GEG IMPLICATIONS AND MANAGEMENT
The GEG defines the Drakh. If you fail to get high value out of the GEG, you will almost certainly lose, no matter what flavor of fleet you take. And because of the passive nature of the system, it isn’t tactics of how you use it that you have to maximize, it against what it’s used.
The GEG is a threshold system. Until you exceed the GEG’s threshold, you deflect (almost – more about this later) incoming fire until it is consumed. This also means that, all other things being equal, the gets better and better the less the amount of firepower is left on the table.
And firepower has a slightly different definition here. As the GEG resets after every weapon system’s fire, the firepower we are considering is the total amount of damage a given weapon system can generate. This means that ships with one large damage system, such as any 4-dice DD beam weapon, the large Dilgar Bolter arrays, or the larger Abbai Quad Particle Arrays are major threats, while the multiple banks of the weapons systems of the Vree, Drazi, and Brakiri and not particularly dangerous.
To assess firepower numerically, here’s a fast and dirty assessment: take the number of first-weapon hits (or dice, if you don’t want to calculate hits --- but you really really should!), roughly add three quarters again if beam, and multiply it by its damage rating. If it’s five times your GEG or more, it’s a problem system. Much more than that and it’s a must-avoid. If it’s triple or less, it doesn’t scare you much. A good position is where it is only 2 or less more than your GEG score; now you've found where you're supposed to be.
One enabling ability of the GEG is flanking maneouvers. One of the posters on the A Call to Arms forum has the motto: “’Sir, the enemy has us surrounded’ ‘Good! We can fire in all directions!’”. This has a lot of truth in ACtA; surrounding someone in ACtA may only mean that you’re letting the enemy use all their arcs to their full potential. If you let them, all those side point defense guns can really add up against a target. However, lots of light guns is exactly what the GEG was built for – making those wealth of weapon systems add up to virtually nothing. Combining this with other defensive systems, like Dodge, makes it that much worse. Consider that it will take, on average, the side firepower of about 11 Teshlans to cripple just 1 Light Raider. Normally, the side of firepower of 11 Teshlans can take out 1 Sulust per turn. The comparable Drakh ship, the Light Cruiser, will take a lot of critical hits – 5 or more – but will only take about 17 damage and 20 or so crew. A Drakh Cruiser will probably laugh, taking perhaps 7 damage and 10 crew, mostly from the 5 critical hits. Clearly, the cost of flanking is small enough that instead of the fierce price paid my most races, the Drakh consider it without question. The Drakh are the first A Call to Arms race that encourages Napoleonic tactics.
Suddenly, all those ideas about attack en eschelon stop becoming old theory and become cold, hard fact. Outflanking, envelopment and speed become weapons; and you have the right forces for the job, your Raiders.
You even have a tactical option Napoleon didn’t: jumping directly into a fleet. Normally dubious in that you are permitting all those side guns something to do, your AJP-capable hulls can withstand significant point defense firepower without batting an eye. The enemy then has two unpleasant choices; attempt to turn their main guns to bear on your ships that have jumped directly into the fray, and permitting the rest of your fleet a clearer path to engaging you with its Light and Heavy Raiders, or charging forward to the rest of your fleet, trying to trap them, conceding losses to your jump-in task force for the rest of the game. Most fleets will reluctantly try to come about or dispatch some sub-force to do so. And, of course, you get the benefit of the Advanced Jump Point bomb on top of it all; an extra cheese-cherry on top. The author recommends resisting the Brie; the Raider models are spiky and it hurts if your opponent throws one at you. If you must do this, remember how much of a long-term issue fighters can be, so bomb Vorlon Fighters and Frazi; if your opponent has been foolish enough to already launch them especially consider Sky Serpents and Shadow fighters.
In counterpoint, the wrong place to be is directly in front of the big guns. Two Targraths will barely notice any Drakh Light Cruiser’s GEG before it dies; the GEG will probably add but 4 damage and crew to the ship before its death. In this scenario, it is less useful than even Interceptors 1. A dramatic variation!
This means that, to get the most out of the Drakh, you must avoid direct confrontation, avoid main weapon systems, and play a long, protracted defensive game of maneouver. This puts the Drakh squarely in the finesse fleet category, by GEG theory alone.
There are really only four ways to do this on your own, and both of them rely on your initiative benefits. Your opponent’s bad moves don’t count as a tactic:
1). Too Many Threats, Too Much Flexibility
The idea behind this one is that if he chooses one way, you choose another, and your Raiders are more nimble than he is. Flanking forces are the concept behind this one, usually in the form of wide ranging maneouvers by independent Light Raiders in larger wolfpacks. Terrain is usually your catalyst for this; your local Shadow player knows exactly what I’m talking about
2). Initiative Sinking
Use scouts, light raiders, and your initiative bonus to force him to move ships to fire one your Light Raider bricks. Then, move the Heavy Raiders and Cruisers to safer firing positions, and light ‘em up to your heart’s content. Repeat.
3). Jumping In
A free outflank, but remember to set up several jump points on the turn of entry so your opponent doesn’t know which direction to turn on the first turn. You can even use one turn of fake jump points to set up the actual jump points once you’ve messed your opponent’s fleet disposition up.
4). High-Speed Overrun
You admit to taking one turn’s fire, hate it, and all power past the front guns, then get the game to degenerate into a furball.
Sometimes none of these work; see the Vree matchups section!
The GEG is not all happiness and light. There is one major tactical consideration if you are getting the most out of your GEG – it does nothing to prevent critical hits. This means that while your ship may survive, it will experience a lot of degradation from critical effects. There is nothing to be done about this expect to be prepared to deal with it. This is precisely why the Drakh weapons are precise; which you give a lot of criticals, your fleet ends up taking a lot of criticals, too. Also, remember, there are ZERO penalties to the Drakh for using the All Hands on Deck special action, so use it often.
These critical hits are the only source of the threat of Fighters in the main, but it’s a bad one. Raiders have few answers to this; fighters in quantity put the Drakh in a horrible bind. It’s a slow-ticking time bomb that claims Light Raiders; the best you can likely do is cover your Heavy Raiders in a Light Raider’s fire cone to keep your heavy guns alive, at least for a little while (a thank you for this idea to Burger … it’s not an answer, but it delays the awful). Bombers can usually get about 1 point per turn on a Raider by direct effects; these fighters are the Frazi, Sky Serpent (very dangerous), Vorlon and Shadow Fighters, and Double-Vs. The Thunderbolt, Rutarian, and Tzymm aren’t as bad; they have weapons split on two different weapon systems (see first idea!).
Finally, the GEG allows you to play some (limited) terrain games. Dense asteroid fields are usually a horrible idea, but if you move really slowly (All Stop Orders and 2” or less), you can usually get the heavier GEGs to do much to all of the protection for you. This idea really only best applies to the ships with GEG 3 or greater, but can be an excellent way to hide a ship that makes your opponent make an uncomfortable decision. It’s my personal favorite way to hide Motherships (see individual ship assessments, later.)