ISA White star, WS II, WS gun ship

[Ripple]

To respond to David's comment about not everyone has a choice of ship and and when you don't it falls to you as the commander to develope tactics.

That was in part the reason for my post, specifically that being told to take x ship if you are facing race y was circumventing tactics rather than developing them. Not saying it isn't useful and fine for set battles, just saying that at least locally and in the tourney circuit such answers aren't available due to having to build to face an unknown opponent/s.

What I was hoping to see was more on how a whitestar fleet (they went from boresight in playtest to front arc at print just so you didn't have to take anything but whitestars) could defeat the mine systems, or as this developed the mine/fighter combo.

I just don't want us to go down the road of the game being won or lost in the fleet selection stage rather than what you do with the ships you've selected. If only cause I don't want to drive a long way to have the fight be not worth fighting cause my opponent brought models I can't fight (or the reverse for him).

Ripple

 

[inq101]

Whitestars are pretty good at the standard anti-mine tactics of getting in close.
At longer ranges spread out your ships so one mine wont hit too many ships. I'd sugest 3-4" spacing so it'll only hit 2 ships, but they are still close enough to support each other. Any further than this will leave your ships too vulnerable to fighter swarms.
Once you close range put your ships right down their throats. At that range an e-mine should hit their own ship as well as yours, discouraging fire. Most ships carrying e-mines sacrifice their firepower to get them, so you should be fine against them.

Against one-shot mines offer up clusters of fighters as targets rather than your Whitestars. A half dozen dead Starfuries and Nials (maybe a bluestar and fighter wing support) is better than a crippled or dead Whitestar (that will probably jump away rather than be destryed anyway).

 

[katadder]

taking fighters against the Gaim is a big no no - they have too many small AD e-mines they can spread amongst your fighters to take them all out 1st turn. only way to use fighters against these is a carrier that launches them at the last minute, ie the turn they could move into dogfight straight away.

 

[Voronesh]

Actually trying to "swarm" an emine ship, especially Gaim or Narn heavy hitters, will not stop him from firing the E-mine.

First he can still place the emine so that it only hits WS, and if you seriously force him to place the template targeting his own ships, he'll fire anway. Hitting 3-4 WS for a little damage on your own ship, is just too good a trade. Since Emines do not crit the calculation actually works, no chance of turning your own ship into a useless piece of decoration.

 

[inq101]

Actually trying to "swarm" an emine ship, especially Gaim or Narn heavy hitters, will not stop him from firing the E-mine.

First he can still place the emine so that it only hits WS, and if you seriously force him to place the template targeting his own ships, he'll fire anway. Hitting 3-4 WS for a little damage on your own ship, is just too good a trade. Since Emines do not crit the calculation actually works, no chance of turning your own ship into a useless piece of decoration.

But at least he will be damaging his own ships. If you can't stop them firing make sure they also hurt themselves.

If they aim to miss their own ships it will probably only hit one of your ships, making it no more effective than an accurate weapon.

 

[Taran]

I am glad threads like this exist as my first fleet is ISA (still working on assembling and painting them all).

This is good stuff to keep in mind for when I field them...

 

[David Anla Shok']

Interesting. No "sure fire" tactic though some fine ideas to test. I am getting the idea that the size of the battle will determine which of these will be applicable. I think that I will game this out with counters to see how it can work.
Regards,