Psi-corps tactics

Orphanmaker

Mongoose
Hello!

I have just bought a psi-corps fleet and as I was looking in the fleetlist the other night I started to think about how to play them. I was wondering if someone could give me som hint and tips on good tactics to use with them, prehaps even a short rundown of the different ships they have and how to use them to the best effect.
I am about to start a campaign and the other fleets involved will be minbari, dilgar and vorlons, so any tactics against these three will be most appreciated.

/Orphan
 
Shadowcloaks - great scouts, use them as your initiative sinks. Keep them on close blast doors, keep them hidden behind terrain and use them to scout the enemy.

Fighter carrier - launch your second fighter early. Then CBD. This is pretty much the only ship in the Psi Corps fleet that needs redirects. So bear that in mind.

Mothership - keep it at the back. It is a big slow beam turret. Either all stop, then all stop and pivot, or CBD. But only after it has dropped all of its fighters. Once the enemy gets in range it will get ripped apart.

Hunter - the hunter is probably the most dangerous ship in the Psi Corps fleet. CDB, until they get in range. Use them to flank the enemy, then lunge in and blast with its beam. Try and keep them at extreme range. I try and keep at least one fighter on their base as an interceptor.

Nemesis/Shadow Omega - I have to admit to not using these since their upgrades in P&P. In a big game against the Minbari, the Nemesis' Hel track will be useful.

Fighters - Black Omegas are great. They are good attack fighters becauise of their Psychic dodge, and great dogfighters too. Shadowfuries are great dogfighters, but should only be used to attack ships with poor anti-fighter.

Stealth - the Psi Corps' stealth is weak. It tends to be useful early on in the game when the fleets are further apart. Don't rely on it.

Psychic crew - not a great deal of use, though you could use a shadow cloak to stop an enemy's CBD.

Allies - Psi Corp ships are not well armed. Use of allies is essentil, particulary at lower lveels. I tend to chose Early Era if I can - the Rail Hyperion is a great ship, especially backed up with Shadowcloaks for rerolls. Use any free EA fighters as interceptors to protect your more valuable ships, while the Psi Copr fighters go on the attack.
 
Buy lots of motherships sit back and beam things to death. Maybe through in a hunter for a laugh. But lots of motherships.
 
basaint said:
I thought you were the Narn king HIff? How do you know so much?

:o



haha

Well being a Narn king doesnt take much; guess that leaves plenty of room for other stuff . . . . hehehehe :p :p

Wouldnt you say charles?
 
basaint said:
I thought you were the Narn king HIff? How do you know so much?

:o



haha

I regularly play other fleets, just to see how bad the Narn really are ;-)
 
Vs Minbari:

Interesting one. Shadowcloaks a-go-go are a must for the stealth, but you're not likely to be suffering a major numerical disadvantage, nor are the enemy boresight-equipped, so the initiative sinking is less important.

Use your fighters defensively. Black Omegas and Shadowfuries can go toe-to-toe with Minbari fighters, but the amount of advanced anti-fighter a minbari fleet can put out means that agressive strikes are unlikely to achieve much. On the other hand, with your own not insubstantial quantities of AF dice backing up high quality fighters, you should be able to fend off nials without too much trouble.

Motherships are, as noted, awesome ships. With a big range heavy laser for a raid ship they're a great sniper, and with stealth and a big chunk of hit points rather than armour they're well suited for the sort of fire coming in from Minbari warships.

Vs Dilgar:

Ok - swarms of medium-weight ships looking for a close-ranged bruising.
At long range, stealth plus interceptors should be sufficient to minimise the risks from missile salvoes, but at close quarters bolters will hurt a lot. Torpedo fighters are very nasty and massively outrange capital ship flak, so keep those fighters on top cover.

They'll be a tough fight - Psi-Corps excell at deflecting long ranged intermittent pot-shots but tend to fold if punched hard up close. Your EA allies will be fairly crucial.

The Hunter is a key ship - it can outfly any Dilgar ship its own size and many smaller ones, and if you can drop in on their flanks and rear their ludicrously concentrated forward guns become an advantage rather than a penalty.

Vs Vorlons:

Um. Universal adaptive armour. Very manouvrable for their priority. AAF on all ships and even fighters. Fighters whose weapons outrange your AF. All in all, not good on paper.

The good news is that, again, you'll have numerical edge, especially with shadowcloak initiative sinks.

If you can use that to stay out of their frontal arcs you may minimize the amout of horrific blazing electric death you suffer but that will only really work with more agile ships. The mothership is kind of an inevitability and you must, absolutely must, get those heavy lasers firing every turn.

Concentrate everything on one ship at a time and reduce it to calamari before switching target. This is good advice anyway, but crucial with First Ones - with their uber-repair abilities (especially with the new Regenerate special action), give them one turn unmolested and a battered wreck on one hit point can suddenly be right back in the centre of the fight.



General:


Nemesis are awesome ships if shielded up and allowed to use Track that Target! and the redundancy rules. However, with only 10 battle points to play with, I wouldn't get one in your initial fleet - it's half your allowance (nearly) as opposed to 'a bit more than a warship' if bought with RR points later.

I'd re-iterate Greg's point - your allied EA ships are crucial; the Psi-Corps fleet includes scouts, snipers, flankers, but no real ship-of-the-line below War priority. The EA provides the tough, medium range bruisers that go straight up the centre and beat the enemy to death with their own corpses.

Hyperions, Nova/Tantalus, and Omega Destroyers are all good ones to consider, although with only two battle points to spend the omega is possibly a bit too much invested in one brick.

The Tantalus is a particularly good buy, since in addition to a nice brawler it provides you with a troop-heavy, shuttle-equipped vessel for the inevitable planetary assault mission; something Psi-Corps struggles with on its own.

At the same priority, the Avenger gives you a fleet carrier - not crucial given you can't recover black omegas or shadowfuries, but still enough to make your existing fighter advantage verge on the ridiculous. Also, loading it out with thunderbolts gives you long-ranged, atmospheric-capable assault fighters - another useful asset since you can then sweep with the black omegas and strike with the thuds.




[/u]
 
Vs Minbari:

Interesting one. Shadowcloaks a-go-go are a must for the stealth, but you're not likely to be suffering a major numerical disadvantage, nor are the enemy boresight-equipped, so the initiative sinking is less important.

Use your fighters defensively. Black Omegas and Shadowfuries can go toe-to-toe with Minbari fighters, but the amount of advanced anti-fighter a minbari fleet can put out means that agressive strikes are unlikely to achieve much. On the other hand, with your own not insubstantial quantities of AF dice backing up high quality fighters, you should be able to fend off nials without too much trouble.

Motherships are, as noted, awesome ships. With a big range heavy laser for a raid ship they're a great sniper, and with stealth and a big chunk of hit points rather than armour they're well suited for the sort of fire coming in from Minbari warships.

Vs Dilgar:

Ok - swarms of medium-weight ships looking for a close-ranged bruising.
At long range, stealth plus interceptors should be sufficient to minimise the risks from missile salvoes, but at close quarters bolters will hurt a lot. Torpedo fighters are very nasty and massively outrange capital ship flak, so keep those fighters on top cover.

They'll be a tough fight - Psi-Corps excell at deflecting long ranged intermittent pot-shots but tend to fold if punched hard up close. Your EA allies will be fairly crucial.

The Hunter is a key ship - it can outfly any Dilgar ship its own size and many smaller ones, and if you can drop in on their flanks and rear their ludicrously concentrated forward guns become an advantage rather than a penalty.

Vs Vorlons:

Um. Universal adaptive armour. Very manouvrable for their priority. AAF on all ships and even fighters. Fighters whose weapons outrange your AF. All in all, not good on paper.

The good news is that, again, you'll have numerical edge, especially with shadowcloak initiative sinks.

If you can use that to stay out of their frontal arcs you may minimize the amout of horrific blazing electric death you suffer but that will only really work with more agile ships. The mothership is kind of an inevitability and you must, absolutely must, get those heavy lasers firing every turn.

Concentrate everything on one ship at a time and reduce it to calamari before switching target. This is good advice anyway, but crucial with First Ones - with their uber-repair abilities (especially with the new Regenerate special action), give them one turn unmolested and a battered wreck on one hit point can suddenly be right back in the centre of the fight.



General:


Nemesis are awesome ships if shielded up and allowed to use Track that Target! and the redundancy rules. However, with only 10 battle points to play with, I wouldn't get one in your initial fleet - it's half your allowance (nearly) as opposed to 'a bit more than a warship' if bought with RR points later.

I'd re-iterate Greg's point - your allied EA ships are crucial; the Psi-Corps fleet includes scouts, snipers, flankers, but no real ship-of-the-line below War priority. The EA provides the tough, medium range bruisers that go straight up the centre and beat the enemy to death with their own corpses.

Hyperions, Nova/Tantalus, and Omega Destroyers are all good ones to consider, although with only two battle points to spend the omega is possibly a bit too much invested in one brick.

The Tantalus is a particularly good buy, since in addition to a nice brawler it provides you with a troop-heavy, shuttle-equipped vessel for the inevitable planetary assault mission; something Psi-Corps struggles with on its own.

At the same priority, the Avenger gives you a fleet carrier - not crucial given you can't recover black omegas or shadowfuries, but still enough to make your existing fighter advantage verge on the ridiculous. Also, loading it out with thunderbolts gives you long-ranged, atmospheric-capable assault fighters - another useful asset since you can then sweep with the black omegas and strike with the thuds.




[/u]
 
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