Date sent:      	Wed, 29 Apr 1998 23:22:08 -0400
From:           	Steven W Rushing <SWRUSHING@compuserve.com>
Subject:        	[B5W]: Sentri Frazi
To:             	"INTERNET:babylon5-wars@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU" <babylon5-wars@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU>
Send reply to:  	babylon5-wars@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU

Message text written by INTERNET:babylon5-wars@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
>And I've played several games in which as many Sentri flights as 
Frazi flights did no more than drop a couple Frazi while the Frazi 
IGNORED them to wipe out several Vorchan and then follow up with 
attacks on a Primus.  I never said I would use my Frazi against 
Sentri.  That is a poor use of their firepower and the initiative 
does give them a disadvantage.  Stripping the fronts off of Vorchans 
and the sides off of Primae is a better use and much more fun ;-).    
<

Actually I think you are both right. ARecalling that the rules have changed
and that the pseudo-raking fighters were more deadly, especially sentris,
than the non-pseudo-raking fighters are now...

Last weekend...
We launched a flight of 5 heavy fighters within 10 hexes of enemy fleet.
On the next turn, our -10 init fighters moved to range 3 striking range of
his ships and jinked max (6?) while 3 sentri flights (+2 init)
automatically swarmed on top of our fighters (range 1 I believe 15 total
sentris)

Heavy fighters IGNORED the sentris waiting patiently for the "fighters
shoot thru collapsed front end of primus and kill it" stage. 

Sentris fired, But with the -6 for jinking they hit with only a 8 chance
to-hit and only managed to get IIRC about 15 guns to hit. Each gun did
1d6+2 -3 (armour) which is between 2-3 points per hit. With the randomness,
two fighter were scratched, two fighters took 75% of their hits and one
fighter got wasted and some overkill shots wasted on his explosion. 

This meant, four strike fighters fired even against the 3-1 sentri edge.
Sure the strike fighters had a less than automatic to-hit but against a
Primus front of 16? -9 + 4 the net 11's were OK as a to-hit roll. 

The heavy fighters did hit with a little over half their guns and then 2 of
the four remaining fighter dropped out.

Moral of the story: A single interception fire after the heavy fighters get
in shooting range of your ships is NOT ENOUGH. Might be close if backed up
with lots of ship based anti-fighter work but its a risk IF THE ATTACKING
FIGHTERS JINK.

Have your sentris engage the heavy fighters for as many turns as possible
out of range of your cruisers. Knock as many heavies out of the sky before
they ever "see" your carrier. I start anti-fighter strafing runs at range
20+. every turn I make it SENTRI vs heavy is a turn in MY favor. Every turn
they make it sentri vs frazi while Frazi vs ships is a turn they win.

The rules may have changed, but the tactics did not.

Steve rushing
swrushing@compuserve.com