Brakiri Tashkat: any thoughts?

[MustEatBrains]

I just received a Brakiri fleet box today. Opening the box to clean the ships of flash (of which there was little to speak of, btw), I saw the two Tashkat and realized that I´ve never used them before...

So, going over the stats again, I´m not quite sure what to make of the Tashkat - his main weapon looks nice enough, even with slow-loading, but the secondary weapons aren´t that impressive, and the shifters - well, they look interesting, but I´m not sure whether they´re really worth it.

And the mine cruiser variant? Well, a lot of e-mines are a lot of fun, but again there´s not much secondary firepower.

I know that the Brakiri ships have pretty high damage values to make up for their lack of a heavy punch (ok, the Kaliva has both), but I´m still at a loss about how to handle the Tashkat...

Any thoughts or advice on them?

 

[H]

hmm, I have used both ships, I'll actually start with the takata Mine Cruiser. I this day and age when Fighters get to ignore all your anti fighte guns until after they have shot, Mines are once again an excelent way of ganking them before they even reach you. Unlike narn mines, the Tashkat does not suffer from slow loading, so you can unload all those mines each and every round. And don't underestimate their ship killing ability either. I took out a group of 4 Tethys Cutters over 2 rounds by dumping e-mines on them, co-incdentally hitting some figters, Admitedly, you get the same E-mine punch, with varients from two narn raid ships. But the Tashkat is solid and certainly wirt htaking against whitestars, Drakh raiders, and Fighter heavy fleets, and don't forget the boneheads.
the tashkat is as you say, and odd ship, an 8AD beam is great, every other round, but the ship doesn't lack punch, it's all round fire isn't spectacular but it does have AP, and add in the speed and 2 45 turns, and the tashkat is one of the most maneuvreable warships out their. the Beam took out an omega in one shot the first time I ever used it, being forward arc, it is easy to CAF, Omegas were not built to withstand 8AD of caffed beam, I got somethign like 13 hits on it, and some beauty crits. I think these ships both need to be fielded in the right place, and with good support, on it's own, neither is a match for a Bin tak, or an Octurion, but as part of a fleet they are both pretty solid, good damage and crew, interceptors, and some reasonably potent weapons.

 

[Iain McGhee]

I've used Tashkats against EA and Drazi fleets. They're very tough to kill between the armour and 5D interceptors. The Grav beam is a little disappointing against heavily armoured ships but the AP secondaries more than make up for it. The Gravitic Shifters are great against ships with boresight weapons or limited side or rear weaponry as the Tashkat is fast enough to close on an enemy squadron quickly and then 'shift' them out of position while hitting them with it's 10AD per arc AP weapons (best if you can get targets on F/P/S arcs) then blow straight through them, come about and then do the same again. I haven't had the opportunity to try out the G-mine variant yet (no campaigns set that late on as yet).

 

[LaranosTZ]

So far I've been in agreement with the two above posters. Think of the Tashkat as an over-armored skirmish or raid ship, since that's really the kind of maneuverability they have. I usually use them as flanking ships, since they can go pretty far out of their way and still get CAF with their beams, or get back around lightning fast for a strike at a vulnerable target.

Both varients are going to be effective ships, for different reasons. With the new changes to emines the grav-mine varient is even more effective, though it will not be effective against high hull value ships. I would use the emine varient against Vree, fighter-heavy and 'wolf-pack' style fleets. Against higher, hardier opponents you really need those double damage dice to pack enough of a punch to injure them signifigantly, and if you get close enough for that gravitic shifter, all the better!

As undignified as it is, I also use both varients as bait. It's just such a tempting target for your opponent, especially if you send it off all on it's lonesome. The advantage here is that due to it's high durability it can really exchange fire and soak up the damage for a very long time before it goes down, and if your opponent falls for it, they usually end up out of position to come back around for the rest of your fleet.

 

[MustEatBrains]

Isn´t a War-level shipa bit extreme/expensive as a bait? Sure, it can soak up a lot of damage, but in your average game, there won´t be too much of a fleet left to outdo your opponent, or am I wrong here?

Has anyone ever used the shifters to make opponents fly into an asteroid field? That´s the one thing I´m most looking forward to. Sure, turning away boresighted ships is nasty, but making them fly against big rocks must be hilarious! :twisted:

 

[LaranosTZ]

Well, I'm not always thinking of 5 pt raid fights here, after all. When you have more ships if you have one ship that is able to divert all, or a good portion of your opponent's force and still survive for 3-4 turns, (which is very possible with that ship, it's a brick,) then you've gained a pretty signifigant tactical advantage.

Of course, if you're playing a war-level conflict, I usually get two of those bad boys and squadron them.

 

[Iain McGhee]

Yes, I've sent enemy ships into obstacles (and sometimes forced them off the table!) with shifters. Good for vectoring adrift ships so they can't be recovered too.

 

[Sock]

From my experience neither war level ship is worth it. Take 2 kaliva's instead, it is the best brakiri ship in my opinion.

 

[MustEatBrains]

From my experience neither war level ship is worth it. Take 2 kaliva's instead, it is the best brakiri ship in my opinion.

I agree with you about the Kaliva; however, I do have those two Tashkats, and I actually like the miniature, so I might as well try to learn to use them properly! :wink:

 

[H]

From my experience neither war level ship is worth it. Take 2 kaliva's instead, it is the best brakiri ship in my opinion.

I agree with you about the Kaliva; however, I do have those two Tashkats, and I actually like the miniature, so I might as well try to learn to use them properly! :wink:

the Caffed 8AD beam on the Tashkat is a Killer though. great weapon.

 

[B5freak]

Agreed, not a War. I look to the Octurion as my standard of measure in the SFoS lists, and the Tashkat is nowhere near that powerful.

 

[katadder]

use the mine cruiser to kill all enemy fighters and then let your fighters run rampant

 

[Ripple]

Fighters blow...1 AD AP...just not much of a threat.

Now if the Brokadoes carried eight of them...maybe.

Ripple

 

[katadder]

true but more of a threat than no having them and when you ghet 2 on the brikorta thats more than the carrier has and AP shots firing before anything else isnt all bad. plus the energy mine carrier can be used versus whitestars and minbai at range as well. its the one i prefer out of the 2 ships due to having 16 dice per turn at range compared to the 8AD every other turn even it its AP and DD