Message-ID: <35FB8271.4CC37362@erols.com>
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1998 04:29:37 -0400
From: Jason Noble <jdnoble@erols.com>
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To: babylon5-wars@vex.cs.colorado.edu
Subject: [B5W] Battle Report & Weapons Reviews
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Narn (me)
1x Bin'Tak
2x G'Quan
1x Dag'Kar
Objective: Destroy the Kraken.

Centauri
1x Kraken
24x Sentri
12x Razik
Objective: Prevent the Narns from achieving their objective.

Kraken in center of map, fighters around it. Narn forces approach from
one of the corners. I used the maps from Battlespace, since it is easier
to see the counters. This happened a few weeks ago, so detail is a
little thin.

Dag'Kar plasters the Kraken while the Narn biggies move in. Centauri
fighters fly right past the cruisers and engage the Dag'Kar, which had
no escorts. Narn ships exchange with Kraken, infliciting and sustaining
moderate damage. Dag'Kar gets shot to pieces before it can fire again
(front structure blown off), fighters then head back towars the station.
Narn ships take advantage of station's rotation to always remain within
the arc of the same recharging weapons, so only Twin Arrays were a real
problem.  Range drops to about 3 hexes. At this range, I could target
specific damaged sections of the Kraken and still about a 75% chance to
hit. I fire e-mines, which he hopes will scatter and hit my ships.
Instead, they scatter and hit his fighters (all in close formation). 12
sentris and 12 raziks destroyed. However, over the past few turns, the
starboard sides of all of my ships have been smashed (at least 50%
structure destroyed on all three vessels, no left turns for any of
them). However, in a few more turns I could probably destroy the 2
sections I needed to finish the station. It had 2 destroyed and the rest
with some heavy damage. However, I didn't have time. We had been playing
for about 8 hours (12-8:30 PM, break for dinner) and my mom arrived to
pick me up, so I took the 2 G'Quans and rammed the Kraken, destroying
it. This left me with one beat up Bin'Tak and a toothless Dag'Kar.

Narn Evaluation: I should have left a G'Quan behind to defend the
Dag'Kar. They didn't really contribute _that_ much to the battle.
However, it would have meant more pressure on the other 2 vessels, which
would have crippled them too early in the battle. Other than this, I was
pretty happy with my strategy. Maybe rolling my ships some would have
helped, so that they could bring port weapons to bear and still have
their thrusters.

Centauri Evaluation: Sending the fighters to take out the Dag'Kar was a
good move on his part. It certainly would have put a serious hurt on the
Kraken. However, afterwards he moved his fighters to the opposite side
of the station, maybe to intercept my ships when they came around. It
would have been wiser to come in right behind them, since he was in an
excellent position to do so.

Mag Gun: useless against stations (Kraken), can be effective against
ships if roll high, and target has few systems.

Light Pulse Cannon: one of my favorite weapons, effective against small
ships, and space stations. Lots of wasted damage against space stations.
5x8 = (assuming armor of 4) 20 damage to a ship.  5x8= 5 damage to a
station

Ion Torpedo & E-Mine: EXCELLENT siege weapons. Target never moves, so
E-mines will always destroy 4 boxes of a station if no scatter. Since
both do multiples of 5 damage, they maximize the amount of damage
inflicted. E-Mines vs Fighters = Frag grenades vs infantry.

Twin Array: very good offensive weapon. Can really hurt ships if you
have enough of them.

Heavy Lasers: good, but low fire rate made them less effective than the
lighter weapons I employed.

Battle Lasers: don't inflict much damage, but fire faster and have a
better chance of hitting. Long range weapon to soften up stuff for the
Twins.

Matter Cannons: only good if they hit structure or roll high. Low rolls
can make them virtually useless


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