New Campaign with some ideas and need help for EarthForce EY

[Timestheus]

For some reason I have always loved the Earthforce Early Years ships. Give me a slew of ships mounting rail guns and let me go to town.

The problem is that in a campaign they are going to get decimated because of their lack of larger ships.

I am considering playing in a campaign as a splinter faction of the EA so to speak. Basically my faction will use the EA-EY ship fleet. The story is that my faction is a couple of now independent former Earth colonies who have built their own militaries by purchasing or rebuilding older smaller EArthforce ships. Hence the fleet list I will use.

This will obviously leave me with nothing larger than the very slow Orestes at battle level.

If the campaign is larger than Battle level at War or Armageddon I will have oodles of ships but I am going to have some major size issues.

Would anyone suggest anything to offset this problem? Any strategies or maybe some special rules that might balance things out and let me survive against the more modern opponents? Or do you think my advantage of numbers to the extreme versus my foes will allow me to survive and prosper on the battlefield?

One idea being considered is allowing me to also use the raider fleet list as a new independent faction is going to acquire/purchase anything they can to help survive.

 

[Target]

Taking rail hyperions just seems too good. Raid hits on skirmish ship. Can't see why just don't take swarms of these & Olympii & the Sag is still pretty awesome. It's just if you have enough models to play the big games.
Bigger ships aren't that useful. It's better to take lots of little ones in the case of EY.
The avenger, nova & hyperion are also pretty good at raid level especially when mixed Rail hyerions & so on.
Nothing wrong with Hermes or Tethys ( iniative sinks).
1 Battle point buys you
1 raid, 2 Skirmish or 1 raid, 1 skirmish & 2 patrol.
You have lots of good ships in those lvls.
I personally believe EY is damn good fleet list.

 

[SylvrDragon]

The problem is that in a campaign they are going to get decimated because of their lack of larger ships.

I'm sorry, but this line forces me to ask if you're new to the game? This game is all about smaller ships and campaigns are even more so. Just put a -3 to all checks to determine scenario PL and you'll be running raids or skirmishes the vast majority of the time.

EA EY quite possibly has the nastiest damage output of all 3 EA eras. I highly recommend rail hyperions, novas and the oh so infamous sagittarius. The nova from the EY has great durability for a raid and has some seriously sick firepower. Pair that bad boy with a scout or two and it can easily pump out as much damage as a battle while costing half as much. The nova has always been my favorite EA ship. It just has everything that an EA commander needs. Firepower, durability, low cost and a good compliment of fighters.

 

[Shadow Queen]

if you want to hold on and waite for the Earth-Minbari War update and then you might be happy with what you see.

 

[Davesaint]

Don't discount the early hyperion and the command hyperion at raid level. The Command Hyperion gets your Init. up to +2, which is a big deal. I would take the Hyperion and the Commnand Hyp over the Nova, especially since the T-Bolt is not available yet.


Dave

 

[Ripple]

Is that going to be an official addition to the list or like the last edition a stand alone product? The old one had some real issues if you mixed in the good stuff with the regular lists.

While I don't quite agree with Sylver on the extent of the advantage small ships have over large ones, depending on your opponent you can have a real advantage due to the two for one buys. The Tethys are both good buys, as is the hermes. I might for a standard battle point to the hyperion, olypmus, hermes, 2 Tethys. Swith out one in five for Nova, oracle, hermes, 2 Tethys beam.

Don't be afraid to just hide the smaller ships for the first few turns to keep your initiative sink advantage alive, sweep in from a flank and take your shot when you can't avoid being tagged anymore.

Ripple

 

[Taran]

I agree with davesaint.

And I have become a big fan of the Tethys Laser Boat.
Sure, it's Slow-Loading. Sure, it's only 2AD with no DD or anything, but it's a Patrol Level, 2 for a FAP Beam.

 

[Shadow Queen]

Now that its been submitted I cant shair it with others.

 

[CaptBavo]

I have considered playing EA: EY, I think they would be able to hold their own in higher PLs. They have some good ships and the hyperion rail is a great ship IMO. But instead in our next campaign I have decided to play another fleet with no choice above war-- The Drazi. (Their war sucks, and thats putting it mildly IMO.)

 

[No. 1 Bear]

I just came out of a campaign with EY EA. I think i would have been joint top. However the psi corps player rolled so many new planet duties that it was just unfair.

Lessons from the campaign is this. You have the best low level ships of any race in my opinion. Their are two ships that you will need to take in abundance 1st is olympus gunships. Hard little ships that everyone seems to ignore they pack a punch equal to that of a decent raid ship. 2. Avengers filled with auroras they are just plain wrong.

Add a few missile hyps for good long range and decent beam, a command hyp for its command and possibly my most favurite ship the explorer. Its a scout without stealth who cares your not going to kill it.
Then add a couple of rail hyps a few normal olympi for dealing with fast manouvarable things.

There you have a list that is tough durable and can destroy an adira in 4 turns.

 

[Timestheus]

Well right or wrong our group generally avoids the swarm tactics. A 5 point Battle level fight will show each side fielding 2 battle level ships and on rare ocassion 3 of them.

Part of this is that most of us love the big ships and we dont like how it really slows things down when each side is fielding 15 plus ships.

Now obviously I am going against this since I am choosing a fleet that will cause me to field ships in numbers but no one has voiced any complaints.

My current strategy is Hermes transports as my primary init sinks. Their missles are not the greatest but at least they can stay back a bit since they can be easily killed in one shot by anything with teeth and they do bring a fighter with them

I also plan on bringing lots of rail gun Hyperions and anything else with turreted railguns etc.

In any given battle it will be rare thing for me to have even two ships with boresight weapons so with the sheer number of ships I field plus so many with wide weapons arcs I figure I will always be able to get my Orestes nicely boresighted on someone. So I figure my fleet will put out a larger percentage of firepower per turn than most EA fleet that focus around the larger ships with all their boresights.

Any other suggestions?

 

[Timestheus]

Also does there exist anywhere any official stats for the rail gun equiped Nova? I would love to field a couple of those.

 

[Sock]

The nova has always been my favorite EA ship.

As if we couldn't figure that out from your avatar. :lol: , just giving ya a hard time

 

[Target]

The EY Nova which has heavy pulse which is 12" AP,DD which basically railgun stats.

 

[SylvrDragon]

Some good points have been made, particularly concerning the Command Hyperion. I never meant to discount any of the hyperions, but I certainly would never make the "heart" of my fleet based on them. I may take a single command hyperion as part of the core, but the rest would be made up of sturdier ships. I like the Nova because, unlike the hyperion, it has good firepower in all arcs, which makes it an excellent ship to use as a battering ram, and it's the most durable raid the EY has to offer. One thing I've learned as an EA player, and I've been playing for nearly 2 years now, is that lower PL ships are what fuel the EA. Sure we have good high PL ships, but nearly all of these ships rely on their beams for the bulk of their damage and since our beams are boresighted this makes our high PL ships little more than floating garbage with out a healthy number of smaller ships to use as initiative sinks. The two largest keys to EA, in my experience, are learning how to take advantage of initiative and initiative sinks; which does affirm that the command hyperion is an excellent ship. In short, you're not really hurt by being limited to lower PL ships. High numbers gives you more flexibility, an easier time dealing with high initiative fleets, and more overall firepower.

 

[SylvrDragon]

The EY Nova which has heavy pulse which is 12" AP,DD which basically railgun stats.

Indeed. That gives the EY Nova the potential, before crits, to deal 16 damage where the 3rd Age Nova can do 14. Sure the 3rd Age version has twin-linked, which makes it more reliable on its own, but then that's what scouts are for! Just think, AP DD and, effectively, twin-linked from your little Oracle buddy... Now that's a recipe for destruction! Statistically with proper scout usage the EY Nova can almost deal the same damage as an Omega and you can have 2 Novas for the price of a single Omega!! All Power to Engines!

 

[Taran]

The Nova isn't EAs most durable Raid choice.
The Explorer is. No EA: EY fleet is complete without an Explorer.

Take one of them, a couple Avengers, a Nova or 2 (like sylverdragon was saying, it's a nasty beast) a Bunch of Hyperions (they really are the core of your EY fleet) of various kinds: Command, Cruiser, Assault, Rail, Missile (I prefer the Saggi to the Hype-Missile), and lots of Patrol PL Init Sinks.


My current EY 5 Pt Raid fleet:

Hyperion Command
Explorer
Avenger
2 Saggittarius
8 Tethys Laser Boats (do not discount the power of 2AD Slow-Loading Beams)

 

[Timestheus]

The Nova isn't EAs most durable Raid choice.
The Explorer is. No EA: EY fleet is complete without an Explorer.

Take one of them, a couple Avengers, a Nova or 2 (like sylverdragon was saying, it's a nasty beast) a Bunch of Hyperions (they really are the core of your EY fleet) of various kinds: Command, Cruiser, Assault, Rail, Missile (I prefer the Saggi to the Hype-Missile), and lots of Patrol PL Init Sinks.


My current EY 5 Pt Raid fleet:

Hyperion Command
Explorer
Avenger
2 Saggittarius
8 Tethys Laser Boats (do not discount the power of 2AD Slow-Loading Beams)

While it makes sense from a purely gaming point of view I will probably never use a Explorer. Storyline wise it would make no sense that some recently independent group of planets has somehow acquired one of the rarest ships in the EA fleet.


Also while the Tethys seems interesting in my opinion (and fitting in with my playing style) it is completely inferior to the Hermes which can hit at range and bring a Starfury along for the ride.

 

[SylvrDragon]

I suppose you could argue that the Explorer is more durable. Even with hull 4, in place of the Novas 5, it can still take a beating. I'd still never take it. It really doesn't offer too much. It's slow, the avenger carries more fighters and can launch them much faster and it has the same command value, the Hyperion and the Nova both have the ability to deal more damage than it, and the Command Hyperion gives more damage output and a better command value. What makes this ship so good?

 

[Sock]

from a fluff standpoint why would the EA or any group ever send an explorer into combat, IIRC the explorers primary function is to scout systems out toward the rim and if there is anything of use out there, to build a jump gate to allow access to that area.