[br] Vuldruk vs Decados

[katadder]

yeah forgot heatblasters dont have the inaccurate either against vuldrok so crew will be hit hard. church and kurgan will do great against them

 

[starbreaker]

decados and al-malik frigates can reliably cripple them or kill if get good crits even with the armour 2.

Cripple yes, kill no. Decados frigate scores 4 hits for 8 rolls on the damage chart. Average says they lose 2, maybe 3 to bulkheads and score 1 crit. Total damage is well below 9 without crazy luck on crits. Al Malik is much worse, 4 hits from rockets plus 2 missile hits for 6 damage rolls, which won't even cripple on average rolls. Al Malik can improve that with scout support, but who uses scouts on explorers, even scary explorers? The Kurgan is slightly better than the Decados, mostly because it crit-fishes more effectively, but I bet it still leaves a Myrkwyrm alive with 1-2 points more often than not - but they'll cook crew better, which is good for murdering troops. The Vuldrok frigates are also very good - reasonably expecting 8-10 hits per volley. The laser fleets are the diciest proposition - it's all down to stacking crits for them, they can't even cripple reliably with straight damage.

Crippling helps some, but the Myrkwyrms still keep an 8" move and, half the time, Agile - they'll still be on you in a turn or two. You're going to have to finish them to eliminate the ram threat for good rather than just delay it, and that takes more than one frigate can throw. It helps if you can get both broadsides firing, of course, but doing that without eating a ram in the process is a challenge even for the speedier fleets. If your Vuldie opponent is really trying to max out his use of Myrkwyrms, he can always reverse the usual initiative process and move his little guys last to set them up optimally for the next turn - initiative sinks work both ways, after all.

but even saying all that, a frigate is 3 times the cost of a myrkwyrm

Thankfully, that seems to be changing. Hopefully they nerf the ram value some too - simply making them expensive isn't a great solution unto itself, since it limits their boarding role.

 

[katadder]

yeah my bad was reading armour as hull by mistake for some reason.

 

[tneva82]

If your Vuldie opponent is really trying to max out his use of Myrkwyrms, he can always reverse the usual initiative process and move his little guys last to set them up optimally for the next turn - initiative sinks work both ways, after all.

Good point. This actually occured to me at one point in game vs hazat that I might have been better off moving REST of the fleet first and myrkwyrms after...

Live and learn. With only 2 games under my belt can't claim to have full grasp of NA tactics yet Good if I have atleast scratched the surface a bit...