Multiple small ships, or single larger ones in small games

[Zarathustra Suicune]

Whilst I know a lot of people lean towards the strategy of having more ships as opposed to fewer, more powerful ships for initiative sinks, I'm thinking that in smaller games, 200-600pts It may be better to take fewer, even single ships at 200 pts due to the fact that at that pts level most factions will only be able to take one ship, and going for a pair of frigates will just bounce off larger ships.

 

[Myrm]

I'd not discard the idea of multiple smaller ships - multiple firing events force defensive fire into choices. Same with offensive fire. If you are facing a single big klingon dont underestimate the ability to fork him with one each side allowing you to nibble that big front shield defence away. Manoeuvre differences let yo essentially sabre dance two light ships against that slower heavy boy. Two special actions isnt to be sneezed at either. OK the downsides are obvious the heavy ship carries more oompf and can let that extra oompf fly at something that is more eggshell like.

It might get skewed a little with 10 police ships vs a huge battleship or similar but overall the big heavy stuff benefit trades off well with the multiple manoeuvre units benefits I feel.

 

[archon96]

let me tell ya if youre opponent rolls out a dreadnaught and you only bring a bunch of frigates good look. We had to readjust our fleet builds after one guy brought 3 dreadnaughts to a 1000points game. The frigates simple dont have the firepower to stand up against these. And with battleships showing up this could get even worse.

 

[Zarathustra Suicune]

That's my thought, when I look at the profiles of the frigates, especially the likes of the federation Burke class, it looks like it just does not have the fire power to take on .... well anything really, even if you out number the enemy, for example, I'm going to take either a constitution, wolverine or Chicago class for the first game on Saturday rather then my original plan of two burkes, using their agilityto get to the opponents flanks and rear, but then had a look at the other fleet lists, and noticed that against what I'm guessing will be there (D5W/FD7/Sparrowhawk/King eagle/Allosaurus) whilst the burkes might not be necisarily turned into jam, they certainly would not have the firepower needed to have any effect on the enemy unless I got lucky with criticals.

 

[Da Boss]

If you get some lucky 6's and get photons through a shield - most ships are in a world of hurt even big ones

 

[archon96]

the advantage of little ships is the attempt you get at intensify defensive fire. Against a plasma heavy fleet this is huge. But id have them in escort of something big like a kirov or a dreadnaught.

 

[Zarathustra Suicune]

That's the thing, they seem to work well and have a lot uses as part of a fleet, supporting/screening the bigger ships, but the smaller frigates themselves can't do much damage themselves outside of the lucky photon torpedo shot, and whilst overcharged torpedoes may be able to deal a hefty amount of damage, they would only be feasible for the first volley as after that you will be using your special orders to either reload or boost shields/brace for impact.
Must admit the narrative aspect of two small frigates being able to take out a enemy cruiser is good and so part of me does like the idea of using them, another part of me just screams that unless I have really good luck I'd be screwed if the enemy used something like an Allosaurus, Kzinti battle cruiser or Romulan king eagle that could quite easily strip away the shields in one turn, then reduce them to scrap the next.

 

[archon96]

federation dreanaught + 2 battle frigates = annoying to kill.

 

[Zarathustra Suicune]

That is my plan in bigger games to usually pair them/put them near my bigger ships, and the fed battle frigate is brilliant, both model and rules wise, the poor average fed frigate? Not so much, nice model, but rules wise I'm struggling to see a case where 2 of them would be preferably to either a CA, NCA, or CF.

 

[Da Boss]

In sinks

If you have terrain (and hopefully you do) the small ships dodge and weave out of cover not actually getting shot if they can help it and are more useful later in the game or aganst their opposite numbers.

 

[dix]

If the choice is between a single big ship or a number of (only) small ships, I would take the big ship for the "crunch power" it provides. If I have the option, I would choose a single medium ship, like a cruiser, for crunch and a couple of small frigates as initiative sinks. Keep the small vulnerable frigates to the rear so they don't die (or at least force your opponent to take poorer shots at them).

This was used to great effect against me, one time. I had a +2 to initiative each turn (Klingon + Command trait) but because my opponent had the initiative sink, I had a very tough time getting good shots at his vulnerable small ships. The game played as if he had won the initiative rolls even though I had won them every time. We had to call the game early but I was definitely losing.

 

[riftsinger]

in the starship games i have played we (my local group) had a house rule that no force of ships may have more than 50% capital class (eg battle cruiser and above ) only scenario or campian wound cause exceptions

 

[archon96]

see im not to sure i like that. The biggest appeal to this is building a fleet and seeing how it works. Then tweaking it as necessary.I have two fleet one a 1000 point and another support fleet at 500 that i add to the 1000 point when we jump up the numbers. I only wish this was hex based it would go faster because some people arent very good at measuring.

 

[dix]

I just use a tape measure from my toolbox.

 

[Iain McGhee]

Heh, aye The problem arises when folk takes ages checking every possible move and every enemy ship move before shifting anything (and the same before firing). OK with a couple of ships per side, irritating with a full fleet and not really in the spirit of the game IMO Placing spare dice to mark possible moves helps a bit, as does adopting a time limit for movement if players are really abusing the privilege.

As to the original question: the trouble with taking one or two larger ships over a swarm (if you can call 3-4 frigates a swarm ) is that you're in danger of getting critical hit'd to death (or at least impotence) if a bunch of smaller ships get lucky with their shield penetrations, whereas the larger ships may have to hold back a lot of their firepower for defence and may have to "waste" firepower overkilling smaller ships or do small amounts of damage to the group (depending on weapons fit).

Fleet choice matters a lot, I'd think. A couple of agile Klingon cruiser types that can dance around at Disruptor range while still throwing out a respectable amount of damage are a much more viable choice against a swarm than a couple of battlecruisers with limited arc Reload heavy weapons and not-so-great phaser suites (yes Plasma-boats, I'm looking at you ). While I'd imagine a bunch of Kzinti Frigates and Scouts could be real trouble.

A mix of both types is probably the best choice in a small game IMO, gives you a "heavy hitter" and some initiative sink/IDF cover options if required. Which is pretty much essential against some fleets, at least until a particular pair of empires appear with (hopefully/eventually) their signature fighters and gunboats in tow.

 

[archon96]

Just look at modern naval formations. A fleet usually has 1-2 very large ships surrounded by smaller escort type vessels. For me in a 1500 point fleet Id take a dread and two heavy types. Then fill in with smaller vessels.

 

[McKinstry]

I'm running a game at our FLGS on the first Saturday in February that will run 2,000-2,500 points per side but with 8-10 players. Most fleets will be a cruiser and three escorts since I want all the players to have a 'fleet' experience.