Convoy battle tomorrow

[JonPerry]

All I've been told is that I'm protecting a bunch of slow movers with a SeaHawk, and pirates are on the loose.

I decide to look at the smallest possible Orion opponent. The Light Raider.
It is less points than my SeaHawk, it ought to be a reasonable match.

Oh. My. God.

More power, shields, battery, weapons, marines, frame, a better turn mode, better damage control, and stealth coating? For fewer points than my SeaHawk?

I guess the Orion doesn't have a probe launcher, so that counts for something.

[wedge_hammersteel]

Stack the convoy ships so they are all (if there are only 3) in one hex.

[Ravenhull]

You have more internals than him, so once you breach a shield, it hurts him more than the equivalent to you. Also, you do pack two Pl-Fs, which is enough to do him serious damage, though rearming them is not easy for you, so try to make them count. Stacking the convoy works in that they may only have one or two phasers, they do start to add up, especially if a shield is weak.

Try to get him to use his engine doubling early on. He looses his stealth bonus and a point of power every turn, and can only repair them, starting after he's damaged and only 2 every three turns, so he can't keep the repairs up, especially if you breach his shields. If he's not careful, he'll find himself having to continue to double his engines in latter turns just to have enough power to continue to fight.

And don't chase after him, he'll use his superior speed and maneuver to get past you to your charges. Remember, he's the wolf, you are the sheep dog.

[duxvolantis]

All I've been told is that I'm protecting a bunch of slow movers with a SeaHawk, and pirates are on the loose.

I decide to look at the smallest possible Orion opponent. The Light Raider.
It is less points than my SeaHawk, it ought to be a reasonable match.

Oh. My. God.

More power, shields, battery, weapons, marines, frame, a better turn mode, better damage control, and stealth coating? For fewer points than my SeaHawk?

I guess the Orion doesn't have a probe launcher, so that counts for something.

You're toast. Sorry.

Seriously, let's inventory.

He does have weaknesses:

1) Only 2 control boxes. If you drop a shield do H&R on his control boxes. An uncontrolled ship has substantial limitations.

2) Fewer free hits and fewer power boxes. Yes, with doubling he has more power, but every warp box you destroy costs him 2 power.

3) If he chooses energy-hungry weapons (photons, disruptors, etc) he must double which costs him his stealth coating. (DONT forget this. The stealth coating goes away with engine doubling)

4) He has no phaser-3's. With your freighters you will have a nice extra firepower at very close range. Also if he gets overconfident and gets too close with too little energy remaining you may be able to do something slimy like tractor him and hit him with one (or more) SS.

5) He actually has to generate a lot of internals to cripple all the freighters. Keep them stacked and launch any admin shuttles you don't plan to use as SS for additional point defense. Again, if he gets overconfident a bunch of phaser 3's at close range can hurt him pretty badly.

---

Don't waste your plasma by launching it. You only have two which will mean he can phaser one down and if you launch two he can turn and run knowing he has two full turns when you are limited to your phaser-1s. Force him to come in close and eat plasma bolts.

The one problem is if he goes phaser boat. You'll be at -1 to hit with bolts which will require a lot of luck even at range 5.

Stay close to the freighters.

The fight is winnable but you are right that the LR is a nasty ship. If you go meet it halfway between yourself and the convoy you'll get torched. The problem is that plasma is weak against pirates and your at a BPV disadvantage because you paid for a cloaking device that you can't really use to full effect without abandoning the freighters to their fate.

[mojo jojo]

Another possibility for the LR is to take 3 PL-F. The LR is going to scream in at 24 spd and carronade the Seahawk to death at 5 hexes using stealth coating to protect itself. If necessary, it can double engines in future turns to maximize carronade damage or it can feed 1 pt per PL-F tube to maintain stealth coating. Taking the PL-F also gives the option of launching if the Seahawk player is going slow for whatever reason, or to nuke freighters if they and the Seahawk get separated.

Personally, I think the Rom is dogmeat vs a competent Orion player.

[IKerensky]

The fight is winnable but you are right that the LR is a nasty ship. If you go meet it halfway between yourself and the convoy you'll get torched. The problem is that plasma is weak against pirates and your at a BPV disadvantage because you paid for a cloaking device that you can't really use to full effect without abandoning the freighters to their fate.

Shouldn't Romulans transport be equiped with cloaking device too ? afterall they seems more valuable than tiny frigate and police ship...

[terryoc]

A lot depends on the pirate's mission. If it's to grab a freighter and fly off with it, he probably has some kind of a clock on him (2-3 turns in most scenarios) to get the job done and get out. If he does tractor a freighter, he'll be slowed and a target for seeking torps. Any size freighter other than Small will slow him by 2 levels, so if he's trying to tow a big one he'll be at a maximum speed of only 16.

1) Only 2 control boxes. If you drop a shield do H&R on his control boxes. An uncontrolled ship has substantial limitations.

Disagree, he can repair both control boxes in one turn, and on the same turn the boxes were damaged too. Hit weapons and/or power instead. Weapons for preference, he doesn't have many and they cost 4 repair points each. That said, depending on the size of the freighters, you may have a LOT of transporters to do Marine raids with, so putting a couple of Marines on each freighter could be a good idea. Marine raids are a good idea, if you can pull it off. I just disagree about the best targets.

5) He actually has to generate a lot of internals to cripple all the freighters. Keep them stacked and launch any admin shuttles you don't plan to use as SS for additional point defense. Again, if he gets overconfident a bunch of phaser 3's at close range can hurt him pretty badly.

FC shuttles have no phaser-3. If you're flying large freighters, they each have a ph-2 and a ph-3, and those are enough to be a threat.

[Kang]

Sorry but it's accepted knowledge that the LR is the best ship for its points in the game.

I guess that honour has to go to someone, and in this case it's the LR.....

Tactically speaking now, I would recommend 'targeting power' against the LR. He can't afford to double and take power hits as well. Every time you shoot, target power. If there's a burn-through, you then have a 50% chance of hitting power AND a 66% chance of hitting something important (in this case, a Power or a Phaser).

Every little helps

If he doubles, he loses his stealth bonus, so consider bolting and including enough phasers to give burn through. And target power.

If he doesn't double, you might just be able to anchor him.

Also remember that adding in the freighters' phasers will help whittle his shields down. Not much, but again every little helps.

[duxvolantis]

Disagree, he can repair both control boxes in one turn, and on the same turn the boxes were damaged too.

FC shuttles have no phaser-3.

Good point on the bridge repair. Maybe targeting warp engines or weapons would be better.

Also if he makes a major mistake you could even capture him. If you assume 3 freighters and the Seahawk you can put 5 marines on board in one turn and he only has 4.

As for the ph-3 found it listed somewhere. Maybe an old version? Just checked RRB5 and 6 and indeed they are unarmed which is ok. Now I will have to go hunt down where I found the explicit reference to a phaser-3. (I know I saw it somewhere because I pointed it out to others in our group...)

[Kang]

Re the phaser-3, I wonder if it was in a recent scenario as a special rule? I seem to recall it somewhere too....

[Capt Jack]

Its tough.

Could you split the freighters? Make him choose over them and get the others off the map? (thats more limiting your defeat depending on Victory conditions)

Otherwise, I concurr with previous advice. Launch All SS and Pray the dice are with you!

And use that probe launcher

[Kang]

Its tough.

Could you split the freighters? Make him choose over them and get the others off the map? (thats more limiting your defeat depending on Victory conditions)

Otherwise, I concurr with previous advice. Launch All SS and Pray the dice are with you!

And use that probe launcher

Sound tactical advice from Battlegroup York

The probe point is a good one: it's something you have that he doesn't, but remember you can only fire it every other turn.

[terryoc]

And you can only fire it if more than half of your non-phaser weapons are knocked out, so you'd have to lose your torpedoes first.

[JonPerry]

Continued in a new thread...

[IKerensky]

Where ?