Help with EA (3rd ageish)

[Fireymonkeyboy]

Hi,

So, I've played a few games, have been totally hammered in my fist campaign, and learned a few lessons.

1. Despite all teh best wishes in the world, and the Armageddon changes, you cannot count on fighters to win games for you. They are usefull, and have a role to play, but devestating uber-weapons they are not. This was a bitter lesson.

2. More small ships. EA weapon systems need inititative or, failing that, initiative sinks.

3. EA ships are fragile. compared to my opponents (Narn and Centauri), the EA ships seem underhulled.

4. EA ships can go toe to toe at medium to short range, but are out-gunned at long range. While they have adequate access to missiles, I found that my opponents had access to long-range beams at lower priority levels.

5. The felxible fleet selection of EA and the relative speed of their ships gives tehm advantages in many scenarios, but armageddon isn't one of them.

The last one really cost me. I've played 3-4 armageddon scenarios, and each one has gutted me. In a situation where ships line up and shoot, mine are damaged or crippled before they can bring their guns to bear.

So, question: can the more experienced EA players out there give me some tips on how to get the fleet working together? I find that the ships simply cannot sustain or avoid enough long-range damage to bring their own guns to bear, and this results in a heavily damaged fleet, even when Iwin the scenario. How can this be avoided, or is it simply characteristic of the EA fleet?

FMB

 

[Locutus9956]

Well first off getting sucked into very high PL fights against Narn and ESPECIALLY against Centauri puts you up against it from the get go really Im afraid. EA's War and Armageddon choices simply dont cut it and the Posseidon is just a giant bullseye waiting to hand over victory points (the command Omega for all its increased firepower is still basically a Battle choice in terms of survivablity too unfortunately, come back tourney Warlock!!!)

Probably your best friends against these two races is missiles. LOTS of missiles. Lots of FLASH missiles. These are simply the best things since sliced bread

However if your playing as a 3rd Age list you dont have access to the 2 big missile ships (the Sagitarius and the Apollo) though you DO have the missile Hyperion I believe, I persobnally dont rate that ship. Probably your best toy for this era is the humble Nova dreadnought, sail a bunch of these into the middle of your enemies fleet and watch them explode!

 

[Slightly Norse John]

The Missile Hyperion drops out of service 2230, well before even the height of the Dilgar war, never mind EMW and after. The closest the Third Age get to a useful missile ship is the Hermes and Olympus, the Hermes being a useful init sink and light fighter platform as well, and the Olympus probably is your primary light warship.
One question. 'armageddon scenarios'- do you mean playing different scenarios at Armageddon PL, which is a scary prospect, or playing the specific 'annihilation' scenario off the random generator, which at position 8 is likely to come up fairly often? That does fit the description of 'line up and shoot'.
Narn and Centauri are possibly the only two fleets that can put together an efficient fighting force at every PL; the SFoS Earth Alliance were capable of it, not any more. Early has difficulty at high level and Crusade has difficulties at low (as outnumbered as they usually are, I reckon Crusade has difficulties at every PL, but that's just me.)

Asymmetric shooting is always one useful habit. Use your heavier ships for quick, hard kills on his smaller craft, it's proportionately more expensive to replace them than it is bigger ships and it helps you get the sink advantage. Likewise, many small craft usually have greater collective firepower than their value in large ships, so pick on one or two enemy capital units at a time, and try to prevent the same from your opponent.
It's easier to get away with against the Narn than it is the Centauri- interceptors- but crit fishing with the missiles can work. Alternate between hammering one ship, the biggest threat to you usually, and wide salvos looking to knock off something important. If you manage that, finish that ship off at close quarters.
Hyperions are powerful but fragile; they need to be conserved, used boldly when they can get away with it and held back when they can't, and against the Centauri in particular, who can simply reach past your front line and go 'freem', it usually doesn't work.
Tourney Warlock- oh yes. Definitely in agreement with that.
Basically, the only things that can keep an EA fleet relatively undamaged are; total mismatch (pick on someone who already has forces committed to more than one battle, at least), spectacular luck, or a hung over opponent. you will take damage- with luck, you'll give better than you get.

 

[H]

Don't concentrate on big ships, Proportionately, the G'Quan kicks out less damage than a Ka'Toc, the same goes for the Centauri, the primus is a beut of a ship, but point for point is less valuable than 3 skirmishers (if you take the right ones)
A shrewd enemy commander will stick a glorious target on the board and urge you to hit it, it's expensive, but heck, you spend 5 turns trying to take down an Octurion or Bin Tak, and meanwhile you have been murdered by the rest of the fleet. An Omega should take out a Ka'Toc on a salvo or two, Thats one less initiative sink for the enemy, and 3AD of beams lost to them. it may seem suicide, but trust me, a well prepared commander is doingthe same to you, if you can do it quicker and more efficiently, you suddenly have his one big ship outnumbered and possibly surrounded. you are basically trying to lure him in, make him ignore your scalpel in favour of hitting your hammer.