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Velociryx
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of Candle'Bre
Apr 1999 time: 05:17
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Nawww...forget those cheesy computer games that try to simulate SFB. Forget ADB's "Federation and Empire" which attempts to make a tactical game into a strategic one....pound for pound, the best pen and paper game ever created is the original Starfleet Battles.
::sigh:: Damn, but I've had some good times with that game.
For my money, NOTHING beats the ragin' Kzinti in the modern (post refit) era. The Kzin live and die by their small ships, no doubt. Their cruisers and larger are only average (and generally slightly inferior to) all other races, but in a squadron level action, a trio of Kzinti Drone frigates can LAY WASTE to anybody else's trio of Destroyers.
Even the might Gorn don't have enough shuttles to run a fully armed Frigate squadron out of ammo, and thanks to having almost no DF weapons, the Kzin FFD can put in flight enough drones to simply implode any DD of any race, without breaking a sweat OR worrying over control.
Plasmas? Useless. The FFD (Kzin) won't be going anything less than 30 anyway. (nothing else to do with their available power).
Photons? Ha! There's no Fed DD that can maintain battle speed while charging its photons!
Disruptors? ::shrug:: Disruptor armed ships generally have painfully thin shielding and no internal fortitude, and the Kzin shielding is sufficient to withstand a few long range snipes before blowing the enemy up.
Weasle? Heh...sure, go for it. And once you're out of shuttles, you're moving too slow to escape the NEXT wave of drones.
Got a second weasle? That's okay, we got plenty more drones where those came from. You'll run out of shuttles AND be going too slow to escape the final wave.
No....when you see a group of little Kzinti Battlecats in the 'hood, the best thing you can do is fire off a warning shot to make yourself feel better, and turn the other way....
-=Vel=-
(formerly known as Cajun Cat)
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Urban Ranger
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Apolyton Duke of Off-Topic
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Starfleet Command sucks.
Okay, with that out of the way, the real trouble with playing a bunch of Kzinti FFD's are points. You have to pay points for fast drones and more points for restricted and limited varieties. Soon your squadron of FFD's won't be facing up other races' DD's but heavy battlecruisers 
Of course, as noted you'll have serious problems against the Hydrans and the Tholians. 
Drone using races tend to fare well against plama races because drones don't take up power so their ships can zip around at high speeds.
Klingons and Feds have an easier time, because they can use their drones, ADD's, and phasers to take out the incoming drones, while their heavy weapons take out the Kzinti ships. Then there are the Lyrans. Oh, you don't want to play against the WYNs either.
One more thing you need to keep in mind: t-bombs. Roll one of them out of the shuttle hatch and a whole swarm of drones eat it. 
The beauty of Starfleet Battles is there really is no one dominating tactic, race, or ship design. The really gross imbalances [Lets say I take a swarm of interceptors (precursors to P/F's) against your squadron of FFD's You're deadmeat]have been taken out over the years.
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Urban Ranger
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Apolyton Duke of Off-Topic
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quote: Originally posted by ravagon
Well, I have to say that my favourite games were always campaign-based where you wound up facing whatever your opponent threw at you with whatever you had handy.
None of that evenly-matched bpv stuff. (Although I know which end I preferred to be on ).
That way those DD's of yours ended up facing off against more powerful ships - which was after all the way things happened for the Kzin in the general war, with the Kzinti-Hydran forces completely outgunned by the Klingon-Lyrans until the entry of the Feds. |
That's what we did one summer with F&E - use it to set up scenarioes to resolve in SFB. I was playing both the Kzinti and the Hydrans. It was fun for a while, then it became more like work. We didn't get very far since a lot of these battles were huge. Not as big as Meeting of Giants [2 Andro Doms vs a Fed SCS and a Klingon B10 ], but ususally involved at least half a dozen of ships on each side, plus battlestation or planet, plus fighters, etc.
It was fun to trade fighters and drones for Coaliton ships. The battlestation was great for EW against any Coalition fleet that did not have a couple of scouts (Klingon and Lyran scouts are wimpy ).
I kept knocking off their scouts and tugs that, after a while, they were scared to bring them in , which was quite an interesting dilemma for the Bad Guys.
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Velociryx
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of Candle'Bre
Apr 1999 time: 05:17
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Hi Rav and all! (Loved your comment, btw Ravagon!! )
Yeah...I found F&E to be entertaining, but a LOT of grunt work and a lot of really HUGE battles, tho it always surprised folks when that relatively little Kzin fleet could send a MUCH larger one packing.
Absolutely true that the Hydrans can be a real BEAR for a Kzin player...noooo denying that! The upshot tho, is that just as Kzin ships tend to be slightly smaller than the comparable BPV ships they'll be fighting (due to paying for special drones and yes! GOTTA love those higher percentage of armor, multi warhead, and swordfish drones! WhoooHooo!), so too will the Hydran ships be smaller (and thus, about the same size as the Kzin) thanks to having to buy those fighters...and fighters are *awfully* easy to kill with disruptor fire.
Of all the races that pos a significant challenge to the Kzin, the Hydrans are probably my least worrisome. In the case of Fusion armed ships, just saying out of range 3 will be sufficient for a win. Sabre dance them to death...kill the pesky fighters and don't let them close.
Hellbores are a little trickier (and IMO, more dangerous), but even they can be dealt with, given slower arming cycles and a wicked cost to arm.
I HATED fighting the Lyrans tho...blast those ESGs!
In essence, there's really only two ways to play the Kzin, making them, IMO, a GREAT choice for a relatively new player.
You can either launch a drone swarm and follow them in, or sabre dance (or some combo of the two). 'bout the only race I feel comfortable sabre dancing with would be the Hydrans and Plasma chuckers. Klingons have better arcs, so that's out, but they can't take a punch, and lots of phasers or no, they can't stop all the drones AND do significant damage to a pretty sturdy Kzin ship. Gorn ships are fun to fight...can't turn worth a crap and, though they have power and LOTS of shuttles, I never use my drones on them 'cept for the kill. Roms are sneaky, but that applies to Roms fighting anyone...annoying opponents@ LOL
Feds are actually not too bad to deal with. If they overload torps, just stay out of range and dance them to death...if they standard/prox load, wait till they fire, and charge in. Phaser ones are awesome things, but many, if not most will have to be used on drones (cos you're right, most Kzin players never launch their drones in a single impulse, specifically to avoid the easy t-bomb....shotgun racks, a scatterpack (and even better, a scatter AND a shatterpack!) load out, and with many ships having double control, the Kzin can lure out the WW, nix it, and field so many drones that the opponent can't cope.
Ahhh, that's why I love small ship actions with the Kzin. Your average frigate/destroyer can MAYBE stop 6 drones, firing most if not all weapons at them. 2-3 shuttles max. And a single drone hit will wreck, if not bring down a facing shield.
Three Kzin Frigates then, could *easily* field 24 drones--having another six at the ready, for the same turn--(and if even one of those had double control, control them all), post WW, which would be enough to implode (or nearly so) a pair of DD's.
:: sigh:: Ahhh, the memories....
-=Vel=-
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ravagon
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Australia
Sep 1999 time: 13:17
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Muahahaha! [Darth Vader mode] I have you now! [/Darth Vader mode]
quote: Originally posted by Velociryx
...and fighters are *awfully* easy to kill with disruptor fire.
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These would be those same disruptors you didn't arm as you were too busy maintaining speed 30? Heh heh.
quote: Originally posted by Velociryx
In the case of Fusion armed ships, just saying out of range 3 will be sufficient for a win. Sabre dance them to death...kill the pesky fighters and don't let them close.
Hellbores are a little trickier (and IMO, more dangerous), but even they can be dealt with, given slower arming cycles and a wicked cost to arm.
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Now thats interesting. I always found keeping out of hellbore range (or lethal hellbore range anyway) to be much easier than keeping out of fusion range - due mainly to the reduced power load, hence increased speed of the fusion-fighter ships. I was pretty busy launching drones to tie up their gatling phasers (didn't want to get hit by those at point blank as well as the fusion beams) too. I think I managed to break even against the Hydrans overall but as my successful ships always came away damaged I always felt a bit overmatched.
I tended to play more in the advanced era too which meant I was facing the nasty version of the stinger with about 4 fusion charges and a phas-G. Those things you just had to kill, and quickly!
I remember one matchup against a HB/Fus combination cruiser type (forgotten the name of this one ) whence one of my (weakened) shields was taken out by a hellbore and one of those aforementioned fighters performed one of those range-0 maneuvers on me and delivered a nasty blow through the down shield. Big ouch! 
quote: Originally posted by Velociryx
I HATED fighting the Lyrans tho...blast those ESGs!
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quote: Originally posted by Velociryx
Feds are actually not too bad to deal with. If they overload torps, just stay out of range and dance them to death...if they standard/prox load, wait till they fire, and charge in. Phaser ones are awesome things, but many, if not most will have to be used on drones (cos you're right, most Kzin players never launch their drones in a single impulse, specifically to avoid the easy t-bomb....shotgun racks, a scatterpack (and even better, a scatter AND a shatterpack!) load out, and with many ships having double control, the Kzin can lure out the WW, nix it, and field so many drones that the opponent can't cope.
Ahhh, that's why I love small ship actions with the Kzin. Your average frigate/destroyer can MAYBE stop 6 drones, firing most if not all weapons at them. 2-3 shuttles max. And a single drone hit will wreck, if not bring down a facing shield.
Three Kzin Frigates then, could *easily* field 24 drones--having another six at the ready, for the same turn--(and if even one of those had double control, control them all), post WW, which would be enough to implode (or nearly so) a pair of DD's.
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Yeah that duoble control thing really was a lifesaver for the Kzin. Sacrificed a lot of relatively cheap drones for a few "less cheap" opposition ships. Only thing going against them really was the relative imbalance between their economies/fleets and that of those they faced. Lot like the Hydrans with their fighters. They gave better than they got but then that was what they HAD to do. Even bpv exchanges were a net loss for the Kzin.
quote: Originally posted by Velociryx
:: sigh:: Ahhh, the memories....
-=Vel=- |
Couldn't agree more.
[And on another note - from the sudden appearance of several new threads - It looks as if somebody has been busy! I'll have to take a looksee. Whenever I get a spare week or so though. Crikey you manage to get through a lot! ]
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Urban Ranger
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Apolyton Duke of Off-Topic
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quote: Originally posted by Velociryx
Absolutely true that the Hydrans can be a real BEAR for a Kzin player...noooo denying that! The upshot tho, is that just as Kzin ships tend to be slightly smaller than the comparable BPV ships they'll be fighting (due to paying for special drones and yes! GOTTA love those higher percentage of armor, multi warhead, and swordfish drones! WhoooHooo!), so too will the Hydran ships be smaller (and thus, about the same size as the Kzin) thanks to having to buy those fighters...and fighters are *awfully* easy to kill with disruptor fire. |
It's always a two-edged sword 
When you use disruptors on the fighters those are disruptors you won't use on the capital ships 
The Hydran counter tactic is to either follow the fighters with the ships or the ships with fighters. If the fighters lead, you have to either content with killing some fighters (not too easy to kill out of shot range, particularly when EW rules are in effect) with your disruptors, or use them at a longer range at the ships.
quote: Originally posted by Velociryx
Of all the races that pos a significant challenge to the Kzin, the Hydrans are probably my least worrisome. In the case of Fusion armed ships, just saying out of range 3 will be sufficient for a win. Sabre dance them to death...kill the pesky fighters and don't let them close. |
That's because you have never seen a properly executed Hydran Anchor Hydran ships are extremely durable given their famous "second shield" (unified hull design). A hydran ship with phaser capacitors charged can fly in at max speed and slap a tractor beam on your ship. Now you can't shoot at their fighters, and you know what a couple of Hydran fighters can do at range 0, right? 
quote: Originally posted by Velociryx
Hellbores are a little trickier (and IMO, more dangerous), but even they can be dealt with, given slower arming cycles and a wicked cost to arm. |
But hellbores have a better probability than disruptors at long range, and once you have a weak shield you're in trouble.
quote: Originally posted by Velociryx
In essence, there's really only two ways to play the Kzin, making them, IMO, a GREAT choice for a relatively new player. |
My experiences are just the opposite.
quote: Originally posted by Velociryx
You can either launch a drone swarm and follow them in, or sabre dance (or some combo of the two). |
The difficulty is how to handle drones properly. Even if we ignore drone mods, which is quite difficult, you still are left with the problem of using drones. Simply, you need to know how many drones to launch so the enemy is forced to do something. Too few, and he'll just pick them off with phasers. Too many, and you become prone to t-bombs. You'll have to just launch enough so he can't kill them all with phasers, and staggered so a t-bomb can't get them all. It's rather tricky, acutally.
Personally the Feds seem to be the most straightforward to handle.
quote: Originally posted by Velociryx
'bout the only race I feel comfortable sabre dancing with would be the Hydrans and Plasma chuckers. Klingons have better arcs, so that's out, but they can't take a punch, and lots of phasers or no, they can't stop all the drones AND do significant damage to a pretty sturdy Kzin ship. Gorn ships are fun to fight...can't turn worth a crap and, though they have power and LOTS of shuttles, I never use my drones on them 'cept for the kill. Roms are sneaky, but that applies to Roms fighting anyone...annoying opponents@ LOL |
The Klingons also have a better turn mode, and better shields after all the B and K refits. They also get P-1's with the K refit. Not to mention better drone controls and ADD. You're right, though, Klingon ships are flimpsy, once they start taking internals they'd better off running away.
Plama races got a lot better after they get the type-F plamas which cost them no power to hold. Also the downloading rules help. Still as I said before drone races have the advantage facing plama races.
Roms aren't easy to play properly. Cloaking can't save your hide if you aren't careful 
quote: Originally posted by Velociryx
Feds are actually not too bad to deal with. If they overload torps, just stay out of range and dance them to death...if they standard/prox load, wait till they fire, and charge in. |
Wait till somebody pulls a Kuafman Retrograde on you 
quote: Originally posted by Velociryx
Phaser ones are awesome things, but many, if not most will have to be used on drones (cos you're right, most Kzin players never launch their drones in a single impulse, specifically to avoid the easy t-bomb....shotgun racks, a scatterpack (and even better, a scatter AND a shatterpack!) load out, and with many ships having double control, the Kzin can lure out the WW, nix it, and field so many drones that the opponent can't cope. |
There are many counter to this. For example, the Fed player can fake a WW launch. Since they have tons of shuttles they can afford to lose some. Anyway, if you think he's launching WW and kill the first shuttle that comes out with your long range disruptors, watch out. Also, Feds have drones that can take out your drones and your shuttles. Scatterpacks can be zapped by prox photon fire. Since Kzinti ships generally are short on shuttles you can't pull some of the stunts like the Feds.
quote: Originally posted by Velociryx
Ahhh, that's why I love small ship actions with the Kzin. Your average frigate/destroyer can MAYBE stop 6 drones, firing most if not all weapons at them. 2-3 shuttles max. And a single drone hit will wreck, if not bring down a facing shield. |
That depends what kinds of small ships. A fully loaded Kzin FF generally won't face FF of another race due to point problems in the "build your own fleet" scenario. You better watch out for the War destroyers of other races, particularly the Klingon D5, which is quite a nasty piece of work. Have you seen the D5A in the Commander's Edition? Downright sick - they simply replaced the probe launcher with an SFG 
quote:
Three Kzin Frigates then, could *easily* field 24 drones--having another six at the ready, for the same turn--(and if even one of those had double control, control them all), post WW, which would be enough to implode (or nearly so) a pair of DD's. |
Enough, if you play them properly, that is. 
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