Centauri vs Minbari

Da Boss

Mongoose
Hi so just played a 5 point raid (plus one warship apiece) ready for tourni on Saturday - it went a little like this.............

The Centauri fleet entered the unknown sector having received news of the defeat of the scouting Minbari squadron - the surviving ships having returned to base for reapoirs (we played a 5 pt skirmish game). Especially pleasing was the reports that the Minbari cloaking field seemed ineffective against the new sensor systems............

The Octurion with two Magnus cruised towards the centre of the sector, whilst the flank was guarded by a Tertius, iteself flanked on either side by two Corvans and lead by a Maximus ( :D ).

A sesnor ghost resolved itself for a moment as a massive Sharlin Cruiser drifted into view. immediatley the Octurion had a firing soloution and opened fire with its main beam, inflicting damage. Jublilation was immediate on the Centauri side - little did they know this would be their only real opportunity to damage the Minbari flagship. The other ships closed in on the Minbari ship, the two groups split by an errent asteriod.

The Impudent Maximus sped forwards and was promptly battered by massed fire from two frigates and a carrier, making its guns unrelaible.
Despite the previous success, neither the two Magnus or the Octurion could target the Sharlin which tore into one of the Magnus. A swarm of Minbari fighters sped towards the Centauri ships.

As the Centraui closed the range, their targeting sensors again betrayed them and only a smattering of fire grazed a friagte which unleashed hell on the Tertius and destroyed its engines, its companion frigate crippled and skeleton crewed one Corvan and did the same to the Maximus. A fighter engagement resulted in numerous Centauri casulties and one defiant Razik holding its own

As the ships closed to point blank range Minbari fighters ripped into the undamaged Magnus and heavily damaged its engines. The Sharlin ignored the Octurion (which managed to kill a fighter) and destroyed the damaged Magnus, killing most fo the surounding fighters. The Tertius suffered more fire, but damaged the attacking frigate and the Maxmius blew up.

As the ships reached point blank range the Octurion was still unable to penetrate the Minbari Sharlins cloak which again ignored the battleship and destroyed the surviving Magnus. The Octurion managed a lock on the damaged frigate and annhilated it. The Surviving Corvan, whilst probing the Sharlin proved immune to the Minbari sensors and grazed the Minbari carrier.

The Sharlin drifted round the Asteroids in a show of superior speed, but the Octurion managed to come about, brinign the enemy flagship once again directl in front of its entire front arsenal - but again proved unable to get a lock on despite assstance from the unassailble Corvan. Finding that the Corvan was immune to sensors the Minbari sent their remaining fighters to kill the irritating scout - which they eventualy managed. The last Centauri fighter succumbed after killing one Nial and finding two more pitted against it

As the Sharlin drifted out of view before stopping, the Octurion finally managed a lock - but on the lone Minbari Scout ship lurking nearby, poised to finish the disabled Batttlecruiser and inflicted severe damage but failed to kill it. The Tertius died as fighters and damaged Scout teamed up and the Corvan became a burning hulk.

The Sharlin came back at the Octurion as the Surviving frigate rounded the asteroid field, but proved unable to finish the Octurion alshtough its target could not return fire. However the side guns finally achieved a lock on the Sharlin and inflcited moderate damage before the return fire proved the superior targeting as they (as they did on alomst every attack) caused a series of critical hits.

As the surviving Minbari ships closed on the crippled Centauri flagship, the few survivors signaled their surrender.....................
 
Nice report though the constant references to CLOAKING field was funny. This ain't no star trek :D

Sounds like nasty fight. Those precise beams can be major pain. Maybe you should have tried to reduce enemy firepower from bit "easier" targets instead? Sharlin packs nice stealth score and isn't that vulnerable to boot so even if you get lock-on you are strugling to take it out of equation in one go(well unless you have luck of my EA with you...).
 
Hmm, yeah well I avoid "cloaking" in future.
:oops: :)
I was trying to target all ships but it was just one of those games when I could not hit him :lol:

I had 5 rounds of "firing" at the Sharlin from less than 8" and only fired once!!! Pretty similar with the other ships :roll: The previous game I had only failed to see the Minbari ships twice!!! The only good thing was he never mananged to see my second Corvan with ANY Minbari ship except fighters - maybe it was a cloaking field after all!

ah well it was great fun!
 
Da Boss said:
I had 5 rounds of "firing" at the Sharlin from less than 8" and only fired once!!! Pretty similar with the other ships :roll:

Reminds of the catastrophic turn vs Minbari's then. Just when I was about to give killing blow to already reeling Minbari's I promptly failed all 8 stealth checks at 3+...(with clean row of 1's so even if it had been 2+ wouldn't have changed anything...). Suddenly my fleet was silent. This gave Minbari's enough of advantage to turn massacre loss into massacre victory...

(G'Kar voice. Yes I know not exact quote but similar)I already had him in my grasp!

Of course didn't help that he then started to roll incredible critical hits. Oh there went weapons of nova. Oh there couple 6-6's and so to second nova...Oh and these fusion cannons shoot at your third nova casually and oh look! Yet another 4-6 :lol: (casually as in: Don't have anything better to shoot at with these so let's shoot at that main ship hoping for lucky event...)
 
It's what I both enjoy and hate about the Minbari. You drive forty five minutes for a game and you may never fire a shot that matters, or he may have his stealth never work. Either way, it may make a great story, but as a game it just blows when those big swings happen.

Up side is of course if you can get the banter going well and folks are just laughing about it.

Ripple
 
I played my Centauri against Minbari played by a rookie this past tuesday. Six point raid. All was going well until turn three. He knocked a Vorchan, Centurion, and a Dargans weapons off line. Unbelievable! But I was glad for him. Its always nice to beat a veteran when your new to a game.
 
I play against EA with my centauri last night. The guy I played against has a habit of taking completely out there fleets, and last night was no exception. We plan our fleets, then suprize each other. We played 6 point raid, and I thought,"hmm I think I will take a nice rounded fleet. 1 primus, 2 sulust, two vorchan, and 2 darkners. He took 18 hermes transports!!! I had 2 flights of sentries against 18 flights of starfuries! The first turn I put the one flight I started the game out with back in the hanger. I lost all my skirmish ships to missile fire, but eventually wiped all the upstart humans. The game ended with all my large ships in a huddle, using their partical arrays to swat away the last damn starfuries.
 
Ripple said:
could'a been worse...they could all have been T-bolts...

Yeah, that would have been more of a challange. I must admit there was a moment when I thought "damn, I don't have a single anti fighter weapon except two flights of sentries". Also the sight of all those little ships coming to get me was a bit unnerving. After we had played the first turn, and I'd swatted 6 of them out of the sky my pulse slowed a bit. My opponants plan was to shoot hell out of me with buckets of missles as I crossed the battle field, but I'd taken ships that could get at him from turn one. Thats the thing about this method of choosing a fleet, sometimes it leads to unpleasent supprizes. We have a gentlemans agreement to stay away from minbari when we choose fleets this way. We both think that you need to tailor a fleet to fight them (scout, loads of fighters) because of all that stealth. I think you would know all about it if you had to fight the minbari.
 
Totally agree...we generally give the race in any 'random' match game so folks can at least have the right mentality in mind for the fight. A number of races need special handling, the Minbari being the most notable. I've said a number of times that in one offs where I can prep for them, Minbari come across close to balanced, but in a random tourney match, or a campaign where I can't bring the right toys to bear they just come off as overpowered.

Still cool stuff all around, love to see that stack of hermes fly just cause I've advocated it as a real back breaker before. Not unbeatable but awfully tough.

Ripple
 
Ripple said:
Still cool stuff all around, love to see that stack of hermes fly just cause I've advocated it as a real back breaker before. Not unbeatable but awfully tough.

I was lucky to have picked the right fleet, the forward arcs meant it was harder for him to avoid my fire. Even with all those ships to use as inititive sinks, and once the numbers were whittled down it was a case of hermes hunting. If I had taken a bore-sight fleet, or a slow fleet, things might have been different.
 
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