Re: Strike Boats...

Oerjan Ohlson wrote:

> You mean "would not have been able to go...", no? OK, they soaked up
> some fire which would otherwise have hit the strikeboats, but given
how
> frail the strikeboats were I don't think that effect was very
> significant. OTOH going in together with the Victorias would've given
> the ESU a larger number of reasonably hard-to-kill targets to shoot
at,
> making each of your BBs/ tenders last that much longer.

No, the problem was the fleet I was in came in two waves.  If it was
only
one wave, we would have done slightly less damage to the ESU, but
recieved
much less damage back.

Combat turn 1	 Range apporoximately 30" to the strike boats and
tender,
about 38" to NAC BB's

Combat turn 2  Range approximately 7" to the strike boats and tenders,
about 32" to the NAC BB's

Combat turn 3  Strike boats and tender are approximately 12" behind the
ESU, NAC BB's are 20" in front of the ESU.

Combat turn 4  Stirke boats and tenders are approximately 24" behind the
ESU, NAC BB are about 13" in front of the ESU.

>
>
> >Those tenders have good firepower, I expected to lose one, but then I
> >expected to lose more then half the StrikeBoats so I consisdered it
> worth >while.
>
> Tactically, with the tender designs you had, yes. Strategically/
> economically, your armed tender designs don't make a lot of sense -
you
> paid more than twice as much as normal for the FTL drive on those
> strikeboats, and you don't gain much in return - the usual gain is the
> reduced risk of losing the FTL drive (ie, the tender).

Problem is, the rules state that the Tender must have the same mass as
the
ship or ships they are carrying.  In a campaign I wouldn't have to
bother
with a lot of escorts for these tenders...

>
>
> >>Two-wave strikes with needle units in the first wave can work OK,
but
> >>it depends a lot on which systems you try to target (and what
weapons
> >>the follow-up wave use).
> >
> >Bad in this case.  I knew it would leave us open to defeat in detail
> which
> >it did.
>
> That is the risk you always run with two-wave strikes, yes. As I said,
> it *can* work OK, but it's no sure-fire tactic. Especially not when
you
> use tender/strikeboat combinations instead of giving the boats their
> own FTL drives, since that's a very expensive way of getting FTL
> capability - buying an FTL for each of the strikeboats would've cost
> you only 108 points, but a battleship with the same stats as your
> tenders (OK, 39 hull boxes rather than 36) for only
>
> >I want to use are supperior thrust to get behind him and stay
> >there.  If he detached his lighter units, we could kill them before
he
> >could support them.
>
> Only possible if the tenders and strikeboats operate as two separate
> formations, though. You report suggested otherwise, though it didn't
> say so explicitly.

Theory here was that the tenders would make only one pass.  I expected
one
to be destroyed.  Strike boats would loop arround and make another pass,
but not the surviving tender.  As would the NAC BB's if we had had a
tight
formation.  The tender couldn't have made the turn and wouldn't have
bothered.

>
>
> >>>1 SDN was crippled, 1 SDN damage, 1 SDN lost 2 FC, and the other
> >>>suffered no damage despite having 12 needle beems shooting at it's
> >>>fire controls.
>
> Ie, at least two turns of needle fire wasted. Could you have hit the
> SDN which lost 2 FCs with needles a second time (seeing that that way
> you'd've had a decent chance of mission-killing it), or was it the one
> you hit last?

No, it was a high speed pass.  They were out of arc, two turn latter it
was
over...

>
>
> >>>Losses were 10 strike boats and 1 tender destroyed (Reacter...),
and
> >>>1 tender damage, and the ESU expend all his SM's.
> >>
> >> No damage at all to the Gorshkovs and Warsaws?
> >
> >Insignificant damage.  Less then 1 row.  I concentrated all firepower
> on
> >the SDN's, NAC BB's didn't.
>
> Given that the NAC only managed to cripple a DD (and possibly
> insignificant damage to some other units), I suspect it wouldn't've
> mattered much if it had concentrated its fire anyway :-/

They concentrated Trops on two SDN's and Beams on a couple of lighter
units.	Level two shields make beams rather ineffective.

>
>
> > My damage classification:
> > Insignificant    < 1 row
> > Light		1 row
> > Heavy	      2 rows
> > Crippled	     3 rows
>
> Similar to what I use, yes.
>
> Regards,
>
> Oerjan Ohlson
> oerjan.ohlson@telia.com
>
> "Life is like a sewer.
>   What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
> - Hen3ry

IAS