Well, I am in the middle of a combat with a FT (but not sci-fi
wargaming) newbie. He is running NAC and I am running FSE. We both started out
with 2K fleets. So far, mostly with SMs, I have taken out about 900 points of
ships to his 400 points of mine, and I'm realizing something. Even being
extremely down ships he still outbeams me significantly, and that is not
counting P-torps. I have managed to hit with 90+% of my Salvos,
destroying 3 CE's and a couple of destroyers. I'm down to 4 SMs left and it
really looks like I have to put them on target to have a chance. This is all
in spite of the fact that I have managed to make affective use of my salvos
AND I managed to get in the aft arcs of one of his BB's and chewed away at it
unapposed for 3 turns with beams.
So am I doing something wrong? Is using 3 missiles to take out a Furious CE a
bad thing? One missed. It's fairly obvious I would never do this well against
an experienced opponent, I managed to have him split his forces and ADFC's and
then he made a bad turn with the BB. It still looks like I am going to have to
get extremely lucky with my last 4 salvos to be on even footing. Right now he
has 35 total beams to my 32,
and he has 4 p-torps. The only thing that has saved me has
been 1 arc p-torps and having better thrust than he does.
Sorry, just a minor frustration. I thought as FSE if you could get yourself
well up by the midpoint of the battle you would be in good shape.
> Roger Books wrote:
> Well, I am in the middle of a combat with a FT (but not sci-fi
<snort> IMO NAC P-torps don't really count unless you're fighting NSL
or the big thrust-2 ESU capitals - thrust-4 ships simply aren't
maneuverable enough to use (F)-arc weapons. OK, the Tacoma/T is nimble
enough to aim its torpedo, but it is brittle instead.
> I have managed to hit with 90+% of my Salvos,
> So am I doing something wrong? Is using 3 missiles to take out
I'd usually try to hit each Furious with 2 SMs and use my own beams finish
them off afterwards, but it depends a lot on the tactical situation.
> It still looks like I am going to have to get extremely lucky with my
And it will probably continue to save you - trying to point (F)-arc
weapons at ships that are more maneuverable than you are is not easy at all.
Which is, of course, a big part of the reason why I prefer my own
(F)-arc designs to have at least thrust-6, and preferrably thrust-8 :-7
However, I have to ask... if you have about 1600 points left against his 1100,
don't you also have a considerably higher number of hull boxes left? Or have
most of your surviving ships already taken serious damage while his survivors
are virtually untouched (sounds a bit unlikely if you've managed to punish his
Victoria for three turns)?
The losses in points values that you describe suggest that you have
somewhere around 30-50% more hull boxes left than he has - though of
course this assumes that his survivors are about as badly hurt as yours are.
That's enough to balance his advantage in beams even when you take
his screens into account - I suspect he's got more screened ships than
you have; at least he must've had at the start of the battle. OK, he's
got 4 P-torps, but OTOH you have 4 SMs left to fire - and your ships
are more agile than his.
It's hard to tell who holds the upper hand without knowing more about fleet
compositions and damage levels on the ships involved, but it does sound as a
fairly even match to me. If anything, I'd say the FSE has the best chance of
winning.
> Sorry, just a minor frustration. I thought as FSE if you could get
<g> Quite correct, too. If the FSE gets well ahead by the midpoint of
the battle, it'll usually end as a nail-biter with heavy damage to both
sides. If the FSE *doesn't* get well ahead by the midpoint, they'll get
their clocks cleaned in the second half :-)
As for NSL, well... IMO the FSE are quite capable of swatting them, even when
they resort to clouds of Banzai Jammer corvettes <G>
Later,
> counting P-torps. I have managed to hit with 90+% of my
(snip)
> So am I doing something wrong? Is using 3 missiles to take out
Yes. IMO, a DD isn't worth shooting SMR's and a CE isn't worth 3. You'd be
better to pound on his heaviest ships: a) they're most likely to be screened,
which SMR ignores b) you're not as likely to overkill them (doing 48 damage to
a 10 hull box frigate, for example. I was muttering "Just an inch to the
left...jut an inch to the left..." for the rest of that game. And the drive
home. And four hours after I got home). c) BB's are likely to be slower, thus
easier to hit.
So let's assume you plant 3 of 4 SMR's on his BB. That will probably make your
picture a lot more pleasant. Even if you miss, though, if you have 32 beams
and he has 35, then you've
probably got an advantage in how much damage-absorption capacity
you have left. Roll 6's.
(Or maybe not. If this is his first game, you may want to die
valiantly after a hard fight--best way to keep him interested in
another game. Strategy, not tactics).