Just played a game vs the vree. The results may have a bit to do with the vree fighter stack being a tad huge but,...
Vree were able to essentially dictate range, destroying roughly two ships a turn until the fighters engaged (in which turn four ships were destroyed).
Fleets -
Abbai - 2 Bimith, 3 Milani, 5 Tiraca and 1 Shyarie
Vree - 3 Xill, 4 Xeel
Abbai - thought were expected to see lots of fighters and possibly some of the stealthy vree. Given that I thought the two bimith in the center would help keep the milani crit team alive as we closed and then or support the Tiraca stacks if the fighters moved to a flank. The shyarie was there to make CAF'ing harder, shoot down fighters (comm disruptor is still a 'hit' right?) and hopefully give me a shot if the stealthers came out.
Formation was two individual bimith, eight inches apart up the middle, three milani between them squadroned, shyarie back with a squadron of two tiraca, back right was a second squadron of three tiraca.
First turn bimith all power forward, these are the ships most likely to survive the Vree shot, I want them to be tempting. Milani forward normal speed and try to drop two kotha (none succeed). This puts them in lunge possition to get shots next turn, without losing the shields this turn. Tiraca race up the sides...one gets too close...both to the vree and to the bimith and its squadron mate. Shield damage ensues. Vree destroy the left bimith, also and explosion...so much for less frequent.
Second turn..Vree fall back to avoid range eight shots in an expanding crescent. Bimith enters crescent to get a shot postion next turn. Milanis lounge, two on all power one on close blast doors. Both tiraca squadrons go for shots as they set up to scissors across the Vree crescent next turn, ensuring something will get a shot. Kotha still have not caught up. Milani's split fire to get maximium use out of precise...beams on a Xeel, forward quads on a xill. Due to stupidly high (seven hits off one) beam shots we cripple the Xeel (it is running adrift due to crit) Barely scratch the Xill (so much for lots of dice theory). Oh and we had won initiative this turn too. Vree response blows up a Milani, set a time bomb on a Tiraca, and takes half the Bimith off...as well as some scattered shield damage due to explosions.
Third turn Bimith gets in glory position with a vree ship in all four arcs. Both remaining Milanis have ships in all three arcs. Tiracas swarm in and have shots everywhere and no chance of hurting each other. Sounds good doesn't it? Except we broke squadrons to get shots, and the Bimith (fighters removed the shield) and one milani will never fire, and two Tiraca are destroyed by fighters. And that's after we killed six of them with AF that were around the Bimith and Milani. Shyarie finally shinies removing some fighters...as does the remaining Tiraca. Final shots from the Vree kill all three ships after we cripple a ship (Xill) and kill one carrier.
Net result...against the Vree the shields were useless, virtually no different than damage boxes as the ships simply took too many hits. The lone interceptor on the Bimiths stopped more hits than the shields did due to the persistent six...and if kotha had been able to intercept strangely I would not have lost any.
As we have usually seen in battles of over about 3 skirmish the concentration of fire that happens in fleet actions means that ablative defenses are inherently weaker, if not down right useless in comparrison to, than defenses which have a 'per weapon fired at you' effect. Shield, like self repair of less than two or three dice is virtually useless in a fleet engagement. GEG, Adaptive, interceptors and Stealth at least all have a chance of over coming each element of a fleet, shields as they stand just crumble with no last hold out point. The loss of abbai interceptors really hurts them as they have literally traded damage boxes for the sum of shield and a turn of repair that most will likely rarely see and gained only a limited crit immunity.
Against a beam race they have gained slightly, but overall this is a loss. Abbai's only strength at this time seems to be swarms...and that has little to do with the abbai, and lots to do with swarm issues.
Will try again against a beam race this weekend and see how she blows...
Ripple
Vree were able to essentially dictate range, destroying roughly two ships a turn until the fighters engaged (in which turn four ships were destroyed).
Fleets -
Abbai - 2 Bimith, 3 Milani, 5 Tiraca and 1 Shyarie
Vree - 3 Xill, 4 Xeel
Abbai - thought were expected to see lots of fighters and possibly some of the stealthy vree. Given that I thought the two bimith in the center would help keep the milani crit team alive as we closed and then or support the Tiraca stacks if the fighters moved to a flank. The shyarie was there to make CAF'ing harder, shoot down fighters (comm disruptor is still a 'hit' right?) and hopefully give me a shot if the stealthers came out.
Formation was two individual bimith, eight inches apart up the middle, three milani between them squadroned, shyarie back with a squadron of two tiraca, back right was a second squadron of three tiraca.
First turn bimith all power forward, these are the ships most likely to survive the Vree shot, I want them to be tempting. Milani forward normal speed and try to drop two kotha (none succeed). This puts them in lunge possition to get shots next turn, without losing the shields this turn. Tiraca race up the sides...one gets too close...both to the vree and to the bimith and its squadron mate. Shield damage ensues. Vree destroy the left bimith, also and explosion...so much for less frequent.
Second turn..Vree fall back to avoid range eight shots in an expanding crescent. Bimith enters crescent to get a shot postion next turn. Milanis lounge, two on all power one on close blast doors. Both tiraca squadrons go for shots as they set up to scissors across the Vree crescent next turn, ensuring something will get a shot. Kotha still have not caught up. Milani's split fire to get maximium use out of precise...beams on a Xeel, forward quads on a xill. Due to stupidly high (seven hits off one) beam shots we cripple the Xeel (it is running adrift due to crit) Barely scratch the Xill (so much for lots of dice theory). Oh and we had won initiative this turn too. Vree response blows up a Milani, set a time bomb on a Tiraca, and takes half the Bimith off...as well as some scattered shield damage due to explosions.
Third turn Bimith gets in glory position with a vree ship in all four arcs. Both remaining Milanis have ships in all three arcs. Tiracas swarm in and have shots everywhere and no chance of hurting each other. Sounds good doesn't it? Except we broke squadrons to get shots, and the Bimith (fighters removed the shield) and one milani will never fire, and two Tiraca are destroyed by fighters. And that's after we killed six of them with AF that were around the Bimith and Milani. Shyarie finally shinies removing some fighters...as does the remaining Tiraca. Final shots from the Vree kill all three ships after we cripple a ship (Xill) and kill one carrier.
Net result...against the Vree the shields were useless, virtually no different than damage boxes as the ships simply took too many hits. The lone interceptor on the Bimiths stopped more hits than the shields did due to the persistent six...and if kotha had been able to intercept strangely I would not have lost any.
As we have usually seen in battles of over about 3 skirmish the concentration of fire that happens in fleet actions means that ablative defenses are inherently weaker, if not down right useless in comparrison to, than defenses which have a 'per weapon fired at you' effect. Shield, like self repair of less than two or three dice is virtually useless in a fleet engagement. GEG, Adaptive, interceptors and Stealth at least all have a chance of over coming each element of a fleet, shields as they stand just crumble with no last hold out point. The loss of abbai interceptors really hurts them as they have literally traded damage boxes for the sum of shield and a turn of repair that most will likely rarely see and gained only a limited crit immunity.
Against a beam race they have gained slightly, but overall this is a loss. Abbai's only strength at this time seems to be swarms...and that has little to do with the abbai, and lots to do with swarm issues.
Will try again against a beam race this weekend and see how she blows...
Ripple
