I know most of my recent writing have been about Drakh, but my first race was Dilgar.
I seem to have this overwhelming addiction to genocidal races starting with "D".
Dilgar tactics depend on targets --- do you have to take on an Interceptor, or not?
If not, it's really all about the bolter, and your best Bolter delivery platform, the Targrath. The Targrath is the heart and soul of most every current successful Dilgar assault; the ships are vile. I'm surprised that they haven't been singled out as much as the Sulust or Prefect; they are, indeed, really rough. We scaled them down in a recent campaign as they were just too much firepower. Targraths just walked all over things.
In this case, you need to think about a danger zone -- I'll call it the "CAF Zone". This is the 10" range area in the F arc of the Targrath. So, cut out 1/4 of a circle with a 10" radius. Now, take that circular section, and move it 6" away from the Targrath along the boresight. Note that area. Then slowly move it forward another 6". Anything that section covered while you were moving it the second 6" away is the CAF Zone. These are targets that Targraths can absolutely emliminate.
As this zone sweeps forward, notice that you darn near double the space you threaten. If the cone doesn't move, you can't. Note that .... it's important!
Now, take that piece of paper again, and some other miniature. Place it in the CAF Zone. Now, try this out --- how many ways can you place that second ship in the paper such that it can't get out of the area if it has an 8" move? How about 8" move with no special actions? 6" move?
You'll see that it takes some work to figure out how to do it! And that should illustrate that it's pretty rare to move into a CAF position with a single Targrath and have something else be unable to avoid the concentration. This means that if you need to CAF, you need to be able to either target ships that have already moved, or target ships that are really, really slow/have a No Special Actions crit.
Targetting ships that have already moved means you now need to initiative sink. The Ochliavita is a wretched choice for this, as its (admittedly, only 1 die) beam is boresighted, meaning it needs initiative sinks as well. Good news is, the other two light ships in the fleet are useful, if a little easy to kill.
The Omelos is an outstanding hull, and I recommend it thoroughly. It is a useful bombardment platform, meaning it can CAF with freedom at range, thereby giving the Targraths sinks to wait for unfortunate/unlucky ships to move, so they can try to deploy their CAF cones.
The Jashakar is a priority target to anyone, especially if it manages to succeed in a redirect (thereby CAFing any already unCAFed Bolters.). Without stealth to defend it, it's begging for trouble. But the redirect is so valuable to the Dilgar, that a Jashakar or two isn't necessarily a bad idea, even at Raid. And, of course, the initiative sink helps, too.
Jaskahars also give you an option to "lunge". If you All Power to Engines, the Targraths can leap 18", and with 10" of Bolter range, can leap into just about any beam ship's backyard in one turn. However, you don't get your CAF when you do this, making it a heavy price to pay. With Jashakars in the back, the scouts might generate the CAF effect for you with a firepower redirect, putting the beam ships in a bad quandary -- fire at the scout with the lock-on, or the ship menacing you right now?
Your heavy ships are abysmal. The Tikrit does get the Heavy Bolters, so your CAF cone on this is much harder to escape, granted. However, it actually has LESS total firepower than the Targrath. Skip it. The Garasoch is usually a waste of time and steel, unless fighting Pak'ma'ra (those Por'fa'tais need to die). The Wahant would be good, if its Bolters didn't slow-load (I'm still convinced this is a typo!). The Khatrik just doesn't cut it. The War-level ships are embarrassments never to be purchased, maybe not even in a campaign (even with the economic benefits of buying War hulls .... tragic).
Against interceptors, you have to set up your Bolters. Here, you need your Targraths to get to range 8, not 10. You desparately need to have a few interceptor dice sweep away the pulsars first, and only then fire the Bolters. Basic interceptor tactics --- fire any beams first, then the crap weapons, then get to the heavy interceptable weaponry. The EA Chronos is a bad nightmare, and might require an Omelos to further sink out the interceptor array.
At 5 raid, one recommendable fleet is:
2 Targrath
1 Ochliavita
2 Jashakar
4 Omelos
3 Targrath can be taken (skip an Ochliavita and an Omelos), but it's risky --- one Targrath may spend all of its time looking for someone to mug and never getting that target, especially when badly outsinked.
5 Battle fleet
6 Targraths (brutal when Pentaconed!)
2 Ochliavita
5 Omelos
2 Jashakar
Bad Mojito.
---- Brought to you by the letter "D".
