Re: GZG-WCC

John Leary wrote:

>
>
> Mark,
>      John F. has almost all 'K' and NAC, he is
> in the process of branching out to other types
> and could not present organized squadrons of
> other fleets.

Hmmm, I'd be willing to provide a sizable ESU contingent :).

>
>      Human vs Kra'Vak, we are back to finding
> the correct balance point value for the new
> style ships.

A couple of observations on this.  First off, the way the game was set
up really did give an advantage to the KV, not because I believe the
points are unbalanced; far from it.  I've won with my KV more often than
I've lost, but much of that is due to the way that my tactics have
evolved (as those who remember the discussions some time ago about this
can attest).  I have, however, also suffered some *ahem* spectacular
defeats with them as well.  Overall, I'd have to say that the NAC is
probably the weakest fleet to play against the KV, since they attempt to
be the "jack-of-all-trades" fleet.  The other fleets, IMNSHO, probably
fare better against the KV due to their design philosophies.  The FSE,
given time and enough missiles and fighters (which they generally have)
will wear the KV down, particularly forcing them to expend their
scatterguns.  Once those are gone, kiss the KV goodbye, as they have no
other defensive systems (OK, K-1's, but even they don't get a reroll
when fired in the PD mode).  Heavy fighters and lots of missiles are the
way to go with the French.  The NSL, with their heavy batteries of
class-3 beams, can tear up a KV fleet in short order.  The KV need to
get into beam range before they can even think about hitting, and with
the number of class-3 beams that the NSL has, they can turn a KV fleet
to rubble in short order *if they use their admittedly limited
vulnerability to the fullest advantage they can*.  The ESU are by far
toughest fleet that the KV can face.  They have huge ships that can do
massive amounts of damage, and can take a pounding in return.  They are
well-balanced from a fighter perspective, but don't go overboard with
them, and they have what I consider to be the two best human ships in
the game:  the Vorishilev Heavy Cruiser and the Volga Super Destroyer.
I'd load up on these ship types, particularly the Volga, which pumps out
the same damage as a Tibet Light cruiser for far fewer points.	Having
been on both sides of a KV v. ESU fight several times, I have a pretty
good perspective on this matchup especially.

Probably the most critical thing in the big game was the lack of
maneuvering room on the flanks, which really forced the two fleets to
close with one another head on.  The KV certainly have the
maneuverability advantage, but a wider playing field would most likely
have allowed for the NAC to pursue different angles of attack that might
have kept more of them out of those firing arcs for the K-6 guns.
Outmaneuvering your opponent should be the key to winning a battle, not
necessarily lucky die rolls (although they certainly don't hurt, just
ask the poor crew of my Vorishilev that suffered six consecutive rolls
of '6' from my opponent from a single SV beam :).  Guess I'll drop down
off the soapbox and use it for cover as people pick apart what I've said
:)

Mark

>
> Bye for now,
> John L.