Recently had the opportunity to play a game between a Hawkwood squadron: 1x Griffon, 2x Hornet against a Hazat squadron: 1x Manticore, 2x Scorpion. There were no troop upgrades and both squadrons weighed in at 420 points. Now I realize that this was a relatively small battle, which is fine since we played on my dining room table, which is not that large (which I think had some to do with the outcome, also, no terrain was used). On first turn no special actions were announced and turret fire was traded at range. Both sides picked one frigate to pick on but little else happened. Second turn, Hazat won initiative. Hawkwood tried to keep some space, correctly guessing that Hazat intended to board, which proved correct as Hazat sped closer. Lucky hits from both sided did damage to the other sides' picked unlucky frigate. Turn three, Hazat won initiative again. Hazat's frigate ended up crippled this turn, and Hawkwood's ended up destroyed, due in no small part by a particularly nasty broadside from the Manticore. Hazat's other frigate ended up close enough to board the other Hornet. Turn four Hazat's Manticore moved in to join the boarding action on the Hornet, all the while firing at the Griffon. Hawkwood managed to destroy the crippled Scorpion, a symbolic victory at this point. The Hazat succeeded in taking over the Hornet due to the reinforcements from the Manticore. Left with only the Griffon, Hawkwood admitted defeat.
Battle report: Hawkwood vs. Hazat
- Thread starter Bellicose
- Start date
Interesting report to read. I found that once you started adding terrain and more ships things can get more mixed up. That said once one side gets the upper hand it's hard to reverse.
regarding the table size I generally use centimetres instead of inches to make better use of space.
regarding the table size I generally use centimetres instead of inches to make better use of space.
steelbrok said:
I am not so certain - one solid boarding action can turn certain defeat into victory...
Likely replay with a bit larger squadron and terrain and see what happens. Our impression that Hawkwood's mixed weapons are a little awkward to use. The turret mounted missiles work well for doling out a little damage on turns that you are trying to evade being boarded, but on turns when you are doing full broadsides it seems like Hazat has an edge. I do think that Hawkwood and Hazat are a fun match up. It's just once Hazat is close enough to board that their higher number of troops and more plentiful grapple guns start to take their toll.
Or the reverse, as a full galliot's worth of grimson marauders leap heroically across the void and - as far as I can tell - miss the opposing ship completely. Which is the only explanation I can think of as to how an entire Sheekhur's worth of elite troops failed to take a frigate in my last game.
You're quite correct. Missiles and lasers are a slightly confused armament - a weapon which is great at causing critical hits to the hull, and a turret that...can't knock down the shields to let you do that. By comparison, Hazat ships are better armed for a one-on-one duel, using the simplistic approach of heavy guns, backed up by more heavy guns, supported, if possible, by some additional heavy guns.
The larger the engagement, though, the better the ships tend to balance out - once the Hawkwood fleet can muster enough lasers, for example, you can concentrate them on one target and land lots of lovely precise hull hits, giving them a disproportionately higher rate of scoring criticals than Hazat. Equally, in a big game, missiles are quite useful because you can fling an entire squadron's fire at a unit without needing to drop its shields, or you can throw missiles every which way, target multiple ships and hope for criticals that will impact their fighting power.
Not to say House Hazat doesn't get better in bigger games, but it doesn't get as much better as the Hawkwoods do.
They're probably the best fleet at boarding actions from the core 'Noble Houses' fleets - but I'd warn that, again, the balance shifts as games get bigger - whilst boarding actions are a good way for small ships to fight larger ones, they do get drastically harder to pull off as soon as gatling laser batteries make an appearance; a cruiser - especially one with some marauders aboard - can take a huge effort to bring down.
I have the core rule book and the Fleets of the Fading Suns supplement. I also have most of the miniatures for Hawkwood, Decados, Hazat, Kurgan, and Vuldrock. So far we have focused most of our games on Hawkwood and Hazat (haven't even tried Vuldrock yet). So I only really feel confident commenting on how those two fleets play so far. I would enjoy hearing any thoughts or impressions from any other Noble Armada fans.
Hawkwood: The 'yardstick' fleet. Good ships, but suffer from 'confused' armament, as above. The Hawkwood big capital ships are scary, especially the Osprey.
Decados: Unsubtle (despite their background) and probably the best fleet for pure destructive firepower. Their only real rival in a broadside-to-broadside slugging match are the Li Halan, but Decados ships are more manouvrable and have turret mounts. Fleets of the Fading Suns makes raiders significantly better, too.
Hazat: Are you at close range? No? Get to close range. There. Now you're winning. Kurgan and Vuldrok can keep pace in close-quarter boarding matches (just about) but few others can without specifically building a fleet with boarding in mind. Also, two of the best specialist ships going (the Shamshir strike cruiser and the escort frigate) are Hazat ships.
Kurgan: Whilst your ships are only a bit cheaper, they are cheaper - the bigger the game, the more significant this gets. The free fighters for carriers is a blessing, because you get really good carriers (including some launch bays on your dreadnought). Marytr fighters hurt like hell but getting your points worth out of sacrificing them takes some doing. Lastly, concentrate fire. I know you've got slow weapons and in theory can shoot through shields and spread fire around, but you'll find you still struggle to do meaningful damage without picking on single ships. Also, concentrated heat blaster fire is just disgusting because you rack up crew criticals so damn quickly.
Vuldrok: Not nearly as tough as their first version (which verged on the stupid) but not exactly pushovers. Vulnerable to precise weapons (so avoid laser batteries if you can) but hard to hurt with anything else, especially with Close Blast Doors! orders. Again, concentrate fire - nominate one ship to close in range to throw EM shells, then have the rest of the fleet blow the vulnerable target to bits with hard rounds. One secret weapon is the Myrkwrym, which - regardless of the ship's supposed class and description, is neither a scout nor a boarding ship. It's a guided missile, and a damn scary one. Ram.
Decados: Unsubtle (despite their background) and probably the best fleet for pure destructive firepower. Their only real rival in a broadside-to-broadside slugging match are the Li Halan, but Decados ships are more manouvrable and have turret mounts. Fleets of the Fading Suns makes raiders significantly better, too.
Hazat: Are you at close range? No? Get to close range. There. Now you're winning. Kurgan and Vuldrok can keep pace in close-quarter boarding matches (just about) but few others can without specifically building a fleet with boarding in mind. Also, two of the best specialist ships going (the Shamshir strike cruiser and the escort frigate) are Hazat ships.
Kurgan: Whilst your ships are only a bit cheaper, they are cheaper - the bigger the game, the more significant this gets. The free fighters for carriers is a blessing, because you get really good carriers (including some launch bays on your dreadnought). Marytr fighters hurt like hell but getting your points worth out of sacrificing them takes some doing. Lastly, concentrate fire. I know you've got slow weapons and in theory can shoot through shields and spread fire around, but you'll find you still struggle to do meaningful damage without picking on single ships. Also, concentrated heat blaster fire is just disgusting because you rack up crew criticals so damn quickly.
Vuldrok: Not nearly as tough as their first version (which verged on the stupid) but not exactly pushovers. Vulnerable to precise weapons (so avoid laser batteries if you can) but hard to hurt with anything else, especially with Close Blast Doors! orders. Again, concentrate fire - nominate one ship to close in range to throw EM shells, then have the rest of the fleet blow the vulnerable target to bits with hard rounds. One secret weapon is the Myrkwrym, which - regardless of the ship's supposed class and description, is neither a scout nor a boarding ship. It's a guided missile, and a damn scary one. Ram.
