We just had one Minbari fight conclude quite overwhelmingly forthe Minbari over the EA just yesterday. At 6 Raid, the Minbari took one Tinashi (2 Rd.) two Teshlans (2 Rd.), one Leshath (1 Rd.) and one Ashinta. We were opposed by a mixed EA/Abbai force -- they just pretty much gave upon winning initiative, and just went for ships of danger -- of four Milani (2 Rd.), one Marathon, one Chonos, and one Hyperion (yes, not fully EA Crusade ... so sue us.).
Scenario was Call to Arms, so no terrain for the EA/Abbai. The coalition lost initiative (surprise, surprise -- +4 vs. -2 and a scout reroll.) The deployed the Milanis about 5" apart from one another, right in the front center of the deployment zone. The Marathon was behind about 6 ", in between the center Milanis. The Hyperion was placed to be a flanker on the left of the line, with a nearby Chronos as escort.
As a result, the Minbari deployed on the coalition's far right, away from the Chronos and Hyperion and just about as far to the edge of the deployemtn zone as we could get. We were pretty much in a clump, although the Teshlans were a just a bit closer. Range started at about 32" to the closest (our left, their right) Milani.
All the strategy pretty much ended there. The Minbari won initiative, and play started. The rest felt like a tape recording. The Tinashi CAFed an out-of-range Marathon that would have had to move 6", and therefore in range of the Tinashi to get a boresight shot at anything (yet again, the downsides of boresight!!) so it (a bit surprisingly) held back, choosing to swap its missed shot for the Tinashi's. The Ashinta and one Teshlan (CAFed) got to Fusion beam range on a Milani that had closed its blast doors, but some decent rolls on from that Teshlan later and one other unCAFed Neutron Laser shot to the Milani decrewed it. The other Milanis turned in and started barfing Kothas, and the Chronos and Hyperion were rapidly turning into the fight.
If there was anything interesting, it was that we started angling two ships early away from the EA, even at ranges of 20-18. The Leshath, the Ashin ta, and one Teshan had very few targets in the F arc. We wanted to fire, and then scoot through the crud. The Teshlan's extreme speed gives us a shot here. We were also very very aware of range 8!
Turn 3 had us winning inititiave (again ... no shock).The Milanis moved first, and the remaining 3 had guaranteed that the ships that had CAFed were not getting out of range 8. The Leshath made one move sink by angling away from the fight and then turning back towards it in preparation of an All Power to Engines to leapfrog most of the fleet (probably not the Chronos or Marathon Secondaries) next turn. The Ashinta followed. After the third Milani move, we shimmied the one Teshlan that hadn't CAFed out of range 8, on the flank, facing towards the Marathon. At this point, we had used our last real estate, that was doing to be outside of 8". The rest would have to give up the shot. One chronos All Powered to get into range (it started on the far left,so it had to hustle to get there, and because of the boresight on the Hyperions' beam, it wasn't going to make it this turn .. still trying to turn fast after starting on the coalition's left). The Tinashi and Teshlan followed the fleet, but the Marathon was able to get range 8" on a Teshlan and lined up on the poor thing.
Fighters could've been a factor here but weren't. We were massively outrightered -- 4 Milanis, most of which were spitting Kothas at 2/ turn on turns 1 and 2 (Scramble) vs. 3 Nials looked bad, but the Thunderbolts and Kothas didn't jump. The Kothas mostly couldn't - 8" isn't fast enough - and the EA fighters would have to go in alone. And, in retrospect, that's why the fighter issue never was .... Minbari fleets (outside of War ships) are often fast enough to shake fighter pursuit if desparate, all Power can get you just away, fast. And an EA strike wouldn't have been bad, because we won inititiave.
Granted. He could have sent about 3 EA fighters and perhaps 4 Kothas forward to try Scanners to Full. That probably wouldn't have helped too much, however. The 3 Nials then jump almost every one by contacting two bases at a time. One fighter might have gotten a scan, and been in fusion death range in exchange. Many fighters will die as well -- the Nials will decide to dogfight first and +2 dogfight shots to pick off EA fighters -- a good trade by any measure. All that for one roll for a 5 or 6 for stealth reduction. The Kotha's speed -- and ours! -- was key here. We got to the spot before the launched fighters could.
The Leshath failed its roll for redirect on the Marathon. Pity.
The Teshlan that was so nicely borsighted by the Marathon was up.. It tried to Crit out the Marathon before that Particle Cannon could fire ... and scored about 4/6 on a crew crit. The glaring gun fired up .... and ....
... failed its stealth roll.
And there comes my point. There isn't a single raid ship that can face down the Marathon and expect to have any reasonable chance of intact -- or functional -- survival against that beam that isn't Hull 6 ... or isn't a Minbari with Stealth. Sure, the cances are only 1/3 of hiding ... but that still by far the most powerful firepower defense out there. A horde of secndary batteries and a 4 die TD beam system should have cored that ship out wholesale. Even meaty ships like the Rohric look at that and say "Wow, big rock candy mountain." And, to be sure, that Teshlan had already ejected its log buoy. But no other system gives that Teshlan any chance to live at all, especially with other ships just waiting to finish a cripple of (a couple of Milanis, a Chronos).
But, even with stealth reduced in strength, it lived.
The rest of the fire was reduced to crit-fishing, and the Chronos put a 9 point dent in the Tinashi and some small damage was done to the Ashinta, but that was it. The Chronos died in exchange, and the side Fusion beams put a big dent in another Milani.
We called the fight here. Were were now going to overfly everything except the Marathon's back beam any maybe its guns. The Boresighted Hyperion may have gotten a shot, but if we win inititative, that might not be real helpful. Perhaps one Milani gets to use its quad arrays on a come about. This would get exchanged with finishing another damaged Milani, damaging and maybe killing that Hyperion, and wiping out a lot of fighters.
To sum up -- the Minbari played here in full knowledge of thier newfound shortcomings, and still absolutely dominated. Tiagras were avoided as they are forced to cruise into bad bad ranges -- they need to be used carefully and sparingly! Granted, I would agree that Torothas are a total waste and something here needs to be done. But there rest of the fleet is just fine, thank you.
. Bigger problem for me (against the EA anyway) is the increase in some races dogfight ability when you tend to have far fewer fighters available. Last time I played against an (early years) EA fleet I was outnumbered five to one with fighters and they were able to gang up on mine and blow them away pretty early on.
