right then, i had the pleasure to meet two relative newbies last night, as they decided to come to the lGS to learn mor about acta. their previous attempt had been a two player campaign of early EA versus minbo, needless to say, they quit as the EA got tonked.
Anyhow, the EA player stuck with his fleet, and the other chap chose to use my brakiri. we had a standard table size, CTA game, scenery was a dustcloud in the topleft, and an asteroid field right below it.
Fleets chosen. EA - Orestes, Hyperion, Avenger, 2 Olympus
Brakiri. Avioki, Haltona, halik, 2 Brikorta's
both players wanted something punchy hence the larger ships. I lead the Brakiri player to the Brikortas, expecting a solid EA fighter approach, and was right. before commenting on the fleet lists, please remember these were new players, we all want a big ship at first eh? as it was, i felt the two fleets looked reasonably balanced, 5 ships apiece, and matching priroties, would be interesting.
The Brakiri won initiative, EA set up first in the centre an inverted delta, the avenger at the back, the Hyperion and Orestes in front, and the Olympus fanning out at the front.
the Brakiri went for a flat line, from left to right comprising Brikorta, Aioki, Halik, Brikorta, Haltona. my only impot was to make sure the halik was in the centre to offer lots of escorty goodness! ;-)
turn 1, Brakiri win initiative. EA move first, basically, the EA moved the Olympus', Hyperion and Orestes up in formation, leaving the avenger hanging back, the avenger fails to Scramble! The brakiri move up in a line closing blast doors on the halik and haltona, and escorting the brikortas, one brikorta manages a scramble. only the Olympus missiles are in range, and the EA player decides to have a pop at the Avioki, It laughs histerically and shrugs off the paltry 2 damage it takes. End of turn one after fighhet launch.
turn 2, this turn should bring all ships into play (except perhaps that avenger) EA won initiative, they needed too to ensure juicy targets for the orestes and hyperion. lefet Brikorta moves up, turning in slightly on the EA, opposing olympus moves forward, tempting the halik to move and turn bringing flank guns to bear on the olympus, and oppening forward to the rest of the earthers. Opposite Olympus moves in, and is countered by the haltona doin its own mild turn to cover the remaining EA ships approach with it's beam. the Evenger trundles forwardslowly at the back, and the remaining brikorata shuffles up with it's fighters remaing in escort. the Hyperion decides to take on the haltona and lines up it;s beam, but it's still out of range for it's own secondaries, the Brakiris longer ranmge may be an issue here!. The last brakiri ship, the massive avioki (ok it's actually a small model but hey!) moves up, covering the whole of the EA fleet with that heavy beam. the orestes lines up a shot on the avioki. Fighters are all pretty much on escort duty for both sides, both players being a little cagey. the Orestes fires first hoping to lay the smackdown on the avioki, but someone forgot to turn it's beam charger on, 2 hits in total, oh dear!. nothing doing to that Avioki. The Brakiri decide to unload the haltona, tghe Hyperion boresight is making it nervy. It unloads on the hyperion, smashing into it rather impressively. doing 20 damage and crew, and leaving it adrift with a 1-6 crit. the secondary weapons on the haltona fire at the olympus, the Hyperion is too well protected with 4 escorting fighters. The olympus then also gets a good kick in the crotch, loosing engine power, damage control, and almost half of it's own damage. In retaliation, the Hyperion realising it may be out of the battle unloads on the haltona, knocking it's speed down, and taking a weapon dice, it also looses it's starboard arc and about a third of it's damage. The Brakiri player decides to remove that hyperion from it's sky, 8 beams lance into it, and the hyperion is no more, alas it doesn't explode. The Avioki continues it's destructive fire by unloading into the left sided olympus, that somehow survives, but with wespons needing 4+ to fire, and half it;s damage gone, it looks in a sorry state.
the rest of the turn is tit for tat pulsars (both brikorta beams miss) and cannons, some more dameg to the olympus, and a few more minor hits on the Avioki, and a -2 speed crit. After a slow turn 1, turn 2 was bloody, the EA have lost their glas cannon!.
turn 3, EA win initiative, but with a ship missing it's not all rosy. a general "melee" in the centre of the table now, as everyone just closes soem more, the orestes bringing another boresight on the avioki, and lighting up the haltona with it's port cannons. The Avenger too is finally on the move, it's extra bulk and guns will be needed! The Brakri amazingly are actually still in their origional battle line, though some ships are now facing at angles! very battle of trafalgar ish!
Fighetr contact at last, the Furies move to engage the Pikitos. An earth win overall, but with one win, and two draws, and some unengaged, the Pikatos are still out there!
the EA fire first, again the orestes beam is dismal, bringing another -2 speed crit to the avioki, but after being through 3 turns ive being shot at, two with the orestes beam, the avioki still has over 2/3rds of hits left! no beams for the Brakiri this turn, it's all pulsars baby and they do the business, smacking into all and sundry, one olympus goes, then another, suddenly the Orestes and avenger are alone, though both are fighting fit! The orestes looses it's aft beam, the Avioki gets a -4 speed crit, the haltona looses it's way a tad and is crippled, from a solid orastes broadside. it's a complete hairball (hence me not doign ship for ship!!)
as the dust settles, we have on orestes with about 5 damage and no aft laser, a fully fit avenger, and 7 furies about. the brakiri have all their ships and 5 pikatos left, the avioki is half down, the haltona is cripled, the two brikortas have taken minimal damage, and the halik has barely been touched.
turn 4
EA win initiative, so brakiri move that cripled Haltona, it's reloaded now 4Ad beam covers the EA approach. the Avenger charges forward and the halik positions itself alongside the haltona, the entire Brakiri fleet have an escort covering them even if the EA win the fighter war. the poor old orestes, unable to boresight the Avioki, moves forward, and is immediately countered by the avioki, and two brikortas.
the orestes sit's, literally surrounded by brakiri ships. with the haltona and Avioki beams charged and ready, the EA player decided his chances are slim to none, and the shop is due to close, so he gracefully accepts defeat to save his remaining crew and ships.
i could be argued that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, but the orestes chance of survival WAs very low, I suspect it would have destroyed the haltona withs it's port batteries, and with a huge slice of luck, could have killed the halik he had lined up, but he flet the orestes and avenger were just too outgunned. In fairness, the brakiri was a demon Crit roller, whilst whenever the EA got a crit, it was ususally crew! i still think the two fleets were nicely balanced, and crits made the difference. I'd like to think that by advising him to take brikortas, i neutred the avenger, I could be right, who knows!!
both players though "hope" to be in for a tourney on saturday, the EA player intends progressing to third age, whilst the brakiri player bought the Dilgar fleet box!
Anyhow, the EA player stuck with his fleet, and the other chap chose to use my brakiri. we had a standard table size, CTA game, scenery was a dustcloud in the topleft, and an asteroid field right below it.
Fleets chosen. EA - Orestes, Hyperion, Avenger, 2 Olympus
Brakiri. Avioki, Haltona, halik, 2 Brikorta's
both players wanted something punchy hence the larger ships. I lead the Brakiri player to the Brikortas, expecting a solid EA fighter approach, and was right. before commenting on the fleet lists, please remember these were new players, we all want a big ship at first eh? as it was, i felt the two fleets looked reasonably balanced, 5 ships apiece, and matching priroties, would be interesting.
The Brakiri won initiative, EA set up first in the centre an inverted delta, the avenger at the back, the Hyperion and Orestes in front, and the Olympus fanning out at the front.
the Brakiri went for a flat line, from left to right comprising Brikorta, Aioki, Halik, Brikorta, Haltona. my only impot was to make sure the halik was in the centre to offer lots of escorty goodness! ;-)
turn 1, Brakiri win initiative. EA move first, basically, the EA moved the Olympus', Hyperion and Orestes up in formation, leaving the avenger hanging back, the avenger fails to Scramble! The brakiri move up in a line closing blast doors on the halik and haltona, and escorting the brikortas, one brikorta manages a scramble. only the Olympus missiles are in range, and the EA player decides to have a pop at the Avioki, It laughs histerically and shrugs off the paltry 2 damage it takes. End of turn one after fighhet launch.
turn 2, this turn should bring all ships into play (except perhaps that avenger) EA won initiative, they needed too to ensure juicy targets for the orestes and hyperion. lefet Brikorta moves up, turning in slightly on the EA, opposing olympus moves forward, tempting the halik to move and turn bringing flank guns to bear on the olympus, and oppening forward to the rest of the earthers. Opposite Olympus moves in, and is countered by the haltona doin its own mild turn to cover the remaining EA ships approach with it's beam. the Evenger trundles forwardslowly at the back, and the remaining brikorata shuffles up with it's fighters remaing in escort. the Hyperion decides to take on the haltona and lines up it;s beam, but it's still out of range for it's own secondaries, the Brakiris longer ranmge may be an issue here!. The last brakiri ship, the massive avioki (ok it's actually a small model but hey!) moves up, covering the whole of the EA fleet with that heavy beam. the orestes lines up a shot on the avioki. Fighters are all pretty much on escort duty for both sides, both players being a little cagey. the Orestes fires first hoping to lay the smackdown on the avioki, but someone forgot to turn it's beam charger on, 2 hits in total, oh dear!. nothing doing to that Avioki. The Brakiri decide to unload the haltona, tghe Hyperion boresight is making it nervy. It unloads on the hyperion, smashing into it rather impressively. doing 20 damage and crew, and leaving it adrift with a 1-6 crit. the secondary weapons on the haltona fire at the olympus, the Hyperion is too well protected with 4 escorting fighters. The olympus then also gets a good kick in the crotch, loosing engine power, damage control, and almost half of it's own damage. In retaliation, the Hyperion realising it may be out of the battle unloads on the haltona, knocking it's speed down, and taking a weapon dice, it also looses it's starboard arc and about a third of it's damage. The Brakiri player decides to remove that hyperion from it's sky, 8 beams lance into it, and the hyperion is no more, alas it doesn't explode. The Avioki continues it's destructive fire by unloading into the left sided olympus, that somehow survives, but with wespons needing 4+ to fire, and half it;s damage gone, it looks in a sorry state.
the rest of the turn is tit for tat pulsars (both brikorta beams miss) and cannons, some more dameg to the olympus, and a few more minor hits on the Avioki, and a -2 speed crit. After a slow turn 1, turn 2 was bloody, the EA have lost their glas cannon!.
turn 3, EA win initiative, but with a ship missing it's not all rosy. a general "melee" in the centre of the table now, as everyone just closes soem more, the orestes bringing another boresight on the avioki, and lighting up the haltona with it's port cannons. The Avenger too is finally on the move, it's extra bulk and guns will be needed! The Brakri amazingly are actually still in their origional battle line, though some ships are now facing at angles! very battle of trafalgar ish!
Fighetr contact at last, the Furies move to engage the Pikitos. An earth win overall, but with one win, and two draws, and some unengaged, the Pikatos are still out there!
the EA fire first, again the orestes beam is dismal, bringing another -2 speed crit to the avioki, but after being through 3 turns ive being shot at, two with the orestes beam, the avioki still has over 2/3rds of hits left! no beams for the Brakiri this turn, it's all pulsars baby and they do the business, smacking into all and sundry, one olympus goes, then another, suddenly the Orestes and avenger are alone, though both are fighting fit! The orestes looses it's aft beam, the Avioki gets a -4 speed crit, the haltona looses it's way a tad and is crippled, from a solid orastes broadside. it's a complete hairball (hence me not doign ship for ship!!)
as the dust settles, we have on orestes with about 5 damage and no aft laser, a fully fit avenger, and 7 furies about. the brakiri have all their ships and 5 pikatos left, the avioki is half down, the haltona is cripled, the two brikortas have taken minimal damage, and the halik has barely been touched.
turn 4
EA win initiative, so brakiri move that cripled Haltona, it's reloaded now 4Ad beam covers the EA approach. the Avenger charges forward and the halik positions itself alongside the haltona, the entire Brakiri fleet have an escort covering them even if the EA win the fighter war. the poor old orestes, unable to boresight the Avioki, moves forward, and is immediately countered by the avioki, and two brikortas.
the orestes sit's, literally surrounded by brakiri ships. with the haltona and Avioki beams charged and ready, the EA player decided his chances are slim to none, and the shop is due to close, so he gracefully accepts defeat to save his remaining crew and ships.
i could be argued that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, but the orestes chance of survival WAs very low, I suspect it would have destroyed the haltona withs it's port batteries, and with a huge slice of luck, could have killed the halik he had lined up, but he flet the orestes and avenger were just too outgunned. In fairness, the brakiri was a demon Crit roller, whilst whenever the EA got a crit, it was ususally crew! i still think the two fleets were nicely balanced, and crits made the difference. I'd like to think that by advising him to take brikortas, i neutred the avenger, I could be right, who knows!!
both players though "hope" to be in for a tourney on saturday, the EA player intends progressing to third age, whilst the brakiri player bought the Dilgar fleet box!
