Archive through April 27, 2011
Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Star Fleet Battles: General Tactics Discussion:
Gorn Tactics:
Archive through April 27, 2011
I've been out of the loop for awhile. I've heard about this Gorn toy called the plasma carronade. What is it? and what does it do? It sounds nasty, as if a Gorn ship wasn't already a blunt instrument. Thanks for the feedback.
It's the "Gorn Toy" they get to make up for the fact they have no other unique gadgets. It basically lets them fire a Plasma-F as a direct fire weapon, 1/turn, every turn, inside of r5 that hits kind of like a standard (non-OL) disruptor. But, more accurate.
And it uses true range at all times, making it a useful cloak-hunting weapon.
It's not just Gorns that use it. It's particularly well suited as an Orion weapon in convoy scenarios.
The Orions get it in Y170, I believe. The Gorns have it earlier; the Feds get it in Y175 from the Gorn.
Can someone give me the breakdown of their general tactics? A friend from my playgroup suggested them as well-suited to my playstyle, and I know just about nothing about them (been playing about a month now). I'm coming from Fed and some Kzinti, mostly.
Ballet and anchor.
Ballet involves a continuous rain of plasma (usually EPT, plus the occasional standard or PPT to add confusion) to whittle down the shields, plus phasers and maybe bolts & carronades to do actual ship damage. Try to keep the opponent outside overload range.
Anchor is just a matter of rushing in, tractoring the opponent and feeding him lots of plasma which he can't run out or weasel. It relies on good timing, can go horribly wrong and is best used in combination with the above.
Both require a fixed map to work well. Gorn vs Klingon on a floating map can be horribly painful.
A Gorn can't concentrate fire well, but can fight almost as well out of any shield. Your ship is not as tough as its reputation might suggest.
Fleet tactics are similar but more messy. Against a DF race you'll need to use passive fire control and/or ECM to avoid losing the long-range game.
Hmm, I'm running a big campaign soon, and I am wondering if it's worthwile to build Gorn Carriers (Campaign is starting in Y167), and go with a more traditional fleet structure as I might with the Kzintis, Feds, etc, or if I should go more conventional during these first few years while I'm under Paravian and Romulan threats.
I have some experience with the Gorns, but no experience with thier carriers and I'm not sure how well they're suited to fleet engagements or particularly campaign games where keeping the Fleet in Being can be more important than gambits and trades between opposing fleets.
How large can your fleets get?
How big is the map in most engagements?
They'll be armed with short-range F/D/K plasmas. they must therefore be close to their target to be effective.
Up to the command rating so 11 ships, and we play on single fixed maps, no floating maps for us. A large engagement might see us on two or four fixed maps together.
It bears on how much DF you have to slog through to use your torps and how fast you have to move to do it.
Plasma fighters, as a rule, suck.
I wouldn't bother building carriers if I was a Gorn.
Plasma PF's/INT's on the other hand, are just freaking EVIL.
There's an interesting inversion in that the plasma-using empires and the Tholians have the worst fighters, but the best PFs.
Gorn Squadron compose of:
1 CA, 1 DD and 1 FF no refit on any of the Gorn ships.
Intercept a Federation patrol compose of:
1 CC and 1 FFG.
Map is fix, distance between to fleet is 50 hex, Federation patrol will only be able to leave at T2 Imp16.
Comment.
Is the Fed CC unrefitted?
Turn 1:
Obvious Stuff:
1) You need to get across the map and fast.
2) You're going to need to tractor in order to use seeking plasma
3) The CA is the best anchor choice
Have the CA and DD plot speed-31 and the FF plot 30. + CA plot 31. Have the FF tractor the CA and maintain it through at least turn 2, IMP 01. This should give the FF + CA combo an effective speed of 32 when the extra IMP 32 move carries over into Turn 2, IMP 01.
Void where prohibited: plot out both ships' moves on the DAC and make sure they don't lose a move somewhere during Turn 1.
Best case on turn 2, imp 02 your range to the feds will be 18. Absent the tractor trick, range will be 19. What happens next depends on scenario conditions that haven't been established in your original post.
Do the Feds have *any* incentive to hang around past 2.16 other than bloody-mindedness on the part of the player?
How do the Feds disengage? Acceleration? Hopefully it's not map edge = instant disengage, because if they have no reason to slug it out, you're at a serious disadvantage because you can't get your plasma on his ships before the time's up.
If map edge = disengage, Feds'll hug the map edge and threaten the disengage. 50 hexes separation means your plasma *can't* touch them before they gain the option to disengage. They'll want to see if you'll bolt to catch them before disengage. If you do, they have the option to turn and make a fight of it or disengage for reals. They get to decide how the scenario goes. You don't.
It's only a fight if they have to disengage by acceleration and have to go through you to disengage.
Also: what are the victory conditions?
John,
Map is 50x50 there is 6 Point-of-Entry/Exit of 3 hex wide, located around 2501 (top center of map "A"), 0113 (left upper "F"), 0138 (left bottom "E"), 5013 (right upper "B"), 5038 (right bottom "C") and 2550 (bottom center "D"), else is wall.
Fed are entering from F can only leave in E, F or A after turn 2 impulse 16 (rule clause). Fed will need to cover about 25 hex toward PoE A or E in 2.5 turns. (I try to sit a similar scenation beside the door, just to loose all units)
Gorn are entering from C.
Was planning on speed 28/27 to take advantage of WS 3 shttls mission readiness.
Already your tractor trick to gain 1 move is interesting.
Standard Victory Condition
Scenario is set in Y162 so I believe that CC doesn't have the refit.
What weapon status conditions are there?
You don't need ships to tractor each over the entire Turn 1, just no later than IMP 31 so both ships can earn movements on 32 and carry one of them over to turn 2.
Thankfully he can't disengage straight away without losing. A quick sight-count for his forces puts him around 208 and you around 233. He gets 25 just for showing up, but he he loses 52 if he disengages without fighting and you win.
That changes my thinking lots. You *don't* have rush across the board to meet him at the door. You can take your time.
What you want to avoid is him hitting a ship of yours with a load of overloaded photons and immediately disengaging.
*Because* he has a point advantage, the first pass is very important to you. If he racks up too many unanswered point too fast, he'll just leave.
To for a minimal win, he needs to score 110% of the 52 he loses from disengaging or 57 - 58 points. He starts the game with 25 from the cost difference between your fleets, so if he can score another 33 + 110% or better of any points you score on him, he can take the disengage penalty for an easy Marginal Victory.
He may think you have to come to him to fight. I certainly did until I looked at the victory condition math. If he's loitering near his exit point, consider a glory-zone bolt, probably at his FF, maybe with P-1s thrown in, and run away. You can save the offside G-torp and chuck it at him when he pursues you. If he doesn't pursue, you can swing back in three or 4 turns and bolt him again.
It's important to control the range. If he's waiting for you to attack him at his exit, you ideally want a speed increase following your glory zone bolt to open up the range. you DO NOT WANT to let him have overload range on any of your ships or you risk handing him an easy victory.
One other thing to consider is CO manipulation. many players consider it normal to max out their 20% COs. I mean...why not? But COs all feed into the victory point totals. You can close the gap between your two fleets by going light on the goodies.
A 208-point fleet gets 41.6 points in COs
A 233-point fleet gets 46.6.
What you can consider doing is underspending by at least the amount he needs to win from destroying your FF with photons and running. your FF is worth 45 and he needs 33 to win with a quick photon strike. So underspending by 18 or more would reduce the photon-and-run tactic to a Draw-result. (18 comes from 13 needed to reduce the his win to a draw +5 more because you have 5 pts more COs available to you)
That's if he maxes out *his* COs, anyway. He could underbid his own COs by 28+ thinking YOU are going to max YOUR COs out. He'd get his cheap marginal victory without having to fire a shot. 
At the end of my rope here: I have Gorn: DN, CL+, BDD+, DD+, Enemy: Lyran 2 BC-Bp+, 1 CW-Bp+:
He has been controlling the range and left me unable to use hevay weapons. So, I decided to use Kaufmann. Currently at R18, reversing at speed 16. He just took out the shield of the BDD and is turning off to avoid PL-S's launched. Any suggestions. I plan on disengaging.
Thanks
Spaceball