Early vs Crusade era EA

[Slightly Norse John]

Actually, I thought one of the advantages of AJP was that it allowed you to fire on the turn you left the board as well, to conduct a fighting withdrawal rather than running away with your tail between your legs (not literally, in the case of humanity, but no doubt there are some aliens out there...)
Considering how narrowly the Bruchmuller failed to make it out, another salvo- almost certainly at the Provornyy- could have saved it. There's a good reason why the Apollo doesn't have AJP; jumping in behind an enemy ship with heavy missiles is just a shade too messy- but given the time, it seems at least mechanically possible.
Currently I'm shooting at Minbari; there was a very interesting 8- Raid pack attack on the Ingata, in which for the first and only time ever I saw an Orestes perform usefully and effectively- never mind the ships, the players nearly died of shock.
Basically, I'm a wolfpack, fast attack style player, most of the people I game with, at home and at Dunfermline, pick that up from me, and the early era fleet lends itself to that far better than the later era, so I come much closer to getting the best out of them than I do from the Crusade fleet, personally. There will be more Time Wars, at least one War-level 4 or 5 point, but I reckon Mark or Andy will look at a solid wall of Artemis, Olympus, Sagittarius and Hermes and concede...
Oh, yes, hint to EA players; never play a campaign game set in 2266. Olympus' time in service ends 2265, Chronos enters 2267, the Nova and Pulse Omega don't have an end date but they're not in the era- you are totally stuffed for close quarters firepower.

 

[lastbesthope]

Actually, I thought one of the advantages of AJP was that it allowed you to fire on the turn you left the board as well

The turn before you leave you mean, as you move before firing, once you move through the JP no more firing for you.

LBH

 

[Slightly Norse John]

Nitpicker
The point is, there's a full fire turn where you're just a target in a shooting gallery. At times, that meant it was better to go down fighting than break and flee- the ship would be just as dead but at least it would have drawn blood on the way.

 

[Slightly Norse John]

Oh yes- the forces have been drawn for a 5-point War, Call to Arms, place your bets...
Crusade era;
Nemesis- class Advanced Destroyer Atropos,
Marathon Advanced Cruisers Achilles, Leonidas,
Chronos Attack Frigates Nicias, Trygaeus, Euelpides (bonus greek points- not geek- if you spot the source of those names)
Hyperion Cruisers Roberts, Morgan,
Hyperion Assault Cruiser Exquemelin,
Hermes Transports Reith, Chappe-
Early Era;
Avenger, 2 Nova, 3 Hyperion
3 Sagittarius, 3 Oracle
5 Artemis, 5 Olympus
4 Hermes.

 

[Chernobyl]

I vote for the crusade fleet, they have names!

 

[Twin-Linked Aldades]

Being an early player (cheap + junk in one sentence, me like lol), third age at most (I have Crusade vessels, but they barely come out of the cabinet even before the split up) I vote, completely onjective, that the early list will grab the (morale) victory

 

[Slightly Norse John]

The game was begun, and abandoned at the end of round 1 due to monstrous statistical flukes that would have reduced analysis to 'Dice do funny things sometimes...'
Twelve Flash missiles (Three Olympus, two Hermes and two Oracle) against a hull 6 target. Four hits on average, right? This evening, eleven. Block four before interceptors-4 run out, and possibly two probably one on the single 6? Nine got through, four crits including Vitals- 2 and 3. One Hyperion shooting at another, landing a thirteen- hit beam run, critting it well beyond kaboom, and every single dice from the blast hitting and taking out an adjacent Hermes? Unbelievable.
For what it's worth, if it had gone on, the Crusade fleet would have begun round 2 with Atropos, Achilles and Exquemelin, against an Early Era fleet with a badly damaged Nova, a crippled Oracle, but no actual ship losses. Sheer bloody butchery, it was. We'll try again with a different set of dice.

 

[E Nicely]

It can be really good or really bad when the crit tables beat all odds. 2 vitals on turn 1? That's ugly.

 

[Slightly Norse John]

One Battle, five Raid and two Patrol kills on round 1, with only 1 Skirmish ship crippled in return? That's past ugly out into Chthonic.
If the Crusade- era ships hold back and make maximum use of distance to get extra boresight shots in, they give up control of the fight, and they tend to kill lots of initiative sinks with those boresights- and what heavy weapon ships the early EA do have (Hyperion, Olympus Gunship, Sagittarius) get held back far enough in the sequence that they simply don't come under boresight fire and effectively get free shots. I think they need to push into the early- era fleet, get as much all round fire as possible, kill off the initiative sinks that way so they get a chance at a worthwhile main gun target.
Worth bearing in mind, they'll have the same problem against the Drakh; swarmed all over by Skirmish craft. I am now seriously considering a ten- Apollo fleet. (All right, seven with six Chronos escorts.)

 

[E Nicely]

I've played Drakh vs. EA with both Crusade and 3rd Age fleets (on both sides). Your 7 Apollo fleet might actually do good. One thing's for sure, the Crusade ships will have one hell of a problem with any boresight weaponry, I wouldn't even consider Omegas or Marathons (maybe not even 1 Hyperion).

I've beaten EA playing Drakh and but not Drakh playing EA. A PL:B/5 game went badly for the Crusade fleet I was playing. The Apollo's and Chronos' in that fleet did well, the Omegas and Hyperion didn't. 7 Apollo's sounds pretty fun.

(edited because my wife pulled me from the comp. before I could finish writing)

 

[Epaminondas]

I wonder if mongoose should alter 2nd edition from this one (with three revisions 1.3?) and go to a battletech style initiative.

ie if one side has 10 ships, and the other 5, and the 5 ship fleet won initiative, the 10 ship fleet would have to move two ships at once so that the 5 ship fleet moved the last ship.

 

[Silvereye]

But what would happen when you start involving squadrons to the 5 or 10 ship fleet?

 

[Epaminondas]

Simple- squadron counts as one ship. If you break up a squadron, it counts as individual ships for initative in the turn after you break it up.

The first turn you can use the squadron special firing rules is the turn after you form a squadron.