My First ACTA game

[Batavian]

Hi all

I am relatively new to this forum but have now managed to arrange my first game of ACTA - B5 with TGT.

We have decided to do a 5 point raid game Dilgar V Early Years Earth.

Has anyone any tips or tactics I should follow....... assuming he doesn't read this thread!!!!!!!!!

I have chosen. 1 x Nova
1 x Command Hyperion (If I get it painted by Wed)
1 x Hyperion
1 x Avenger
1 x Olympus
and 4 x Tethys Cutters

Let me know your views.

 

[H]

ooh, tough game, TGT is a very good player who will be very tough to beat. be thankful he's not playing vree though. To be honest, i wouldn't worry about winning, just geta grip of the rules in an actual game, watch what Neil does, and when he does it.

HOWEVER, you are also facing a very good fleet and you have to be sure about how you want to face them. At range, you are reasonably well protected from him, but as he closes his mass of guns will overwhelm you, he also has good fighters so your avenger should be a key player. you need to try to damage him enough before he closes. I know this takes the nova out of the game to start with but the more you can do at range, the better chance the nova has of taking on the masters of destruction. I would personally swap the tethys for tethys missile boats (assuming you are desperate for the tethys to be used. fired in squadrons you get 8 missiles on turn 1, 3, 5 assuming they last that long, as well as the missile on the olympus. (not actually a fan of the olympus, but i'm trying not to change your model requirements lol)
one thing you must do, is either have all the same fighter type, or have a mix on the avenger, this means if you have novas and tigers on the avenger, it can recover novas or tigers from any other ship as well!

I am not sure why you are taking the command hyp, I assume it's for the command bonus of 2, though you get 1 on the avenger anyway. \


my own personal fleet would be avenger (1), 4 rail hyperions (2), Oracle and Artemis escort (1) and 4 hermes (1)
this gives you 16 fighters (remember to drop a couple of Auroras on the avenger for tigers to support the other ships fighters), an escort in case the fighters go wrong! and a scout to try get twin linking on the missiles launched from the Hermes in the first place, then the hyperions railguns as the distance closes. I do love the Nova, I just think it's in the wrong place versus Dilgar, but go prove me wrong.

 

[Da Boss]

Well Hiff has said everythig I was going to say

unless you are playing any ISD restrictions

 

[Burger]

Yeah hiff said it all really
Though I would be tempted to throw in a few Olympus Gunships, they are beasts as long as you've got init sinks. Also watch out for huge swarms of Dilgar torpedofighters, they will stay out of AF range. A Sagittarius with anti-fighter missiles could prove invaluable. I'd take:

Avenger
4x Rail Hyperion
3x Olympus Gunship
Sag with AF missiles on port and aft, standard on starboard and fore

 

[H]

seems we agree on avangers and the ole Rail hyperions, just some minor after that

 

[Democratus]

When I was playing Dilgar there were two types of fleet that I took, missile fleets and fighter fleets.

I find the Dilgar fighter fleet to be the spookiest. Unless you are restricting play to the year 2232, you will have Auroras to counter the dartfighters. Be aware that all his fighters can move much further than yours and will likely stand out of engagement range until they can safely move in for an attack. Escorting ships with your own fighters will allow you to dash out and Dogfight torpedofighters that attack. A Garasoch Carrier will be the core of this fleet.

With the missile fleet he will pile on the Jash Tae torpedo ships (patrol), the Ochlavita-Ki command destroyers (skirmish) and the Omelos/Targrath cruisers (raid). This fleet will out damage you at nearly every range when the missiles (slow loading) are ready to fire.

The key here is that his ships have no active defenses (interceptors, dodge, etc.) and so are vulnerable to non-beam damage, particularly EA missiles and the criticals they inflict. Many of the ships are rather fragile, especially the Jashakar variants. The Jash Tae and Jash Vi also have no Anti-Fighter trait.

In all cases, I would advise taking out the Dilgar scouts ASAP. Missiles and Torpedofighters are devastating when backed up with scout redirect.

Your Olympus is a great candidate for Anti-Fighter missiles. I would suggest taking the Tethys Missile boat variant for extra crit chances. I see little reason to take any fighter other than the Aurora as his ships will likely all be speed 10+ unless he takes a carrier.

 

[Da Boss]

The key here is that his ships have no active defenses (interceptors, dodge, etc.) and so are vulnerable to non-beam damage, particularly EA missiles and the criticals they inflict. .

Unless he uses fighters as interceptors as the two fleets approach - which still gives the capability of counter assaulting later and increases chances of recovery by the fleet carrier.

 

[Democratus]

Agreed. But if the Dilgar chooses to tie his fighters down by escorting ships, their movement is much more predictable. They loose the speed advantage they have over the EA fighters.

In this case I would advise moving Auroras into Dogfight with the escorting fighters - thereby eliminating their ability to act as interceptors. Since the Dilgar have no Escorts the Auroras will also be immune to Anti-Fighter with this manuver.

 

[No. 1 Bear]

My favourite list

Avenger
3 Olympus Gunships
2 Saggis
2 Rail Hyperions
Oracle.

Nice all round list. With a lot of punch.

 

[Target]

The standard Olympus is a great ship, turreted missles & rail gun.
I'd go
Avenger
4 Rail Hyperions
4 Olympii, Standard or AP, DD missles, maybe 2 & add more
R Hyperions. Guess it depends on your models.

 

[locarno24]

When I was playing Dilgar there were two types of fleet that I took, missile fleets and fighter fleets.

I find the Dilgar fighter fleet to be the spookiest.

I must admit that until I saw Democratus' battle reports I'd largely ignored fighters, but I've since become a convert. Dilgar torpedo bombers can devastate a fleet that's not ready to deal with them - not just because they outrange AF, but because their range is longer even than most assault fighters, so they can mass huge quantities of torpedoes. The Garasoch-class is a nice ship too; a good fleet carrier with reasonable guns and no unnecessary frills.


The one other fleet that seems to have made an appearance round here recently is the Dilgar assault ship fleet - big squadrons of Rohrics, Kahtric or Kahtric So and Wahant ships. Their ridiculously low speed looks rubbish at first glance until you realise that:

(a) despite being slow the Rohric is still very manouvrable.
(b) the bigger assault ships carry truly ridiculous quantities of bolters that outrange a lot of races weapons (or at least mean that dancing around firing arc - like a lot of people claim they can do with Abbai - isn't going to work).
(c) the bloody things DO NOT DIE.

 

[Batavian]

Wow this seems to have generated a bit of interest.
I am taking a break from painting up the last models I need for tonight.

My collection is a bit limited as I only started buying them last year!

I have for the EA early years:

1x Orestes, 1 x Hyperion, 1 x Sagitarius, 2 x Olympus, 1 x Oracle, 1 x Avenger. The command Hyp. is being finished now along with the last two Tethys.

From the advice here I will use the Tethii(?) as missile boats.

Just wondering if I should swap something out to get my Sagitarius in?

Anyway - got till 730pm to decide.

 

[Democratus]

Well, if you are going to use the Sagittarius, I would suggest throwing in the Oracle as well for the scout redirects (plus an extra missile).

You will probably still have issues with init sinks, as your opponent should have 2 pentacons able to do a "pass".

If I was taking a fighter-force against you it would be this:
Strike Pentacon (16 missiles, 18 bolters, 2 torpfighters)
- Targrath (2x Torpfighter)
- Ochlavita-Ki
- Jashakar Tae
- Jashakar Tae

Support Pentacon (10 dartfighters, 10 torpfighters, 2 missiles, 18 bolters, 2 scout redirects)
- Garasoch (5 x Dartfighter, 5 x Torpfighter)
- Garasoch (5 x Dartfighter, 5 x Torpfighter)
- Ochlavita-Ki
- Jashakar Vi
- Jashakar Vi

This will allow 2 passes on the first turn. And on the second turn it can do 2 passes, and then split up the support pentacon for 5 more init sinks before moving the strike pentacon.

Just an example of possible Dilgar treachery.

 

[Batavian]

Ok guys, I had my game now. You will never guess the outcome!

TGT won but I didn't expect anything else. It was a very enjoyable evening. I learn't alot about the rules too and tactics. I also have a Dilgar fleet so it was good to see how they work.

TGT made me deploy first and so had the jump on me from the start - deploying all his ships together whilst mine were spread out to counter anything (and nothing). I think I lost my command Hyp. in the first round of shooting. The second go was not much butter with the Dilgar powering through the middle of my formation knocking down a couple of Tethys as they went heading straight for my Avenger. Fighter combat was pretty even though.
3rd go I lost my Avenger. In the whole game I inflicted a sizeable amount of damage on one Targath and the Garosch but not enough to blow them out of the stars.

Anyway a good game.

Thanks for all the advice but it got a bit confusing towards the end and I just went with what I planned. I now know what you all mean. We will have a rematch!!!!!!

 

[H]

you will learn more as you play, as a newbie with a "balanced" fleet you were probably always going to loose, but Im glad you seem to have enjoyed it, and hopefully learnt a lot from Neil.
why don't you try come along to the Tourney next year, you will get several games against a good mix of experiance, and fun players.

try to stick to your plan, don't spend too much time worrying what someone might do, ie spreading your ships out. I'd also ask Neil to try some other fleets so you can see different fleet playstyles, though not sure what other fleets he owns.

 

[Burger]

Spreading your ships out at the start is almost always a mistake (except when facing e-mines). It's not a battle for table space, you don't have to defend the entire board
If you put them in a line it is easy for your opponent to just go along the line blowing them up one at a time, and not many of your own ships will be able to return fire. Just put your ships in a nice formation, I almost always put them very close right at the start even if I lose initiative.

 

[locarno24]

Well, if you are going to use the Sagittarius, I would suggest throwing in the Oracle as well for the scout redirects (plus an extra missile).

It depends. One thing I see quite often is people buying scouts in fairly small games, and they never really pull their weight.

Remember that a scout gives you a 50/50 chance of getting a redirect - that means it's effective 'firepower' - that is the number of extra rolls to hit you'll get - is 50% of 50% of the number of missiles it's trying to redirect.

So if you've got a just a saggitarius and the oracle's own fairly puny rack, it's probably not worth it - you might well be better off with a second saggitarius (especially since ships can use Concentrate All Firepower! and get the same effect). If you've got a small squadron of Tethys then it gets more worthwhile.

The best reason to get a scout is probably taking lots of assault fighters. If you have a big pack of Tiger-class Starfuries, then you can get quite a few rerolls with their smaller missiles - although when I say 'a big pack', I'm meaning multiple Avenger heavy carriers.

If you put them in a line it is easy for your opponent to just go along the line blowing them up one at a time, and not many of your own ships will be able to return fire. Just put your ships in a nice formation, I almost always put them very close right at the start even if I lose initiative.

Good advice. A nice, solid 'phalanx' of ships is a daunting prospect, especially with the 'secondary guns pointing every bleeding which way' designs of the EA. Keep out of explosion distance of one another, obviously, but if ships are in mutual plasma cannon range of one another:

(a) you can use otherwise idle secondary guns to shoot at fighter flights attacking friendly ships.
(b) it becomes a lot harder for races with longer range secondary weapons (which is just about everyone if you're EA early years) to attack you but stay out of your own range, because overflying one ship means running smack into the guns of another. Olympus, with their railgun and missile turrets, are extremely good at this and make for great flank protectors.

 

[TGT]

Great game with Simon very much enjoyed the evening!

If only I had a 2nd Garasoch = I like this option feel free to use it Simon in our rematch!
cheers
TGT

If I was taking a fighter-force against you it would be this:
Strike Pentacon (16 missiles, 18 bolters, 2 torpfighters)
- Targrath (2x Torpfighter)
- Ochlavita-Ki
- Jashakar Tae
- Jashakar Tae

Support Pentacon (10 dartfighters, 10 torpfighters, 2 missiles, 18 bolters, 2 scout redirects)
- Garasoch (5 x Dartfighter, 5 x Torpfighter)
- Garasoch (5 x Dartfighter, 5 x Torpfighter)
- Ochlavita-Ki
- Jashakar Vi
- Jashakar Vi

 

[locarno24]

Hmm.... Forget what I said above when related to Dilgar - a Patrol-level scout, an innate CQ bonus from the command destroyer, and one of the best assault fighters going means scout redirects are scary in any size game...

 

[TGT]

oops...only thing is as this option only has 4 ships it's not actually a pentacon

If I was taking a fighter-force against you it would be this:
Strike Pentacon (16 missiles, 18 bolters, 2 torpfighters)
- Targrath (2x Torpfighter)
- Ochlavita-Ki
- Jashakar Tae
- Jashakar Tae