Hi and sorry I'm late to the party

[Ginger_Tim]

Being complete Sci fi geeks, a friend and I have been big fans of B5 for a very long time, but have always stayed away from gaming ACTA because of our own opinions/thoughts/feeling of how wargames can never realy give you a table top version of what you see on the big screen.

However, using ships from full thrust we decided to find a set of rules that we both like (and he can be a right picky git) and ACTA imediatly sprung to mind.

So after aquireing the SFoS suplement with the counters we have dived straight in at the deep end and are now learning the revised 1st edition with ammendments from SFoS and Armegedon.

Its going OK at the moment I've settled on Centari and have started replaceing the full thrust proxie's with the proper ships, he had started with Mimbari but has now dropped them due to us both being a little unhappy about the level of stealth that they have.

I do have a question for you guys though - what is the point of fighters?
either with or without a carrier they dont seem to be able to do a lot, if this is the middle ground between playing with fighter counters or playing out a 10 min dogfight between two opposed squadrons then i can accept that, but we have started not to bother using them and just concentrate on kicking the snot out of each others capital ships.

Also on a personel note, if there are any tips on how i should be gaming with the Centari fleet and what B5 ships i should be trying to get my hands on i would be most grateful

 

[Da Boss]

Hello and welcome My Good Dear Friend! It is good to see another member of the Great Republic!

I think most people here play 2nd ed ACTA but I can remeber back to the games of 1st Ed :wink:

Centauri (as in 2nd Edition) have a extremely powerful and flexible fleet including several "broken" ships - Tertius variant of the Primus and Prefect variant of the Centurion (you may want to stay away from these) . They have long ranged and powerful beams and Ok sencondarys that match most other peoples. Tactics depend on your opponent really and your play preference but there are old fleet tactic guides on the forum for 1st ed - may take a bit of searching

in 1st Ed the carriers are not great - this was sorted out massively in 2nd Ed. Fighters become a lot more powerful in 2nd ed as well (epescially Centuair fighters - the Rutarian becoems one of the best in the game)

Getting hold of ships is not that easy but AOG still sell them, and there are a few, only a few on ebay at present.

 

[Ginger_Tim]

Thanks for the information

Getting hold of ships is not that easy but AOG still sell them, and there are a few, only a few on ebay at present.

tell me about it, have already gotten my hands on a few ships but to replace my complete full thrust fleet is going to cost me a bloody fortune.

 

[tschuma]

Contact Jim Fox at fox@foxminiatures.com and if you order enough he might cut you a deal. He has both scales.

tschuma

 

[kai_askani]

Heya man,

I have some extra Centauri ships. Just send me an instant message and we can chat about it.

 

[locarno24]

I do have a question for you guys though - what is the point of fighters?

Blowing stuff up, as with almost all ships in the game. 8)

Fighters have several advantages.


Speed is a minor one, because they're not THAT much faster than capital ships. Slower, in quite a few cases (Vorchans, White Stars and so on)

Manouvrability is much more important. Especially, in fact, when facing ships like those mentioned above - they move last, and are Super-Manouvrable, meaning they can happily sit in a 'blind' arc, and keep picking at you till something gives.

Their firepower (as you've noticed) isn't expecially awe-inspiring, but nor is it that bad, point-for-point. The trick is that lots of attack dice means lots of critical hits; you don't do much damage but you do lots of rolls on the table, so lots of critical effects. Plus there are always a few (Ruutarians, Firebolts, Thorun Torpedofighters, Shadow Fighters, etc) that really do carry enough firepower to kick the snot out of bigger ships.


Essentially, the key uses are:


1) Ward off other fighters (the best way to kill something with dodge 2+ is in a dogfight)

2) Pick on damaged or lighter ships with 'blind' arcs of fire (that can't shoot back)

3) Attack ships with a stealth score (in 2nd edition fighters within 2" ignore stealth, in 1st edition, you have Scanners To Full! to help others)

4) Deplete interceptors - lots of low-damage AD from Sentris are perfect for burning out interceptors, then you can smack them around with double damage ion cannon fire from your battlecruisers once the interceptors are already overloaded.

They're not that devastating in the numbers they're usually encountered in, but once you start to get close to a full points worth (at whatever priority) they can get very nasty. A skirmish point of starfuries, for example, pack significantly more attack dice than the broadside of a Nova Dreadnought, which is a raid-priority ship.

Breaching Pods in particular can make a real mess of fleets that aren't ready for them. The other nasty trick is to pair fighters up with a scout - a redirect fire action can benefit a huge wave of fighters at once...


As to models....whatever you like, really. The Centauri fleet is very flexible and you can build a good fleet in pretty much any style. The best thing is that (unlike some races) the 'signature' ships seen in the show (Vorchan/Demos, Balvarin, Primus/Secundus) are as good as any in the fleet, so you don't really need the 'made up' ships if you don't want them.

 

[Mean Mutton]

what is the point of fighters?
...
if there are any tips on how i should be gaming with the Centari fleet and what B5 ships i should be trying to get my hands on i would be most grateful

Fighters -- in addition to some of the items listed earlier, some of the fighters have some interesting abilities. The Dilgar Thorun Dartfighters and the Gaim Klikkitas both have a ramming ability (although it is different for the two races). Breeching pods can be devestating. Also, remember that a Fleet Carrier has an ability to let you regenerate lost fighters.

You really haven't played the game until you've played a Raid-5 level game against the Gaim and saw over 50 fighters and over a dozen breeching pods coming at you.

As far as Centauri ships go, you NEED a Maximus ship in your fleet.

 

[Mean Mutton]

Here's a great little primer on Centauri ships:

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=43529

 

[Ginger_Tim]

Thanks for the info guys.

I think the issue with fighters for us started back when we first started when a horde of my starfuries were taken out by not a lot of Mimbari Nile fighters which were then all taken out by my hyperions with a turret mount anti fighter armement.

With the move to 2nd eddition that will be starting this week, managed to get my hands on the rules , and with the comments above i think that we need to look at them again.

I have got a load more questions but i think that i will get up to speed with 2nd Ed before making a fool of myself :shock:

 

[locarno24]

I think the issue with fighters for us started back when we first started when a horde of my starfuries were taken out by not a lot of Mimbari Nile fighters which were then all taken out by my hyperions with a turret mount anti fighter armement.

That'll happen - and won't get all that much better in second edition; Minbari Heavy Fighters are ridiculously awesome in most cases but suffer against capital ship flak mounts badly because it robs them of both Stealth and Dodge/i] - and EA ships tend to be loaded with the stuff.

On the other hand, strafing runs from Nials and even Flyers can be lethal to otherwise next-to-invulnerable bricks like Omega Destroyers. Taking away both Interceptors and Hull 6 with attacks by fighters is quite nasty...