Re: Kra'Vak Roles

Morgan Vening wrote:

>Yesterday in a discussion about the battles at the GZG 
>West(East?) Coast Con, Oerjan Ohlson mentioned that Kra'Vak 
>cannot seriously compete head on with a human enemy. After 
>closer scrutinization, it looks like that is pretty accurate.
Initially I 
>compared sizes, not points costs, and that's where I made my 
>initial error.

Lots of people do this... there are several comments in FB2 about
comparing NPV values instead of TMF ones, but appearently people are
too eager to get stuck in to read those <g>

>The question is, what IS the combat role of the Kra'Vak. How are 
>they best utilised, if not head-on, where their limited arc K-Guns 
>are most likely to get the successful targetting?

That's your second error :-/ IME the only reason a head-on pass is
likely to give the KV successful targetting is the very fact that most
human forces do outgun them in a head-on pass, and thus have no real
reason to  evade - that'd reduce the *human* targetting as well.

Against an evading target however, the head-on attack run is probably
the one *least* likely to get successful K-gun targetting: even a small
evasive turn is likely to take the enemy out of the KVs' (F) arc, as
the arc gets narrower and narrower as the ships close with one another.
Instead my preferred attack run is from the target's rear 180 arc;
they're much less able to dodge out of my (F) arc from there - and of
course most human ships have much weaker armaments there than in their
(F) arc! <g>

Also, the KV should try to keep the range open. While the K-gun hit
numbers go up BY one-third between range 13 and range 12, *human*
firepower usually doubles with that same range decrease. In addition
the KV fire arc gets narrower as the range drops, making it less likely
to have worthwhile targets to shoot at. IME 12-18mu behind-ish the
enemy is the best place for KV to be.

Restricted tables cause problems for KV players in two ways: first
their opponents are often able to force a head-on firing pass which the
KV would rather avoid, and second it can be hard for the KV to keep the
range as open as they'd like.
 
Someone commented that these careful "sneak-up-from-behind" tactics
doesn't rhyme well with the Ro'Kah all-out attack mentality. IMO that's
not entirely accurate - when you're hunting native Zha'Vak animals, the
very *last* thing you want to do is to give them a chance to fight
back, thus you try to attack them from behind. Ro'Kah is for when the
would-be prey turns the tables and surprises the hunters, or when the
first attack from behind didn't quite kill it - both of which are quite
common, or at least *were* common before the Kra'Vak developed decent
distance weapons <g>

>I've noticed that defensive systems seem to matter naught against 
>them (Screens ignored and Armour all but ignored), I'm just curious 
>as to how they might be played best. I'd also like to know some 
>tips on how to beat them, as one member of my group is thinking 
>of playing them, and they seem to be almost built to screw over my 
>army of choice, FSE. What's the best way to contend with 
>ScatterPacks for my Salvo Missiles?

Don't try <g> Or at least don't try until you've reduced the number of
scatterguns a bit - similar to when you fight a fleet with lots of
Banzai Jammers.

FSE ships have good maneuverability (for humans) and good wide-arc
secondary beam batteries. Against Kra'Vak these, *not* the missiles,
are your main weapons: use the maneuverability to stay out of the
Kra'Vak (F) arcs and stick to their flanks where your all-arc beams
should outgun their K1s by a fair margin. (Your beams won't outgun
their scatterguns if you get that close, but if they use their
scatterguns at your ships instead of saving them against your missiles
they probably make a mistake :-/ ) 

Your main beam targets are CEs (not CSs!) and smaller - not only are
they the easiest kills, but they also have the highest number of
scatterguns per hull box and are the most maneuverable (ie., hardest to
hit with missiles later *and* hardest to avoid being in front of).

When your beams have depleted KV ranks and they've (hopefully) been
forced to break their formation up to get a shot at you, *then* it's
time to launch missiles. Thanks to their narrow-arc weapons you know
where they'll have to be in order to shoot at you this turn, so *if*
they attack this turn they're quite easy missile targets in spite of
their high maneuverability. 'Course, if they delay their attack for a
turn your salvo will be wasted; it's a judgement call.

If you have fighters, use them to keep KV fighters away from your ships
until you launch missiles and then coordinate missile and fighter to
(hopefully) overwhelm the remaining scatterguns. Use Heavy fighters if
you can afford them, since they only take half as much damage from
scatterguns. Oh, and remember that scatterguns can engage *any*
fighters within 6mu of the ship, even if the fighters aren't attacking
anything - so if your fighters are within 6mu of a KV ship and they
*don't* intend to attack, use a secondary move to get them away!

Later,

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