• Registered: 2006-01-17
  • Posts: 740

Topic: Batle Report of an 8,000 point battle played on Sat.

Hello everyone; here is an interesting Starmada Battle Report...

     My gaming buddy and I played an 8,000 point StarmadaX battle on Saturday.  I had three Battleships with hull size of 29 and armor plating + PDS+Lv3 Shields.  I also had a pair of CGs with hull 11, 2 DDGs with hull of 7, and a CV with hull 20 and 16 sq of  fighters.  These ships also had armor plating, but only a PDS (no shields).   The CGS and DDGS had TerrierMissles: {Expendable,3+,3,1,1,HalvesShields,RerollsToHit}:  CGs had 22 of these = all b&c-battery and DDGs had 11 of 'em = all b-battery. They also had 2 x 5"guns (see below)
     
     My friend took eight 20 Hull ships with mostly Expendable Weapons featuring {3+,2,2,2,ReRollPenetrationDice+Repeating+ExtraHullDamage} and others similar with Repeating being replaced with Inverted Range.  Very nasty <LOL>

     The first shots of the game were Fired at ranges of 16, 17, and 18. In this first turn, he obliterated all of my ships with this heavy first shot!   The game only lasted one turn.  His ships were tech 8, and mine were tech 3 or 4.  When I fired back at his ships eight 20 mass ships, two had level 4 shields, and 6 had level one shields.  I did pulverize all 6 of the sh1 ships. The next turn my fighters damaged one of his ships badly and 1/3 were shot down.  We stopped there because we were both amazed at how this big battle only took 45 minutes...

     I did some serious thinking about how to deal with this and came up with 3 ideas that can help a ship survive a big salvo of expendable weapons; a one-time blast of lotsa damage:

First, since this happened at long range, my ships now have an ECM suit to reduce how many hits this barrage will do.

Second, my ships with level 3 shields+PDS will now have screens.  I can guarantee that they will be set to strength 4 in the direction I will be facing my friend.  (I use World War 2, 1/3000 scale warship figures for my ships.  These figures are mounted and altered similar to the Yamato becoming the Argo in StarBlazers)  My ships can fire all of their weapons only into "c" or "d" arcs.  So the 2 arcs on either left or right broadside will be level 4 screens and the front and back will have level 2.  Any incoming shots will only penetrate on a 6.

The third change I made was to increase the range of all weapons to 18.  Before, only the 14 Inch Guns {Hit 3+,1,1,3} fired to 18, the 5"&6" secondary guns fired to 15 {3+,1,1,1}.  Now all fire to 18.  I made a few other minor changes too. 

We play this Wednesday afternoon and we will see what happens. 8000 point battles are a little difficult to keep track of, so we are only gonna use 5,000 points on Wed.

Steven Gilchrist (BeowulfJB@aol.com)
Jacksonville, Fla, USA

  • Registered: 2005-03-28
  • Posts: 101

Re: Batle Report of an 8,000 point battle played on Sat.

[size=150] his ships were tech 8 ????[/size]

  • Registered: 2005-03-28
  • Posts: 158

Re: Batle Report of an 8,000 point battle played on Sat.

Honestly... if you are playing with Tech 8 (and I assume by this you mean +2/+2/+2/+2) then this is to be expected. Those ships will be deadly.

  • Registered: 2006-01-17
  • Posts: 359

Re: Batle Report of an 8,000 point battle played on Sat.

How would you describe an expendable repeating weapon..... is it a cannon shell that keeps bouncing into the target??

I have also found that the higher tech levels pretty much require that the ships either have screens, or shields at 5......

John

  • Registered: 2022-11-15
  • Posts: 1,286

Re: Batle Report of an 8,000 point battle played on Sat.

Nahuris wrote:

How would you describe an expendable repeating weapon..... is it a cannon shell that keeps bouncing into the target??

John

Stargate SG-1: Ancient's Drones!  :shock:

  • Registered: 2006-01-10
  • Posts: 71

Re: Batle Report of an 8,000 point battle played on Sat.

Sounds like his ships were representatives of the Velveeta Empire.

  • Registered: 2006-01-17
  • Posts: 359

Re: Batle Report of an 8,000 point battle played on Sat.

Yes, but you could shoot the drones down.... there is technically no way to stop one of these........ except if it finally misses.

I could see maybe variable pen and variable damage with expendible, but a repeating expendible weapon is kind of hard for me to fathom.

John

  • Registered: 2005-03-28
  • Posts: 101

Re: Batle Report of an 8,000 point battle played on Sat.

Did you mean his ships were a total of tech 8 (+2 in each) or were they +8 in each category ???

  • Registered: 2006-01-17
  • Posts: 740

Re: Batle Report of an 8,000 point battle played on Sat.

Here are some elaborations on the 8.000 point Saturday 4/8 Battle:

The tech level is my friends ships was a total of +8; +2 each in shields, engines, weapons, and equiptment.

We have limited repeating weapons to being only able to fire up to 6 times.  Then they stop.  (We did this because a repeating  weapon needing a 2 or greater to hit can shoot for  a very  long  a time<LOL>)  Thus a repeating, expendable weapon can be a launcher for a missle type weapon that shoots six projectiles, one following another.   So if the third shot hits, and the fourth one misses, we think of shot 5 & 6 missing, because they followed  #4 which missed... 
0r something like that. 

We play again on Wednesday.  I think the changes I made to my ships will ensure victory for my side.  I plan to rout my friends fleet.  Having a smaller game of only 5,000 points will help.  I will let everyone know what happens.  lol   I am having a blast playing this game!  I will run two games @ the Grailquest convention locally in July:Here is the Grailquest Link:
http://www.grailquestcon.com/index1.cfm

Steven Gilchrist
Jacksonville, Fla, USA

  • Registered: 2005-03-27
  • Posts: 811

Re: Batle Report of an 8,000 point battle played on Sat.

Man I wonder if I can convince the callahanian clan to go to florida for a convention smile

  • Indy
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  • Registered: 2006-03-03
  • Posts: 17

Re: Batle Report of an 8,000 point battle played on Sat.

So what happened in the re-match?  big_smile

  • Registered: 2006-01-17
  • Posts: 740

Re: Batle Report of an 8,000 point battle played on Sat.

Hello again! 

     On Wed 4/12, my friend and I played again.  The combination of screens and all weapons firing out to 18 seemed to do the trick.  All of my ships were damaged severely, but having the screens on the  two sides facing him set at  4 & the PDS all my ships have, caused his expendible weapons to need a "6" to penetrate.  Also the ECM gave him a "-1" to hit.  And ships  have armor plating.  Altho heavily damaged, my ships had half of their weapons intact and would have been able to destroy his ships (since they had shot their expendible bolt.)  But it was close, and my friend conceeded after the first turn that we fired at eachother.  We have since agreed to limit tech levels to a maximum of tech +4.    :roll:

     I have modified all of my ships:   Now all  DNs, CGs, CLAAs, DDGs, CVs, and even the 5 hull MTBs have one Wave Motion Gun (= anime style spinal mount).  Since my ships are most like the StarBlazers "Argo", the former IJN Yamato, I thought I would add one also. 

     My friend's newest version of his ships deletes shields and anti-fighter batteries to retain his massive amount of expendible weapons and still be a total tech of +4.  He also shortened their max-range to 9 hexes.  These newest ships of his  are 10 hull and speed 20!   I will have some fighters along on the next battle we have on Saturday, needless to say...   
I will let everyone know what happens   lol

Steven Gilchrist
Jacksonville, Fla.

  • Registered: 2006-01-17
  • Posts: 740

Re: Batle Report of an 8,000 point battle played on Sat.

My Friend and I played several games on Sat4/15. 

In the first game. the Anime Spinal Mounts, which I call Wave Motion Guns,  from my two 30 hull Battleships fired at long range and both hit.  My oppnant had eight 20 hull ships that were speed 6 but had no shields, and mostly expendible weapons.  Both ships hit were destroyed  smile    Then when we got closer, He fired all the expendible weapons and destroyed most of my ships.  We didn't finish even this second  turn because those few ships of mine that did survive combined with the 28 fighters I had would have eventually destroyed his remaining ships that the first two turns of fire didn't pulverize.  Probably.
His ships had no anti-fighter batteries...

We then agreed to limit the amount of expendible weapons any ship can have to a "5 & 5" rule.   No ship can mount more that five expendible weapons, and the sum of the ROF+Pen+Damage cannot be more than five.   We played one more game of this and this "5&5" + MaxTech=+4 seems to do the trick.   Whew!!!   

The second game was closer and lasted five turns! Last Turn: all I had left was my 29 hull HMS IronDuke with 1/2 of its weapons left and 6 hull.  So I overthrusted to face his last ship at range four and fired the WaveMotionGun at him and he went boom, because his ship had 1 hull left only ...

Very interesting games.  Expendible weapons can be annoying.  Most of my ships now have up to five "21 Inch Torpedoes" in "cd" arc. 
They are expendible, Range = 18,  to hit = 3+, then 3,1,1 with
{Rerolls to hit, Rerolls Penetration, and Increased Damage}. 
They are nasty...

Steven Gilchrist
Jacksonville, Florida, USA.

  • Registered: 2005-03-27
  • Posts: 811

Re: Batle Report of an 8,000 point battle played on Sat.

I can't even imagine these ships.  You're bandying about 21" torpedos and 14" main guns which I have no reference to in starmada.

Could you post your designs

thanks!

  • Registered: 2006-01-17
  • Posts: 359

Re: Batle Report of an 8,000 point battle played on Sat.

I'm looking at the large hull sizes, the high tech levels and just kind of wondering......

Not that it is a bad thing, but the battles seem to run really quick.
I guess that I am more into longer tactical battles rather than the short high carnage versions....... Then again, I have been experimenting with organic hulls, and repair teams in some of my recent games.

John

  • Registered: 2006-01-17
  • Posts: 740

Re: Batle Report of an 8,000 point battle played on Sat.

Since we have limited the number and chacteristics of Expendible weapons,   The battles have lasted longer.  There is much manuver and deciding on ranges to pick, also, when to send in the fighters & drones, etc.  See the "5,000 point battle report"  In the Forum...
Steven GIlchrist  Jacksonville, Fla, USA

  • Registered: 2006-01-17
  • Posts: 359

Re: Batle Report of an 8,000 point battle played on Sat.

I have been reading them. It's pretty good. I just tend to favor hulls in the 8 - 14 range.....

But that's me......

I'm just trying to imagine running one of those larger games here and thinking it might not work.

John

  • Registered: 2005-03-29
  • Posts: 859

Re: Batle Report of an 8,000 point battle played on Sat.

One-turn wonder.

On Tuesday we played a duel, primarily because we had an hour or two to kill.

We both had one size-30 ship, but there was one little tiny problem.

My ship had four heavy ion blasters (these stats: Range: 18, TH: 3+, 1/1/2, Ignores Shields, Increased Damage, Extra Hull Damage) [oh, I also had +2 in weapons].

Turn one, the enemy was within range of my HIBs, and I let fly. Three of them hit. He didn't have PDS, so it was a simple matter of determining the damage inflicted. I rolled a 1, 4 and 5, which of course gave me 20(!) damage dice. Even worse, he also suffered 20 hull hits before we even rolled for the locations.

Luckily, his ship survived, but he had one hull box left, his shields were out of it (not that they did any good in the first place), and half of his long-ranged batteries were smashed. I...was unhurt.

We called it off then, and we're still arguing about whether to outlaw that combination. Or, at least to start issuing PDS systems (if the ship had had PDS, he'd have only suffered eight hull hits) and/or armour plating to ships.

  • Registered: 2005-09-20
  • Posts: 17

Re: Batle Report of an 8,000 point battle played on Sat.

murtalianconfederacy wrote:

One-turn wonder.

[snip]

We called it off then, and we're still arguing about whether to outlaw that combination. Or, at least to start issuing PDS systems (if the ship had had PDS, he'd have only suffered eight hull hits) and/or armour plating to ships.

There's no need to outlaw a combination if there is some way of countering it. That would be like outlawing Scissors because someone keeps playing Paper. If they keep playing Scissors, play Rock.

Oh, and remind your opponent about "Ionic Shielding".  smile

  • Registered: 2006-01-17
  • Posts: 359

Re: Batle Report of an 8,000 point battle played on Sat.

I almost always use armor, and PDS...... usually in combination, especially on my smaller ships.... It's cheaper than high shield ratings with the smaller ships.  I have several designs for heavy corvettes / light frigates in the Hull 4-5 range with shields of 2, PDS and armor.  They are lightly armed , but also cheap, and can attack in swarms.

John

  • Registered: 2005-03-27
  • Posts: 811

Re: Batle Report of an 8,000 point battle played on Sat.

murtalianconfederacy wrote:

One-turn wonder.


There's no need to outlaw a combination if there is some way of countering it. That would be like outlawing Scissors because someone keeps playing Paper. If they keep playing Scissors, play Rock.

I think you'll both find that smaller, better designed ships will do you both better than a single ship.

I personally would rather put 5x100 point ships on the board than 1x600 point ship.  You simply have too many targets to shoot at...

I think you're seeing the problems with the bigger ships in the design system.  It's been created to push you toward the smaller hull sizes.

(IIRC)

  • Registered: 2006-01-17
  • Posts: 740

Re: Batle Report of an 8,000 point battle played on Sat.

All of my ships have PDS.  The big ships also have level 3 screens.  I keep the hexes facing my opponant pumped to 4 and, combined with the PDS, he neds a 6 on penetration rolls to cause damage.  All of my ships have PDS.  Don't leave Home(world) with out it...  <LOL>

Steven GIlchrist, Jacksonville, Fla, USA

  • Registered: 2006-04-16
  • Posts: 5

Re: Batle Report of an 8,000 point battle played on Sat.

i think you'll find it might work out better to go up against him with lots of small ships and tons of fighters.  if you take stealth fighters and ships with cloaking devices and stealth generators it'll really hamper his attacks.  first off, with stealth he can't shoot at you at long range, period.  second, with cloaking and cloaked fighters he won't be able to shoot you until you're well within range of your own nasty weapons.  and if you send marines too he's lost.  enough marines will take out his hulls without a problem.  for that many points you should be OVERWHELMING him worse than those tiny little x-wings did to the death stars

  • Registered: 2005-03-29
  • Posts: 859

Re: Batle Report of an 8,000 point battle played on Sat.

One little problem...

I hate using fighters...:D

And, of course, it was a duel, so having lots of little ships isn't exactly a duel, now, is it?

big_smile

  • Registered: 2006-01-17
  • Posts: 359

Re: Batle Report of an 8,000 point battle played on Sat.

Go with Battle Satellites, then...... or drones.

Force him to concentrate on multiple targets.

John