Yes, we were in a time crunch. I stated in my post that this wasn't a true battle test.
Fair enough, I was reading the 'not true test' as a reference to the discussion on the tactics/thread, the time factor wasn't mentioned till later.
We decided to skip all these preliminaries and go to the meat of the fight.
All those prelimaries result in degraded CMs and a largely untouched DN. Non evasive range 20 is damage to CMs but no noticable return (due to battery effect). Evasive is using power that would have gone to weapons or movement, and still likely means damage as they close through 9-15. It also means signalling when you want to shoot an impulse in advance. Running 3 turns from drones means taking more damage from direct fire but not doing much back. Non of this damage is immediately decisive, but extra damage now means extra internals later.
How has he been "unlucky" in damage results??? He got 6 overloaded disrupter hits out of 6 shots at 3 hexes range. He did much higher than expected damage.
Sorry, my bad phrasing, I was referring to damage he had taken, not done. He took noticeably higher than average damage, and had been fairly unlucky in losing 5ph3, 3 disr, all tractor, 2 ADDs. Though the flip side was that he was left with little power damage, and in the position he was in I think I'd prefer power actually.
<<---Geeky/boring maths alert--->>
I'm extrapolating somewhat here from the report, so correct me if i'm wrong. Whilst we have to accept random chance, its part of what makes the game fun, it is worth understanding just how lucky or unlucky certain volleys were. You said the dice were freaky, but not how freaky, only emphasising the Disrupters.
The DN went speed 16 (24 power) fired all ph1 and disr on overload (31 power). He took 36 internals 'after batteries' which I took to mean the 7 remaining battery power. That is 51 shields basically, so he took 87 damage. 48 from a lucky disrupter volley, and 39 from ph1 which is an even more lucky volley than the disrupters! 6 disrupter have an 8.7% chance of all hitting, the chance of getting 39+ ph1 is only about 7.7%. The expected damage by the CMs was 66, so he did 21 over the expected damage. Doing 87 damage via what ever combination of hits/misses etc only occurs about once every 140ish volleys.
The CM took 41 internals, after 2 battery (the CM had the power for it, so I assume he used it) he took a total of 73 damage, 48 from a lucky disr volley and 25 from ph1. That is a really unlucky ph1 volley, less than a 2% chance of doing that little damage. The expected damage for the DN was 62, so he did 11 over expected. His total damage is good but not that uncommon, about every 7 volleys do that damage or more.
If I undertstand your turn 2 explanation, the CMs did a total 52 internals with the 2 drones added in. That is another good strike, through a 36 point shield, and 6 battery. That appears to be a 70 point strike from the CMs direct weapons, compared to an average of 60, not in the same category as turn 1 but still nice (about a 1 in 5 chance of that damage or greater). The DN was almost spot on average.
If you move 24 or 16 with a HET, you're going to get 6 overloaded disrupters through your rear without effective retaliation. The 2 CMs have enough phasers to stop the drones without any problems. You'll likely have 2 down shields and even more internal damage. It may still be a good move, but it's not quite the no-brainer you're making it out to be.
Either way, with the 5 out 6 hits you actually got the DN takes no internals (~28 damage after batteries on which ever shield). In order to do any internals at this point you have to throw in the phasers, which means taking more drone damage. The idea here isn't retaliation, its to extend the fight away from the crippled CM (and their drones) and let the other CM handle the drones, which are likely to 'retaliate' to some extent anyway. I'd prefer the speed 24 as it keeps a HET for later.
They didn't have enough phasers to stop the drones in the game you played, The CM took damage from the first 6, and after that had only 2 ADD/3 tractor left. The second ship couldn't help as the drones impact before he can fire. The first CM could use the other ph1s he kept back for the DN, but you didn't when you had a range 1 shot, preferring to shoot the DN instead, would you have held back because you had a range 2 shot instead?
Overall, and luck depending as ever, if the CMs go all out for the DN the CM probably takes more internals than the DN, if the CM goes all defensive, and use what ever can't help against the DN, then the DN probably takes more shield damage than the CMs, If you do as you did and go sort of half and half then the damage should be fairly even.
By the end of the turn the the DN is 20 odd hexes away from the crippled CM, I reckon at that piont the CMs are at a major disadvantage, as they can't operate together very well.
PS: If you are interested in taking this to the online game, then I may try and get used to the client, and even pay what ever it is to play it. I'm sure it could be an interesting game (and I assume a game can be saved so we don't have time forcing a rush).
