The Differences In The 3 Earth Alliance Fleets?

[Proiteus]

Being a complete newbie to the game, I must swiftly choose two of the fleet boxed sets before they sell out on the net entirely.

Now for my first fleet I want to choose an Earth Alliance force as recommended by other gamers in my previous post as being a good starting fleet for the game.

But what are the key differences between the three types…

Early Years / Third Age / Crusade Era

Now I like the look of the Crusade Era but would like to know more about the three fleets before my final dissension, can anyone help me?

 

[GhostRecon]

As you go up through the "Eras" of the EA fleet, from Early Years, to Third Age, to Crusade, the technology level of the fleet rises (Fluff) and in-game terms, it means that the fleet, generally, gets better fleet choices at higher priority levels.

For example, the best ship the Early Years EA fleet gets is the Orestes Battleship, which, while being a decent contender, is quickly outmoded and outclassed by later ships in the later lists. Currently, I am of the firm opinion that the EY list performs best in 2E, with its lower priority, initiative sink favoring slant.

Third Age is the best of both the EY and Crusade fleet lists, getting some of the precursors to the Crusade lists, such as the Warlock Advanced Destroyer, while maintaining some of the lower priority mainstays, such as the Avenger Carrier, Nova Dreadnought (albeit modified from the superior EY version), and Olympus Corvette, while adding new "iconic" canon ships, such as the venerable Omega Dreadnought. The Third Age list is essentially the "middle ground" of the Crusade and EY lists, and consequently performs pretty well at all priority levels.

Crusade EA is the most 'high tech' of the three EA lists, however, consequently, it suffers, significantly, in lower priority battles. It loses the Raid-level Avenger carrier, depriving it of an effective low priority fleet carrier, its best low priority capital ship is the Hyperion, an aged ship with a short-ranged boresight, and is just decent. The Chronos Attack Frigate is a superlative skirmish ship, however, while its hull 6 and interceptors 2 shield it extremely effectively against normal fire, against beams you'll find it horrendously fragile, and to boot, the ship is relatively underpowered in its Heavy Pulse Cannon. To make up for this, the Crusade EA gets the Apollo and Marathon Cruisers, both extremely effective Battle level choices, and the Delphi advanced scout, a range-less scout with 5+ stealth, making it an effective raid-level scout and a very good alternative to the Explorer scout. Additionally, the Crusade EA list is the only one of the three EA lists with an Armageddon choice, getting the ISA's Victory-class Destroyer, in itself a extremely effective vessel (Though I personally would have preferred the Nemesis, even if it is less effective).

 

[eldiablito]

Well, I KNOW that there are several people who know more than I about these fleets, but I'll help.

Early age: This is a fleet that has LOTS of specialists and few generalized ships. They have GREAT long range ships (ie. Sagittarius), GREAT brawlers (Nova, Artemis) and decent fighter carriers (Avenger). One of my favorite parts of this fleet is that it has many choices for the smaller games (LOTS of skirmish ships and even a 2-for-1 Patrol choice). You'll NEED some Hyperions because they are SO flexible in this era. You'll also need to get a few Oracles as they are needed to make sure your weapons hit often enough. As an outsider, this is my favorite of the 3 choices. The downer side is that you miss out on the classic ship that most people recognize as Babylon 5 (iow, the Omega). If I were to play this fleet, I would take an Avenger (or 2), some Tethys, about 4 Sagittarius class ships, a couple of Hyperions, maybe a Nova or 2, a couple of Artemis ships and a sprinkle of Oracle ships. Of course, the Olympus and Hermes are also good too.

Dawn of the 3rd Age: This is a really good fleet as it has better Battle ships (namely, the Omega) and even some good War level ships. So, I guess if you want to play bigger games with HUGE ships, then this is a better selection. Also, if you like the show, this is a better choice too. Although most of the Early age still exists in some form, you loose much of the Hyperion's flexibility and even my favorite Earth ships (Sagittarius and Tethys are some examples). Again, you'll want some Oracles, but you don't need nearly as many as this fleet's secondary guns don't need the scout abilities. On the up side, this age of Earth has some NASTY fighters. If I were to play this fleet instead and forgo the ability to play it as an Early Era as well, then I would get the Avengers, Hyperions, Artemis and Oracle ships still, but I would also pick up the classic Omega. Additionally, because I would loose the specialists, I would pick up the Olympus and Hermes ships instead.

Crusade: This is one DANGEROUS fleet. Although some people on this forum think that this isn't as good as the previous 2 ages, I've seen what it can do with clever fleet design and I think that it could be the scariest of the 3... Again, I say that this is an outsider's perspective. This fleet looses much of the earliest ships, so don't expect much to be good cross-over ships. You'll need a Delphi, some Chronos and some Myrmidon initially. I've seen the damage output of a Marathon and I can tell you, this fleet has LOTS of power. Also, the firebolt fighters are even worse as they have double damage weapons for their bomber runs. If I were to play this fleet, I would take the Delphi, some Chronos, some Myrmidon, a Marathon or two, and a couple of Apollo ships (the replacement of that Sagittarius that I liked so much before). Unfortunately, because this age looses the Avenger, I would probably take a Poseidon instead (although this is a HUGE ship).

Any experts care to chime in?

 

[Burger]

I like 3rd Age, because it has most iconic ships from the show. Omega, Nova, Hyperion, Olympus. It's arguably the least competitive era though, at Early age you have the Sag, and Crusade have Chronos, Marathon, Apollo.

 

[Proiteus]

"It's arguably the least competitive era though"

Really I thought all that high tech stuff would make it nasty?

 

[Locutus9956]

I like 3rd Age, because it has most iconic ships from the show. Omega, Nova, Hyperion, Olympus. It's arguably the least competitive era though, at Early age you have the Sag, and Crusade have Chronos, Marathon, Apollo.

I dunno, at third age you do still get some of the fun toys from either side though, you get the Omega, and Warlock but still have access to the Avenger and Olypmus.

I do like Crusade but I'd say it's actually the weakest of the three, except in particularly large games where its 'top heavyness' is less of an issue.

My fleet of choice at the moment is early years EA, for which I ENTIRELY blam LC and his damnably excellent Dilgar War novel....

 

[Burger]

"It's arguably the least competitive era though"

Really I thought all that high tech stuff would make it nasty?

Higher tech doesn't necessarily make it competitive in game terms. Better ships, go into higher priority levels. Early Era has the Tethys which are the ultimate initiative sinks (8 for 1 Raid point), Sagittarius (not as nasty as it used to be but still really nasty), Olympus Gunship (4AD B/DD on a Skirmish ship), Avenger... I'd say they are the most competitive fleet with those choices available. Downside is they don't have access to Thundebolts and don't have any good Battle or above choices.

 

[EDFDarkAngel1]

I'm a Crusade Era fleet player. It is an extremely destructive fleet, versatile, flexible.

Almost the entire fleet has hull 6, Anti-Fighter, and Interceptors. They are fairly tough to kill, especially the Chronos, Omega, and Warlock. They also have some of the most powerful missiles in the game, plus access to missile variants that can have it take on several different defenses with similar results.

On the downside, almost all of the powerful weapons are boresight. With almost no options in the lower Priority Levels, it makes it harder to hit enemy ships. Any ship above Battle with the exception of the Marathon are slow and turn slow. While they Crusade Era has more technology than the others, it is still in lacking in technology compared to the other races (ISA, Centauri, Minbari, Abbai, Gaim, etc). The Marathon is a devastating warship and it will destroy entire fleets by itself if it's not taken out, but it also has low hull and crew scores unlike the other ships in the fleet.

3rd Age is a seasoned fleet that can't take on any advanced warships one on one, but can do general damage and is an excellent brawling fleet. Alot of the lower level ships are very weak-hulled, but can do their job very well.

Early Years is almost entirely lower level and is better swarming enemy warships than standing toe-to-toe with anyone. The Saggittarius and Oracles are excellent ships, plus the plasma cannons give all of their secondaries AP instead of Twin-Linked (better for attacking high armor ships).

Dark Angel

 

[Twin-Linked Aldades]

I always rank them to people at the club by the `favorite weapon` of the era, imho being Missiles - TwinLinked Batteries - Beams respectivelly, though each of them has a bit of everything.

Though my nickname might suggest otherwise, I had fairly good scores with all of them, 75% and up.
Yes, we keep a `running total` of each and every battle we play since we returned to 2nd after a year of FoW (we needed a break after playing 1st since it came out, week in week out), including mods we`re working on or find of the net.

Now, I am a fan of the Thetys (heck, its not great, some call it the worst ship ever, but it looks so cool in miniatures) so usually carry a full raid point of them along minimum, and the Explorer (I was the one years ago in 1st that first suggested on the forums here that he needed to get the Scout trait due to his huge sensor apparatus), so they usually are the core of my fleet in Early.

But saying which is better then the rest, I think they are all three just as good, it depends for me on the looks you like most. Playing old junk, playing `the series fleet` or playing the technoboys. In the end, they all share the one great trick up the EA sleeve, adaptability against any opponent on the table top, which is great for pick up games without haveing to mess with your fleetlist all the time tu `finetune` your fleet to a specific opponent.

 

[Locutus9956]

Well I started playing EA at the start when the 3 lists were one, but basically went down the crusade route, mainly cos I liked the design of the later ships like the Warlock and the Apollo (they just look great imo).

When the fleets split I was already pretty much playing that fleet and just had to drop a few ships from my usual lists (I used to use Olympus from time to time but now the Chronos fills the same gap anwyay).

Crusade EA USED to be very nasty in that they were basically ALL hull 6 but now the beam rules have changed in 2nd Ed this isnt quite the advantage it used to be. Theyre still a very nasty fleet but in smaller games will often suffer in that they dont have very many good smaller ships available. The Chronos is primarily at its most effective as an initiative sink to allow the big boys to line up their shots (and has the advantage that compared to most small ships that get used in this manner its exceedingly tough (espeically if it goes on close blast doors which most of the time, it will) to get rid of and even if it does die then chances are your opponent will have had to use up a reasonable chunk of firepower that could have been used to take out a much nastier ship potentially!

 

[Proiteus]

Is there anyway I can counter this disadvantage in smaller games?

 

[l33tpenguin]

Is there anyway I can counter this disadvantage in smaller games?

I actually wouldn't call it THAT big of a disadvantage. Chronos frigates can stand toe to toe against just about anything in their PL. Their hull 6 makes them a tough nut to crack and they can decent all around firepower. The turreted railgun gives them lots of flexability as well. There just isn't much of a selection at that level. At raid and below, you are going to be limited to Myrmidons, Chronos frigates and starfuries, with the possibility of taking a delphi along for scout. Oh, some hyperion variants as well.