[GZG] Re: Re: Re: [FT] Vectoring Kra'Vak

Hi Laserlight and Oerjan,

Many thanks for your comments, they have been very helpful in getting me
thinking about game play as opposed to scenario play.

Laserlight said:
> If you have, say, a Mass120 battleship
> and are debating whether to get 3xBeam3 or to upgrade your
> drives to Thrust6, you'll get more benefit from the B3s.
> The main thing is to be able to rotate / thrust / rotate,
> for which Main Drive 4 is sufficient.

B3s give you 36 MU range, and 3 of them give you 3 dice on target at 24+
MU,
which you can only use if you've got the legs to get you within range. 
In a
set piece or comp battle, this is obviously not a problem, and, I guess,
in
scenario/campaign play, the escorts are there to run down the runners
and
force them to turn and engage.

Oerjan said:
> Sure, but getting back to the fight sooner only really matters if your
> fleet has been scattered and you need to regroup before the enemy can
> defeat you in detail, or if you need to catch the enemy quickly for
some
> specific reason (eg. before he can attack the convoy/ planet/ whatever
your
> fleet is protecting, or if he has longer-ranged weapons than you do so
you
> need to close the range to shoot back at him, or if *he* has scattered
and
> *you* are trying to defeat him in detail before he can regroup).

In the example I was thinking of, a scenario game, a group of frigate
and
corvette class raiders were to attack a convoy.  The defenders (4
frigates,
two light cruisers and a crippled Heavy Cruiser moored at a space
station)
were at rest, relative to the station, when the raiders entered the
table.
The raiders outnumbered the defenders, but were out-gunned and armoured
by
the heavier units of the defending force.  My opponent elected to
accelerate
down the table at the slow moving convoy and cranked up a fair velocity.
 He
neglected to shunt so the convoy, even at Thrust 2, was able to evade
his
line of approach.  He literally over-ran the light cruisers, going from
out
of range to on top of in one move.  Pea-shooters, at close range, ripped
one
of the CLs apart and damaged the second.  The defending frigates had
accelerated to intercept, but only crossed his stern, taking out his
only
missle armed ship as they flashed past the formation.

The tail end ship of the convoy was potted by the raiders before they
vanished off the table.

> (Whether or not *you* can stand playing out the slow chase in another
> question entirely, of course - it can easily bore you to tears, or
drive
> your SO mad since she needs the table too, etc... :-/ )

Oh, I hear your pain :)))  I'm fortunate in that my wife is very
understanding about the table being used for non-eating activities.
Regarding the stern chase, we looked at the relative Thrust ratings of
the
ships and their headings and it didn't take a lot of thought to realise
that
even frigate/frigate chases aren't going to come to a battle if the
flee-ees
are at V30 and the pursuers are at V6-10 coming out of a turn.	All
things
being equal, and considering John Brewer's micro-Jump rules, the bandits
would be hopping across the system and out long before the good guys
were
within gun range, no matter the exhortations of their Narkoms.

Back to your earlier point, yes, getting back into the fight in a
reasonable
formation doesn't need high V, in fact low V is probably more
manageable.  I
guess I'm impatient and prefer cavalry to infantry (my main ruleset is
DBR
and my main army is Russian Traditional - lots of cavalry!).  I think a
NSL
fleet would probably give me palpitations as it lumbers about like a
pike
phalanx! :)

> >Or do most big actions take place at low velocity (by big action I'm
> >talking 1500 - 2000 points plus)?
>
> Generally yes, though it depends a lot on your definition of "low
> velocity". (Different gaming groups can have very different
definitions of
> this - eg., for me any Cinematic speeds lower than 20 are "slow" while
> "fast" doesn't start until somehwere around 40+ and "too fast" is
almost
> unheard of; OTOH I've met other Cinematic players who considered
speeds
> above 12 to be "ridiculously fast".)

How big a playing area do you use?  I'm clued in on the floating table
thing, having used it in Napoleonic Naval (and we played on a 3 metre by
5
metre table with big fleets) but at 40 MU V, you'd be off the table in
about
four/five turns, and what would you starting V be?

Back to the Kra'Vak - prompted by Laserlight's comments, I've just done
a
quick comparison between a Hu'man BB and a KV one - heck, these guys are
attacking Sol???  Or are they doing it in hoard strength.  The B3 has
longer
range than the K gun, hits against an unshielded target on a 4+.  At 30
MU
(down from the Humie 36), the K gun hits on a 6.  If it hits, it will
probably do more damage, but are you feeling lucky?  Good for bowling
small
outposts and cruiser squadrons, but in a stand-up fight the KV are going
to
get whipped.  Am I missing something?

Regards and Happy New Year

David

_______________________________________________
Gzg-l mailing list
Gzg-l@lists.csua.berkeley.edu
http://lists.csua.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gzg-l