Looking for Fleet buying advice

[TimoftheC2]

Hi all,

Ok, I'm now looking to put a fleet together and the Fleet Lists look really good. Only problem is, I have no idea which fleet to get. Eventually I'd like to put a few together to give me more options, but for the minute, one fleet will have to do.

I'm drawn towards either an Earth Alliance Fleet or the Narn but the Vree Fleet (with all those saucers) peeks my interest too

Trouble is, I have no idea which fleets are popular, which are considered overpowered and which (if any) are looked on as cannon fodder.

Basically, I'm looking for any advice or personal opinions about the different fleets available to use as a guide to point my wallet :roll:

I realise this is a bit of an open ended question and different people will have different ideas but I have no experience in the game or its mechanics to drawn upon so I therefore want to pick all your brains if that’s ok.

Can I also ask, when putting a fleet together is a priority level of Raid used the most?

Tim.C

 

[Da Boss]

ok soo what fleet to choose ....now a certain amount of this depends on your prefered play style

Do you like:

Sit back and snipe - Minbari / Vree

Charge and Shoot alot - Darzi, Centauri (par exellence) (*), Dilgar,

Ease of use (but not to master) - Shadows, Vorlons, (don't have to worry about crew damage, and repair crits, also Shadows don't care so much about turns )

All rounders (and masters of none) Earth, Brakiri,

Complicated - Drakh (vulnerable to fighters and has GEG rules)

Like to loose / be laughed at - Narn

so it comes down to

"What do you want"

(*) however, the Centauri fleet is arguably the most flexible in the game with pretty much every type of ship and style of play covered....and usually covered well - great fighters, superb attack ships at Patrol and Skirmish, best carrier in the game, great range of raid level destroyers, powerful battle level gunships and a formidable armegeddon Battleship. You can even field a Stealth fleet...........

 

[Centauri_Admiral]

Hi,

While I obviously have a vested interest in saying Earth Alliance, as I'm selling some, they do have a lot going for them as a starting fleet. Especially if you pick crusade era.

However I do agree with pretty much everything charles just said, and ultimately it boils down to how you like to play, some fleets can straddle both rolls, where others are more specialised to one.

If you are building a fleet towards raid level to begin with, you want to be looking at including maybe one or two battle level ships, 3 to four raid level ships, and a decent number of skirmish and patrol level ships.

Again, and without wishing to sound like I'm pressure selling lol, hermes class are good patrol level ships with missiles, giving them good range and hitting power for a patrol level ship, chronos frigates at skirmish are good when used in squadrons, and while they dont have spectacular weapons, they are very tough to knock out. I'm not sure what works at raid level, maybe hyperion variants, but the apollo [good range missile cruiser] or the marathon, are both good choices at battle level, for survivability the Omega is also a good choice.

Hope that helps, Rich

 

[AdrianH]

Hi all,

Ok, I'm now looking to put a fleet together and the Fleet Lists look really good. Only problem is, I have no idea which fleet to get. Eventually I'd like to put a few together to give me more options, but for the minute, one fleet will have to do.

I'm drawn towards either an Earth Alliance Fleet or the Narn but the Vree Fleet (with all those saucers) peeks my interest too

Trouble is, I have no idea which fleets are popular, which are considered overpowered and which (if any) are looked on as cannon fodder

I don't think any fleet is overpowered in general, although some fleets do well against certain opponents and poorly against others.

My own two main fleets are the Shadows and the Army of Light. The Shadows are easy in some ways - only a few types of ship, ignore the movement rules and pretty much ignore special actions. However, getting the most out of those ships, especially against some enemies such as the Minbari, can be tricky.

The Army of Light, introduced in P&P, represents Sheridan's informal alliance against the Shadows and includes a few ships from each of Earth, ISA, Minbari, Narn and all the League races. Of particular interest to you perhaps, it means you don't need to choose between Earth and the flying saucers, you get to use them together. And once you build it up enough, you'll have ships from individual races that you can play them alone in smaller games.

 

[TimoftheC2]

Thanks for the replies guys - gives me things to ponder over 8)

Like to loose / be laughed at - Narn

Da Boss - wana elaborate on that for me - are the Narn really that bad or was that a joke that a noob like me didn't get

 

[Centauri_Admiral]

LOL - that was a loyal noble of The Centaurum; dutifully having a poke at the Narn . . . . . I'm just waiting for the response

Narn have become quite sick in many respects ahem emines ahem

 

[Da Boss]

Thanks for the replies guys - gives me things to ponder over 8)

Like to loose / be laughed at - Narn

Da Boss - wana elaborate on that for me - are the Narn really that bad or was that a joke that a noob like me didn't get

I am quite bias towards my fav races in B5 - and anti those I didn't like so much in the show -

however, the Narn have good skirmish, Raid and War ships but suffer from:

very poor battle choices
no carrier/fleet carrier
Short range secondary's
no defences (shields, interceptors, dodge)

They are not unplayable and good games can be had.

the emines can work well - esp against hull 5 or less ships -

 

[Orphanmaker]

Thanks for the replies guys - gives me things to ponder over 8)

Like to loose / be laughed at - Narn

Da Boss - wana elaborate on that for me - are the Narn really that bad or was that a joke that a noob like me didn't get

I am quite bias towards my fav races in B5 - and anti those I didn't like so much in the show -

however, the Narn have good skirmish, Raid and War ships but suffer from:

very poor battle choices
no carrier/fleet carrier
Short range secondary's
no defences (shields, interceptors, dodge)

They are not unplayable and good games can be had.

the emines can work well - esp against hull 5 or less ships -

In my gaminggroup we have at the moment a minbari, dilgar, vorlon, pak`ma´ra and EA:3age facing of against my narns at a regular basis. So far the mighty narn have won every engagement against all of them exept for the vorlons who managed to kick my butt yesterday for the first time. The narn extreme range advantage and the fact that they can take about twice as much damage as the enemy at any given PL make them very powerful. And then there is the e-mines. The dag`kar is in my book the most devestating ship at raidlevel in any fleet. I never go to battle without at least two of them and so far they have never dissapointed me. The narn mine-barrage is somthing to be feared and should never be underestimated.

 

[Democratus]

The Narn are a quandry for my gaming group as well. The number of optional/house rules will largely determine the usefulness of the Narn. If you allow the redundancy rules it helps them a great deal. My experience (when not using redundancy) is that the Narn ships are tough - but are rendered useless by criticals long before destruction.

Also, if you play on tables with little to no terrain the Narn will become more powerful. A fleet with nothing to hide behind is fodder for heavy lasers and e-mines.

As for other races, most that needs to be said has been said here. I'm an agressive player so I prefer Centauri and Dilgar. My local group is also very fond of fighters so they play a heavy part in the metagame. Make sure your fleet either has good fighter defenses (escorts, anti-fighter) or good ways to eliminate enemy fighters (emines, dogfighters).

 

[Da Boss]

The dag`kar is in my book the most devestating ship at raidlevel in any fleet.

I find the Elutarin an excellent counter to the Dag'Kar -
Hull 6 (and CBD) firing 6 dice SAP, Precise and Double Damage Torps at 30" range against hull 4 Priceless.....................

8)

 

[H]

ok, As more or Less Narn player

they are a very rewarding fleet to win with, as they have quite a few weaknesses. But they can also be a bit cheesy and overpowered in certain situations.

Overall they will more than likely loose more than they win if you play at raid level. But as soon as you open up to larger scale games, they can bring it to most races, the Ka'Bin tak is quite brutal, the G'Vrahn is one of the top warships in the game, and the Bin Tak isn't far behind (you will hear people call the Bin'Tak, "comparitive" to the G'Vrahn it's not as good, overall thought it's still superb), Battle level is a weakspot but in a fleet, G'Quans make good damage sponges. Raid has the excelent Var'Nic, and the reliable if predictable dag'kar, G'Karith ahd T'loth. At Skirmish level you have excelent choices in the ka'toc and Thentus (a vey under regarded ship in my opinion) and then some less useful options.

Your fighters are a bit a a weakpoint in some respects. When every man and his dog got new and upgraded fighters.. the narn did not. The frazi still has respectible dice but is ultimately Af fodder your patrol choices aside from fighters are the cutter. once killed a Sharlin with one in a moment of sheer cheekiness, but not in the smae class as centauri and Earth twofers.

there are some fleets you will have cracking battles against, and some you will die horribly too, but that applies to numerous other fleets to be fair such is the nature of the game.

I agree with the poster who reccomended Earth, though i would say third age rather than crusade era but thats personal preferance for how you may want to play. Severl of the ships are transferable anyway, so you could just collect ea and change bewteen early, 3rd age and crusade eras till you find a playstyle you like. Just try to only own the ships that are transferable till you decide. . Also against my Narn nature, Charles is correct that the Centauri can fulfil pretty much any need within one fleet list

 

[Burger]

I'd take a Shadow Scout against a Dag'Kar 1 vs 1 any day. I'd take a little damage on turn 1, but on turn 2 you're reloading and turn 3 I'm behind you... byebye

 

[H]

the Dag kar is a fine fleet ship, never to be viewed in a 1 on 1 capacity, because it WILL loose to pretty much anything baring a lucky crit from it's torpedos

 

[Burger]

Yes very true, if in a fleet it is a great addition. Ignore it at your peril!

 

[Da Boss]

the Dag kar is a fine fleet ship, never to be viewed in a 1 on 1 capacity, because it WILL loose to pretty much anything baring a lucky crit from it's torpedos

Indeed - having recently played a fleet game against the Narn - the Elutarian squadron proved a very successful counter against the Dag'kar squadron - having the range to match them...........


The dag`kar is in my book the most devestating ship at raidlevel in any fleet.

The Elutarin is a very powerful ship - I would think more resililiant than a Dag'kar and with all round double damage firepower.........

 

[AdrianH]

But the Dag'Kar's energy mines can hit more than one ship at once, or force the enemy to spread his ships all across the table. It also disregards stealth. Minbari would probably rather face Elutarians than Dag'Kars.

Quite apart from combat effectiveness, one thing to consider if you're picking Narn as your first fleet is whether you want to have to paint the red/white/black stripes. I've done it to one G'Quan and one was enough! Mind you, the canonical paint scheme for the T'Loth is a simpler blue/grey job, while the "Sky Full of Stars" counter set shows all sorts of colour schemes for the smaller ships.

 

[Centauri_Admiral]

You could always do a canon Narn fleet as lumps of scrap metal . . . just call it a post-shadow raid fleet . . . . . :lol:

Hehehehehehehehehehehe - "Why dont you just destroy the entire Narn homeworld; while you're at it?" "One thing at a time Londo."

lmao