Re: Roles of various ship classes

Michael wrote:

> Gee, I know which armament I'd prefer if my fleet commander has
> instructed me to attack a Capital ship.  I'd rather have a
> decent chance of doing some damage before I'm swatted out of
> the sky.  If I am going to have "0-shield Target" painted on
> me for every triple-arc A-Beam to swat, I'm going to be a
> miserable captain!  If I know that once I get my shot off
> I am going to be ignored, I will feel much better about being
> ordered to attack Capital ships.

What the skipper of the various attack boats are thinking won't be that
relevant to the ship designers, do you think? Ask Admiral of the Red
Sonja
Hemphill <g>
 
> Seriously, using unshielded escorts to draw fire is silly.
> I would much rather my opponent fire his beams at my ships
> with level-3 screens than doing 4 times as much damage 
> hitting my escorts.

OK. Keeping your escorts away from any enemy ship will accomplish this;
if
not, well... shooting at the escorts will reduce your firepower faster
than
shooting at your capitals, unless said escorts have already expended
their
weaponry <shrug>

> > That's pretty expensive, that is. It is good - most of my Eldar
fleet
> > consists of fast PT-armed cruisers - but only as long as it points
towards
> > something heavily screened.
> 
> Actually, it isn't that expensive:
> Think about it, it cost the same for an 8 thrust cruiser
> that it does for a 4 Thrust Capital.

Sure. But a thrust 8 heavy cruiser costs 50% more than a thrust 4 heavy
cruiser, and three thrust 4 cruisers with turreted batteries will most
likely eat your two thrust 8 cruisers (one PT-armed and one
escort-swatter). 

>  A 2 thrust capital will have a hard time getting out of the arc of
your
> Pulse Torpedos, 

Yes.

> and may even have difficulty getting a bead on you at all.

Difficulty getting a bead with its own PTs or other non-turret weaponry,
or
if you manage to stay in its rear arc. Otherwise, no.

> > > Pairing off torpedo cruisers
> > > with cruisers designed to swat escorts is a good idea,
> > 
> > Yes - except that the escort-swatter usually don't want to mix it
with
true
> > capitals :-(
> 
> True, but the escort-swatter would also have good shields as
> well.  Their fleet role would be duel with less heavily shielded
> cruisers and escorts.  I ran a 3 shield Heavy Cruiser with
> 2 A Beams and ripped apart a Cruiser-Escort squadron built on
> twice its points.

:-) Beam-armed or PT-armed? :-)
 
> Oddly enough, a 36 Mass cruiser has the same threshold checks
> as a 48 Mass Capital, until the 3rd check, and while the
> 36 Mass cruiser will be vapor, the Capital won't have much
> fighting ability left either.  

It matters for the victory, though... and the 25-30% left on the capital
are a little more effective than the dead cruiser :-/
 
> > > but mixing pulse torpedos and beams on one cruiser
> > > isn't.  If it loses a fire control a mixed armament
> > > ship would have to decide whether to fire beams or
> > > pulse torpedos.
> > 
> > But prior to that it is very useful :-)

An additional comment: I tend to lose weapons faster than firecons
(don't
ask me why, though), so even when the half the fircons are gone it's no
big
problem. (The big holes in the ships, OTOH...)

> > > On that line of thought, a ship shouldn't have more
> > > different arcs of fire than it has fire controls.
> > 
> > ...turrets... I assume you mean "arcs of fire" as in "weapons with
the
same
> > arcs of fire" rather than the FT definition, though.
> 
> I was rather unclear here.

Yes.

>  A ship with all FP and FS arc weapons
> doesn't have a big problem.  A cruiser with F, P and S arc weapons
> does have a problem.	Also, a ship which may have to commit a
> fire control to needle beams, C-beams or pulse torpedos may not
> be able to use all of their weapons even under optimal
> situations. If you distribute your weapons in a way that
> you can't fire them all then your opponent doesn't need
> to bother trying to get into your rear quarter to avoid your
> fire power.

True. 

[snip]

> My favorite way to destroy SMP ships is to hit them while they
> are out of submunition range.

While I agree with the theory, I have to ask: What speeds to you fly at?
My
table is big enough for speeds of 40 or higher, which gives any capitals
a
very limited time to shoot any SMP ships even with AA batteries -
provided,
of course, that the attack boats manage to position themselves properly
and
don't overshoot. One salvo at range 40 or more usually isn't enough...

> A lot depends on the initiative system you use.  If
> the system will result in the Capital ship getting
> a chance to fire before most of the submunitions
> carriers around him, then diverse arcs makes sense.

Yes. I go with the system in the FT book - each player fires one ship in
turn. That ensures that the big ships can fire early if they want to.

Oerjan Ohlson

"Life is like a sewer.
What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
- Hen3ry