Convoy Duty

[Banichi]

Our group has been playing ACTA since 2007, and in all honesty non of us can remember anyone EVER winning as the attacker in the convoy duty scenario.

Today my friend and I played two games( skirmish level), each taking a turn as the attacker, and both games finished the same way. With crushing victories to the defending player. Just to mention, we play with twice the number of corporate freighters for the priority level , but the defender only gets one point for each that escapes. Instead of two.

We both tried quite different tactics. In the first game the attacker went for the stand off with missile ships from turn one approach. And while the convoy took an absolute beating the defending ships were able to crush the attackers before the missile ships could do enough damage to win after making a tactical withdrawal.

In the second game the attacker waited for about 4 turns before swooping in on the back of the convoy with a centurion and a vorchan. Once again the convoy was pounded, this time without the defending ships being able to fire a shot. But then absolute disaster. The defenders fighters attacked both centauri ships and scored a 2/5 engine crit on each one. And that was that. The plan was to zoom in from behind, rake the civilian ships, and then APTE the heck out of there, just squeeking a win on victory points. But the engine crits slowed the attackers down just enough for them to be caught, and dealt to. Trying to open a jump point then would have left them sitting right under the guns of the defenders rapidly turning fleet. The centurion might have weathered the storm, but it would have take just the loss of the vorchan to tilt the victory point balance back the other way. And we all know how well vorchans love heavy fire storms.

I was wondering how the rest of you out there have fared with this scenario. Is what I descride the norm? Or are we just very good at defending convoys. :lol:

 

[Digger]

You can win at this scenario, I did at a Mongoose open day against LBH!

As the attacker you have to kill a single ship and then run like hell off the board - You win on points and that's about the only way to do it.

If you hang in there an fight you're going to lose - It's a tactical scenario!

 

[lastbesthope]

You can win at this scenario, I did at a Mongoose open day against LBH!

Winning against me is the default outcome though Digger

LBH

 

[No. 1 Bear]

just roll 6's and make the opponent roll 1's

 

[Banichi]

As the attacker you have to kill a single ship and then run like hell off the board

That was the plan in the second game. If it hadn't been for those crits I'm pretty darn sure it would have worked.

The way the victory point system works I'm starting to think the attacker is better off going after an escort ship, and only targeting civilian ships if they happen to be in a side arc. I mean, the games we played were at skirmish level, so a skirmish level ship is worth 10vp. Whereas the civ freighters are only worth 2. But then again they are worth 2 to the defender, so ignoring them too much will also cost you the game. Because you have to factor in the points you give away for your tactical withdrawal.

 

[Digger]

Absolutely, snag an escort and run like hell!

 

[Burger]

The best tactic in a lot of the scenarios, is not to actually follow the intention. You have to examine the VP rules closely, and find a way to win on a technicality.

In Convoy Duty you still give away VPs if you make a tactical withdrawal. So if you kill one escort and run away, you'll probably lose.

However the game ends on the turn that all civilian ships are destroyed. So I would say, the best tactic is to blast them as quickly as possible. Hopefully the VPs you earn will be enough to cover your losses. When they are all dead you don't have to worry about getting off the table, the game ends that turn anyway. Remember you can use hyperspace and come on from either/both table edges.

 

[Banichi]

However the game ends on the turn that all civilian ships are destroyed.

Hmmm. Due to the fact we have pretty much always doubled the number of civilian ships in the convoy this has never come up. Maybe that's what has been shooting the attacker in the foot with this scenario. Dispite the modified vp conditions for destroying/saving a civ ship.

It still only takes the loss of one of your ships to throw the vp balance back to the defender though. So the timing, and direction of that attack would be everything.

 

[Democratus]

In our last two campaigns I haven't seen the attacker win this scenario. While it is technically possible - it is certainly not a balanced fight and therefore not much fun when loosing or winning the fight can determine if a planet is captured.

 

[Da Boss]

Sadly IMO there are a number of scenarios that don't work that well to decide if lcoations are taken..........

Blockade Run with ISA is always fun............... :shock:

I have seen a number of interesting variations of the campaign rules with certain scenarios required to take locations whilst other scenarios grant you other benefits - ie RR points, bonus to iniative or similar............

 

[AdrianH]

In 1st Edition, the attacker got 10 VP for destroying a freighter while the defender got 5 VP for a freighter which escaped. Presumably the figures were changed because this made it too easy for the attacker, so if it is now too easy for the defender then perhaps the scenario could be balanced by revaluing the freighters again.

Blockade Run is a walkover for any ship with at least speed 12. Turn 1, All Power to Engines, the ship is 18" from the starting edge and the blockader can't do anything. Turn 2, Close Blast Doors, the ship is now 30" from the starting edge, good luck to the blockader in killing or crippling it in one shot. Turn 3, All Power to Engines, the ship is now 48" away from the starting edge, i.e. the finishing line on a standard 4' wide table. 1st Edition had a mechanism for scattering the blockade fleet; I suggest using this and scrapping the rule that the blockade fleet can't do anything in turn 1. (Decide how far each ship is away from the blockader's side of the table. Roll 1D, put the ship that many feet away from the left side of the table as seen by the blockader.)

 

[tschuma]

Played this last night at Skirmish level. Centauri, the attacker, won 23 to 16 vs Earth Crusade. Centuari fleet was 3 Demos. EA was a Omicron, 2 Escort Chronos, and 2 Hermes.

First turn saw the Centauri win the initiative and bring on all 3 Demos. They fired from long range and took out 1 Freighter and a Hermes.

The next turn the Centauri won initiative again and moved in close, but used Close Blast Doors. another Freighter was destroyed and I have to admit I have never seen so many 5's and 6's rolled on Closed blast doors, it was unreal.

Turn 3 saw the Demos close in again and this time the fire did not destroy a freight, but a Chronos! 1 Demos was crippled and skeltoned, so things were turning around.

Turn 4 saw another freight go down, but also a Demos went down.

Turn 5 saw the last freighter go down and a Demos flied the field.

We played the last turn out with the last Demos fleeing the table.

Overall a good game. The Centauri player rolled more 5's and 6's then I have ever seen, thank god he did not have any Beam weapons!

My Omicron was useless due to his CB rolls. I mean it was unreal, even his Interceptor rolls, 1 die, were unreal.

The long range fire ont he first turn of fire was crucial. it then alllowed him to close with 6 AD DD TW on hull 4. The Chronos helped, but not enough.

tschuma

 

[lgryszka]

I won it as a Centauri vs. Vree

Here is battle report (in polish I’m afraid, but You can find fleet lists).
http://www.fullt.fora.pl/raporty-bitewne,17/vree-vs-centaurii-raid-level-convoy-duty,1236.html

Battle took only two turns. I used Burger tactic. Freighters was my priority target. I killed all trans, one Ximm and some Tzymms. Lost one Vorchan and one Maximus. But this was very near victory. Vorchan are excellent for this job, because they are fast, quite resilient and have very big firepower.

We talked about this scenario some time ago and we concluded, that this scenario is very hard to win by defender in Battle+ level battle. This is because 3Battle of attacking ships should wipe trans in no time. And they choose when and where enter, so they can enter on the blind side of escort ships. They should have one turn of free shoting….

 

[Banichi]

After reading you guy's comments I think we will have to go back to using the rulebook amount of civ ships.

The extra ships look nice on the table, but it sounds like it may be them that is slewing this scenario with our group. Because their escape counts as points for the defender (even with the modified vp conditions), the poor old attacker has had to stick around longer than is wise, and has a much harder time getting away as a result.

 

[Da Boss]

Biggest game we have played was in a campaign:

I think it was 5pt War Shadows versus Minbari (Minbari attacking)

The Minbari did very very well in first turn - jump point bombing and blasting the helpless transports - although suffering heavy damage to a Sharlin from Ancient and Young Shadow Ships.

Near the end of the turn, the final Minbari ship to emerge from the jump point, a Veshitan, had multiple targets - either two damaged Transports or their escorting Shadow Scouts. The commander, out for glory (?), targeted the Scouts and failed to see them or kill the transports.

The next turn saw the Sharlin destroyed by another Scout, whilst the ancient cut the Veshitan in half with one shot 8) - the Minbari went from victory to disaster with the actions of that one ship

Ken still talks about if he had just killed those transports..................