Federation Commander

Storyelf was posting in another area that the Andro's don't do well in fleets. Mainly that fleets using mass fire penetrate the PA panels and the other andro ships are deprived of power because they're not being fired upon.

I can see that being a problem, but does anyone have tactical solutions?

Would spreading your ships do any good or just invite defeat in detail?

I'm still working on one!

I'm struggling at the moment, they are great in small games, but when you get to larger games (and can't just take a single monster mothershp) then it is difficult.

Assuming the rules are not goinmg to change, I can only think of 2 ways so far, introduce a mega monster mothership that allows them to remain a 1 ship force even at 1000pts (the sort that has 26 front panels and 8 TRHs type of thing!!). But that means no one ever has any reason to use satellite ships, except as a single for point filling (so not really a 'fleet' tactic anyway). Which is a shame, as that is part of what makes them interesting.

The other is to use lots of satellite ships. They are the best Andros if you want raw firepower (though they still suck beyond range 3 compared to most galactic ships), they also suffer slightly less from the lack of power that affects them when not being shot at. Being somewhat expendable at the best of times you don't suffer as bad when they pop. The problem is that you need motherships to use satellite ships, and the bigger ones are terrible when it comes to the firepower they bring for the points, though they do bring disdevs which are great. That leaves you with half your points in 1 or 2 ships that have a great big target on them.

I think the best tactic I have at the moment is to place all the satellite ships several hexes in front of the motherships - you want the satellite ships getting to the range you intend to shoot (range 0-3 probably) whilst the motherships are far enough back to make any return fire a lot less effective than shooting at satellites. You will lose satellites fast, but if you can weaken the galactics a lot whilst preserving the motherships then you may get to the point where the enemy cannot just blast through PA panels, and the motherships can then engage in their standard battle of attrition, relying on usual Andro energy twiddling whilst they finish off the enemy.

To that end I'm thinking that firing the satelittes such that you will cripple enemy ships rather than kill them may be the way forward. If my 1000 pt double intruder force faces about 7 cruisers then I can probably kill 3 cruisers on the first pass, but there may not be much left of the sats by the time they are rearmed, that would leave 4 cruisers vs 2 intruders maybe. If I go for crippling then I might be able to more or less cripple 5 ships using aimed volleys (to make them especially weak in whichever category I want). With only 2 decent ships left and 5 that struggle to do much it is possible that 2 Intruders might be better off even though there are more ships still left to deal with.

PS I posted this quite some time ago

This may be more campaign tactics. For instance ,if you we in a say 4 player campaign (Andro, LDR, Gorn, Fed).

You should look at which enemy, your ships work best against. (This would most likely be the Gorn!) Attack and Destroy them! Don't be sidetrack!

I sorry I can't offer any further help. I do hope you do not think there is any other motive.

I was wondering whether giving Andros enhanced sensors might help. I've read a couple of comments from SFB postings about Andros that said the they tended to be very good at EW, at least partially due to large amounts of battery power (and SFB mechanics). Whether they had some more explicit EW bonuses I don't know.

Enhancing sensors to provide a +2 on defensive jamming might be a way of FedCom'ing their EW advantage from the base game, whilst at the same time giving them an edge that only kicks in with scout ships - which tend to be less useful in smaller games (so maybe less likely to affect an area where they are already OK) but are more or less a 'must have' in larger games anyway (at least amongst our local group).

That would also make the Infestor/Missionary that was talked about in the other thread referred to in the OP more worth the points that Mwest was saying they are going to be.


Has anyone else had any experience of playing Andros in larger squadron/fleet style games, without relying on sticking with motherships and just a filler satellite to make up points?