Help! D5W v. Hydran Dragoon

[junior]

If the Klink New Command Cruiser was out, that would be a better match up, or if he didn't have his fighter(s).

The Hydran is only using one fighter (there's a points value limit of 165 points on the games being played at our local store right now), so the fighters on the ship aren't really that big of an issue.


Chuck -

I don't know exactly how the game against the Hydran played out, obviously, since I wasn't there, but once you get in close it's probably worthwhile to drop the baseline speed to 16. It'll tighten up your turn mode a little bit, and if you accelerate then you can keep up with him if he goes baseline speed 24. If he does 24+1, then it'll suck enough of his power that it'll impact the amount of fire that he can direct at you.

Power Curve on the Dragoon - 47 power with batteries

12 points to arm 4 Hellbores (plus an additional 3 per Hellbore to overload)

2 points to arm the phaser-1s (replaced by Fusion Beams on the Lord Bishop)

4 points to arm the phaser-2s (replaced by phaser-1s on the Lord Bishop)

2 points to arm the Phaser-Gs (only used if he overruns you or needs to defend against drones)

So assuming that he's running the Lord Bishop...

If he overloads two Hellbores, that'll take 18 power reducing him to 29 (two Hellbores pre-loaded and two with overloads, since from what you've said he's been firing two each turn).

If he fires the phaser-1s, that's another 2 or 4 (2 if you're on one side and only in arc of those phasers, 4 if you're in arc of both). Assuming only 2, that reduces him to 27.

If he doesn't save 2 for the Phaser-Gs, I'd be surprised, reducing him to 25.

Note that this doesn't leave him with enough power to set a speed of 24 and keep the batteries full at the end of the turn.

So basically if he sets a baseline speed of 24, he's either not going to accelerate, or he's not going to be shooting at you. So once you get into your optimal position, go with a baseline speed of 16 or less. You can accelerate to keep up with him if he goes 24, and the tighter turn mode and additional power will help you significantly.

[Davec_24]

This is probably the best bet, as otherwise all your effort to get into position is wasted if you can't hit him hard enough to make it count. The only disadvantage of lowering your baseline speed is that if he does pick speed 24, you will move before he does each sub-pulse, allowing him to be in control of the firing opportunities rather than you. This just makes your job that little bit harder but not impossible - your ship will turn much better at 16 than his will at 24, and also the D5W is quite forgiving in its weapon arcs - if you play it right, the loss of initiative should not be the end of the world.