Kzinti Test Games

[Pavlov Grenadier]

Hi all! So I’ve got a few games coming up this weekend with my Kzinti and wanted to use them as a test bed for some of the debate going on. Mckinstry has volunteered his services to play a few 1k point “tourney” style games with me and we will be playing the scenarios listed in the April 28th Tourney pack from Mongoose (Assntn, Rescue, Space Sup, ACTA).

My question to the group is what are some of the Kzinti “Power” fleets you are concerned people will be bringing to the 1k tourneys?

Max Drones: This is the maximum number of drones (and Int. Sinks) I can get into 1k. Im still not sure I like the FF but will try to test them out this weekend. I guess the strategy here is to keep distance and drone one ship a turn?
FF x 7
CM x1
32 Drones

Somewhat Balanced: Has a heavy hitter (incase I need to sit on an objective and take punishment) and then 6 agile ships that can fly around and hit from 36” away.
BC x1
CM x2
FF x 4
28 Drones

What other Kzinti fleets have you seen or been thinking of taking?

Thanks!

 

[JRhoades]

Go with option 2: That fleet is more fun to play against, so you will probably have more fun.

 

[Pavlov Grenadier]

Go with option 2: That fleet is more fun to play against, so you will probably have more fun.

Thanks JR! I totally agree it will be the more fun list to play. Having said that, the games this weekend are to help give some results to the forums on drone power (or lack there of :lol: ) so I want to take the "tourney competitive (aka super cheese lists?)" lists we might see at the upcoming tourneys.

 

[gord314]

You could always try 9 federation DWDs.

 

[McKinstry]

You could always try 9 federation DWDs.

He's playing me and I just may do that. :twisted:

Well, with at least a few BC's as well. :twisted: :twisted:

 

[Captain Jonah]

Well as I mentioned before in the 1300 point battle thread.

You need to look at how you plan to use your ships.

The CMs have F arc disruptors making them turn towards the enemy to use them. You could try dropping both CMs and pick up a second BC and another FF. The BCs are a solid ship, no ADD but each has a lot of Phasers for Drone defence. Against a normal Klingon or Fed fleet with 8-12 Drones the BC has, what, 9 phasers in its side arcs plus tractors. Makes them fairly immune to a low Drone fleets Drone fire. So much so in fact that they will probably not be a Drone target, the FFs will most likely draw the Drone fire since they have next to no defences.

The BCs will probably be taking Disruptor and Phaser fire or nothing at all to start with as the Klingon tries to hunt down the FFs. Its still 28 Drones so if you get flanking shots with the FFs and take those shields down the BCs can be getting kills against unshielded Klingon’s. Or if the Klingon’s turn to go after the FFs it will be the BCs taking down the shields from the rear for the FFs to finish off.

Remember to note that loudly when a Lowly Kzinti FF puts the fatal Drone into something expensive :twisted:

If you have the time try the 8 FF fleet since this is an experiment in Drone heavy cheese. 32 Drones, or the 9 DWDs for 36 Drones in a 1000 point fleet :twisted:

You are going to be Init sinked, the Klingon’s have a lot of cheap ships to add onto a fleet but you can always use the BCs first since if they end up somewhere they can be shot at they can take it. The light stuff can then move to pick on his ships.

In terms of a Fed Drone fleet. The problem isn’t the Kzinti, its with Drone heavy fleets so a Fed fleet of 9 DWDs is just a worse version of 8 Kzinti FFs.

You could try Drone heavy Kzinti fleets against normal Fed, Klingon, Romulan etc fleets and Drone heavy Fed fleets against Kzinti, Klingon, Romulan etc. Drone heavy against Drone heavy fleets is just a mutual slaughter unless one side is the fed and you are trying to take down ships with Drone 4 G-racks. 28+ Drones is a dead ship and spare damage for someone else (with the Fed it’s most likely just a damaged ship since the ADD4 bit cuts down a lot of Drones. The Kzinti will fare worse against a Drone heavy fleet than the Feds, Aside from a few ships the Kzinti lack Drone defences.

If the Feds and Klingons with ADDs have problems against Drone heavy fleets and the Gorn And pointy eared types just get slaughtered it does support the Drones need some work meme.

The point is Drone heavy fleets after all.

Anyway have fun and no fixing the terrain to muck up the experiement :lol: :wink:

 

[Pavlov Grenadier]

Thanks Captain! I think I’m actually playing against Feds (McKinstry's evil imperialist expansionist fleet :evil: ). We agreed he would take a normal tourney list as if he didn’t know who he was playing so I wanted to take a “competitive tourney style” list so we would see how bad the drones were (obviously, since Im playing Kzinti, they are fair and well balanced :shock: ).

Yikes, 9 DWDs would be bad…Maybe I’m playing the wrong race :lol: .

If I do play against the Feds (not sure what he will be brining), do you think I need to spread my fleet out the way you described in the “vs. Klingon” thread? I absolutely agree that against the Klinks, it’s a great idea so I can score some (a lot?) non-front shots against their shields. But against other races, do I care? I feel like my main point will be to stay at distance as long as I can (at least until I whittle his ranks down). Maybe that still dictates me spreading out (obviously, terrain and to a lesser extent scenario will dictate some of that)??

I like the idea of switching out the 2 CMs for a BC and FF. Now having said that, which is the “scarier” tourney fleet? That or the 8 ship fleet for 32 drones? Even though I give up 4 drones, I feel like the 2 BC and 5 FF fleet is more powerful (has more staying power). If we have time, I want to play both lists but if I have to choose one, which one is scarier for the average balanced fleet?

Again, let me stress, this weekend’s games are all about testing. I would never normally try to conspire to crush Mckinstry so terribly (at least not in public forums...mwahahahaha :twisted: ).

Thanks again!

 

[Captain Jonah]

Against the Feds since they have all round shields there is no need to get flank shots.

However..... :twisted:

The feds are a F arc race, Photons are F arc only and in a normal fleet they will be chucking in 8 to 10 Drones as well. Facing doesn't matter for the Drones but by keeping your fleet a little bit spread out you can either get the fed to spread out as well or leave him to focus on part of your fleet.

If all the Feds swing to point in one direction its time for those ships to run away. Ships that are in separate groups can concentrate on smashing the Flat top fleet knowing that they will be facing Drones or phasers at long range but not the massed Photon fire that comes with being in front of the Feds.

With 20+ Photons if they charge and get into photon range an FF is going to pop. No way around that. But Feds have a lot of Phasers as well and will be firing in every direction. Still rather 20 Phaser shots at 15" than 20 Photons AND 20 Phasers at 15".

Aside from certain fleet vs. Fleet match ups (mostly the plasma races) unless you need to go IDF don't keep your ships close to each other. 24" Disruptors, a few Phasers and lots and lots of 36" drones your ships can happily sit in small groups 12" from each other and still pick on the same enemies.

The FFs have no need to ever get closer than 36" (till we get a rules change to tame Drones) and should only be taking direct fire if they get caught. But with small groups they can split up and leave the Fed to chase one or the other. They can charge up and trap one FF by going one way while the other FF runs the other way.

Having said that though the Fed player (Mr evil fleet Mckinstry :lol: ) could elect to ignore your BCs and have all of this light stuff just chase and kill the FFs. Think of it as a table sized furball. You still have a big advantage because Drones can concentrate fire from across the map whereas 15" Photons need to be closer and more grouped to pile on the damage.

In terms of scary. 28 Drones and 32 Drones isn’t much difference if you are targeting ships you know you can kill each time. 4 Drones isn’t going to make that much of a bigger more scary Drone attack. Go for the ships with ADD1 first to reduce the Fed numbers, remove any Init sinks and reduce his firepower and mobility. The bigger fed stuff with turn mode 6 is going to have problems keeping up with agile FFs and if you focus on the stuff that can catch you first, well, after that its time to gloat :wink:

Go forth and kill em all, make them dead, it’s the only way to be sure :twisted: