Date sent: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 21:09:45 -0400 From: "Asmaul (McChesney)" Organization: None To: "babylon5-wars@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU" Subject: [B5W] Local Tournament Report Send reply to: babylon5-wars@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU I've just come from a small tournament my local gaming store held today. While there were no Narn players the tactics used were interesting and the battles very telling I think. First the background info: We were planning on having more people than we did but because noone showed up we did a round-robin tourney counting losses, victories, and decisive losses and victories. Fleets were at 2500 points. Criticals were rolled for each shot to a system, but not for thrusters or weapons (not that I entirely agreed with this mind you). Optional enhancements were allowed. ALso, due to an error by the store owner EA interceptors were alloweed to intercept lasers, aaaargh! (when I played EA I protested but the moderator said that the rule had to be kept since it had been in effect for earlier games). I played three games as did everyoen else. First Game: Centauri (moi) vs. Minbari (sans jammer) We start on opposite ends of a long 2x3 board. My fleet consists of: 1 Primus w/hardened armor on two battle lasers 1 Kutai 1 Altarian 1 Sulust w/hardened armor on battle laser While Minbari fleet consisted of: 1 Sharlin w/17 EW, 2 extra thrust and probably some other stuff Seeing that I and every other player beat the Minbair player, we all agreed that the failing was obviously the poor ship selection - ONE ship, no matter how souped-up can compare to equal points of multiple ships (except maybe old ones' ships). My Primus took some moderate damage from the Sharlin but barage after barage of twin arrays and battle lasers stripped the Sharlin of its front VERY quickly. One side and the aft also recieved major damage before it parked itself next to my Primus. This meant serious hurt for the Primus but near death for the Sharlin. Two sesor criticals also evened the field a lot form that 17 EW. All I can say is that if yuou play Minbari - take more than one ship, or at least take some fighters (Nials could have seriously hurt my Kutai). Also, optional enhancements do not make good fighter force necessarily - raw fire power wins every time it seems. Game 2: Centauri vs. Centauri Setup is unchanged from before, my fleet is the same. Enemy Centauri has: 1 Emporer's Transport w/12 EW 1 Primus w/12 EW 5 wings of Sentri (I think) We started out closing in one one another but it quickly got muddled and jumbled. I probably could have done much better had I kept my ships in better formation - failure to slow down my Kutai left it basically useless after its first attack run. After only the third turn I had destroyed his Primus by blasting through the front with everything I had. His transport had damage my transport a bit but my only real damage was on the Kutai which was being beaten on by fighters. I take the crippling of the Kutai as a tactical loss because it wasn't worth diverting twins to protect it. In the end all out ships had damage but I had mroe shis so it was called as a victory in my favor - though it was pretty close with his fighters. I could probably have benefiited from a few fighters to ward off his attacks but the additional fire from HCVs was preferable in this game - I was shocked at how quickly I brang his Primus down. I should also note that my Tactics usually consist of flanking to both sides and turtle-shelling until I go completely offensive once I get closer. Game 3: Centauri vs. EA Ea Fleet: 1 Omega 2 Olympus 4 Starfuries I knew that if I lost to anyone it would be EA. I have never really been able to counter the massive damage outputter by EA ships, and now missiles adds to that. We didn't engage until pretty close range, and by a stroke of luck I stayed just out of his missiles ranges. I quickly took off one side of his Omega but it wasn't enough - poor maneuvering lost me good attacks from all of my ships until later when I could reorganize. Dispite being EA he pulled a good surprise maneuver and god my injurred Primus out of arc. He quickly took off the front and one side of my Primus there. Only minor damage was doen the the Olys and I ignored the furis and tried to take down the Omega. Poor maneuvering (actually TERRIBLE maneuvering and planning) led to my downfall however as my ships were usually too far away to do any good or (in the case of the Primus) out of arc all the time. It's not surprising that I lost but was hopign to do better - if I had slowed down and stayed in better formations I could have concentrated my fire better and destroyed the Omega rather than damaging all sides of it (the same thing happened with the EMporer's transport in game two). Overview: I realy didn't use the Guardians very much and the sulust's main purpose was as a twin platform with an added battle laser. The Primus was still very useful. The altarian was not quite as good as I thought it would be, perhaps I am simply misusing it. The Kutai was more effective than I tohught but usually it jsut served to draw fire from al my other ships - everyone always wants it dead, I don't know why. The Olympus are very powerful for their size and I should've payed them more attention. WHile the missiles are their main weapon extra shots from pulses and ral guns will wear you down a lot, especially on smaller craft. If it hadn't been for losing the last game I would have won the tourney but as it is we all (except the MInbair that is) tied. Analyis welcome. -- Jasper (Asmaul) McChesney - jasp@javanet.com http://www.javanet.com/~jasp/asmaul1.html Windows 95; the most user friendly pile of crap ever designed.