Tournament fleet composition, unsure...

L

lastbesthope

Mongoose
Hi all,

So I'm painting up my Hawkwood fleet box (+Vladimir) for the tourney on May 7th.

But I've been so busy on the painting I haven't considered my fleet choices.

1 fleet for all games or 4 different fleets? I'm tempted to go one fleet as you won't know which scenarios you're playing ahead of time, and you have to preassign the 4 fleets to the 4 different games at the start of the day..

Also what to take, the Vlad is tempting, but it's a lot of points in one basket, same for a carrier, but less tempting.

Thinking of taking 1 or 2 Griffins, they look cool if nothing else, a scout is poor on it's own, but is a good force multiplier, especially with the more ships you put on a target, so lots of Hornets is good there.

Not sure about Galliots, too skewed towards boarding actions, could just take a Hornet and upgrade the troops.

If it looked like I'd get it in time the Dreadnought would be uber tempting, but even more of a risk of being swarmed than the Vladimir.

So what is everyone else thinking?

LBH
 
I would go for:

1 Scout, 2 Destroyers, 3 Frigates

Then with the left over points have 8 Marauders for Ship Boarding / Defense.

That is a good balanced Fleet.

Or you could go for a Vladimir Cruiser, 1 Scout and 3 Frigates.

Any of these two would be a good combination for Hawkwood.
 
I agree with Clanger, both of those options look really good. Having a scout in there for reaiming the laser fire will really increase your damage potential. I would probably opt for the first load out though, a cruiser is nice and all, but it's a really big target in such a small fleet. Someone with more ships could easily just board on 2-3 sides and effectively shut it down.

As for a Carrier.. I have some reservations about the Carrier and it's fighter support. Granted I've only fought against one so far and haven't used one at all, so this might just be inexperience talking. I just think Carriers will only excel in higher point number fleets. The problem isn't necessarily as pronounced with the carrier as it is with the cruiser, but the carrier is still a huge target for boarding and destruction. Take out the mobile base and the bombers are now worthless. And the fighters need fire support to take down the shields so they can do anything other than fighter defense. So, having points locked up that aren't doing much other than pot shots here and there.
 
Thanks guys,

I was considering both of those fleet make ups Clanger. And I agree with kaltorak, ahving 1/3 of your fleet tied up in fighters and a carrier is a bit much.

If I had more ships the thought of 4 destroyers is intriguing, but as you say the Scout makes a good force multiplier, and the more hulls the better to an extent.

So what is anyone else taking to the tourney? Fleet choice and/or fleet makeup?

Anyone going for 4 different fleets?

LBH
 
I wish I could go.. If I were I'd be fielding a Decados fleet of 4 frigates, 1 destroyer, 1 galliot and 10 troop upgrades.
 
Well, as a general view on the Hawkwood the larger ships are certainly better than the smaller ones, Hawkwood suffer quite badly in small point battles.

A combination of Frigates and Destroyers with a couple of scouts would be my choice, infact I did have a fleet planned to tackle Rick but we decided not to use anything Destroyer or above.

I'd advise 2 Destroyers, 2 scouts and as many Frigates as points will allow. I don't know the tournament rules/point cost but as a general strategy, I'd hide the scouts as best you can and march the rest of your fleet straight down the middle firing broadsides, focusing on and killing 1 ship per side per turn, though with lasers as your main weapon you might have to settle for heavily critted.
 
Clanger said:
1 Scout, 2 Destroyers, 3 Frigates

Then with the left over points have 8 Marauders for Ship Boarding / Defense.

That is a good balanced Fleet.
Click to expand...

Agreed, although if you have the models, going to 3 scouts, 3 destroyers, and 12 marauders might work better. You lose a raw little firepower but your accuracy will be better, you high armor will negate a lot of enemy shooting, and you break about even on boarding.

Both forces have to watch out for galliots or fleets with really heavy troop upgrades, but if you stick to playing keep-away in the early stages to deny the enemy his shorter-ranged weapons and boarding opportunities, you should be able to snipe some of his stuff into wreckage before the real crunch comes on turn 3 or so. Exploit that speed edge you'll have on everyone but Li Halan - and against them, you should be able to win boarding actions pretty often, if they don't crit you to death on the way in. Whatever you do, don't let anyone else crowd in on you until you've shot them up some - you really have to eliminate some blasters/slug guns/rockets before they into range or they'll tend to swamp you under.
 
Not sure I'd agree with you there Starbreaker - with a top-heavy fleet like that, you'll have 3 opportunities to use the 3 scouts abilities, whereas Clangers fleet gives 5 and doesn't concentrate the points into a few expensive targets. My opinion would be to take the 2 destroyers, 3 frigates for support and to exploit a weakness and the 1 scout to keep out of the action but where it could use it's abilities.
 
Rick said:
Not sure I'd agree with you there Starbreaker - with a top-heavy fleet like that, you'll have 3 opportunities to use the 3 scouts abilities, whereas Clangers fleet gives 5 and doesn't concentrate the points into a few expensive targets. My opinion would be to take the 2 destroyers, 3 frigates for support and to exploit a weakness and the 1 scout to keep out of the action but where it could use it's abilities.
Click to expand...

Average CQ scouts fail their check half the time. 1 scout is insufficient to give reasonable odds of having a lock when you want one, especially if the enemy decides to shoot it to death and deprive you of any lock while you're trying to fire five ships instead of three.

If you really think 3 scouts is excessive, drop one and take another 10 marauders (22 all told), or a frigate and only 2 marauders. The former makes all three of your destroyers a deadly boarding threat, just be careful about blocking your broadsides when you grapple. The latter - I'd load the two scouts with the marauders and use them to board enemy scouts or even raiders, or to sprint in unexpectedly and capture a ship that thought it was safe to send all but one or two troops on an offensive boarding action.
 
if i was going it would be the 1 scout, 3 frigates, 2 destroyers combo as 2 destroyers are better IMO than a cruiser. plus the cruiser is so slow
 
Indeed. Starbreaker has a point about 1 scout not able to guarantee a redirect each turn, but balancing this out against taking 3 and tying up 150 pts in scouts, I'd rather just take the 1 and miss out on a redirect occasionally.
 
Rick said:
Indeed. Starbreaker has a point about 1 scout not able to guarantee a redirect each turn, but balancing this out against taking 3 and tying up 150 pts in scouts, I'd rather just take the 1 and miss out on a redirect occasionally.
Click to expand...

Dropping a frigate, taking a 2nd scout, and adding 50 (40 for Hazat) points worth of troop upgrades to the fleet is a fair middle ground, especially for fleets that might actually get some mileage out of the scout lasers. Gives you quite a bit more punch when a boarding opportunity arises, and that is the most efficient way to earn points, especially if you can capture a key ship early on and use its guns against the former owner for half the game. The loss of firepower from the frigate should be roughly compensated by the larger number of scout-guided shots the other ships will get.

Of course, troop upgrades aren't even an option for poor Al Malik, unless you're using the S&P article in the tourney.
 
The bonus of 2 Scouts are that 2 weapon systems can be rediredted, one for each Scout. As most ships have a turret and broadsides this evens up the ante a bit :).
 
Clanger said:
The bonus of 2 Scouts are that 2 weapon systems can be rediredted, one for each Scout. As most ships have a turret and broadsides this evens up the ante a bit :).
Click to expand...

Doesn't help some fleets (anyone with Guided missiles in the turrets already) but it also improves the odds of keeping a lock on some target even if the enemy is gunning for your scouts. With one scout, establishing a lock makes you a fire magnet if you're within enemy weapon range.
 
Well if you rule out taking a cruiser, a carrier or galliots there are really only 3 750 point Hawkwood fleets that you can make from a standard fleet box

2 Destroyers, 2 Frigates, 2 Scouts + 18 Marauders

2 Destroyers, 3 Frigates, 1 Scout + 8 Marauders

1 Destroyer, 4 Frigates, 2 Scouts + 14 Marauders

They allseem not bad to me, if I could come up with a 4th I might play 4 different fleets just to try them all out.

LBH
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

ottarrus
Imperial Navy Question
5 6 7
Replies
121
Views
5K
rinku
R
BloatedBlowfish
Neon Dreams: A Symphony in Three Parts - Firefly Class 3 Military for MgT 2E/Hostile Solo fan film.
Replies
3
Views
405
BloatedBlowfish
BloatedBlowfish
ottarrus
2300 AD Deployment Logistics
2
Replies
37
Views
2K
Bryn the 2300AD guy
B
C
The infamous Eurisko fleet from 1981
Replies
8
Views
880
AnotherDilbert
A
M
Hero's Pride, 100t Automated Free Trader TL15
2
Replies
30
Views
585
mavikfelna
M
Back
Top