I Am Vindicated (or, How I am Learning to Love the Kra'vak!)

Well, I played another game today against the evil Neu Swabians, who were
intent on destroying my fleet and taking the universe for themselves (selfish
krauts!). We played a 2750 point game. My opponent had a Von Tegetthoff, a
Maria Von Burgund, the Manfred Von Richtofen, two Kronprinz Wilhelms, three
missile destroyers, two standard destroyers, and a mix of frigates and
corvettes, as well as a heavy fighter group. My fleet consisted of one light
carrier, one battledreadnought, one heavy cruiser, one strike cruiser, three
light cruisers, and two destroyers, along with five heavy fighter groups.

He set up in his standard 'flying brick formation', with his ships in three
lines: corvettes and frigates up front, destroyers in a second line, and
cruisers and heavier in the third line. I, on the other hand, taking the
advice from this group, split my ships up so that I had my carrier, a
destroyer, and a cruiser on the left, four cruisers in the center (including
my strike and heavy), and my battledreadnought and a cruiser on the right. On
the first turn, I had the two wings accelerate to a speed of 12, while the
center groups decelerated to a speed of 8 (both had started at 10). I figured
that this type of tactic had worked for Shaka and his Zulu warriors, so why
not try it if my opponent was going to oblige me by staying in a block
formation. We were playing on a large surface, so it was three turns before my
fighters made contact with his force. They went after his escort cruisers,
which did so well
with their PDS that I lost 3 1/2 fighter groups (had one full plus some
remnants left) before I could press home the attack. Luckily the two partial
groups failed their morale checks, and so caused some significant damage to
both cruisers before they fell back. I had the full fighter group fall back as
well. As the battle developed, my opponent shifted his entire force to bear on
my carrier group, unfortunately ignoring my BDN and its escort as they swept
in from the side. In the subsequent exchanges, I lost both smaller ships
escorting my carrier, and destroyed one of his corvettes, a DD, and his BB in
response. I also suffered minor damage on several other ships. By this time, I
had stopped both my carrier and cruisers within about 20" of his force, while
my BDN swept around to the side. To make a long story not quite as long, I was
able to maneuver the BDN directly behind his Von Tegetthoff, with the
Richtofen squarely in my sights. Seven shots later, the Von Tegetthoff and a
frigate were just empty memories, with my BDN suffering minor damage in
return. Both NSL escort cruisers were either destroyed or rendered impotent by
this time. I also rearmed and reorganized my fighters, and sent them in now
that the escorts were gone. They managed to destroy the remaining destroyers
and corvettes,
and the last enemy frigate was finished off by massed class 1 K-guns.
Once the Von Tegetthoff was alone, it was only a matter of time, and my
remaining ships (my BDN, CVL, DD, CA, 2xCL) swarmed in and finished it off,
although my BDN took significant damage, including the loss of 1
class 5 and one class 3 K-gun.

In examining the aftermath of the battle, several things became clear:

1) The suggestion to use class 1 guns against smaller ships is a great idea,
and worked well for me. Even if they're not doing much damage, it doesn't take
much time to swat the smaller ships, and they'd be wasted on armor on the big
boys.

2) Splitting up my force was a very effective tactic, allowing me to hit him
from any direction, as well as confuse him. Several times he forgot to mass
fire on my larger ships in particular simply because he'd been hit so badly
from multiple directions.

3) Missiles from the NSL don't worry me, although I think that the FSE with
their larger magazines might cause some trouble.

4)  K-Guns in the rear arc of anyone from 6" away are devastating!

Anyway, I did want to thank those who offered their suggestions, since they
did work out very well. Who knows, I may even be ready to get stomped by the
SV again after today:)

This must have been played in cinematic, as you speak of sweeping in upon the
side of the NSL. However, the tactic would probably work in vector as well. I
shall have to try it next time. The only problem I can see is that in vector,
it is very hard to get into someone's rear arc unless you have ships on both
sides of them.