Summarizing the Houses: Can someone help me out.

[Skipper]

I'm looking closely at this game (loved the B5 version), but am having trouble gathering enough information to differentiate the houses from one another and the general tactics of each. I've perused the S&P and forums, but still can't get my head around some of the houses.

Can someone sum up the strengths and weakness' of the various fleets? Not only will it help me, but I'm sure many others are lurking and waiting to see how the different fleets perform before buying.

Thanks in advance,

Skipper

 

[godsgopher]

Alright this is kind of a difficult question for many of us as only the UK guys seem to have there books so far. In general though here what I do know about each House.

Hawkwood

Mostly a balanced fleet, I'm told none of there ships are particularity impressive, although I have heard there dreadnought has plenty of long range firepower. However when taken as a whole, they can often out preform "specialized" fleets and are suppose to be very flexible. They seem to use a lot of lasers, and have missiles which by-pass shields as a secondary weapon.

Decados

Another balanced fleet, although i hear they have a different flavor than Hawkwood. Generally considered the best looking fleet in the game, and possessing the best looking Dreadnought. I get the impression that they are hard hitting up close and personal, but you have to get close. Plenty of troops and Stealthships to keep your opponent nervous.

Li Halan

Fast and Fanatical, possessing the fastest ships in the game, seem to favor Laser armaments. Don't know much more than this, except that their real "flavor" ships have not be released yet.

al Malik

Great looking ships as Im sure you have seen, They like to prowl around the table edge firing long range shield piercing missiles into enemies. They also have the only other Stealthship in the game and its supposed to be pretty fast. Kind of a mixed bag fleet. Not really sure what to make of them yet, but I suspect knowing mongoose there is more to them than meets the eye.

Hazat

Very straightforward fleet here, Tons of troops for boarding, and there Cruisers and Dreadnoughts pack a ton of multi-hit blasters, No subtlety here just shoot and charge and board. Great looking ships, and Im guessing pretty tough.

Honestly I'm sorry I can't tell you more than this, its pretty general information but I'm sure one of the guys who owns the book will be more than happy to help you get to know more about a particular fleet. Consequently, you should join House Decados, of course there are "other" houses, but ask yourself, do you really want to spend the rest of your short life looking under your bed for a Decados Mimic assassin? Think carefully now

 

[Clanger]

The Decodos have to worry about the Mimic Assassin more than other House Nobles.

Look at it this way Decados are a bunch of degenerate decadents who make
the Centauri look like Nuns.

It is common knowledge that every Decados ship carries a Ship Sheep for those long space trips. Lets face it would you want to be part of this.

Be a Man and join the Hazat.

 

[godsgopher]

WHAT?!? don't listen to these low-life Hazat! What do a bunch of nobles descended from purely military officers know about being Noble? Now House Decados is descended from the Russian Tzars themselves through the ancient bloodline of Princess Anastasia! The Hazat are just a bunch of traitorous upstarts who slaughters there masters when their back was turned. Assassin indeed!

 

[Rick]

It is common knowledge that every Decados ship carries a Ship Sheep for those long space trips.

That is a base and scurrilous lie - we have pleasure slaves specially bred for service on such ships. Sheep are purely optional and no, not every ship has them, thank you! :lol:

 

[godsgopher]

Alright, thanks to Clanger, I am now prepared to give you a more accurate summery of the combat styles of the various House Fleets.

Hawkwood

These ships are generally very fast and maneuverable. among the smaller vessels your looking at good range with lasers and turreted missiles able to slip through your opponents shields. However there Cruiser and Dreadnought while packing massive firepower are very slow, much slower than there opponents.

Li Halan

Much like the Hawkwood, minus the missiles, however where they are just as fast as the Hawkwood, they aren't very maneuverable. Lasers are the primary armament here, and typical they out range everyone else on a class per class basis. So your going to be spending your games staying as far away from your opponent as you can. However while you do have range, you dont have hitting power, so your going to have to whittle down your opponent through repeated volleys and critical hits.

Al Malik

Generally slow ships but incredibly maneuverable, good luck getting into there blind side. However even though they have all missile armaments they are too slow to stay away from most fleets except maybe the Decados. However the obviously issue here is going to be remembering your primary defense, your shields don't work against them. Missiles and rockets aren't hard hitting, but they immediately start damaging your ships. I suspect these guys are going to surprise people a lot who are accustom to relying on shields during the early combat. They have range with there missiles, but rockets are close in weapons.

Hazat

We have heard all about their boarding techniques. We all fear there marines. But its all a red herring, yes they have troops, but its there short ranged blasters that are going to eat you alive! these guys really have no subtlety, but with broadsides this powerful who needs it?!? Also they can board you from almost any directions. The only saving grace I'm seeing here is they aren't fast ships so its going to take them a while to get to you, they can however maneuver quite well, so once they do get in range your going to have a hell of a time dogfighting them. If you want to live... stay away from these guys. There the masters of close in combat.

Decados

Well my favorite House, I really wasn't expecting this... They are slow, and turn like bricks. People your going to have to plan ahead with Decados or your going to spend the entire game getting sniped! However, they beyond question have the most firepower of any fleet in the game, and good range to go with it! If you don't plan ahead against them your going to take the beating of a lifetime. None the less its my guess that if your not good at the maneuver game or planning your moves well in advance, stay away from playing this fleet. I don't think there going to be very forgiving.

Hopeful this will be helpful to everyone wondering about the actual style of these ships. You may have noticed I did not say anything about shields or Armor, or Hull ratings. There is a reason for this, All house have the exact same amounts of Shields, Armor, and Hull based on the class of the vessel. Seen one Dreadnought you have seen them all. only there speed, turn and for the Hazat only troop numbers vary. But don't be discouraged, I think this will actually be a good thing. For one, it greatly unifies the "Nobility" as a whole. I highly suspect that the Church, Imperial Navy, League, Barbarians, and Aliens will have very different kinds of ships, who's stats will vary greatly form the "House" Standard.

 

[katadder]

depends on the size of game you are playing for which is best:

at low level I would put Al Marik as top dogs due to their missiles and rockets ignoring shields and the hull not being a problem. at higher levels they have problems hitting the higher hulled ships.

at high level hawkwood are top dogs. yes they are slow but they have the most accurate longest ranged weapons backed up by missiles etc.

decados are close behind hawkwood but shorter ranged. they dont crit as much but when they do they crit harder. the shorter range and not critting as much is why i put them behind hawkwood.


most fleets in the game its about broadsides. yes the dreads have those nice meson cannons but is it worth giving up your more guaranteed broadside for the lesser chance of hitting with the big gun? IMO no, the meson cannon will be a weapon of oppurtunity for me if anyone happens to stray into its arc.

 

[MongooseMatt]

yes the dreads have those nice meson cannons but is it worth giving up your more guaranteed broadside for the lesser chance of hitting with the big gun? IMO no, the meson cannon will be a weapon of oppurtunity for me if anyone happens to stray into its arc.

Been wondering this myself, and have been watching closely as people play.

I think it may come down to individual experience. We had a girl (well, woman, actually) on the Open Day who spent the whole game trying to get her Meson Cannon off and, when she did, it sheered the engines off a Cruiser in one blast.

She is going to be ever looking to repeat that

The problem with Meson Cannon is that they are not accurate and, importantly, generally have one Attack Dice - so you are stacking a lot on one roll.

However, if you hit anything smaller than a Dreadnought, you are going to seriously mess up its day.

Which all goes to make for a very fun weapon!

 

[katadder]

true what you say but tactically its not reliable enough so will be used on a secondary target to my broadsides. hopefully it will hit and rip it a new one but even average its only getting 10 hits, which is nothing when hitting a dreadnought opponent.

 

[Clanger]

When you factor into the equation you are doing a level 3 critical with the Big Bad Meson Gun that would be a minimum of 7 extra damage per critical. Even with an average hit you tend to get 1 or 2 crits so this can be a good amount of damage even on a Dreadnaught and level 3 crits are nothing to be sniffed at even for a Dreadnaught.

Also with this level 3 crit you are escalting on some locations. So a Meson Gun even to a Dreadnaught is quite scary.

Also if you have any sense you would use your turrets to strip the shields so the shields do not lessen the Meson Gun Damage. Therefore even more damage from the Meson Gun (as meson guns do not burn out shields).

 

[godsgopher]

I think the most elegant solution would be to simply engage multiple ships at once. Turning your ship to engage both the front, and the side arch. After all unless your opponent is short a few brain cells, he's undoubtedly going to come at you with multiple ships. None the less when choosing between the Mason Cannon, and the Broadside, the broadside is statically more likely to at least do some damage, while against light warships you only have a 50% chance to hit, Destroyers and other armored cruisers 33% chance to hit. Of course at the end of the day, its going to come down to experience and instinct, sometimes you can just feel a 6 in the dice

 

[Clanger]

Also multiple ships in 1 arc is a good thing as you can not split fire against multiple targets.

 

[MongooseMatt]

When you factor into the equation you are doing a level 3 critical with the Big Bad Meson Gun that would be a minimum of 7 extra damage per critical. Even with an average hit you tend to get 1 or 2 crits so this can be a good amount of damage even on a Dreadnaught and level 3 crits are nothing to be sniffed at even for a Dreadnaught.

Also with this level 3 crit you are escalting on some locations. So a Meson Gun even to a Dreadnaught is quite scary.

It is also worth considering what happens if you manage to get two criticals on the same location with this weapon...

 

[lastbesthope]

When you factor into the equation you are doing a level 3 critical with the Big Bad Meson Gun that would be a minimum of 7 extra damage per critical. Even with an average hit you tend to get 1 or 2 crits so this can be a good amount of damage even on a Dreadnaught and level 3 crits are nothing to be sniffed at even for a Dreadnaught.

Also with this level 3 crit you are escalting on some locations. So a Meson Gun even to a Dreadnaught is quite scary.

It is also worth considering what happens if you manage to get two criticals on the same location with this weapon...

I had been hoping for similar effects with some of the Multihit Precise weaponry when I rolled multiple crits.

LBH

 

[katadder]

i didnt say the meson cannon isnt good but its also not something to rely on.
an anikrunta broadside into another dreadnought wil on average rolls knock the enemies shields down and do 11 dev+1 hits whereas if you use the front guns you will only average 6 dev+1 hits as 33% is not enough to base a tactic around.
for me as i said that weapon will be saved for targets of opportunity or when cannot get my broadside onto target.

 

[starbreaker]

The problem with Meson Cannon is that they are not accurate and, importantly, generally have one Attack Dice - so you are stacking a lot on one roll.

Note, because of the extreme effect of getting a hit with one of these brutes, anything you can do to improve the chance of connecting is a Good Idea. In regular play, that's pretty much limited to using a Scout to provide a reroll. In campaign play, you can use XP Dice earned in a previous battle for a Tactical Judgement reroll, and you can spend XP dice on Refitting table rolls. One time in six those rolls will get you an Additional Weapons Fitted result, adding an AD to your Meson Cannon if you wish - and once you've got 2AD, the Maximum Firepower special order can make it 3AD instead, although losing out on crits may not be worth it. Refitting can also give you an extra 5" of range on the wondergun, making it much less myopic.

Most of those XP improvements would probably be more useful if applied to your main turrets or broadside weapons, but the option's there if you really want to focus on the meson cannon. Conveniently, dreads are going to tend to earn lots of XP in most games just by killing a small target or two every turn, so they'll have them to spend. Just watch out for massed boarding assaults.