Drakh Energy Shields

[RayB]

New to the Forum so I'd best say hi! Hi!

Just playing ACTA right now (will be left on the table for a day or 2), and GEG's seem a little too good! So I feel I have to ask if we're playing it right?

You attack with a single weapon system (entry) from a ship, rolling to cause damage as normal, roll for crits, then take the damage away?

So you have for example an EA Chronos Frigate, firing its Rail Gun, then Pulse Cannon then Particle beams. You would deduct the damage caused by the number of GEG's for each weapon system?
So 1 GEG would be -1 damage from the Rail gun, -1 damage from the Pulse cannon, -1 damage from the particle beam.

This seems to be a bizare way of representing regenerating energy shields that can be overwhelmed! Why not just have bog standard Self-Repair!? Or if the shields recharge increadibly quickly why not just have better armour?

If we are playing it right(and even if we're not) what are the best ships and tactics to kill Drakh ships?

Cheers,

RayB

 

[CZuschlag]

The GEG is indeed a powerful system. Unless you are prepared and have a couple of weapon systems adequate to beat it, it can be very intimidating.

First of all, you need to make sure that any critical hits you generate ignore the GEG effect. A 6 just moves right through. So, one good option is the selection of Precise weaponry.

Otherwise, you have it right.

Another is to take at least some ships with single big weapon lines. The Maximus, with its 10 dice of Twin Array, is a sterling example of a good option vs. the Drakh.

Keep in mind that the Drakh pay (somewhat) for the privilege of GEG by having, almost universally, low Hull values. The only exception to this rule is the Light Cruiser; even the Cruiser at Battle level is Hull 5; most everyone else is Hull 6. This usually means a lot more hits in the first place.

A side effect of low Hull values is a relative succeptibility to beams. Sulust, Primus, and Tinashi are murderous; Hyperions can be extremely deadly as well. However, should the Raiders get behind such shiips, it become a long bad day for 1/45 Beam-Teamers. But that's a very big if!

On the other hand, Emines are almost a total waste against the GEG. Even against the Raiders, denying them Dodge does little; a 6-die Emine system is good for 3 hits for 2:2 or 1:1 if you throw a bulkhead by the time the GEG is done. You don't even get the chance to get past the GEG with a crit, as Emines can't crit.

The concept of "overwhelming" the GEG just does not apply. You can overwhelm an individual line, but that's about it.

As to why the new mechanic? It really forces new tactics. You look for low-rate firepower exchanges; you'll brush away almost all fire, whereas he will suffer 1000 cuts. The GEG also allows for some vast Napoleonic flanking manouvers that no one else can afford to do, as it gives the opponent more guns to fire in a given turn for little benefit. Now, if all those side guns slowly get GEGed away, one by one, the outflank is worth it......

 

[Tolwyn]

Hello an welcome to the forums

How have you handled criticals?
Every critical which is caused by an AD is not negated by the GEG, it only blocks initiating volley, not the critical itself.

 

[Locutus9956]

actually thats not strickly true it doesnt block ANY part of the crit not the effec or the base damage from the crit.

So for example if you scored 1 hit and it came up a crit it would be completely unafected by GEG.

If however you scored 2 hits and one came up a crit then the non crit would be stopped by GEG and the crit would go through.

If you scored 4 hits, 1 of which came up a crit, 1 of which came up a blukhead and your target had GEG 1 then you would block 1 of the standard hits and so on.

 

[H]

hmm, the GEG is far from overpowered, many people seem to think it is, all i can say is those people have not really played an active Drakh fleet.
the GEG IS powerfull in skirmish and patrol levels, but the minute you look at raid and above, it gets a bit pants. The problem with geg is clearly that of a scaling issue, the point being, it can dominate low level games and make the opponents hate it, but then at high level, the Drakh players hate it.

the biggest problem was that the designers felt having GEG, meant you must have swiss cheese hulls, so drakh actually get shot a lot more than other fleets, as an SAP weapon needs a 2 to hit half of the fleet, and a 3 at worst! the drakh easily take on board a lot of shots, which in essence pretty much negates the geg, then maul their fairly low damage scores.

The drakh are a finesse fleet, a good drakh player will rely on his geg merely as antifighter protection, the rest of his game is based on out maneuvreing an emeny, and if possible, swamping them with raiders... although some prefer standfing off with a light cruiser.

If you are having trouble with GEG, take dice heavy ships, weapons stats are less important versus drakh, fleets like the Abbai do very well as they can send in 16 twin linked dice against a hull 4 or 5... that really hurts, the Dilgar do quite well, and the Narn can do ok as well. Dice light fleets, who may have better weapons, ISA for example, don't normally do as well. I have mauled the ISA on several occasions, Light raiders ganging up on whitestars isn't pretty!

personally, as a drakh player I would be happy to loose GEG and gain some hull and damage! although a few AF weapons might be needed then!

 

[Burger]

I think the GEG is a little underpowered because at least one of the playtesters didn't understand the rules when they got them; they tested it as GEG X reduces the hits by X rather than the damage.

 

[H]

I think the GEG is a little underpowered because at least one of the playtesters didn't understand the rules when they got them; they tested it as GEG X reduces the hits by X rather than the damage.

whoops!! heh heh

 

[Smegish]

The one example of GEG kicking arse is on the Adira, but that is because GEG 3 + Hull 6 makes it damn near invulnerable to any weapon not getting a shedload of AD. And of course that is not a Drakh ship... :roll:

 

[Burger]

Yeah the Adira is a very strong ship. GEG 3, hull 6 and shedloads of damage points. The only (non-ancient) that is as hard to kill is the Victory.

 

[RayB]

Thank you very much for answering so quickly!

So you can't ignore any damage that causes or is part of criticals? I thought it was just damage caused on the crit table?

The Adira is such an ugly model, it shouldn't have such nice stats! I guess that's the selling point! :wink:

Cheers,

RayB

 

[H]

So you can't ignore any damage that causes or is part of criticals?

nope, any crit, automatically does the damage, and then the crit effect and damage.

I actually like the adira model :-(

 

[Tankdriver]

hiff,
What does "it's pants" mean? If I am going to be on this forum I need to catch up on the slang.

And at least you have the GEG, strong or not. My poor dilgar get squat!

 

[H]

pants is just a coloqial experession for rubbish, useless, crap etc.

 

[Tankdriver]

and what exactly is "make a dog's breakfast" ?

 

[Burger]

Google is your friend.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLC,GGLC:1970-01,GGLC:en&q=%22make+a+dog%27s+breakfast%22
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&rls=GGLC%2CGGLC%3A1970-01%2CGGLC%3Aen&q=%22that%27s+pants%22&meta=

etc...

 

[Tankdriver]

Ahhh, that would explain the references the Sky Sports nwes guys were making when they referred to a two-own goal performance by Jamie Carragher (?) as "He made a dog's breakfast of it."

 

[Junior]

I have a question, was there any visual element or mention of the or a GEG like device that that Drahk had? The only visual element of a GEG like device, I seen in the shows was that of the Thirdspace Aliens with there hull tight force fields.

 

[RayB]

Hmm, so Drakh really suffer from lucky hits! I'm not so keen on the extreme contrast between not causing damage and then (quite often) leaping straight to critical damage including the 'hit' (which could be tripple damage I suppose).

I guess having quite a lot of hits given the sizes and weak armour makes up for this weirdness. (as hits lost from crits against low armoured targets are less 'valuable' to the enemy than high armour).

Cheers,

RayB

 

[Target]

If Drakh are hit by a triple damage weapon, they probably have more to worry about than just the crit since they GEG has already been exceeded & probably is more than 1 hit.

 

[locarno24]

Yup. If you roll a 6 on the damage roll you ignore the GEG completely.

GEG's are nice - they pretty much make a ship immune to light weapons - which is why the Drakh survive despite having no fighters, no flak batteries (oh...rear laser, sorry, ) and papier mache armour.

Unlike interceptors, which can be overwhelmed by light fire, you need to hit the Drakh hard with a single big gun - the more weapons you fire at them, the more times he uses the GEG, and the more damage it stops.

For example - killing a fast destroyer:

With Starfury fighters it would require something in the order of 33 strafing runs (assuming the GEG stays online when crippled). In that time the GEG will block an average of 46 damage - nearly twice the toughness of the ship!

With the main gun of a Shadow Omega Destroyer, one shot will inflict an average of 33 damage through the GEG - enough to kill it outright, and garuantee a violently explosive death. This time the GEG stops only three damage - literally a single hit from the triple damage weapon.

Lucky hits are more necessary for smaller weapons; Something like a Hermes (with its single missile rack) is pretty much dependant on criticals to touch a raider - which is why precise is so good. With a big gun it's not such an important issue; if you hammer something with 20 plus damage, who gives a monkeys if it stops two or three of them?




Tha Adira is a ship apart - having hull 6 and bloody good fighter cover and a good GEG makes it pretty much invulnerable to anything not packing a heavy laser/gravetic lance/heavy bolter equivalent. But then it damned well should be...there's a reason why you get to take it on with a pair of Sharkaan Warcruisers!