High Sierra
Mongoose
5 raid points
I took 2 Xill, 3 Xorr, 4 Varrl and 2 wings of fighters - I still got a niggling feeling this wasnt 5 raid points, but I get easily confused and the EZ player was happy so hey ho.
EA had
2 Artemis
2 Hyperion
a Nova dreadnought and a Raid level carrier (the one without fleet command)
lots of fighters!
I should have made a note of what happened each turn but I forgot so I'll sort of recap what happened.
First off cos of that carrier I'm at a disadvantage on initiative, only by 1 so not a major problem, in the event initiative was pretty even for both sides throughout the battle until the last turn when I really needed to win it and didnt.
deployment was to put the Xill and the fighters in the center of my deployment zone with the xorr to the right and the vaarl to the left. EA deployed with the hyperions and the carrier in their centre and the nova facing my vaarl and the artemis on the other side against my xorr.
first turn there was no shooting cos we werent in range so I trundled most things forward except for the Xorr which I began to angle in towards the centre - I did this because I knew with 2 right angle turns available I could head straight back out with no problems, my intention being to suck the artemis in a bit more so i could get onto their flanks where they were vulnerable, thus protecting my fragile hulls a bit more.
The Vaarl angled outwards to attack get around the nova - I really didnt like the thought of their hull 3 going up against all those guns, even with stealth 5.
turn 2 saw more of the same maneouvering with the exception of me splitting off a Xorr to back up the Xills and the fighters against the Hyperions and the carrier. I wasnt worried about the fighters since I got all that lovely AF stuff on my ships.
Little bit of shooting here - tried to concentrate as much as possible on one ship. Discovered that Vree really lose out against an enemy with interceptors!
Next few turns saw lots more maneouvering - really really like that about Vree fleets, lots of just getting into his side arcs where I'm a bit more protected.
As I expecteds I began to lose ships before the EA - not surprising with those light hulls on the Vree. My fighters perfomed very well and I managed to keep them away from his fighters with some very cagey moves. In the end my opponent stuck his fighters in against the Vaarl because he was having so much trouble beating the Stealth 5 with the Nova. Comedy moment being all 4 of the Vaarl sitting 5 inches of his port side calling him rude names, while he failed the stealth roll for each one.
I also began to take out fighters - damn the Vree are good at this!
In the end however, there were moments when I simply couldnt outmove the EA ships and my fleet began to go down.
The Xill absorbed quite a few shots before finally going which impressed me. The Xorr performed magnificently, coming in off the flank after killing an Artemis to help finish off the hyperions - really like these ships.
however, hull 4 against beam will eventually tell. In the final turn we were down to the carrier which I had ignored, a damaged artemis and a badly damaged nova that kept failing its repair rolls. I had 3 Vaarl left.
After some consideration, I left the field. The stealth was working well, but I didnt fancy trying to take out those 3 ships while being dependent on my opponent failing a stealth roll to keep my ships alive.
conclusions: with only the Xill having weapons shooting over 10 inches, I should have concentrated my firepower a bit more - possibly shifting everything over and going for the Nova first and the Carrier second. (maybe)
Perhaps it might also have helped to take the Torpedo variant of the Xorr and leave them dancing around out on a flank or behind the main fleet lobbing in a torpedo each turn - 30 inch range coupled with the speed and turning ability has got to be good.
Other than that, I'm very impressed with the Vree. they suffer from not having any hull 6 ships in the fleet box set, they do need more Raid and Battle ships (variants or new hulls, doesnt matter which). short range weaponary I can cope with and I love the anti fighter capability on everything.
Not having beam weapons means I'm constantly relying on my opponent to fail his interceptor rolls, necessary evil I suppose.
going through the fleet list, I believe the Vree do need some kind of carrier. I would also love to see a new model for the Command Saucer rather than just have another Xill on the table with little to differentiate it AS a command ship.
Still that was my first experience of the Vree and whilst I lost the battle, I had more fun than I've ever had with the Centauri (Idont know why, I've just never managed to get the Centauri to work)
I took 2 Xill, 3 Xorr, 4 Varrl and 2 wings of fighters - I still got a niggling feeling this wasnt 5 raid points, but I get easily confused and the EZ player was happy so hey ho.
EA had
2 Artemis
2 Hyperion
a Nova dreadnought and a Raid level carrier (the one without fleet command)
lots of fighters!
I should have made a note of what happened each turn but I forgot so I'll sort of recap what happened.
First off cos of that carrier I'm at a disadvantage on initiative, only by 1 so not a major problem, in the event initiative was pretty even for both sides throughout the battle until the last turn when I really needed to win it and didnt.
deployment was to put the Xill and the fighters in the center of my deployment zone with the xorr to the right and the vaarl to the left. EA deployed with the hyperions and the carrier in their centre and the nova facing my vaarl and the artemis on the other side against my xorr.
first turn there was no shooting cos we werent in range so I trundled most things forward except for the Xorr which I began to angle in towards the centre - I did this because I knew with 2 right angle turns available I could head straight back out with no problems, my intention being to suck the artemis in a bit more so i could get onto their flanks where they were vulnerable, thus protecting my fragile hulls a bit more.
The Vaarl angled outwards to attack get around the nova - I really didnt like the thought of their hull 3 going up against all those guns, even with stealth 5.
turn 2 saw more of the same maneouvering with the exception of me splitting off a Xorr to back up the Xills and the fighters against the Hyperions and the carrier. I wasnt worried about the fighters since I got all that lovely AF stuff on my ships.
Little bit of shooting here - tried to concentrate as much as possible on one ship. Discovered that Vree really lose out against an enemy with interceptors!
Next few turns saw lots more maneouvering - really really like that about Vree fleets, lots of just getting into his side arcs where I'm a bit more protected.
As I expecteds I began to lose ships before the EA - not surprising with those light hulls on the Vree. My fighters perfomed very well and I managed to keep them away from his fighters with some very cagey moves. In the end my opponent stuck his fighters in against the Vaarl because he was having so much trouble beating the Stealth 5 with the Nova. Comedy moment being all 4 of the Vaarl sitting 5 inches of his port side calling him rude names, while he failed the stealth roll for each one.
I also began to take out fighters - damn the Vree are good at this!
In the end however, there were moments when I simply couldnt outmove the EA ships and my fleet began to go down.
The Xill absorbed quite a few shots before finally going which impressed me. The Xorr performed magnificently, coming in off the flank after killing an Artemis to help finish off the hyperions - really like these ships.
however, hull 4 against beam will eventually tell. In the final turn we were down to the carrier which I had ignored, a damaged artemis and a badly damaged nova that kept failing its repair rolls. I had 3 Vaarl left.
After some consideration, I left the field. The stealth was working well, but I didnt fancy trying to take out those 3 ships while being dependent on my opponent failing a stealth roll to keep my ships alive.
conclusions: with only the Xill having weapons shooting over 10 inches, I should have concentrated my firepower a bit more - possibly shifting everything over and going for the Nova first and the Carrier second. (maybe)
Perhaps it might also have helped to take the Torpedo variant of the Xorr and leave them dancing around out on a flank or behind the main fleet lobbing in a torpedo each turn - 30 inch range coupled with the speed and turning ability has got to be good.
Other than that, I'm very impressed with the Vree. they suffer from not having any hull 6 ships in the fleet box set, they do need more Raid and Battle ships (variants or new hulls, doesnt matter which). short range weaponary I can cope with and I love the anti fighter capability on everything.
Not having beam weapons means I'm constantly relying on my opponent to fail his interceptor rolls, necessary evil I suppose.
going through the fleet list, I believe the Vree do need some kind of carrier. I would also love to see a new model for the Command Saucer rather than just have another Xill on the table with little to differentiate it AS a command ship.
Still that was my first experience of the Vree and whilst I lost the battle, I had more fun than I've ever had with the Centauri (Idont know why, I've just never managed to get the Centauri to work)
