Mike Grafton,

I think what Andrew Harding was getting at when he posted

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Quote:

The Kzin should start by shooting the penny-pincher that thought speed eight was a good speed in a combat zone

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By Mike Strain (Evilmike) on Friday, October 08, 2010 - 06:51 pm: Edit

This is a MY scenario, so yes, the t-bombs have range-1 triggers. Except for the transporter range (4 hexes), MY (ie, standard) rules are in effect.

How would full EW affect the Fed and Kzinti tactics?

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Friday, October 08, 2010 - 07:10 pm: Edit

Adds even more misery to the Fed's day.

Feds can EM for relative cheap if they need to defend themselves but most of the time they need to be on the offensive.

Freighters will run with FC down and 6 ECM (8 ECM total) to to force a minimum of 5 ECCM from the feds on firing turns. Kzinti ships also would adopt high ECM.

May the gods help the feds if the Kzinti have ECM drones.

By Mike Strain (Evilmike) on Friday, October 08, 2010 - 08:15 pm: Edit

Delete the tugs (SFIC screwed up).

Is it possible for the Kzin to reach the planet and win?

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Friday, October 08, 2010 - 09:43 pm: Edit

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Quote:

The Kzin should start by shooting the penny-pincher that thought speed eight was a good speed in a combat zone

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By Lee Hanna (Lee) on Saturday, October 09, 2010 - 12:20 pm: Edit

IIRC, this is a scenario from the 2nd Fed-Kzin War (Y136-Y142), that is before range-1 mine detonators (Y145).

By Andrew Harding (Warlock) on Saturday, October 09, 2010 - 12:27 pm: Edit

Alan is correct, I was referring to the Kzin scenario start speed.

Without the two tugs I think it's a game. 3*DD are advantaged over CS, 2*CL but not massively so and the latter don't need to win, just buy time. Commander's EW helps the Kzin - while I think it's too early for ECM drones the freighters can still do EM to force two shifts.

By Mike Strain (Evilmike) on Sunday, October 10, 2010 - 03:40 am: Edit

"IIRC, this is a scenario from the 2nd Fed-Kzin War (Y136-Y142), that is before range-1 mine detonators (Y145)."

Yoinks.

Oh well, shouldn't affect the battle THAT much.

By Chris Smith (Casmith1) on Tuesday, December 21, 2010 - 11:51 pm: Edit

Hi guys. I'm putting together a fleet for a mini campaign and want to use the CLD. Anyone know where to find the SSD/

Thanks

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - 01:56 pm: Edit

R6, IIRC.

Scout channels and drones. Two great tastes that taste great together.

By Chris Smith (Casmith1) on Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - 11:28 pm: Edit

And I thank you!

By Roch Chartrand (Rochc) on Thursday, December 23, 2010 - 07:38 am: Edit

Hi,
I am playing some scenarios against Rom, and I have a hard time finding the right tactic to use against that race. The latest scenario to date is taking place in the Y164 time frame and involves a CAR and DD against KD4 and BH, a second BH is running in as reinforcement but it still 43 hex away. Both pairs of ship are at 17 hex apart, no weapon were fire at this point. I’m try to position myself for a battle pass so I can run after my initial volley. Should I fire my torp in prox mode and try to keep the gap or should close in and deliver a more powerful blow with Std or OV. Comment or suggestion is appreciated.

By Jim Davies (Mudfoot) on Thursday, December 23, 2010 - 08:39 pm: Edit

Depends on speed, map type (floating or fixed), arming status and a bunch of other things.

My gut reaction is that prox won't achieve anything useful, and you want to kill something before the other BH comes in to complicate matters. The BH is likely to cloak out if you threaten too much, so you may end up killing the KD4.

The DD is of course too slow to OL everything against plasma, so you might just load 2 or 3 tubes and otherwise run it as a phaser boat. But in general, Feds should go for OL range except in large fleet actions.

By Mike Strain (Evilmike) on Friday, December 24, 2010 - 02:51 am: Edit

Load standards on the DD, overloads on the CA.

If you have transporter bombs, try to set up 'flashcube' situations, and plan accordingly.

Watch out for NSMs. The BH gets it for free, and the KD4 can buy one.

Also, read the cloak/plasma rules. Then read them again.

Speed is better than a wild weasal, but keep a WW hot just in case. You never know.

Pop the KD4 first. It's more dangerous than a BH, even if it is slower. It's also not a good cloaker....the Hawks are.

Try to take plasma hits on your flank/rear shields. You NEED your forward shields.

If you have to choose between overloads and speed, pick speed. You can overload the torps later....slow speed can get you killed NOW.

By Roch Chartrand (Rochc) on Friday, December 24, 2010 - 07:45 am: Edit

Map is fix, but over size. I plan to plot a speed between 16 & 20 for both of my ships. I was thinking of dealing with the BH first before it cloak away then KD4 because is cloaking cost is bad and may not be able to cloak if do he will be run slow and should be easier to hunt.

By Michael C. Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Friday, December 24, 2010 - 03:01 pm: Edit

The DD can also fight fairly effectively as a phaser boat.

As long as you hide enough power (with contingetn allocations to tacs, tractor, and/ or ECM) to preserve the notion that it MIGHT have a photon or more ready if they tgry to get frisky and close.

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Saturday, December 25, 2010 - 07:25 am: Edit

It doesn't hurt to save one tube as a full overload for close encounters.

By Roch Chartrand (Rochc) on Friday, January 07, 2011 - 10:06 am: Edit

Situation: Federation assault a Romulan Base Station.
Map: Fix 50x50, 6 Point of Entry/Exit of 3 hex all located at 25 hex from 2525.
Year: 164.
Federation force: 1 DN, 1 CAR, 1 GSC and 1 DD; WS3.
Romulan force: 1 BS with YPAM, 1 SNA, 1 SNP; WS3 located at 2525.
Romulan as 250Bpv of reinforcement coming in from one of the PoE.

Comment

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Friday, January 07, 2011 - 02:44 pm: Edit

Basic plan is obvious: Destroy the Romulan force in pieces before it can link up.

You either want to trash the base and its defenders as best you can or toast the reinforcements. The scenario appears designed expecting you will be attacking the base when the reinforcements arrive.

Odds are is he'll cloak and try to wait you out, especially if he has a good minefield.

The key is to engage the reinforcements ASAP before they link up with the base, preferably outside the base's EW lending range.

How long will it be before reinforcements arrive? The shorter the time, the less motivated you should be to try to engage the base straight away.

If you have time to attack the base, consider killing the snipes so they can't help the reinforcements when you intercept them.

You want one super-ECCM platform for retaining cloak lock-ons. The DN is the best choice as it probably can spare the most power and it has the most photons to otherwise benefit from the ECCM.

By Michael C. Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Friday, January 07, 2011 - 03:42 pm: Edit

Super ECCM? How about the GSC lending to the DN?

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Friday, January 07, 2011 - 03:56 pm: Edit

That was what I was suggesting. I just worded poorly. The DN puts 6 into ECCM and the GSC lends another 6, hence "super".

Especially since it's likely to be fighting 6 OECM from the base if it's in EW range.

By Jim Davies (Mudfoot) on Friday, January 07, 2011 - 08:40 pm: Edit

Standard Fed base assault is to sit at R30 and fire prox. The cloak and smaller map makes that a bit awkward, but the principle remains. Keep at a decent range (don't get within R10 of the base until the endgame) and blast anything that pops up.

The snipes are irrelevant, and you outgun the reinforcements. So keep away from the base while you kill the ships.

250 BPV is something like 2 KRs or 2 WE + K5R. The WEs will be a pain because they cloak well and have good plasma range. KRs are no problem.

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Friday, January 07, 2011 - 09:17 pm: Edit

You can't sit at range-30 and bombard a Romulan base. Everything cloaks and you won't be able to hit anything until you're range-15 or less from your target. Then let's talk about damage reduction from the combat vs cloak table. It'll be much harder to wear down the base.

Once you're close, every 3-4 turns the base and ships pop up with bricked facing shields and launch plasma the Feds can't outrun. Sure there's weasels, but the ships only have so many.

The Feds need to be more aggressive than normal or the Romulans will sit under cloak and flip a bird at the Fed fleet.

By Michael C. Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Saturday, January 08, 2011 - 12:04 am: Edit

If the base cloaks, the Feds should do a Tbomb laying pass (at range 1 so you control the facing). Drop 3 piled into one hex and 3 more in another adjacent hex.

then, having looked at the movement chart and the Roms rotational rate you use the copious shuttles from the GSC to set them off one by one. You should be able to get all 60 points onto one shield in a single turn. And if the base uncloaks to shoot the shuttles you zork it with mass photons from range 15 with held WWs.

The base should have about no chance if the reinforcements don't come really soon...

By Richard Sherman (Rich) on Saturday, January 08, 2011 - 08:42 am: Edit

As stated above, Feds can't use standard anti-base tactics because of the cloak.

Mike, your tactics are unrealistic in that it requires the Feds to use too much power for speed to accomplish what you're describing. If your tactic is tried, the BS will come up on approach and slam a ship with 6 P4, likely the DD. The Feds can't afford this because they only have 12 photons to make the battle work, and getting any 1 ship killed will put them below the threshold of minimum photons need to do the job. Keep in mind that the Fed DN has only 4 photons.

The biggest advantages the Feds have are:

1. Superior EW (more channels on a platform with more power, plus 3 MRS-eligible units).

2. Not all Romulan units can cloak, or can effectively cloak (depending on reinforcements).

The initial goal of the Feds is easy: kill or at least mission-kill the SNP. It can't cloak, and eliminating it's G-torp and 2 P1 will obviously help.

Second goal should be to force the BS under cloak to maintain EW advantage. This should be relatively easy to accomplish by maintaining the mass prox photon salvo threat.

Third goal is attempt to engage the Rom reinforcements before they reach the Rom BS. This will be very hard to accomplish, and is highly dependent on: a) WHEN the Rom reinforcements arrive, b) WHAT those reinforcements actually are (as noted, there's a big difference between a WE and KR, and it also matters if the Rommies can get a scout of their own), and c) WHICH ENTRY POINT the Romulan forces decide to use (and whether it just happens, or the Feds KNOW which point in advance)

Without a planet for the Feds to use as a "shadow" to shield the BS, this can get sticky.

If the Feds can engage the Rom reinforcements away from the BS (read: greater than range 15), then they can win given what they have, and as long as the Roms don't inflict severe enough casualties to kill off more than 4-6 photons & 4-6 P1 for the Feds. If the Roms do that, then even if the Feds defeat the reinforcements, they won't have enough photon/P1 to punch to the BS before it can chew them up by judiciously use of the cloak to force the Feds to come closer, combined with P4 strikes.

Stated more simply and from the Rommie perspective, the only thing the Rommies need to do to win is keep the BS relatively intact until the endgame, try to have their reinforcements fight within range 15 of the BS (and preferably within range 5) and kill/mission-kill any two Fed ships.