First game in AGES!

[l33tpenguin]

So, Taran stopped over last night for a game of ACTA. He is in the local area for a while, so we are hoping to get more games in. Its been a long while since I actually threw down with anyone, so I was excited to get the chance.

We did a 6 point raid game, I was crusade era EA, he played ISA w/ vree. Please, someone tell me WHY I picked a Delphi for my fleet when I had almost all beams and twin linked weapons and he had no stealth to worry about?

My EA:
2x Marathon
2x Chronos
1x Delphi

His ISA:
2x White Stars
1x White Star Gunship
2x Blue Stars
1x Lirandi (however it is spelled) (I think, at least. it was one of those ugly ISA ships)
1x Some Vree carrier thing with a ton of fighters and 3 E-mines

The Delphi was a terrible idea and did nothing the whole game. Well, maybe it distracted his two blue stars for a little while, but considering what I could have taken instead, it was a total waste. With everything I had on the table being beams or twin linked weapons, there was really no point to taking a scout.

I don't have a play by play, but it was a rather amusing. In the end he ended up doing more damage to himself when he took out one of my Marathons and it exploded in the middle of his fleet. The damage was enough to let me get the kill shot on his Vree carrier. I had a few lucky crits on one of the white stars, crippling it and managed to knock a blue stars weapons out for the whole game. In the end, the only thing left on the table of mine was my Delphi as it skirted around the edge being useless.

 

[AdrianH]

The "ugly ISA ship" is the Liandra.

I'd be interested to know which Vree ship has three energy mines. As far as I can see, the rest of the ships add up to 5 Raid points, leaving 1 Raid at most for the Vree ship. The only Vree Raid level ship is the Xill which isn't a carrier; and none of the Vree carriers (Xeel/Skirmish, Z'Takk/War, Z'Trikk/War), or for that matter any Vree ship I know, have energy mines. If it's some variant of the Xorr or Xill then I really want to know because I get to use it with my Army of Light.

 

[Burger]

Sounds like that Vree ship is actually a Gaim... Shaakak (12 fighters, 2 e-mines) or Stuteeka (16 fighters and 1 e-mine).

If the Delphi was useless as a scout then why not send it in as an attack ship? It has a 4AD beam, and with stealth 5 is unlikely to be attacked back anyway, when there are jucier, non-stealthed targets around.

 

[AdrianH]

There's an easy way to tell. Vree ships all look like flying saucers. Gaim ships don't.

The Stuteeka did carry three energy mine launchers, up until the entire Gaim fleet was revised in "Signs & Portents", issue 56. The revised fleet list was subsequently published again in "Powers and Principalities". And in that list, the Stuteeka has only one energy mine launcher, as well as fewer fighters and breaching pods.

 

[l33tpenguin]

We were using Basic 2nd Ed rules. And I forget which points breakdown. I could have swore it was a Vree, didn't have a mini for it, and the counter looked a lot like a saucer. Will have to ask him next time we get together. I know squat about both Vree and Gaim fleets, so I'm the last person to ask It must have been a Stuteeka then. 3 e-mines and a bunch of fighters, which would fit the pre-revamp

I should have used the delphi as an attack ship, it might have done some good. But by the time I realized my mistake, I had already put it too far out of combat to do any good. I might try it next time and use it, at least, as a distraction. I think, as burger pointed out, it could do some damage if given the chance because there are just easier to hit targets.

Liandra... I knew that. I couldn't remember the spelling and didn't feel like looking it up (everything is blocked at work anyway)

 

[AdrianH]

We were using Basic 2nd Ed rules. And I forget which points breakdown. I could have swore it was a Vree, didn't have a mini for it, and the counter looked a lot like a saucer. Will have to ask him next time we get together. I know squat about both Vree and Gaim fleets, so I'm the last person to ask It must have been a Stuteeka then. 3 e-mines and a bunch of fighters, which would fit the pre-revamp

If counters were being used then it may very well have been a Vree saucer proxying for a Gaim ship. As far as I know, no official Gaim counters were ever produced, although there is a link to someone's unofficial counters in the "New Player Resources" sticky thread.

This is what a Stuteeka should look like. And these are my Vree ships.

And if your opponent was using original 2e Gaim stats, consider yourself lucky he didn't field a pure Gaim fleet. :lol:

 

[Taran]

I couldn't bring my minis to Alaska with me as I don't have a hard case that I'd trust in the hands of the airlines so we used a lot of counters...

I carried a WSG, 2WS, Stuteeka, Liandra, 2 BS.

And, yes, blowing up that Marathon when it was sitting on top of my Stuteeka was Bad.

Next time, I'm taking Abbai, though. From the strongest fleet to one of the weakest. Of course, I think I have figured out the true horror of the Abaai and intend to wield it to the greatest effect possible. If it works like I think it will, Abbai will be the next fleet I build.

We're not using the S&P revisions.

 

[l33tpenguin]

Blowing up my Marathon was *awesome* Whos VP does it count as if my ship blows up and kills his ships? I wonder if anyone has ever gained more VP for their ship getting killed than the person who killed it got for killing it.

 

[locarno24]

Of course, I think I have figured out the true horror of the Abaai and intend to wield it to the greatest effect possible.

If you have access to Powers and Principalities, they're actually pretty solid regardless; the shield-boosting special action makes them quite hard to hurt, and the fact that the bimith is no longer less manouvrable than a week-dead sloth helps immensely.

Would be interested to see your intended list...

 

[Da Boss]

The Abbai have good skirmish ships - as noted P+P gives them an additional boost to their defences and another skirmish ship.

The war level ship is an excellent craft - if a bit short ranged.

The only issue is with the quality of the fighters - but allies can help that - espceially since your iniative is not going to suffer - a Brakiri or Vree carrier close that gap in your capabilities nicely.

 

[AdrianH]

And don't forget the trick of putting an escort ship near the fighters so anything which tries to dogfight them gets some antifighter first. :twisted:

I'm not entirely convinced how good the shield recharge SA is. It basically gives the Abbai the same sort of shields as the Shadows have anyway, so an enemy will do what he'd do to Shadows - hit one ship with as much as possible to take down its shields and do damage before they can recharge. And a ship which is doing the recharge SA isn't doing CBD...

 

[l33tpenguin]

Our next game, I want to be a bit bigger. Crusade era EA are very lacking in the low PLs, but have some excellent ships the higher up you go. I am hoping to have more of my ships at least primed and based for the next fight so they can see some table time. I have a wealth of EA, I want a battle big enough to get a majority of them on the table. Of course, we are going to need a bigger table.

 

[Taran]

I thought we'd go up to 6 Battle for the next level with 1 War choice mandatory. Basically the same as before, but a step up. Of course, I wasn't sure we were ready for that, and that'll make me want to bring a different fleet, most likely. I'll have to check the lists I put together and see what has one of the weaker 6 Battle formations...

hmmm, Pak, maybe...
Or Narn. Lots of people saying it's hard to make viable.

I don't think we'll get around to P+P.

What do you think, l33tpenguin? Saturday at Bosco's? Earlier than last time, of course. If you can bring your minis. otherwise I can still make it out to you.

 

[l33tpenguin]

We played again last night, My Crusade EA vs some nicely base coated Abbai.

Me:
1x Warlock
2x Marathon
1x Strike Apollo
4x Chronos

Taran will have to post his fleet, as I'm still not sure what I was shooting at.

Now, let me say something obvious: Don't get in range of the Abbai's front beams!.

Also, the Strike Apollo is sexy. If i had to do it again, and I hope to get the oppertunity, I would have taken two.

Shields on a hull 6 ship are freaking strong. The crit avoidiance on these ships provide MASSIVE survivability on the larger ships. I'm not sure how well this is factored into balance; A couple shots early on sent my Warlock adrift, while meanwhile any damage I poured against the Hull 6 Abbai was just soaked up for a few turns.

My Chronos proved effective, as I expected from them. These are some lovely little ships.

Sadly, I didn't get to see my Warlock do much. It gutted a ship early on with its partical beam, then was set adrift and didn't do much.

My Marathons proved... kinda meh. I wasn't very happy with them this time around. An additional Stike Apollo would have been a better choice.

Also, All stop/All stop and pivot would have been a smarter idea from the start... *sigh*

 

[Da Boss]

There has been alot of debate about the Abbai in the past - Shields make them quite survivable but they usually have (IIRC) short range weapons -even on the warship so need to survive to get into range.

Given that they also often have interceptors conventional wepaons can have a problem getting through - beams and mini-beams make a difference. As you seem to have found high numbers of AD in one weapon are very useful as it should get through the interceptors.

On the other hand most of their own weapons are single damage IIRC and short range, they have no bombers or assault fighters - although they can use their escort trait to have Kothas worthwhile as fighter cover.

Suprised your Warlock got damaged early as it should have had range advantage for a few turns with its 35" range beam? Unless you did what i have often been guilty of and charged in!?

 

[basaint]

Sounds like a good game. Im still trying to find time to get up that way.
Maybe late winter early spring.

keep it up
saint

Btw just trained a friend yesterday on B5 and he likes it so thumbs up for me in AZ :twisted:

 

[l33tpenguin]

There has been alot of debate about the Abbai in the past - Shields make them quite survivable but they usually have (IIRC) short range weapons -even on the warship so need to survive to get into range.

Given that they also often have interceptors conventional wepaons can have a problem getting through - beams and mini-beams make a difference. As you seem to have found high numbers of AD in one weapon are very useful as it should get through the interceptors.

On the other hand most of their own weapons are single damage IIRC and short range, they have no bombers or assault fighters - although they can use their escort trait to have Kothas worthwhile as fighter cover.

Suprised your Warlock got damaged early as it should have had range advantage for a few turns with its 35" range beam? Unless you did what i have often been guilty of and charged in!?

Yup, thats exactly what got my warlock. He gutted one Abbai before he was adrift, and stayed that way. Next time, no terrain. Taran managed to come from outside my Warlocks range to well inside it rather fast by APTE and slingshotting around a planet. I tried to APTE through his forward guns but ended up just short and landed infront of one squad of ships.

And, anyone who complains about run away beams should just hush. They are FUN. Giving and getting them. One of my Marathons had a nice run away, right before he died, taking out an Abbai, and Taran had one or two good beam hits. Those crit hunting abbai beams are mean

Being the second game I've played in... years, I faired rather well. Mostly its been Taran playing with fleets and me learning how to play

Against Abbai, I think Shadows would have faired far better. I only wish I had my Shadow fleet put together!

 

[Da Boss]

Regarding the APTE movement - its worth remembering that you can premeasure and work out your movement.

re Beams - its a matter of tatse - they are too random for me but if you like 'em then you are in company with the Game designer.........

and as long as you are enjoying the game - its all cool!

Shadows re Abbai - maybe a bit one sided if you go for large ships - they have range and SM to pick then enemy ships off. Scouts will have trouble due to the combination of Shields and Interceptors.............should be an interesting game

 

[basaint]

As much as it can be a cutthroat game, sometimes just going over stuff with newbs can be fun. Since I started 6 months ago, it seems that all I am doing is showing new people how to play and getting them interested. I dont mind losing either sometimes.
(the best games were when my GF got drunk and decided to play. She loves rubbing it my face when I lose)

So yesterday-We did 3 little rounds:
Oly vs Hyp
Dargon vs Mishakur
Kabintak vs Marathon

Peng...I can see how your Marathon was iffy. My buddy came in close to try and barrage the Tak and got hammered with crappy Interc. rolls and my really good Narn rolls.

 

[Foxmeister]

Kabintak vs Marathon

Peng...I can see how your Marathon was iffy. My buddy came in close to try and barrage the Tak and got hammered with crappy Interc. rolls and my really good Narn rolls.

Ka'Bin'Tak vs Marathon?

Armageddon vs Battle???

Marathon came in close to try an barrage the Tak???

SUICIDE!!!

Regards,

Dave