The Kuati

[Abraxas]

Anyone use these? They look like the proverbial glass cannon... and while they shatter rather easily, a pair of these could probably do horendous damage to even a RAID ship if given the oppertunity. I mean, 8 AP/DD and 8 DD/TL would make some ships "blink".

Of course the flip side is that they look like if you stare at them too long, they will simply explode.

Anyone have any experience with them yet? And while we're at it, let's talk about the Haven, Darkner and Morgath. I can't say I hear a lot about these smaller ships.

 

[Gunnvaldr]

I used the just said ships as both initiative sinks and support elements, applying them to assist in both defeating active defensive measures like interceptors, and anti-shipping operations against either opposing support elements and/or to finish off crippled (time bomb) ships.

I try to pair them up with captial ships of equal speed. For example I pair the Darkner with the Dargan, Haven with the Liati, and the Morgath/Kuati with a Cent/Alt.

 

[thehod]

just nearly every patrol choice in the game can pretty much be turned to space junk with a decent broadside from most ships of the line.

The Kutai hits hard and hits fast and is a nice ship to run with a Vorchan squadron.

 

[Target]

Been using them a bit mostly in the smaller priorities
Standard 5pt patrol for me that has some sucess is
1 Vorchan/ Morgath
2 Kutai
1 Flight of Sentri's

 

[Centauri_Admiral]

Nearly all centauri warships are built up for fast, upfront, slashing style attacks. Either of those ships you mentioned, supporting a larger capitol ship, should do well. Given that your opponent is likely to spend more effort on your larger vessel, your kutai's, haven's, darkners and vorchans lend themselves nicely to a well timed flank attack. The morgraths, along with the maximus, I think are better suited to a fleet defense role. Though in a lower priority game, such as patrol or skirmish, I tend to favour the morgrath as the stalwart of a small fleet, although tbh the maxmius [especially now it packs the matter cannon, takes some beating.

Personally my centauri fleet consists of:
1 Adira
1 Octurion
5 Primus
2 Balvarin
3 Liati
3 Centurion
5 Sulust
3 Dargan
3 Altarian
5 maximus
3 morgrath
6 kutai
4 darkner
6 Vorchan
3 covran
8 haven

As you might tell, I don't get chance to use all of them, especially the more obscure vessels, very often.

 

[Lord David the Denied]

Man, you have a lot of ships... :shock:

 

[Right Hand of God]

I regularly play large games, 15-30 points of war, my centauri fleet in such games usualy contains a point of Morgaths and 6 Darkners. The Darkners are fast and provide quite a punch, I use them as suicide squad. With their speed they can be in range on the first turn and in a squadron of 4 they have too big a payload to ignore. Whle my oponent targets them the rest of my fleet can advance.

Ok the Darkners will die, but then they will generally die anyway, at least this way they do so on my terms and provide the rest of the fleet with a little more time to get into range.

Morgaths are another stock chice, usually supporting a squadron of Demos or Vorchans. The double damage beams on the Morgath come as quite a surprise, and tag teamed with the Vorchan/Demos they can make quite a mess of ships far bigger than themselves.

The Haven.....well.....I don't know, I have 24 of them, the only use I can think of for them is to throw them at my oponent and hope it puts him off his game.

 

[Abraxas]

just nearly every patrol choice in the game can pretty much be turned to space junk with a decent broadside from most ships of the line.

The Kutai hits hard and hits fast and is a nice ship to run with a Vorchan squadron.

At 10", it doesn't keep up with Vorchans very well.

But someone suggested the Centurion. That sounds good.

A pair of those flanking a Centurion could A) take a turns whorth of fire away from the capital ship or B) add some serious fire power when the squad gets close to the enemy.

Actually, Hull 5 is pretty good, plus the benefits Dodge 5+ and it's very likely they could survive secondary fire... or at least not be outright destroyed by it.

Hmmmmmmm... I like this idea.

1 Balvarin
1 Centurion
2 Vorchans
2 Demos
1 Covran
2 Kuati

Sound good to anyone?

I don't have any Morgaths, Darkners or Havens... but if I wanted any, it would be the Darkner. They look pretty mean too.

 

[Lord David the Denied]

Looks like a good fleet. I might try it out sometime.

 

[Triggy]

just nearly every patrol choice in the game can pretty much be turned to space junk with a decent broadside from most ships of the line.

The Kutai hits hard and hits fast and is a nice ship to run with a Vorchan squadron.

At 10", it doesn't keep up with Vorchans very well.

But someone suggested the Centurion. That sounds good.

A pair of those flanking a Centurion could A) take a turns whorth of fire away from the capital ship or B) add some serious fire power when the squad gets close to the enemy.

Actually, Hull 5 is pretty good, plus the benefits Dodge 5+ and it's very likely they could survive secondary fire... or at least not be outright destroyed by it.

Hmmmmmmm... I like this idea.

1 Balvarin
1 Centurion
2 Vorchans
2 Demos
1 Covran
2 Kuati

Sound good to anyone?

I don't have any Morgaths, Darkners or Havens... but if I wanted any, it would be the Darkner. They look pretty mean too.

I'd make all of the Vorchans Demoses (or if you consider them overpowered, I'd make them all Vorchans) but otherwise it's a good fleet with no weak link to prey upon. It's the sort of Centauri fleet I'd have to take a minute to think how I'm going to play against it.

 

[Ripple]

fifteen to thirty War?....geeze....

Ripple

 

[Right Hand of God]

Ripple it's a fleet game, at that size you really do have a fleet to use, gives a completely different feel to the game

 

[Centauri_Admiral]

Ripple it's a fleet game, at that size you really do have a fleet to use, gives a completely different feel to the game

STB man, how long does it take to play? I mean my fleet is roughly 35 points at battle, so assuming you split that in half to get war, 17 points at war? Is that like an entire day without stopping?

 

[Right Hand of God]

It doesn't really take that much longer. Ok you aren't going to get a game that size in down at your LGS, but with the amount of firepower on the table, things die quickly.

There are a couple of things to do that can speed things up, one player sets up beforehand and covers his fleet. Makes a blind set up a lot quicker for the other player. Squadrons are mandatory in games over 15 points of War, the only single ships we allow at the deployment stage are Scouts. Even in fleets with BS weapons, you have such a target rich environment that you don't need to bother about initiative sinks until turn 4.

Decently organised fleet rosters are a must, I have found Burger's fleet designer good for this. Although it works better if you print your fleet list out in chunks rather than as a hole.

Then we play for around 6-7 hours with a break. We only play a couple of times a month so when we do we like to play big!

 

[Centauri_Admiral]

Aye, now you mention it I suppose with proper organisation it would go faster, I'd like to play a game that big.

 

[Right Hand of God]

In all the game systems we play we have always gone big once we have got used to the rules system. In ACTA size matters, it really does give the game a completely different feel. I have played small 5 point raid games, ok they have their place, but they don't match up against a real fleet engagement, where you can field squadrons that are more than 5 points of raid. The single ship no longer matters, and attacks come in wave after wave. Face a fleet of Drazi with over 70 ships, use 12 Dag Kar to own areas of space, you don't need to mic and match ships with a squadron but figure out what squadron supports what best.

In one game I had a squadron of three Sharlins. When they open fire you know that you are going to destroy what they aim at. It changes ones view of how the fleets work and the merits of different ships.

 

[Centauri_Admiral]

Interesting, I think I might have to try and persuade someone into playing at least a 15 point war game with me. Out of curiosity mate; what size table are you playing this on? I have effectively a 6x4 at home not sure if that is big enough though.

 

[Gunnvaldr]

6x4 and currently making a 8x6

 

[Lord David the Denied]

Remember these crazy lads play with FA scale models...

 

[Right Hand of God]

I deny the crazy charge but yes we use FA scale models, so the space they take up is less, the models are just as good, some even look better as they look more in scale with other ships. We use a 5x7 table