storeylf wrote:Savedfromwhat wrote:
As far as late war ships are you comparing the battlecruiser (FIREHAWK)
to CA's and D7's? and I think the Sparrowhawk is the Romulan NCA as per SVC but I can't find the thread where he says the Firehawk is the BC. So in a fleet battle the Best you can get is (2 FH's and a Skyhawk) 16 P1's out your FA while the Feds can Fire (with two nca's and a cs) 12 P1's with 6 more within a couple of sideslips to the RS or LS arcs). and as
Whether it is NCA or CA isn't relevant, FC isn't like SFB where you choose based on some historical timeline. Certainly for the tourney, FC is just pick your fleet based on points, there is no real concept of ship dates and timelines etc. Your're right the Fed could choose those ships, but Phul has also said what roms he choose, and it wasn't the ones you note. The feds may have the phasers, but can they outrun plasma at 24+, hold/arm any photons and actually use all those phasers? I've also played turn mode D ships running at 24+ from plasma, it's painful on a tourney map. You quickly hit map edge then map corner, unless you use your HET (if you haven't already) then there may as well be neon lights highlighting your route for several impulses, that end in a sign saying 'intercept me here'.
Storyelf as the Fleet I chose acctually has two more Front Firing Phasers then Phuls I don't see what point you are trying to make here.
The point I'm making was that you were responding to Phul talking about a Rom fleet chasing a fleet running from plasma, and what weapons they would have to fire backwards with compared to what phasers he could bring to bear. The fact that you have more phasers out the front was not really meangingful in that context. Neither does having extra phasers help if you lack power for them. Depending on how many impulses you need to do 24+ the fed NCAs (assuming they are paying 4 to hold standard photons) may be down to just 2 spare power (barring batteries).
Also Feds are not required to Arm Photons,
Certainly correct, but um yes, that would change an awful lot of the discussion - starting with bit about trying to prevent the enemy getting into overload range in the first place.
and as far as map edge goes Well I guess we will just have to play it to find out won't we
Well actually we won't, unless you want to come out my way, then i'll happily play as many games as you want (and the wife will allow). However, I have had experience of map edge > corner, bad turn mode, plasma incoming and ships ready to launch more. It aint nice.
In the context of that thread (trying to suggest alternate tactics for a hydran who took 2 point blank plasmas on the first pass and conceded just after) I'd stand by pretty much most of what I said then. Of course from the other angle I could also point out issues that following those tactics will encounter. Map edges, cloaks, avoiding the ranged waggle etc.
Are you really going to push this as a valid tactic for the Hydrans but not for the Feds with their superior Phaser Suites? Why not just not load your photons and DO the same tactic against the Romulans with the Federation.
BUT... as you said in that thread the Feds might as well because the Romulan Offensive Capability drastically falls off at range 5. And you were playing an opponent that went speed 16 when you asserted that point.
Um - maybe you need to take in a few other bits:
Personally, given the relative strengths and weaknesses of the ships I'm not sure why the Hydran closed in so fast.
This was a very specific natchup, 1 vs 1 duel, dragoon vs Firehawk. The comment was aimed at the hydran player who failed to avoid 2 point blank plasma launches at the first pass, the romulan seemed to know how to look after himself. It was not a general thesis on how to deal with romulans.
Everyones fire power diminshes over range, most fall of drastically at some point, it was the
relative capabilities I was gettig at. The point being that the Rom drops of after 5 (accounting for phasers and bolting brackets basically, and the longer reaction time for launched plasma) whilst the Dragoon is armed with a fantastic long range weapon. As a generalisation that doesn't mean a Rom will lose simply cos you avoid range 5 or less. Klingon fire power is greatly less at range 15 than range 1, but they are often best at fighting at range 15.
The Fed can't maintain any specific range whilst using FA heavies, the dragoon with over the shoulder hellbores can potentially do so.
The fed can't keep hitting the same shield with every pass, the hellbore will quickly be almost guaranteed to.
I also made it clear to account for the speed that each ship
could do, not what they did in the actual game played.
Everything I said has a romulan counter, but it is a starting point to look at matching your strengths to the potential weakness of the other ship and work out how you might exploit that, afte that you just have to deal with the details as they happen.
This thread was not about specific matchups like the above thread, it was a general thread about plasma. There are bad matchups for plasma races. As noted somewhere above, the race I most don't want to face with rom/gorn are Kzinti. There are equally races I don't want to meet when I'm playing kzinti.