Fireymonkeyboy
Mongoose
Admiral Laertes sighed in frustration as his aid placed another stack of casualty reports on his desk. The campaing had started so well. The task force under Commador Haen had moved tooccupy one of the two system jump gates, and the fighters aboard Haen's Achilles had managed to gather critical intelligence about the centauri fleet, losing only an Olympus corvette in the process. Then the Narn . . .
Laertes shuddered in remembrance. The rest of his fleet, centered on the Nereid, had emerged into the space surrounding the second jump gate only to discover the entire Narn fleet arrayed before them. In inutes, tongues of laser energy licked out from the mottled hulls of their opponents, destroying several ships, and crippling others. Laertes, unable to counter the Narn firepower, and unwilling to sacrifice his fleet so early in the campaign, had ordered a general withdrawel, but the cost! The Agamemnon, the Andromeda, the Pollux, the Argos, half his Hermes escorts; his fleet had been gutted in minutes of firing. While the cause was not lost, Laertes knew that the EA's aspirations in the Al'Tai system had taken a serious blow. Whether they could recover . . . ?
Laertes shuddered in remembrance. The rest of his fleet, centered on the Nereid, had emerged into the space surrounding the second jump gate only to discover the entire Narn fleet arrayed before them. In inutes, tongues of laser energy licked out from the mottled hulls of their opponents, destroying several ships, and crippling others. Laertes, unable to counter the Narn firepower, and unwilling to sacrifice his fleet so early in the campaign, had ordered a general withdrawel, but the cost! The Agamemnon, the Andromeda, the Pollux, the Argos, half his Hermes escorts; his fleet had been gutted in minutes of firing. While the cause was not lost, Laertes knew that the EA's aspirations in the Al'Tai system had taken a serious blow. Whether they could recover . . . ?
- Hi, reports from turn one of our campaign. For those not in the know, the system we are fighting over has two jump gates, two comets, and three planets, a primitive, a commercial, and and industrial with a planetary ring. Centauri moved to occupy the commercial uncontested, due to some early hiccups in the campaign. I moved to occupy a jump gate, was contested by the centauri, and won. The game was a battle level recon, and went reasonably well. I used fighters to scan his ships, and had them all by turn two. I lost an olympus, and managed to maul a few of his ships in return. I've fought the centauri a few times now, and am getting the hang of it; get out of the arcs of their front beams, concentrate your firepower, and use fighters to force him to split fire.
Then I fought the Narn. Due to some miscalculations on my part, we ended up playing a 7 point war Annihilation, and I got creamed. I was already at a disadcantage, having fought previously in the round, and was outnumbered. My fleet is fighter-heavy (yes, yes, I'm in denial), and I simply could not match the firepower ranged against me. His bin'Tak fragged a hyperion in the first turn, and he was able to smoke at least two ships a turn for as long as the game lasted, facing little or no return fire. Despite the presence of a sag and four Hermes, my missiles did nothing (2 dmage to his Bin'Tak), and the only other thing in range was the beam on my omega, wich scorched some paint off a G'Quan.
So, my question: how the hell do EA fight Narn? Fighters are useless against their emines, and I don't see how I can bring more firepower to bear at range; his beams and e-mines easily match my beams and missiles, and seem to be more readily available. He used his long-range beams to smoke a hyperion and hermes turn 1, a saggitarius and hermes turn two, got an engine critical that stopped an omega dead in space, and prevented it from generating a jump point, which stranded a nova as well. His ships are tougher than their PR equivalents in EA, and even if I close, have more firepower out of more arcs. While the scenario was going to be bad news for me either way, this was an extremely frustrating game, and other than initiating jumps in turn one rather than two, I'm not sure what else I could do.
Any thought on this?
