriously. Even the mothership, an ARMAGEDDON level ship has a mere THREE troops. All you need to do is get 3 breaching pods into contact to be on an even footing with the defenders and without any real way of stopping those pods before they get there.....
Looking everything over on both lists I would have to say: The Srunnka Assault ship is your bestest friend in the whole wide world.
It has LOADS of troops so if any of the big drakh ships are stupid enough to move less than half their original speed anywehre near it you can possitively eat them. It also carries 14, yes FOURTEEN flights of breaching pods. On a raid level ship! And just to add icing to the cake, out of all Gaim ships, it has the heaviest direct damage weapons.
In fact in all honesty I would say in a campaign with 3 drakh players the majority of your fleet should be made up of these! Just remember that vs other fleets with their own interceptors and antifighter guns breaching pods tend to get slaughtered before they reach their target. Drakh though are a big buggered.....
So yeah overall:
Sage Advice part 1: Board them, board the HELL out of them.
Sage Advice part 2: Mmmmmm Srunnka, you liiiiike the Srunnka, you want MORE Srunnkas
Locutus9956
Mongoose
In fact.... damnit Mongoose! I'm going to have to build a Gaim fleet sometime now They really look alot of fun (and I love the models)... I really cant afford this right now! :lol:
They really look alot of fun (and I love the models)... I really cant afford this right now! :lol:Locutus9956
Mongoose
Sadly you dont get to keep captured ships (too different techwise) (you DO get extra victory points for capturing ships though so you will win even more resoundingly in points based scenarios
Locutus9956
Mongoose
lol, I like it
Locutus9956 said:
I'll have to second the Skrunnka idea. Assault drones. Yum. Breaching Pods count as having the Fighter Trait so stuff in a fleet carrier in case any are actually shot down en-route. However, be aware that many of the Drakh ships actually move faster then the Gaim breaching pods.
Speaking of being new:
I am also Very new. Never played before and never played any other B5 games (despite my questions based on them).
I will be finishing my ISA fleet first:
I have the old fleet box with 2 Victory Destroyers and 10 White Stars and will soon be getting the rest of the ships I might want, but need advice on what to get beyond what I want to add (1 Liandra, 1 Nolo'Tar, 1 WS Carrier, 2 WS Gunships, 6 Blue Stars, 10 WS Fighters, 4 more Nials, and more STarfuries). What more do I want?
I also have the old EA Early Era fleetbox (and intend to get the current one in addition), what else should I get for my Early Era fleet? (because that's next and I want both fleets done by Christmas with 3rd Age and Crusade to follow next spring)
In case you haven't guessed, I have a particular preference for the EA in general and Sheridan and company in particular. By next Christmas, I hope to have Minbari and Narn as well. Then I'll slow down a bit.
NOTE: This is not a list of what I want to field in my first battle. I'll get to that when I read my books (as soon as they come in. They were OOS when I ordered them). This is just what I want to buy. And I am looking for advice on what else I should get in what numbers beyond that or should that be plenty for just about anything I want to field?
I am also Very new. Never played before and never played any other B5 games (despite my questions based on them).
I will be finishing my ISA fleet first:
I have the old fleet box with 2 Victory Destroyers and 10 White Stars and will soon be getting the rest of the ships I might want, but need advice on what to get beyond what I want to add (1 Liandra, 1 Nolo'Tar, 1 WS Carrier, 2 WS Gunships, 6 Blue Stars, 10 WS Fighters, 4 more Nials, and more STarfuries). What more do I want?
I also have the old EA Early Era fleetbox (and intend to get the current one in addition), what else should I get for my Early Era fleet? (because that's next and I want both fleets done by Christmas with 3rd Age and Crusade to follow next spring)
In case you haven't guessed, I have a particular preference for the EA in general and Sheridan and company in particular. By next Christmas, I hope to have Minbari and Narn as well. Then I'll slow down a bit.
NOTE: This is not a list of what I want to field in my first battle. I'll get to that when I read my books (as soon as they come in. They were OOS when I ordered them). This is just what I want to buy. And I am looking for advice on what else I should get in what numbers beyond that or should that be plenty for just about anything I want to field?
