Federation Commander

In view of the post recently asking about general race tactics, and andros getting a couple of mentions I thought I'd post this.

This game was a 'practise' game for the next campaign we are discussing. We are taking the chance to get a feel about how our preferred races for that campaign handlle in a larger battle. In particular to get a better feel for how badly Andros suffer (or not) in larger battles.

Andro (me) Conquistador + Cobra and Intruder + 2 * Mambas.
LDR (Targ) BCH + 2 * DW
Orion (Capt Jack) 2 * BC with Hellbore, ph1 and 2 disrupters options on each.

The campaign we are pondering is Andros VS LDR with the LDR supported by Orion allies.

The map was location map around a small planet.


Turn 1. I go speed 16 and close slightly, whilst remaining outside range 15. I end up at 16 to the orions and a couple of extra to the LDR. The orions have launched drones and shuttles at the Conq. End of turn fire sees the Intruder get hit for a modest amount. Enough that I still have front panel damage as we start turn 2. I launch my satellites on impulse 8 so they will be full speed straight after as the turn rolls over, I place them a couple of hexes behind me.

TUrn 2, I'm starting at a more or less perfect range for what I'm planning, I move speed 24 and enemy are speed 16. We end impulse 1 at range 9/10 and I fire 3 disdevs, 1 at each LDR ship. I'm expecting 1 failure but hoping that will still leave 2 LDR ships disrupted as I move in for the closer range attack. Hopefully 1 of them will end up closer to me. In the event all 3 disdevs hit, but all the LDR ships end up further away (1,1 and 3 hexes), drat. However I will get to range 6 of 2 of their ships whilst only having to put up with Orion attacks. The LDR didn't shoot back as I displaced them, opting to risk the disruption for possibly closing later. That was the interesting point where I was wondering what the enemy would choose to do. The DisDev I kept back was on the Conq - on the basis that as the weaker ship he was the one most likely wanting a self displace later on.

Impulse 2 Sees me accelerate in, I have to ram a couple of drones with Conq, the LDR hold in position to avoid getting any closer than 6, the orion skirts around me not wanting to get too close. I declare EM in defensive fire and fire all available weaponary (right side) at the BCH, aiming at weapons. The BCH still has a lot of power left and with 8 batteries I'm expecting to lose a lot of damage. The Orions also shoot before my EM kicks in. I do better than expected as the Conq + Int take out the front shield and the 3 satellites tear into the LDR vessel, doing a good job of defanging it. It is left with 3 disrupters and 3 ph1s and an ESG, having lost 15 unfired weapons. The Orions (shooting the cobra) miss with both overloaded Hellbores, but take out the cobras front panel. and score a few internals

Imp 3+. My ships turn away and run at full speed for the rest of the turn. At the back end of the turn the LDR shoot and pretty much whack out the cobras back panel.

Turn 3. Things are now looking dodgy for me. The cobra is hurting on its panels. The Conq is out of power, and unable to continue EM (but all my others ships do keep EM). The conq drops Em and is speed 24, however, he does still have a DisDev left. The Orions and a DW are behind me in overload range, the BCH and the other DW are a fair bit further back.

The turn starts with me keeping range as I continue to run, the Conq declares self displace on impulse 1 - I'm hoping to draw some fire that I'll survive and then leap out the way, and that will take pressure off the cobra. The enemy do indeed fire, the vessels in overload range kitchen sink the Conq, and its rear panel collapses and it takes quite a few internals, notably on power. It does however displace away to a reasonably safe spot but with no power left for anything else.

The LDR ship closest to me is now more or less powerless, but with 2 ESGS left. The orions turn to chase the Conq, but the LDR continue in on the other Andros, hoping for an ESG ram. The further LDR vessels also continue closing. My andros (bar the cobra) drop EM and catch the closer DW at range 3 with mass phaser 2s and the last TRH, that guts the DW, then the follwing impulse the intruder is able to bring the other 4 phaser 2s to bear through the down shield and just misses killing the ship - it has a bridge and 1 frame left.

The intruder then turns in on the other LDR ships and skirts past them as they carry on past towards the knackered cobra and the 2 mambas. At the back of the turn they fire at a mamba as it is not EM, the mamba takes a number of internals as its rear PA panels are overloaded.


The turn ends with 1 DW dead in the water and the other LDR ships moving towards it. The BCH is effectively a destoyer with lots of power. The orions are at the other end of the map engaging the Conq, but facibg away from it. The Int, 2 mambas and cobra are between the 2 enemy forces. The Conq is in trouble, seriously low on power but with a TRH and DisDev coming back up. A mamba has been hit badly and is also short on power. The cobra is still looing at heavily damaged panels but no shortage of power. The Intruder and pristine mamba are also on empty batteries just about.

We leave it there to continue next week.

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The game has gone more or less as I expected. The Andros have enough tricks up their sleeve to get in a good first whack, but are then running into trouble as the game progresses. At this size of battle there is enough enemy firepower to really hurt anything they shoot at, more than the andro can just shrug off, and the internally brittle ships are losing power fast. Anything they don't shoot at is running out of batteries. The game is still very close. I've got my fire power and Disdevs back online this coming turn, but am lacking power for speed and hence initiative or catching a running ship. Whilst the LDR look the worst off in internals taken and lost firepower, looks are deceptive with Andros and I am still heavily out gunned if I make a mistake, with 3 of my ships looking at the precarious point of cascading damage if they get shot at much more.

I know LDR are the extreme in heavy hitting, but to give an idea of the firepwoer difference. My 440 pts of 2 mother ships at point blank range have an averge crunch delivery of ~180 and an average per turn of ~135. A single LDR DW weighing in at 130 points has an average crunch delivery of 156 and an average per turn of 156 at point blank range. OK, the LDR are the far extreme in terms of firepower. But it still relects that Andro are very low on firepower per point spent. Even if it was just standard Lyrans DWs they would still deliver 450+ damage in 4 ships for less points than my 2 mother ships, thats around 3 times the damage per point spent.

(PS we use the points adjustement from an old communique for LDR, else they are just way too underpointed).

Finshed this tonight. The game had spread out somewhat and there was to much going on all over to remember the details.

The game continued with EA, and I had hit the point where I was really struggling. The Conq had to go speed 8, the cobra was still 24, the other ships were 16 but still lacking much spare energy.

The LDR BCH and good DW were EM from EA onwards.

Roughly speaking my cobra got on top of the badly damaged BCH and stayed with it all turn, I didn't shoot (which would have removed any threat to it) so it stayed under EM, until impulse 8 when I shot its back side shield down and did some minorish internals.

The Intruder started following the BCH and DW, stopping them cutting in to the rest of my ships, but the DW HET'd round and the INT move to try and crush that - it took out a shield and did moderate internals but to padding mainly.

The Conq at speed 8 displaced in to the middle of the map to be closer to the rest of the fleet, before orions could turn back on it (if they were ging to). I didn't expect it to survive, but wanted the orions to have to head into the rest of my ships to get it. Drones were fired at the CONQ and the orions closed to kill it. It eventualy went down to a combination of orion fire followed by drone impacts before orion rear phasers finally nailed it.

As the CONQ went down, the 2 mambas closed on the orions and hammered one of the BCs, but again just largely hit padding, the damaged mamba was heavily hit again by the remaining orion fire.

The LDR DW at the end of the turn got some hits in on the mamba and caused a cascade that finished it off.

The follwoing turn I was looking at only having the decent ships left (the cobra by now having decent PAs). But I was still short of power, badly.

The orions went very slow and turned round fast to get the second mamba before it had time to pull to far away. That mamba was badly hit as its rear panels went down.

The INT failed 2 attempts at self displacement.


We called it then. My andros were struggling with little power, and I had achived very little reduction in enemy fiorepwer over the last turn and a bit, there was still plenty of shooting the enemy had left that turn.


I have to had my most unlucky night which really hurt me, every significant bit of fire by me was 6's. My mamba rolled 3 6's in 4 attempts to shoot down incoming drones. My INT rolled 6 and 6 attempting to displace. The CONQ rolled a 6 at range 6-8 for 0 damage after EM. THe INT rolled a 6 with his heavy beam through a down shield doing just 3 internals at range 6. And not a single aimed volley manage to actually succeed in aming (about 7 of them - they seemed to be the only time I rolled 3s or 4s). Had things been a bit more average it would probably have still been an even game at the point we ended.

The orion was also very unlucky with his rolling, but with more weaponary and against more brittle ships his bad rolliing was still telling against the Andros.

It was an interesting game, but went somewhat as I expected. The Andros were good for the first couple of turns, but rapidly fall of a cliff by turn 3 or 4. The ships that are getting shot are getting hit far too much too handle it and the ships that are not getting shot are really struggling with power issues. The relatively weak firepower on the Andro makes it hard on them, and this was exacerbated by the lack of power and hence speed,intiative or phasers by turn 3.

Victory for the Orions!

This was good AAR and very interesting game. Although early in the game
it looked bad for us (Targ had turn into private were DOOMED Frasier and I turn into Sargent Don't PANIC, Don't PANIC Jones out of Dads Army!)

As has been stated, power was a decisive issue for the Andros. This was made worse by the fact I had orions and could engine double when the Andro had Shot there "bolt". Also my missles were more effective than against any other race.

My Orions were very poor shots and several ended up being strapped to the front of my ship. (some might say that was the safest place ) As an object lesson to others. My PH3 gunners did sterlng work as always.

Last but not least I towed the LDR crippled ship and sent the crew home in a shuttle. My Cartel is very pleased that I made a profit out of this mission!

I'd just like to add that the game would have been somewhat different if it had been a campaign. Other than that the Andro appear to be better if they have fewer ships. It gives the Attacker less options and keeps the Andros powered up.