Re: Still Lousy After All These Years

In a message dated 97-01-29 09:36:40 EST, you write:

Well, If you can't unjoin, beat 'em.  Let's all see if we can save Mark
from
the attack of the killer CheeseHeads.

>	They had changed the house rules since the last time I played:	
>	*First, they changed the fleet points.	It was originally 2000. 

>  Now it's double that.  

4000 is too large lobby to get this changed.  Use the ploy that some
people
have real lives to get back to and cannot play unitl dawn.  Lower points
(even down to 3000) will drastically cut back on the superships.

>	*Secondly, they don't allow fighters.  They didn't tell me this 
>  until AFTER I launched my fighters.	They claimed that it's not
because 
>  they think they're unbalenced.  It's because they think they take up
too 
>  much weapon space.  (One ship had 12 A batteries!)  They made an 
>  exception in my case, because I wasn't around when they made up the
new 
>  rules.

Opportunity knocks.  If you like fighters and they think they are too
big for
their value, ask to use them at a lower mass/bay since this fits with
their
squirrelly rule explanation.  If you can get them down to 5 mass per
bay, you
could cram an extra squadron or two in

>	Third:	We have to wait 3 turns before any fire can take place.

Ah.  You might go with high speed fleets and use this time to try
maneuvering
in behind them.  Come onto the table literally scorching and try to get
out
of the arc of their super guns.

>	Finnaly:  They came up with a new maneuver:  the slipside.  
>  Operates the same as a 2, 3, or 4 point turn, however the facing is
just a

>  little different in the end (i.e. the same direction as ship
started).
>
Just use it!
  
>	I didn't have time to build a fleet, so I used stock ship 
>  designs.  I had:
>	1 Fleet Carrier (equiped with attack and torpedo fighters)
>	1 Battleship
>	1 Battlecrusier (which got whiped out by Mr. 12 Batteries)
>	2 Heavy Cruiers
>	2 Torpedo Destoyers
>
Stock ships.  Ah!
	
>	In the end both my destroyers got dusted and my CA and BC died
an 
>  undignified death.  I had to leave early in order to get to bed at a 
>  reasonable hour.  I only killed a couple of dinky ships that were 
>  swarming me.  Other than that, I barely scored a point of damage. 
Maybe 
>  the problem isn't with me, but the people I game with.  These people
take 
>  4000 points and make monster ships that can total my largest ship 
>  (usually a SDN) in a single beam salvo.  (Don't ask me what our
Kra'Vak 
>  player fields!  10 "3" railguns and 15 scatterpacks!)
>  
I hope that you have some house rules for Kra'Vak weaponry otherwise
you'll
have to get used to getting creamed.

Here are some ideas.

The biggest liability of superships is that they turn like barges.  Go
with
fast ships and try to stay out of arc.	I suspect based on the
description of
these guys that those 12 A-batts are all three arc weapons, so this will
probably be a problem.

Missiles may be an option.  If they do not use fighters, then they may
not
have a lot of point defense.  Add that to the fact that large ships are
slower and therefore easier to predict and you may be able to land a big
missile salvo on his head and do some hurt.

Here is a proven big ship killer from our games.  Build a largish
capital
ship with high thrust (6 is good) and pack on level three screens, about
6
needle beams, and as many c-batts as will fill the remaining space.  At
Mass
72 for instance that's 6 needles, 9 c-batts, and screens 3.  With thrust
6
this ship comes to 799 points, so for 4000 points you get 5 of these 
These
babies scream at enourmous rates of speed, close the range and blast
away at
engines and fire control.  The level three screens will stop enough
incoming
beam fire to allow you to close and the mass of C-batts provides good
anti-missile defense.  If your opponent only has one or two superships
he's
extremely susceptible to this.	With the engines completely destroyed
and no
escorting ships, there is not a thing he can do to keep you from parking
in
his rear arc and slowly blasting him to bits with those sorry little
C-batts.
 I can just see the look of frustration as he realizes that you have
completely neutralized his pride and joy without doing a single point of
damage.  Be sure to take out the FTL drive in the second wave of needle
attacks to prevent him from escaping.  Against non-superships, the
needle
ships should go for firecon or thrust.	Against the superships, I'd go
for
thrust on the first pass then use your maneuverablity to get behind them
before continuing by taking out the screen generators, allowing your
C-batts
to work their magic.  If needed, you may add insult to injury by
boarding the
monster once you've eliminated a sizable portion of the crew....

I had an opponent do this to me.  His ship was mass 90 or so, mounted
screens
3, 12 needles, and a bunch of C-batts.	My NSL CA lost both firecon in
the
firast turn of engagement.  My opponent slightlt miscalculated his
approach
speed and my NSL SDN (the really big one) maneuvered like no other
Thrust 2
ship has ever maneuvered,  but I still lost 2 firecons from the SDN as
well
as my escorting CE.  The Needle Guys ally swept in and pummelled one of
my
other ships while my ally poured on the thrust and tried to get away
from
"The Needle".  In the end we FTL'd the hell out of there.  We usually
play
with hidden designs, etc and use the sensor rules.  I missed two sensor
rolls
on "The Needle" and by the time I new what the damn thing was it was
right on
top of me.  I think that the smaller design I listed is even more
optimized
than his, since you will have a whole slew of needles.....

Anybody else have any suggestions for Admiral Seifert?

Give 'Em Hell

Brian