Finally played ACTA!!!

[TheRegent]

Even though I've been a member of this forum for some time and own two boxed fleets, I've never actually played the game until now. My friend Buships and I met at a new gaming store in Kelso, WA (NeverBoard Games), grabbed a table, set our books out and dove into the game. Since game-ready models were in short supply, we played a scenario based on the EA Civil War. Buships deployed an Omega and a Nova, while I deployed 2 Omegas.

Since this was our first game, we were both extremely rusty and made plenty of mistakes. It helped that we only had 2 types of ships on the table as we really wanted to get the basic game mechanics down before we dove into the more advanced stuff. It was definitely an exercise in "learn by doing." It took us a while to factor in the different weapon specialties. For instance, in the couple of turns we had played, we each had shot each other's ordinance down with interceptors- before we realized that Beam weapons are immune to them! Not to mention we forgot to utilize Double Damage and Twin-Linked features! Those definitely changed the game for the better!

We were unable to finish our game, however in the 4 turns we were able to play, I won initiative 3 times and all but obliterated the Nova with a double onslaught by my two Omegas. Did discover one thing, though...never go broadside with a Nova! Even the Agamemnon can't last too long against 14 twin-linked weapons!

I'll try to post pictures later today. Overall, a great game and we can't wait to play again!

 

[Da Boss]

good to hear and welcome to the fight

hopefully many exciting games to come.........

look forward to the pics!

 

[locarno24]

Glad you enjoyed the game.

Did discover one thing, though...never go broadside with a Nova! Even the Agamemnon can't last too long against 14 twin-linked weapons!

You thought Novas are bad - wait until someone drags an Omega Pulse Destroyer out - essentially an up-armoured, up-engined and up-gunned Nova Dreadnought with even more guns (now up to a faintly ridiculous 20 pulse cannon shots in both broadsides...)

 

[Democratus]

I actually prefer the Early Years Nova. It's broadside volley is fewer dice, but they are AP/DD. Add in a Scout and they are twin linked as well!

 

[Taran]

You thought Novas are bad - wait until someone drags an Omega Pulse Destroyer out - essentially an up-armoured, up-engined and up-gunned Nova Dreadnought with even more guns (now up to a faintly ridiculous 20 pulse cannon shots in both broadsides...)

I can bring either 2 EY Novas for 28 AP DD dice or an EY Nova and a Scout for 14 AP DD TL dice for the price of that single Omega Pulse...

 

[Burger]

Or 4 Sag's for 24 AD SAP/P! :twisted:

 

[Taran]

I thought 4 or more Sags was supposed to be poor sportsmanship...
2 Novas or 1 Nova and a scout isn't, though...

I just remembered that this is the forum with the crazed mathematicians...
Which is statistically superior? 28 dice or 14 TL dice?

 

[TheRegent]

note: I figured the pics issue out...was using the wrong links from Flickr! (I actually opened a Flickr account to post these pics lol!)

Left the good camera at home, so these are off my cell phone which has a 2 megapixel camera.

The setup:

Clark's forces (bottom left), the Nova class EAS Schwarzkopf and Omega class EAS Achilles move to engage renegade Omegas EAS Pericles and Agamemnon (top right).

Beauty shot:

A closeup of Clark's forces. Buships did a beautiful job on his Nova (EAS Schwarzkopf) as seen on other messages in the forum.

Moving in:

Fleets are getting closer. EAS Pericles (top right) and EAS Agamemnon (bottom right) target the Schwarzkopf (top left). Because this was the captains' (players') first engagement, we broke the rules: Schwarzkopf takes a few hits, but most of the beams "miss" EAS Achilles (bottom left) locks onto EAS Agamemnon and unleashes a barrage.

Target Schwarzkopf!

Pericles and Agamemnon move in to give Schwarzkopf a pasting. Pericles does minimal damage, but Agamemnon reducers her range to 1 and greatly damages Schwarzkopf's hull. In return, Achilles (bottom left) unleashes beams and plasma guns on Agamemnon. The "Aggie" takes several hits, including a critical which wipes out her aft firing arc.

Almost Got 'Em!

Last turn of the game before the shop closed. As Pericles passes her port side, Schwarzkopf, limping along, takes more fire from Agamemnon. Schwarzkopf loses her propulsion and goes adrift. But with Agamemnon now in her broadside, Schwarzkopf opens up 14 twin-linked plasmas onto the grand "Aggie". All of the hits are to her hull, and Agamemnon is aflame. Achilles (bottom) moves in for what it hopes will be a death blow on the renegade Agamemnon. Alas, her beams do minimal damage, and our first ACTA game comes to an end![/img]

 

[locarno24]

I just remembered that this is the forum with the crazed mathematicians...

I don't know what you mean..... I'm an engineer, not a mathematician.

But generally, more dice is better:

A twin-linked shot effectively gives you an extra shot IF YOU MISS (so 2/3 of the time against hull 5, 5/6 of the time against hull six).

An extra shot is an extra shot all the time. So if you've got double or more the dice you must be doing better

I can bring either 2 EY Novas for 28 AP DD dice or an EY Nova and a Scout for 14 AP DD TL dice for the price of that single Omega Pulse...

Buying down almost always wins. It was just an observation because (a) he was impressed with the 3rd age Nova Dreadnought, (b) all the other ships were Omega Destroyers and (c) it would have evened up the points in the game.

One scout is a long way from declaring weapons twin-linked; you need two or three scouts to reliably 'tag' a target - which means it's only worth it if you've got either a patrol-priority scout or three or four good-sized fighting ships that will be concentrating fire on the same target.

As to two early years Nova Dreadnoughts versus a Pulse Omega Destroyer.... fairly good match, I think.

You may have 28 AD but you won't get that many pointed at one target - I think the best you can do is 16....and with the Omega's thicker armour and the fact that fewer, harder-hitting attack dice suffer against interceptors more, getting hits isn't easy.

You do have the fighter advantage in numbers but the Omega's are better* and even if you do win through to attack the destroyer it has a faintly ridiculous quantity of anti-fighter firepower.

Plus (in a game against anyone else) it's a fraction faster. Which is important in a short-ranged brawler.

I'm not saying it's better, but it isn't as bad a choice as you might think.

Plus, it allows for a much more effective pure-EA Destroyer fleet, by adding a variant not dependent on getting a boresight lined up.


* I know, before someone says it, that the Novas can take Auroras for free. It's the most stupid option in the rules and I strongly dislike it - it doesn't feel right background wise (Aurora was originally supposed to be the 3rd age upgrade to the Nova) and rules wise it's completely pointless; do you (a) want a free upgrade to a fighter that is equal or better in every way or (b) not?

 

[AdrianH]

I thought 4 or more Sags was supposed to be poor sportsmanship...
2 Novas or 1 Nova and a scout isn't, though...

I just remembered that this is the forum with the crazed mathematicians...
Which is statistically superior? 28 dice or 14 TL dice?

I'm not exactly a crazed mathematician, but for a basic analysis, it depends on the target's hull value. As the current thread puts a Nova against an Omega, I'll assume hull 6. So each die has 1/6 chance of hitting. 28 dice therefore expect 4 or 5 hits. 14 TL dice expect 2 or 3 hits; those which missed expect another 2 hits, for a total of 4 or 5 hits. They're effectively the same.

Now try against hull 5, meaning each die has a 1/3 chance of hitting. 28 dice expect 9, maybe 10 hits. 14 TL dice expect 4 or 5 hits, with another 3 from the re-rolls of the dice which missed, for a total of 7 or 8 hits. 28 dice win on average.

I don't know why there is talk of an EY Nova putting out 14D AP DD. The side armament of an EY Nova is only 8D AP DD. The 3A Nova has 14D TL. I do agree with Democratus, the EY Nova does seem more powerful. The 3A Nova comes with Aurora Starfuries as standard, but the EY Nova can take them as well so long as in service dates either permit Auroras or are disregarded. So the only real edge for the 3A Nova is that, by the same token, it can replace some or all of its Auroras with Thunderbolts.

 

[Burger]

I'd go with locarno's simpler version 8)
14 dice re-rolling only failures, or 14 dice then another 14 dice...
The 28 dice is better against any hull :lol:

 

[Sneaky Chris]

congrats for getting your 1st game. Ive been wanting one for over a year now. Have all the fleets just no one near tewkesbury to play......sad now.

 

[locarno24]

Well....they'll work out exactly the same (24AD) if every single one of your original 14 shots fail to penetrate the target's hull.

Mind you, missing with every single shot classes as a "That's Not Gone Well" moment, which you don't really want to be contemplating*.

And even then it's only the same, not better.



* Which is a long way from saying it doesn't happen to me on a depressingly regular basis.

 

[Triggy]

Well....they'll work out exactly the same (24AD) if every single one of your original 14 shots fail to penetrate the target's hull.

Mind you, missing with every single shot classes as a "That's Not Gone Well" moment, which you don't really want to be contemplating*.

And even then it's only the same, not better.



* Which is a long way from saying it doesn't happen to me on a depressingly regular basis.

I've missed 24 (all) of my beam shots for a turn if that helps show that you're not the only one it happens to. It also didn't help that this was in a battle report and that Matt hit 26 times with his eight White Star beam dice in the same turn!

 

[locarno24]

It also didn't help that this was in a battle report and that Matt hit 26 times with his eight White Star beam dice in the same turn!

The numbers always average out.....it's just annoying when they average out across you and your opponent.





Should introduce you to two of our gaming group - I think our resident beam fiend's record was a 19-dice beam hit including a 6-4 cricital which (inevitably) took off the front arc of an armageddon priority Brivoki with just about the first shot of a big planetary assault.

Paul wouldn't have minded quite so much had the firing ship not been a laser-armed Tethys patrol boat bought for half a patrol point. Which (since he was now rather busy with the capital ships and rather down on firepower from his original order of battle) managed to survive the game. I think that pushed him over the edge a bit.

We are very glad of Powers and Principalities for any number of reasons*.


* redundancy, alternate beam systems, squadroned up tethys, additional book to beat Gaz to death with next time he starts rolling like that....

 

[Da Boss]

Well....they'll work out exactly the same (24AD) if every single one of your original 14 shots fail to penetrate the target's hull.

Mind you, missing with every single shot classes as a "That's Not Gone Well" moment, which you don't really want to be contemplating*.

And even then it's only the same, not better.

* Which is a long way from saying it doesn't happen to me on a depressingly regular basis.

I've missed 24 (all) of my beam shots for a turn if that helps show that you're not the only one it happens to. It also didn't help that this was in a battle report and that Matt hit 26 times with his eight White Star beam dice in the same turn!

I wondered why he was never keen on the alt beam systems.....................

 

[Taran]

I only once had much luck with my beams.
It's my WSs pulsars that always manage to do the damage. Undamaged Marathon? Might still be undamaged after the beams fire, but dead after the Pulsars...
What? A Drakh Carrier? Sure, survive the beams with minimal damage. But dead or crippled after the Pulsars...

Of course, that 1 time with my beams saw the end of a Drakh Mothership at the hands of a squadroned WS Gunship and 2 WSs...

 

[Da Boss]

Shouldn't the Marathon have intercepted most of it! 8)

beams - had a Shadow ship vapourised by a pair of Battle level Minbari cruisers - 8 dice of beams - 26 hits and IIRC 14 criticals - including several 6, something ones. This is after both ships cruised at speed 14 through a Asteroid field..............was a little surprised by this.............

 

[AdrianH]

Ah yes, asteroids. My Shadow Ancient ship failed its CQ check while going through a density 6 asteroid field, at double maximum speed. It emerged from the other side minus its shields and some damage, and got swarmed by Nials which kept scoring criticals including a lot of Vital Systems ones. If I remember correctly, the Shadow ship never got to use its weapons or engines again. The only Minbari loss was a Torotha which entered the same asteroid field, failed its CQ check and went splat.

We played another battle, using the same stellar debris to save time setting up. Nobody else went into that asteroid field.

 

[Target]

Ah yes, asteroids. My Shadow Ancient ship failed its CQ check while going through a density 6 asteroid field, at double maximum speed. It emerged from the other side minus its shields and some damage, and got swarmed by Nials which kept scoring criticals including a lot of Vital Systems ones. If I remember correctly, the Shadow ship never got to use its weapons or engines again. The only Minbari loss was a Torotha which entered the same asteroid field, failed its CQ check and went splat.

We played another battle, using the same stellar debris to save time setting up. Nobody else went into that asteroid field.

Im quite good at that to, lost 3 vorchans to one, it had some ridicously low density. Good plan went south from there