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.
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?
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?
> Morgan Vening wrote:
> Yesterday in a discussion about the battles at the GZG
Initially I
> compared sizes, not points costs, and that's where I made my
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
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
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,