White Star fighters

[CheesyRobMan]

I played a 3pt Battle Assassinate game with my Centauri against ISA tonight.

Centauri:
Primus (+2 Sentri)
Centurion
Centurion
Vorchan
Vorchan
Vorchan

ISA:
WS Carrier (+8 WS fighters)
WS
WS

To cut a long story short, it was going well until the White Star fighters tore my ships to pieces. They accounted for my Primus and both Centurions almost by themselves within 5 turns. I won't mention the other things that make ISA difficult to play against, but those fighters seem way too overpowered. Am I missing some reasonable way to kill them, or do you just accept that they're firing first and are going to blow up whatever they've found? :shock:

 

[LordClinto]

You could always switch to Vorlons for their "Charged Energy Pulse" whatsit to hurt fighter before they get a chance to shoot.

Just an idea! :lol:

Seriously, I would consider switching the Vorchans to Maximus' and go WS Fighter hunting. Hull 6 can't be bad, & having a 4" Turreted Anti-Fighter Weapon makes your return fire much more effective.

Additionally switching the Centurions to Altarians or Magnus would help due to their Hull 6. I personally would rather use a Tertius over a primus against a WS fleet, more double damage to get around adaptive armor.

 

[Commador Q]

well, for one thing you didn't have nearly enough of your own fighters for going against ISA. having a number of fighter flights support you main ships will help negate the WS fighter firing first, as they will have to dogfight the supporting flights (and probably will win) thus leaving them open for anti-fighter weaponry during the main ship phase. it's not a perfect solution, but it would help a lot and if your oponrnt fails a lot of his recovery roles it may just put an end to the WS fighter's reighn of terror.

also concider using some of your main weapons agains the WS fighters, they may have a +3 dogfight but they only have a 4+ dodge and one hit kills them.

 

[Shadow Queen]

cant wait for my 2 bilisters of WSF, my box of a WS Carrier, and WS Gunship ...... If only Ryans supplyer can pulll his finger out for my WhiteStar and Delta V's box...

 

[Triggy]

also concider using some of your main weapons agains the WS fighters, they may have a +3 dogfight but they only have a 4+ dodge and one hit kills them.

Absolutely, people forget just how vulnerable many fighters are to main weapons such as a strafing beam or pulse weapons... certainly knocks the numbers down to managable levels.

Either way, the fleet you picked really isn't set up to face ISA with a Carrier. More smaller units such as Corvans - great for a combo for firepower, Scout and fighters, Maximuses and even a Balvarin to boost the fighter numbers would be a better option vs this fleet.

 

[CheesyRobMan]

It was more a case of "I've got these models, you've got those models, that looks like 3-point Battle, let's go". Not much fleet tailoring!

Thanks for the advice. Some Maximuses (Maxima?) and a Balvarin will definitely be on the cards for next time...

Edit: Pics from the game below:

 

[Triggy]

Looked like a cool game, perhaps a little incentive to spend some more money on ships :shock:

BTW, it's Maximuses as Maximus is a proper noun and doesn't alter when you pluralise it (same goes for Chronoses rather than Chronii, etc.)

 

[Shadow Queen]

could we see the 2 fleets seperatly?

 

[Locutus9956]

yes but Chronosses sounds wrong some how. Hence I refer to them generally as Chronos Frigates when speaking of them

 

[CheesyRobMan]

could we see the 2 fleets seperatly?

I can only show you my Centauri - the ISA belong to the gamestore owner (and are better painted than mine!). Pics below:

Ship names have been added to the bases since the game in the original post.

 

[Shadow Queen]

nice fleet and paint job what was the pl level?

 

[WickedE]

Dear lord, his fleet looks very similar to my House Ghustavo fleet! I'm flattered! Yet his Primus isn't nearly as opulous as mine!
Still, that's a pretty kickass color scheme!

 

[prelude_to_war]

Great looking fleet. Almost makes me want to use Centauri!

 

[Reborn]

(He plays at the store where I demonstrate - yay for me! )

 

[Lorcan Nagle]

I was just thinking - would the Liati be better suited as a fleet defence ship for taking out white star fighters than engaging the gunships?

 

[Itkovian]

It'd certainly work as that, but I have found the 4+ dodge means pretty much anyship with a decent number of dice can clear the skies of them in pretty short order.

So you'd probably get a better return from covering your valuable units (Primus, Octurion or Adiras) with a couple of Maximus'.

Then again I generally play ISA and I have found there is always a tendency to focus on ones own downsides rather than upsides, WS Fighters are horribly effective at Critting big ships into ineffectiveness.

The weirdest thing is the carrier is a more effective combat ship that the WS Gunship!

As far as dealing with Whitestar Fighters goes I'd echo everyone else, deploy lots of your own fighters, even if they die they will leave the Whitestars sat in space sitting ducks for twin particle arrays and Matter cannons.

 

[Shadow Queen]

if you use shadow scouts bang goes the dodge

 

[katadder]

if you have fighters of spd16 in front of a shadow scout and in range you deserve to lose them as fighters move last. shadow scout is good against whitestars but not against WS fighters in fact WS fighters are prob the best things for killing shadows due to shadows having no multi-arc weapons. hmm new tourney fleet - WS carrier and a WS bring on the shadows now

 

[Hash]

if you have fighters of spd16 in front of a shadow scout and in range you deserve to lose them as fighters move last. shadow scout is good against whitestars but not against WS fighters in fact WS fighters are prob the best things for killing shadows due to shadows having no multi-arc weapons. hmm new tourney fleet - WS carrier and a WS bring on the shadows now

...don't suppose you have any tips on how exactly how the Shadows are supposed to keep out of range of WS fighters for more than 2-3 turns at the most? It's more than a little tricky I can assure you!

Hence my purchase of two shiny new Carriers with fighter compliment

 

[Burger]

Hence my purchase of two shiny new Carriers with fighter compliment

Powergaming scumbag

I need to get more...