Centauri fleet and batrep, comments?

[CheesyRobMan]

5pt Raid game last night (working up for a tourney).

Me (Centauri):
1 Centurion
2 Maximus
4 Vorchan
3 Sentri wings

Him (EA):
1 Warlock + some Starfuries
2 Hyperion (Hyperia?) + some Starfuries


The plan was to have the Vorchans and Sentri sweep around one flank and come blasting in from one side. The Centurion would laser things to death once the 'hunting pack' had softened them up. The Maximus frigates would be on anti-Starfury duty, as well as "only hull 6 ship in my fleet" tanking.

This worked up until about turn 3.

What happened was basically that one Hyperion went chasing off after the two Maximus frigates, one of which got obliterated in turn 2 by the Warlock anyway, and the Hyperion killed the other one a couple of turns later. The other one got shot to bits by the Vorchan pack and finished off by the Centurion's beams - the Centurion spent a lot of time hiding behind a planet from the Warlock. After that it all went a bit Pete Tong - the Vorchans got too close to the Warlock, which took out two of them in one turn with ridiculous amounts of secondary firepower, as well as a bunch of the Sentri - the remainder took on the Starfuries in a big furball. The Centurion was feeling the heat a bit and wouldn't have lasted another turn. The Hyperion that had gone off by itself had gone too far to play any role in the rest of the battle.

We had to cut it short as the gamestore closed. I think the Warlock would basically have trundled through my whole fleet and killed everything, though, so maybe I was spared!

Any tips for taking on big bad EA ships like that? I had gone for the "lots of little ships" approach because my opponent initially said he was playing Shadows (and complained that it wasn't 6-point Raid so that he could take a Shadow Cloud), but then changed his mind. I think more battle lasers might be required for cracking a hard nut like the Warlock, especially when it's 80% of his FAPs by itself.

 

[Lord David the Denied]

At 5 raid your EA opponent had a Hyperion too many. If you were playing the SFoS Warlock it's war level, and thus costs 4 out of 5 raid points. Hyperion is raid level so costs 1 point.

Your fleet was correct: 4 Vorchan - 2 points, 2 Maximus - 1 point, 1 Centurion - 1 point, 3 Sentri wing - 1 point. Using the Armageddon breakdowns, that is.

Against the Warlock you should have been trying to get into his rear arc. Not that much firepower back there so your Vorchans could have done some damage, but it's a powerful ship and best taken on with your own war choice. The Octurion battleship is a very nice piece of kit with powerful beams, stacks of secondary guns and a decent fighter complement.

 

[fluffy05]

Maybe the EA player took the Skirmish Variants for the Hyperion not the Raid level one?

 

[emperorpenguin]

at 5 points raid you really needed more beam ships

take a look at the most popular Centauri choices, primus, centurion, sulust, dargan, altarian
most tourney fleets are a combo of these

at skirmish level the darkner packs a better punch than the ships you took too

 

[Target]

Centauri Beam Team
Primus
2 Sulust
3 Corvan
Mess's with EA pretty good. Lots of beam dice, interceptors to stop those pesky missles, Raziks to kill starfuries.

 

[Locutus9956]

The Vorchan fleet can actually be pretty good against a Warlock, theyre sheer speed means that if you go APTE you can be in its rear arc in turn 2 generally and then its a FAR less dangerous opponent. Simply put: Front arc of Warlock = Death.

Incidentally not sure what your opponent was on about the 6 pt raid thing as to my knowledge the SFOS shadow cloud is still War level and costs exactly the same as a Warlock.... Also as noted unless those Hyperions were skirmish Varients I think youre oppnent needs to reread the priority system carefully (unless hes deliberately a cheating git in which case I would perscribe inserting an octurion battle crouser about his person... :twisted: )

Just to clarif: A ship 2 priority levels above the scenario costs 4 FAP. In a 5pt raid tourney game a War level ship is 4 of your 5 points. If youre playing with armageddon rules an Armageddon level ship (such as the Armageddon shadow cloud) would cost 8 FAP. There is no possible combination of rules I can think of ANYWHWERE that can cause a single ship to cost 6 FAP so I dont know what your opponent was thinking

 

[lastbesthope]

I can think of a 5 FAP case, under SFOS rules a VCD with Sheridan would cost 5 Raid FAP.

As for a 6 FAP choice, buying a Balvarin at Patrol level, and replacing all 6 Sentri flights for Rutarians would cost 6 Patrol FAP. (Again SFOS Rules)

I know it's very contrived, but I was sure there was a way to do it :lol:

LBH