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Klingon advice needed...
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SylvrDragon
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Joined: 23 Feb 2008
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Location: Euless, Texas

PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 8:30 pm    Post subject: Klingon advice needed... Reply with quote

I'm a new Fed Com player and I decided to go with the Klingons. I'll be facing off with a varied group of enemies that will include at the very least Romulans, Federation, Tholians and Kzinti. Not sure how we're going to work everything, but I know the above factions will be represented. I already understand the necessity of the oblique turn for the Klingons, which is largely made important by their freakin' awesome fire arcs, and that it seems I'd be better off pecking away at my enemies from a distance of roughly 8 hexes before moving in to finish them off. I have practically zero experience with the Klingons so any and all advice would be very helpful.
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OGOPTIMUS
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Joined: 10 Nov 2006
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 8:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So, I know it's been said elsewhere, but with Romulans and Feds, STAY AWAY!

This is made a bit easier by their more power hungry weapons (the third turn of plasma arming is a costly one). The Feds have very poor turn modes as compared to you (the D7 is B and the CA is D). The Romulans can still keep up with your modes (and they have some of your ships).

Take every opportunity to exploit their multiple turn arming weapons. Feds still have a lot of phasers, but if you approach on an oblique to them (not the centerline), they're firepower drops off quickly.

Romulans are tricky since they can cloak and make your weapons essentially useless. It's frustrating (been there, where an alpha strike from a Fed NCA scored all of 8 damage on a KR). But he has to fade in before firing, so make him pay during that turn. You need to keep your speed up (24) or the plasmas are going to hurt, and coupled with that, you need to keep some phasers free to shoot down the torpedoes.
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Scoutdad
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Joined: 09 Oct 2006
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Location: Middle Tennessee

PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 9:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dicing with either the Feds or the Romulans at range 8 is asking for trouble. Range 8 is OL range for Photons - the only weapon in the game that does it's full damage at it's maximum range. Range 8 is also inside "bolt" range of the Romulans.

The Klingons sabre dance best at range 12 to 15. Yes, it takes longer to whittle away thier shields until you're ready to rush in, but dancing at range 9 or 10 can let the enemy slip in with a sudden burst of acceleration and pop you with OL's.

With the great firing arcs, and every turn firing of both phasers and torpedoes, you will eventually take down thier shields and maybe even disable a few weapons. When fighting against the Romulans, remember that a disabled torpedo launcher can still fire a plasma torpedo at you...
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TJolley
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 9:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you are playing against Romulans only, and they cload..they should be dead.

Move on top of them (from behind if posible). If you have better turn modes, then plot speed 16, if you have the same or worse turn modes, plot speed 24.

Since the Romulans are limited to speed 16 while cloaked, arrange it so they will have to move first. you can match their movemement and stay on top of them (range 0).

Use your phasers to start to wear the shields down, keeping enough power to be able to fire many if not all your Disruptors at any time.

Just keep hammering away with them with a couple of phasers every impulse. If the Romulan is still cloaked on impulse 8, then dump your disruptors into him too.

repeat this until the romulan is forced to decloak. during the 'fade in impulse', launch all your drones at him, and fire every weapon that will bare. Keep enough power for transporters. During transporter operations, send over every marine you can for hit and run raids on any and all remaining control spaces. Remember, there must be undamaged control space to be able to launch a plasma. don't bother putting extra effort into knocking the plasmas out, as they are still available to be launched until the end of the turn they are destroyed. If he has any power and tractors and you can't kill off all his control spaces, then whack the tractors.

The downside is that if you can't manage to do significant damage with phaser fire and disruptor fire, and can't manage to kill all his control spaces on the impulse he comes off cloak..you will be very close to a very pissed off Romulan
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junior
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 11:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

TJolley wrote:
The downside is that if you can't manage to do significant damage with phaser fire and disruptor fire, and can't manage to kill all his control spaces on the impulse he comes off cloak..you will be very close to a very pissed off Romulan


It's a trade-off. Speed 24+1 (either for deceleration to keep pace with the cloaked ship, or to haul warp engines out of there) means that you can outrun the plasmas when he launches them at you. But it also means that you don't have as much energy for weapons.

A lot of it will involve playing things by ear the first few times around. Keep an eye on the arming cycle for the plasma torpedoes, and be prepared to run like mad if he drops his cloak. Also remember that most torpedoes can't be fired to the rear of the ship, although there's nothing preventing him from performing a High Energy Turn to put you in arc.

Also, learn to do the mental math in your head to predict how much he's going to be spending before the end of the turn. Cloaks are expensive and are paid for on an impulse by impulse basis. If your calculations reveal that he MUST drop the cloak by a certain impulse, then that's a good sign to make plans to unload your weapons into him and start running like mad (though it probably wouldn't hurt to keep some off-arc phasers available both for the torpedoes, and in case he decides to decloak the moment you point your ship away).


Finally, NEVER forget about two-turn Plasma-F torpedoes (especially from a Plasma G launcher at point blank range).
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SylvrDragon
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 12:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sounds like an uphill battle... especially for a beginner such as myself. So, are OL disruptors worth the energy? I was running some numbers in my head and it seems that the energy required by them could pu time in a bind.
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junior
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 12:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It depends on what you can afford.

If your opponent fired all of his multi-turn arming heavy weapons last turn, then yes overloaded disruptors at point blank range are probably a good thing.

If you can come in from an 'out of arc' direction and hammer the guy with overloaded weapons (keeping an eye out for a high energy turn), then yeah overloaded disruptors are probably a good thing.

It's one of those things that you'll get a feel for as time goes by.

From a "Power versus damage" standpoint, phasers (particulary Phaser-1s at any range and Phaser-3s at point blank range) generally provide the most damage for the least amount of energy. Heavy weapons generally provide the "shock damage", i.e. the big damage crunches that allow you to blow through shield reinforcement and knock a hole in the shields that can't be rotated away between turns. Balancing that is one of the things that you'll learn to do fairly quickly. And as a Klingon, there will most likely be plenty of times when you'll fire a phaser volley, but won't use your disruptors because the power consumption isn't worth it.

It's just one of those things that you'll learn to manage over time. Every player has it for their selected race.
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djdood
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 2:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

General bits of advice I can give, based on what I've been seeing my newbies do (and what I'm still learning myself):

Concentrate your fire on one target. Pick a target ship and keep on it. Don't get distracted by other targets that may seem more tempting at the moment (closer to you, etc.).

Structure your movement to get the best arc you can on your target and whittle down a shield. If you can't get a subsequent shot at that shield (and there is still several impulses left in the turn), don't shoot and try to move to get a shot. Don't waste shots chewing up multiple shields, if you can. If it is the last impulse or so of a turn, go ahead and fire at what you can get (if it won't cost you recharging batteries at the end of the turn).
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DNordeen
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 2:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The key to Klingons is patience. Whittling away takes time. Most players don't have the patience to slowly work their opponent. Good Klingons and Kzintis have plenty of patience.

Also, don't forget your drones. Use them to force your enemy to manuever or fire his phasers at them (every phaser fired at a drone is not firing at you). Don't expect hits with your drones, but if you get one it's definitely a nice bonus.
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SylvrDragon
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 2:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

To djdood: Nothing too new as far as knowledge goes. I've had my share of experience and have learned those lesson all to well. But then again, your advice is advice worth repeating. It's funny how such basic knowledge is often the first forgotten as soon as the dice hit the table. lol

To DNordeen: Indeed. I've played fleet with similar tactics. The key is not just patience, but knowing how much patience to use. As far as drones go though...well, I have zero experience with them. I've honestly never fired one and haven't even read up on all the rules since, until now, I've only played as Feds versus Klingons and we all know that the Feds don't do drones too well.

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TJolley
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 5:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I target the smallest ship and move up line when engaging enemies. for example, if facing Kzinti (at fleet scale), 25 points of damage or so is enough to destroy a Frigate, which is 2 drone launchers, a disruptor and a couple of phasers.

Those 25 points on a cruiser just pisses it off..you may get a weapon or 2 or 3, but that's about it.

Another thing to remember when facing a drone launcher is that when you kill a ship, any drones in flight it is controlling go away, which is another good reason to concentrate fire to remove ships from the board.
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SylvrDragon
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 6:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

TJolley wrote:
I target the smallest ship and move up line when engaging enemies. for example, if facing Kzinti (at fleet scale), 25 points of damage or so is enough to destroy a Frigate, which is 2 drone launchers, a disruptor and a couple of phasers.

Those 25 points on a cruiser just pisses it off..you may get a weapon or 2 or 3, but that's about it.

Another thing to remember when facing a drone launcher is that when you kill a ship, any drones in flight it is controlling go away, which is another good reason to concentrate fire to remove ships from the board.


I tend to follow the same tactic of focusing fire and doing so on the smaller ships first. This is a sound tactic period. I didn't think about drones being shut down by ships being destroyed though...added bonus! lol
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Repok
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Joined: 13 Mar 2008
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 6:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Klingons have the best power curvein the game and aggressive fire arcs on their ships. It's easy to underestimate the effectiveness of PH-2's at 5-6 hexes. Klingon ships were made to fly aggressively and they should be flown that way.

Using the power curve to your advantage is easier in FC than SFB. All of your weapons are energy-on-demand (that is, no commitment until fired). Combined with good turn modes, this makes it easy to hold back energy to outmaneuver your opponent.

I'm more used to SFB than FC, but here goes.

Versus the Flatheads: The Almighty Photon is a Myth designed to scare Klingon children. It is only really a good bet for him to fire inside Range 4. So he should never be at Range 4 in FA. In the games I've played so far, unless there is some really GOOD rolling on the Fed player's part, we swap strikes and tear down each other's front shield. Your battle-worthy shields are #2 and #6. His is #1. At this point, use the power superiority and turn mode to keep the pressure on. Force decisions about using power to load photons.

Versus the Kzinti: The Kzinti are still about the drones. It may sound wasteful, but consider targeting your two drones (on a D-7) against 2 of his drones (on a KzBC). Remember that he has PH-3s to spare, and so, in all likelihood your drones will be a nuisance at best. This leaves one for the ADD rack and one for a phaser. Eliminate the drone advantage and stay outside of range 4 (where his PH-3's will be weak), this could tip the balance in your favor.

The Romulans: I've only flown a Rom once so far, and the tactics TJolley stated sound right. Once you get behind him, he's pretty much effed. I know one thing stays the same from SFB...in partner games where one guy takes a Rom and the other a Klingon - the Rom may end up walking home that night. If I had a nickel for every: "Man, why did you cloak back up?!? You left me hangin'!" I would be able to buy those expansions I've had my eye on.

Tholians:????? Never played against them in FC yet. I know the way we used to do it, working in pairs to push into the web and your buddy tractors you out (I believe there's a short story about it in one of the Mags). That works on Tholian Corvettes just fine (they blow up real nice with a volley of Disruptors and PH-1s), but The only time I flew against a Tholian War Fleet guy, he kinda screwed up and I wasted him. (He was Wyn player, so he gets one for free before we start making fun.) Razz
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SylvrDragon
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 6:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

That would seem to be some worthy advice. Twisted Evil
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SylvrDragon
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 7:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Any advice for dealing with Gorn? That is, other than don't get tractored. lol
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