Quick battle report and photos...

Phil Walling

Mongoose
I've just posted up a quick report of a game played out in the shop today between the Brakiri and the ISA.. a good fun game... Photos and report are here - http://www.idgaming.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1066
 
Braikri are my main fleet too, though I have not picked up any of the new ships as of yet, my list consists of,

2 Tahkat
5 Avioki/kaliva
2 Brokados
3 Halik
4 Ikorta
12 fighter bases.

What I've found about the braikiri...both through tabletop games and many many games on vassal.

Until 2nd ed comes out Avioki are worthless, stick with the kaliva every time. At the same priority level though the Kabrokta is a very good choice, it is almost the exact opposite of the kaliva in that is a bit more fragile, but speedier and very good overall firepower. If you're looking to mix it up in the middle of your enemy's fleet the kabrokta is a very good choice, as it can put between 8 and 22 AP Dice in any given arc, not to mention with one or two init sinks it's boresite beam is no slouch either.

Brokaos and Halik as they are now are not very usefull ships, the brokados is an undergunned fleet carrier with no fighters, and the halik is a mediocre mid range ship. It does do reasonably well if you can get it to the middle of the bad guy's fleet, but it tends to be a bit fragile once there, as it doesn't have the defenses of comparable vessles, (ie the nova or the bimith.) I also refrain from commenting on the hurr gunship, because well, I've yet to use it. ;)

On the lower priorities Shakara the Ikorta and the brikorta are all very solid choices. The shakara is relatively sturdy for a scouting ship, and it can combine with the kabrokta to give that boresite beam some good punch if given the chance.

The ikorta/brikorta have really different roles, but can both be really nasty if given the chance. The ikorta is a pouncer, it is just -waiting- for that speed zero crit, or for the enemy to make the mistake to 'all-stop' then it can just jump on them with it's 10 troops that it can board with...on a skirmish vessel. It facilitates that with it's nice SAP/P weapon on the front arc to potentially force the issue of a speed zero crit more often. It also has decent overall firepower, and is reasonably tough at skirmish level. The brikorta sacrifices that 'pounciness' for a harder hitting ship on lower hulled vessels. A 2 dice AP/B/DD weapon in the front arc makes this ship good at severely damaging ships in a similar class as it, or any ship with a hull lower then 5. It emphasizes this by carrying two falkosi, so it can either provide it's own fighter cover, or it can send them out to add some punch against whatever it's going to shoot with it's beams. Personally, I don't really like the overall sacrifice in secondary firepower this varient suffers from, but against certain fleets this ship is just lovely.

Lastly...the war choices, the Tashkat/Takata; Ahhh, the joys of having a war level vessel with 10" movement and 2/45 degree turns, (isa don't get to have -all- the fun,) if only they actually had any decent level of firepower to go with it. The tashkat actually fares a bit better in this regard, as it does have an 8 die AP/B/DD weapon in the front arc, though it is slow loading. It also has it's fun little gravitic shifters....that require you to get -way- too close to really make them usefull. The Takata has banks and banks and banks of non-slow loading emines. 16 dice of them in fact. Right now I only really reccommend that loadout if you know you are fighting either fighter-heavy fleets, or something with lots of stealth but low hull, *coughminbaricough*. Both ships have the same secondary firepower, which is mediocre at best. The kabrokta actually has better secondary firepower then this ship, at a priority less. These ships do have the advantage of durability though, they have a solid damage/crew compliment, and interceptors 5 means that your enemy either really needs to concentrate firepower on it, or use lots and lots of beams to do solid damage to the ship.

I have little experience with the coromai to be honest, but my initial impressions are that under current rules, any war level ship with a hull 5 is just too vulnerable these days. I know they have massive damage/crew, and solid weapon systems, but these days I really think it's much too easy to crit out a hull 5 ship, regardless of damage/crew. I would look to 2nd ed though to make this ship much more effective, with the changes in the beam rules, among other changes.
 
Damn... Brakiri have always been my favorite League race (even if i have had to cope with a crush on the Drazi for a while) and yours just give me the urge to buy some of them.

MUST...WAIT...UNTIL....2nd ED !!!!
 
Your Brakiri are beautifully painted. Lister, Rimmer, and the Cat had ring side seats for the battle I see.
 
The background to the battle was simple, the Jupiter Mining Corporation ship Red Dwarf had found a rich mineral deposit and was stopping by to pick up a big chunk of rock. Unfortunately Walcorp found the same chunks of mineral and decided to conduct hostile negotiations regarding the mineral rights.
Holly sent off a distress signal which was answered by a small Ranger force who were in the area and Walcorp refused to back down...

To be honest, Phil is a very new player and is learning quickly, he has now expanded the fleet radically with a lot of smaller vessels so I suspect the rematch will be rather more even than I'd like...
 
The White Stars were stippled, I took an old drybrush and cut it down and used it to get the mottling effect. It's actually a very easy technique but only works on certain schemes.
 
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