Wednesday, March 01, 2006
The Klingons go "boom!" again...
Last night, Dave B. and I got together at my place for a friendly game of Star Fleet Battles. The goal was to continue my education and get me more familiar and comfortable with the game. While my commanding skills are somewhat weak, I think I put forth a much better effort than in the other two games I've been involved in. However, in the end, my E7 Klingon heavy cruiser fell before the might of the Federation (DB, what was the ship you were using?).
We used the small, standard starmap, and we started off opposite each other on the long sides. As I had been given some tips at the last game (and afterwards) regarding how to best play the Klingons, I tried to keep in mind that I needed to do hit-and-run tactics. I needed to keep my distance from the Fed ship, and I needed to whittle him down.
From the get-go, I pumped 21 points into my movement and headed off towards the Feds. I figured I'd try my luck with keeping him busy with drones and firing my disruptors and phasers from a distance. As Dave would point out to me through the game, it makes sense to try to stagger the drone launches in a way that I'd get more than two on the map at any given time, but for the first few turns, I was trying to take advantage of the 32 movement. Basically, I was firing drones off on the first or second phase and hoping for the best.
At the outset, Dave set a slow movement rate. He told me that when the Feds are moving slowly, it usually means they're powering up their photon torpedoes. This is a lesson I still need to learn, as I took a pounding later on by those torps.
As the game progressed, I tried to keep my distance, circling Dave's ship like a vulture waiting for his meal to die. I whittled down a couple of shields, but at the same time, Dave nixed the shields on my entire left side -- and then I had a difficult time keeping those shields away from him.
We settled into a dogfight, with me trying to maneuver so Dave couldn't shoot at my ship's innards but I could still fire at him. Dave did a great job of hiding his downed shields from me, and he gladly pumped all kinds of specific shield reinforcement into those downed shields to keep me from punching through easily.
Still, I managed to do a little bit of internal damage, although as the encounter wore on, my circles started getting smaller and smaller. I knew two of his shields were down, and my Klingon crew was smelling blood. Little did they know, it was their blood. :P As I circled in closer and fired disruptor burst after disruptor burst, Dave powered up his phasers and photon torpedoes and fired them right into my hull, doing some serious damage to the innards and cutting my power down significantly.
I didn't feel I was licked yet, as I still had three of my four disruptors and two phaser threes, so I moved in again and crossed my fingers. My maneuvering slipped up here, and I found myself cutting right in front of Dave's bow (one hex range). Dave opened up with everything he had and did enough damage to blow my ship out of the sky.
Lessons learned: When a Fed ship loses a couple of shields, it doesn't mean it's in trouble. When a Fed ship slows down, run the hell away. Keep track of when the Fed ship's photon torpedoes are fired, as it will dictate what the Klingons need to each turn (I think I should jot a note down in the future when the torps are fired). Firing all weapon systems at once is much better than firing one or two here and one or two there; concentrated fire is my friend.
And finally... This game is too much fun. :P
EDIT: Turns out the Fed ship was the NCL+.
We used the small, standard starmap, and we started off opposite each other on the long sides. As I had been given some tips at the last game (and afterwards) regarding how to best play the Klingons, I tried to keep in mind that I needed to do hit-and-run tactics. I needed to keep my distance from the Fed ship, and I needed to whittle him down.
From the get-go, I pumped 21 points into my movement and headed off towards the Feds. I figured I'd try my luck with keeping him busy with drones and firing my disruptors and phasers from a distance. As Dave would point out to me through the game, it makes sense to try to stagger the drone launches in a way that I'd get more than two on the map at any given time, but for the first few turns, I was trying to take advantage of the 32 movement. Basically, I was firing drones off on the first or second phase and hoping for the best.
At the outset, Dave set a slow movement rate. He told me that when the Feds are moving slowly, it usually means they're powering up their photon torpedoes. This is a lesson I still need to learn, as I took a pounding later on by those torps.
As the game progressed, I tried to keep my distance, circling Dave's ship like a vulture waiting for his meal to die. I whittled down a couple of shields, but at the same time, Dave nixed the shields on my entire left side -- and then I had a difficult time keeping those shields away from him.
We settled into a dogfight, with me trying to maneuver so Dave couldn't shoot at my ship's innards but I could still fire at him. Dave did a great job of hiding his downed shields from me, and he gladly pumped all kinds of specific shield reinforcement into those downed shields to keep me from punching through easily.
Still, I managed to do a little bit of internal damage, although as the encounter wore on, my circles started getting smaller and smaller. I knew two of his shields were down, and my Klingon crew was smelling blood. Little did they know, it was their blood. :P As I circled in closer and fired disruptor burst after disruptor burst, Dave powered up his phasers and photon torpedoes and fired them right into my hull, doing some serious damage to the innards and cutting my power down significantly.
I didn't feel I was licked yet, as I still had three of my four disruptors and two phaser threes, so I moved in again and crossed my fingers. My maneuvering slipped up here, and I found myself cutting right in front of Dave's bow (one hex range). Dave opened up with everything he had and did enough damage to blow my ship out of the sky.
Lessons learned: When a Fed ship loses a couple of shields, it doesn't mean it's in trouble. When a Fed ship slows down, run the hell away. Keep track of when the Fed ship's photon torpedoes are fired, as it will dictate what the Klingons need to each turn (I think I should jot a note down in the future when the torps are fired). Firing all weapon systems at once is much better than firing one or two here and one or two there; concentrated fire is my friend.
And finally... This game is too much fun. :P
EDIT: Turns out the Fed ship was the NCL+.
// posted by Chris @ 9:04 AM 
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