Batrep on Vassal - Vorlons vs EA, 6 war

[Alexb83]

Vorlons (me)

1HC
1LC
4Destroyers
2Transports
18Fighters

EA (Angelus)

2Command Omegas (new rules)
4Omegas
6Hyperion
4Hyperion AC
All fighters as Thunderbolts

Setup: Vorlons won, and ended began hiding behind the Gas Cloud (see the finish picture below). EA were obliged to setup on the top edge, with no LOS to any Vorlons for the game start.

1st Turn: HC and LC Move into the Cloud, whilst the EA advance and launch more fighters. Vorlon fighters move up around the Destroyers and Transports, which skirt the edge of the cloud keeping it between them and the EA. The HC's Lightning cannon is in range to split AD on two Hyperion ACs one takes moderate damage (-1 S) but the other receives a 6/5 crit and is blown apart, crippling the other, killing a thunderbolt and damaging another hyperion nearby.

2nd Turn: HC and LC move forward a wee bit more, destroyers and Transports move to the cloud edge ready to APTE through it next turn.
Firing: HC and LC are both in range - another Hyperion and AC are blasted, with blast damage to an Omega, and a number of Thunderbolts popped. Still no EA ships in range/boresight at this point.

3rd Turn: All Vorlons advange (2 Destroyers bring up a bead on damaged ACs, the HC pushes through the cloud to get 18 inch range on another AC and 30 inch range on the omegas) the LC moves out of the cloud and within range of more Hyperions on the Left Flank.
The EA bead Boresight on the LC with all the Omegas and the Command cruisers.

The Heavy Cruiser whacks an AC with discharge gun, doing nasty damage but nothing too severe. It hits the damaged omega from Turn 2 hoping to do more - but not so great rolling only skeletons it and does a few speed crits. The LC takes its first pounding - about 18 from an Omega. It then attempts to pop a Hyperion, but does only 4+ weapon crit and about 1/2 damage.
LC is hit again, taking it up to about 30 damage. Destroyer hits a damaged AC with about 8 shots, 3 of which crit (just enough to take it to 0 damage IIRC). Cruiser takes 11 hits from a command omega - up to 60 damage. Last Destroyer finishes off the AC only partly damaged by the HC.

All of the Boresights fire at the LC, taking it to 140 or so damage. In end phase, it repairs back to 125...

Game was called at this point (shown below) with the Vorlons in an advantageous position - 6 or so Thunderbolts destroyed, 2 ACs destroyed, 1 crippled, 2 Hyperions destroyed and one Omega crippled.

Still alot of hull 6 and heavy lasers left, but with initiative sinks popping every turn, could the EA have won through? I'm pretty sure the LC and maybe HC could've been taken out - but those destroyers were poised to sweep in and do some harm from ~18 inches range with not much fear of retaliation.
Of note: Vorlons won Init every turn.

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[Triggy]

Cool batrep, seems like the EA really got hampered by lines of sight and range. Possibly worth taking a few Patrol PL ships just to add more initiative sinks. Can't see anything I'd have done differently with the Vorlons.

I really like larger battles though as it really gives you a chance to flex your might and try the larger ships out on their home turf so to speak.

 

[angelus2000]

There was an artificial limit imposed on the game in the interests of saving time. I delibartely did not take any Patrol PL ships so I was not having to move 40+ ships a turn.

That said the fleet selection could have been better. With all the Omegas on the board, switching out Novas for some of the Hyperions would have helped quite a bit initiative sink wise, although thats another 12 or so fighters to keep track off.

And fleet setup could have been much better as well on my part as well, as I had setup ships far too close to one another from the start.

That being said the Command Omega packs a mighty fearsome punch. 8AD beams every turn is going to put the hurt on in a hurry; and the 2 of them I took did more damage than the 4 Omegas together.

 

[bucky_bits]

I think I would have used one or two Omega Pulse Cruisers in the mix with the regular Omega's. Also drop 2 Hyperions for Nova's. Lost of pulse damage, just need to run them in and CAF. Keep the Omega Command, Lost of Beam goodness there.

 

[angelus2000]

I should have dropped the Hyperions for Novas, although I still would have kept the the AC Hyperions. The Omegas did thier job adequately, but the Hyperions were so much Lightning cannon bait.

The main reasoning behind the Hyperions was their lack of Fighters compared to the Nova. For some reason I was thinking the Vorlon Charged Pulse was range 4, thus negating my fighter advantage in a hurry. Turns out it was only 2 inchs, which Tbolt handily outranges, which means I should have taken the Novas instead.

By the way, a 6 or 7 Pt Was PL game is possible and can go quite quickly as long as the following rules are followed.

1. No more than 20 ships per side
2. At least 3 or 4 War PL points must be spent on Battle PL or above
3. 2 War or 1 Arma ship must be used.

Those restrictions work wonders for keeping the battle fairly manageable. For the Big 4, it usually means 1-3 ships War/Arma PL, around 5-8 Battle PL, and about the same amount for Raid and below.

An example Narn List at 7 War PL

2x Bin'Tak
1x GVrahn
2x Varnic
2x G'Quan
2x Rothan
1x Dag'Kar
1x T'Rann
4x Ka'Toc
4x Sho"kov

So thats 19 ships total. Most the foloing aroundwith the points split ends up anywhere between 15-20, as long as the 1 battle, 1 raid, 2 Skirmish points split is followed.

I'd suggest letting the League be a combined force though.

 

[Alexb83]

There are a few things I think Ang could have done to make life much more difficult for me - Novas over Hyperions are a start, as I would've ignored them until destroyers came to bear. Hyperions by comparison are prime lightning cannon targets, and as close as every ship was together, I think I did the bulk of my damage through ships exploding (I was trying for further explosions on the flanks to soften out those fighters).

Vorlon weaponry really suffers from the range limitation and the fact that only two ships have SAP - much like Minbari the bulk of Vorlon ships rely on AP beams, which are barely reliable. All it takes is an average or below round of shooting and your 8-10AD discharge guns can do absolutely nothing to stop a raid level ship (it happened in this game with the HC firing at a Hyperion AC and doing about 10 damage with 10AD).

So yeah, hull 6, a wider deployment - when the Omegas came into range he did the right thing and concentrated fire on the LC. But again, average rolling that turn let him down - I was pretty sure it would've popped with 32 AD of heavy lasers raining down on it.

 

[angelus2000]

Somebody pop into Vassal and play me a game right quick, I'm having a bad day and need to inflict a crushing defeat on someone to feel better

 

[Locutus9956]

speaking of Vassal has anyone updated the mod recently (Im thinking mainly of the updated Command Omega here)

 

[Triggy]

Yep, it's been done already, check on page 1 of the forum.