Centauri v EA

Space, the final frontier, these are the voya.....whoops wrong show

ok, 20 points of Centauri v 20 points 3rd age EA. Man those EA ships are hard! Everywhere I looked there was a squadron of omegas. £0 inch range 6 AD DD beam, backed up[ by a Squadron of 4 Warlocks! 4 Warlocks! The sheer fire power I was facing determined some of my chpices for me. The initiative sinks in the form of Hermes and Oracles dictated others.

With an Asteroid field on the right flank and a large gasseous nebula on the Centre Left flank I set up with A squadron of 4 Vorchans and a Squadron of 4 Magraths on the left, accompanied by a Corvan. Hopefully the asteroids would protect them from the Warlocks who they intended to fly past , turn, and catch in a cross fire. Unfortunately there was the slight matter of 2 Oracles, 9 hyperions and a hand full of Hermes in front of them, also using the Asteroid belt as cover and blocking of my line of advance.

On my left flank anothe squadron of Vorchans, accompanied by a squadron of 4 Solusts, a Squadron of 4 Dargans and a mixed Squad of 2 solusts and 2 Altarians faced off against 6 Omegas, an Oracle, 6 Hermes and a number of Olympus Corvettes. Joining the EA flanking force to the centre line was a Poseideon escorted by 3 Novas, the EA centre comprised 3 Omega Pulse ships, 6 Omegas, and the 4 Warlocks, between them and the Hyperions, out of range and in cover of the asteroids, sat 4 Avengers, spewing out fighters.

The Centauri Centre comprised two squadrons of 4 Demos, 7 Primus in 2 Squadrons, a Squadron of 4 Missile armed Altarian variants providing heavy nussiance cover, A Squadron of 3 Darkners and a Magrath backed up with 2 Dargans. 3 Octurians provided the heavy hitting power and 2 Belvarians and a number of Maximus sat behind the Primus providing fighter cover.

In Hyperspace I held back an Adira and 2 Liati.

The battle opended with the Darkners going all ahead full, drawing a line on one of the Warlocks and unloading into it. Both flanking forces advanced as far as they could and then closed blast doors. The Primus headed into the relative saftey of the Gas clouds, the Octurians advanced and then also closed blast doors. The EA vomitted out an unseemly amount of fighter craft and sent forward a mass of Hermes, and Olympus. The Hyperions moved around the asteroids preparing to wipe out the Vorchans and Magraths facing them.

The Darkners proved to be almost the only squadron in range of the enemy and managed a respectabl;e number of hits on on of the Warlocks.My opponent looked slightly concerned until he realised the Centauri lacked Double Damage Beams. The Warlock shrugged off the damage and then opend up in return. Concentrating on the Octurians n front of them the Warlocks managed to destroy one of the Centauri main battle ships, and inflicted over 80 points of Damage and crew loss on one of the others. Some fortuitous rolling for the blast doors kept the ship on the board, just short of being crippled.

The Adira and Liatis opend up Jump points in amoungst the EA ships hopingh to draw of some of the fire power that was crippling or destroying anything that came in to range.

As the battle progressed the Centauri right flank gaiined some success against the Hyperions. The mix of the fire power of the Vorchans backed up by the double damage beams of the Magrath proved a potent combination that the hyperions couldn't cope with. This, coupled by the rear and side arc fire of the Adira , and the resultant explosions amoungst the tightly packer Hyperios and Hermes saw the only real major loss of ships for the EA and the only significant advantage gained by the Centauri.

On the other flank the Solusts proved themselves against the Hermes and Olympus, butr were unable to do any harm to the Omegas and suffered horribly in match up. The Dargans proved an effective support and managed to dish out some damage once they got into range but by them it was too late for the Centauri left flank. in the Centre the Octurians died before they managed to fire a shot! Well, 2 destroyed and the other left with no weapons, engines, or anything else come to that.

The Darkners and Demos died to the massed broadsides of 3 Pulse Omegas, with the secondaries of the Warlocks picking off the final few ships that managed to survive the staggering amount of shpts that came their way.

The Adira lost it's front and side guns to Crit-Fishing shots from the EA fighter wings, it ended the game alive, and still with GEG, but with all weapons reduced by 4 AD, 2 arcs not firing at all, engines that wouldn't come on line without some jump leads and help from the AA or RAC and no special actions allowed. But in a way, it did it's job. It held up the mass of EA fighters, it stopped the EA support ships advancing , and it drew away a significant amount of fire power from the main Centauri fleet. The Liati proved themselves to be menacing little hunters and took out two Warlocks, a few more of these nasty little ships will be added to the fleet very shortly.

The game ended preaturely due to my 11 month old son who has a twin linked triple damage scream and needed his mass driver nappy changing.

It ended at 53-45 to the EA.

My thoughts on the new Centauri.... loved them. If they can survive to get into firing range. Perhaps a 7x5 board was too much for them. The Demos and Vorchans did well. Difficult to chose between them, the Demos stand up to more firepower with the inteceptor, but the Vorchand dishes out more hurt. The Magraths were a very pleasant suprise and their double damage beams come in handy. I am still uncertain as to the beams, gaining precise and losing double damage, on paper it looks fine, in game terms, the enemy survive longer.

I was gobsmacked by the EA. The amount of firepower they put out in beams was astounding. Can't wait to try my Crusade fleet out next.

A very good game, my thanks to my opponent, who had the good grace to be embarrassed at blowing off all my guns, and who's fighters were as successful at Crit-Fishing as an atlantic trawler
 
Right Hand of God said:
The Magraths were a very pleasant suprise and their double damage beams come in handy. I am still uncertain as to the beams, gaining precise and losing double damage, on paper it looks fine, in game terms, the enemy survive longer.

I was gobsmacked by the EA. The amount of firepower they put out in beams was astounding. Can't wait to try my Crusade fleet out next.

I do like the changes in 2e, in which it made the Morgrath a viable selection thanks to the change in the rules for beam. Thus IMO they are ideal to use against interceptor heavy ships like the EA :)

For Crusade Era, I'm hoping to hear good stories of fleet action with the Marathon, I personaly like how the ship turn out with the additional missile rack in 2e :D
 
Sounds like a hell of a game and a bit of a pounding for the glorious Centauri Republic.

All I can really add at this point is my theory that jump points are the Centauri's new best friend. With most of your best weapons at mid-range now, you really need to get in close as soon as you can. Fast ships like the Vorchan are all very well, but even as they're dashing 21" up the board, they can be taking fire from evil things like 30" range beams and missile racks. Jumping in close to the enemy would allow you to evade that fire until you could fire back.

I also have reservations about the Octurion and Adira going up against fleets like the EA and Minbari. Long-range beams are going to make mincemeat of them, and even the Adira's GEG3 won't stop much of the hurt getting through. Also, since these ships lost their interceptors, the EA's missile racks are going to be able to dish out the pain with impunity. You really do need Maximus escorts for your capital assets now, and you need to get into range as soon as possible to start answering back with your own guns.
 
yeah it was a great game ,turn 2 was full of highs and lows.highs having first shot in turn 2,so opening up with 4 warlocks destroying 2 darkner+2demos/vorchans and an octurian,plus peppering the adira with 1 rear and 3 side arcs .lows 4 warlocks firing on a darkner needing 2+ to see,3-1s ????

the centauri are a very scary fleet,very.i was truly worried when the darkners first salvo made loads of hits on my warlock gneisenau,but then to find out it was single damage was a load off my mind feeeeeewwwww.

but those vorchan/demos goodness they went through my hyperions like razors through flesh,and about as enjoyable.

the adira it took a big beating all in one turn but it did survive,but it has to be said the weapons i used would have had nothing to fire at if it had not jump into that arc as an asteroid field was in the way of the demos/morgrath flanking units.

all in all i like the new centauri ,they just roll loads of dd dice all you can do is hope to survive it. but i love the ea.

coming soon rhog's crusade era ea v drakh.
 
meglos said:
but then to find out it was single damage was a load off my mind feeeeeewwwww.

They might be single damage but they are also precise ;-) I actually rather prefer precise beam than DD beam. Of course centauri have more than enough DD guns anyway so they don't need DD beam. Precise beam however is handy in causing nasty crits and fast.
 
Right Hand of God said:
I agree the precise is useful, certainly more so now that you can strip traits, but it does need to be backed up by some wepons with some oomph

Well that's what all those ion cannons, matter cannons and plasma accelerators are for ;-)

But the battle lasers gives handy possibility to disable big tough ships without having to pour tons of fire at it. Especially handy for bigger ships like primus or octurion where main guns can deal with one ship and lasers disable another(preferably big threatening one) at same time.
 
Last time I played I was a bit disappointed by the battle lasers on my Primus. They caused several critical hits, right enough, but not career-ending for the target, one Omega-class destroyer. The potential is there to knock out interceptors, anti-fighter, shields, whatever, but the potential also exists to achieve nothing meaningful...
 
LDtD that's what I found to be the case. Sometimes good sometimes bad but not withstanding the devastating crit results that alays hurt, single damage beams don't really damage a ship. That's why I was so pleased with the Magrath. Double teamed with either Darkners or Vorchan/Demos, they are a potent combiniation and far to deadly not to target, leaving your larger ships able to close into range quicker.

@Destriod it was 20 points War, we like big games!
 
On the other hand, your plasma stream has a disappointing 10" range. It's handy that the Morgrath has an interceptor to keep it safe, but it could still end up dead before contributing much in terms of firepower. On the other hand, Morgraths coming out of a jump point with a Corvan on the table could well be ugly...
 
I did take pics, but I fear you will be disapointed by them as they are FA scale.

As soon as I get the time, hopefully tomorrow or Friday I will put them on
 
Right Hand of God said:
I did take pics, but I fear you will be disapointed by them as they are FA scale.

As soon as I get the time, hopefully tomorrow or Friday I will put them on

It's just cool to see so many ships duking it out, plus it gives us a better idea of how the battle looked, strategy wise.
 
No way I would be disappointed by seeing so many minis on the table no matter what scale they are, bring em on!!


and AWESOME battle report, sounds like it was good fun!!
 
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