The Definitive BRAKIRI discussion thread!

[Celisasu]

Get an opponent of whom you know that he likes fungames (read: who´s not minimaxing at 150% capacity), play a War 5 game, and play a fleet of 3 Aviokis, 3 Kalivas, 2 Kabroktas and 1 Takata. You´ll love it, truts me! Really, give it a try!

Ditto. I like using as many different ships as possible so I'm a firm believer in fun games and not optimized kill them dead fleets.

Not that I won't keep arguing for improved balanced nonetheless. :lol:

I want to play more big games. I very rarely get to play more than 5 point Raid. Considering how rarely I get to play in the first place that's very very rare indeed. Although I'm at work trying to convince my brother to try out the game. I'm pointing out he doesn't even have to buy anything since I have the books and two fleets(granted that my Centauri fleet has a very limited selection at this point). He came by when I was looking at Hiffano's Juyayi suppliment and got curious.

 

[Lordpappanqui]

How is the Brikorta working for people? I find a good mix of Ikorta and Brikorta works nicely in a Brakiri fleet along with a Kabroka or Avioki.

From what I gather, the most common use for Brikortas are to deploy their fighters for Interceptor duty. *shrug*

I would assume that the Brikortas are primarly a fleet support vessel, and as such would only come into 'good' use only when purchased in large numbers, at the very least in twos. A single Brikorta will probably not make much of an impression by itself, methinks.

Of course, your mileage may vary.

 

[Lordpappanqui]

Switching Brakiri topics for a bit...what about the Cidikar and Corumai?

While I quite like the Cidikar for its load capabilities, I have yet to play with one nor have I seen it in action. [while in the last battle-report in Signs & Portents, the Cidikar did hold up while under an intensive attack...]

The Corumai on the other hand will fit nicely in almost any Brakiri fleet IMO. I strongly feel that it is quite a capable ship, well gunned all around and quite capable with 3 Interceptors and 4 Anti-Fighters... but its Slow Loading Beams could have been a tad stronger if replaced with Heavy Combat Lasers (that have less range but better recycling). As it stands now, this ship is (again, imo) somewhat undergunned as compared to other War-Class vessels.

While I would readily field it due to its +1 Command and imposing nature, I still would rather rely on smaller, Battle and Raid level ships to accomplish the given mission rather than this lone vessel.

 

[LaranosTZ]

On a discussion of braikiri carrier vessels, I think it helps to look at each of them differently.

The Cidikar: This is definately a carrier/juggernaught vessel, if you compare it to almost any other war level fighter carrier it beats them in primary armament, and it's secondary armaments are not too shabby, though not really of the level of say...the posidon. In this role I think it makes a very good bruiser, you really shouldn't be afraid of getting this ship in and mixing it up. In this role I would likely load it up with heavy fighters, rather then falkosi to support the idea of maximizing firepower.

Brokados: This is really the Braikiri's main support carrier for the fleet I think. I have yet to see any reason that this ship should be loaded with anything but falkosi. They can function as a space superiority fighter, then when done run them back as escort/interceptor duty to a ship that stays close to the main carrier to maximize the chance of fighter recovery. You'd be amazed how much sturdier an avioki, or kabrokta is when you give it a couple of recycling interceptors. It is also a raid level vessel with 50+ damage and crew so the ship itself has a lot of durability.

Brikorta: I've had mixed experiences with the Brikorta, it certainly is nice to have 4 fighters on a carrier this small, but the sacrifice in firepower might make the ship too undergunned for its weight class. On the upside, like the ikorta it is a rather durable vessel, since it has 2 interceptors and one should never underestimate a beam of any sort. This is another ship though that I'd be more inclined to load it up with heavy fighters. It has no chance of reloading its fighters, so it might be best to go with something with a heavy punch. Falkosi are just too fragile to have no chance to recycle them.

 

[Lordpappanqui]

Great replies overall.


An additional question: [I dont know why I hadn't asked this before]

What are the most common 5point Raid fleet compositions for Brakiri?



As of now, I do not have a single (general) list that I feel confident enough to game with against all opponents. What would be some suggestions?

 

[Iain McGhee]

Depends on what you were fighting really. My own "general-purpose" choice would be an Avioki/Kaliva, a Halik and a pair of Brikortas.

EDITED: The last point would vary according to the mission/enemy. Likely another Halik. Against races with high defence ratings I'd more likely go for two Aviokis and either a Halik or Brokados (depending on whether I need fighter cover or not).


(ran out of time yesterday )

 

[Triggy]

I have two types that I'd take at the moment. One with an Avioki (as a Battle PL ship) and one without.

1 x Avioki
1 x Brokados
2 x Brikorta
1 x Ikorta
1 x Shakara

The other takes two Haltonas instead of the Avioki. The fleets are strong in fighters and the Shakara as a scout boosts the rest of the fleet's firepower. It is a reasonable list for taking on an unknown opponent.

 

[LaranosTZ]

Triggy's list is pretty solid, it has scouts, fighter cover and plenty of firepower.

I would take nearly the exact same list, except I might trade out the 2 brikorta for a halik or haltona.

 

[tschuma]

What would you take in a 5 point Battle against Minbari?

Thanks in advance.

Tschuma

 

[LaranosTZ]

5 Point battle vs minbari?

That one's easy, you'll never compete with him on fighter cover, but you can be very very mean. First, you could go emine heavy:

2 Takata
2 Haltona

This fleet is basic, but it essentially ignores your opponent's stealth, as the haltona's beams won't count as having fired until they actually hit.

Something a touch more mmm, balanced?

1 Takata
2 Haltona
2 Shakara
1 Kabrokta

This list has plenty of beamy goodness, emines to light up the bad guys, and scouts to further reduce that annoying stealth. In addition, if the kabrokta gets close, it has a lot of firepower, and has lots of troops so you can board if you get close.

 

[Iain McGhee]

Good choices, I'd go SL beam-heavy (same reason as LaranosTZ) with at least one Shakara scout. Wouldn't use fighters, the Minbari Nials (or worse still Tishats) would slaughter them, especially if he had a carrier. I'd go for Halik escorts instead.

Perhaps 3 Aviokis, 2 Haliks as a core with the last point for scouts and Ikortas.

 

[tschuma]

5 Point battle vs minbari?

That one's easy, you'll never compete with him on fighter cover, but you can be very very mean. First, you could go emine heavy:

2 Takata
2 Haltona

This fleet is basic, but it essentially ignores your opponent's stealth, as the haltona's beams won't count as having fired until they actually hit.

Something a touch more mmm, balanced?

1 Takata
2 Haltona
2 Shakara
1 Kabrokta

This list has plenty of beamy goodness, emines to light up the bad guys, and scouts to further reduce that annoying stealth. In addition, if the kabrokta gets close, it has a lot of firepower, and has lots of troops so you can board if you get close.

LaranosTZ

Thanks, that was the fleet I was leaning towards, thanks for the comfirmation. WE are playing a campaign and I got my smacked by the Minbari player last night. The Falkosi do not stand up to the Minbari but the Pikatos held in there ok with the 3" mini-beams.

Tschuma

 

[Lordpappanqui]

A quick update...

Gamed a short battle Friday night versus Narn: 3 pt Battle as he only had enough pieces for that large of a battle-

I fielded a single Kabrokta and a single Corumai, versus 3 Narn cruisers (sorry, I do not remember their listing)

1st Round, both sides moved closer...
2nd Round both of my ships fired Beams against the closest Narn Cruiser and turnded it into a floating piece of debris (8 Criticals versus that cruiser in one round of firing! What luck)...
3rd Round both ships fired at second Narn cruiser and removed two forward weapons and Narn cruiser had to roll 4+ in order to fire from that given ship, and in reply Narn cruisers concentrated all firepower onto the Kabrokta and crippled it....
4th round, he wins initiative, and fires everything within range fires at Corumai and did 38 damage and a few minor crits, but the Corumai fires at the un-engaged Narn cruiser and did an impressive 60-some damage (23 Beam hits by Corumai!!!), and removed all port firing weapons and took out forward guns.... Narn player asks for a ceasefire, which was (gladly) granted...


Not an impressive battle report, but it did showcase the strength of a Kabrokta and Corumai working together to remove one threat after another...

[notice I said 'short'] 8)




This was officially my first battle, with the Brakiri being fielded with cutouts and the Narn player actually having minis to field.

 

[Lordpappanqui]

Another update- [I know, it has been quite a while]


Our group has solidified to the following members (as of last count)

> 1 Minbari
> 1 Narn
> 1 Centauri
> 1 Earth Alliance (Early Age)
> 1 Dilgar
> 1 Brakiri (~yours truly~)



Since I still have not received my minis yet (ordered in mid-October), I am on the sidelines without any ships to deploy in space... so, I will be watching many, many a game till I am able to field my minis.

I do have a single flight of Falkosi however!!! :roll:

 

[LaranosTZ]

If you've been keeping track of the vassal campaign that's been going on, you'll see that the brakiri have been doing reasonably well in that forum.

 

[Ripple]

Our group had significant fears that the Brakiri under the new rules would prove to be the new Centauri due to high beam totals. Under first ed that was fine, they were slow loading and had no AP or SAP. We were assured the dice totals were going down and that we shouldn't worry. We should have worried.

The firepower swing of going from no AP/SAP to the new always on a 4 is huge, particularly vs hull 6. Note I'm talking about the relative change in firepower here, most races which had the SAP beams came out roughly the same vs hull 5/6 but weaker vs hull 4. The Brakiri came out better in every single situation. Under the old rules they expected to get a single hit from the Haltona vs hull 6 over two turns, now they expect 5. Hull 5 was 2 vs 5 now, hull 4 was 4 vs 5 now. Given there are few hull four ships in the game, that pretty close to doubling their firepower or more. The Haltona lost one die in the transition. Large die number front arc better than SAP beams...hmmm...add in decent secondaries and they get scary.

Up side of the Narn report above is that it's three 'cruisers' vs a couple of very big ships. That usually come does to who shoots first. Too few ships on the table for anyone to recover from a big loss, and depending on the ships he may have simply not had much in the way of firepower.

Ripple