ESGs and Stingers
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 4:09 am
Credit goes to TJolley for this one. It was first posted in the playtesting thread, but I felt it deserved discussion here.
Normally, when firing, your Stinger fighters will want to be spread out so that all of them can fire. If you expect the enemy to use an offensive ESG burst on your Stingers then bunching them up can be better.
Here's an example:
9 Stingers are in a hex, at range 1 to a Lyran heavy cruiser. The cruiser has full ESGs and fires a 10-point offensive ESG burst (40 points of damage between 9 targets), resulting in five Stingers suffering four points of damage and four Stingers each suffering five points of damage. The Lyran then declares that it is firing some phaser-1s to finish off the half-dead Stingers. Three of the targeted Stingers declare me-too fire, getting a last shot in before they die. On the next impulse, the survivors spread out so they can all fire, and wreck the Lyran CA.
Some observations:
- The Stingers don't even need to all be in the same hex, just at the same range. That is, all at range 1.
- The more Stingers, the less damage each will take and the less chance of being destroyed before it can fire. In fact, the more junk in the hex with the Stingers the better: ships, admin shuttles, (even drones if you are flying a mixed force).
- You need a certain critical mass for it to work. In the example, if we assume the Lyran CA has sufficient energy and is undamaged, and the Stingers are on the centreline: Four disruptors will kill the four Stingers with five points of damage. The four phaser-3s will kill two more Stingers, the six phaser-1s will kill three more, so all nine are dead while only three can fire. That's a best-case scenario for the Lyran, of course.
- If the Lyran player is flying at Base Speed 16 or above, he may choose to tractor Stingers which could not fire, then death drag them. At one point of power each for a guaranteed kill, plus acceleration cost if necessary, it's cheap. Just hope you take out his tractor beams.
Normally, when firing, your Stinger fighters will want to be spread out so that all of them can fire. If you expect the enemy to use an offensive ESG burst on your Stingers then bunching them up can be better.
Here's an example:
9 Stingers are in a hex, at range 1 to a Lyran heavy cruiser. The cruiser has full ESGs and fires a 10-point offensive ESG burst (40 points of damage between 9 targets), resulting in five Stingers suffering four points of damage and four Stingers each suffering five points of damage. The Lyran then declares that it is firing some phaser-1s to finish off the half-dead Stingers. Three of the targeted Stingers declare me-too fire, getting a last shot in before they die. On the next impulse, the survivors spread out so they can all fire, and wreck the Lyran CA.
Some observations:
- The Stingers don't even need to all be in the same hex, just at the same range. That is, all at range 1.
- The more Stingers, the less damage each will take and the less chance of being destroyed before it can fire. In fact, the more junk in the hex with the Stingers the better: ships, admin shuttles, (even drones if you are flying a mixed force).
- You need a certain critical mass for it to work. In the example, if we assume the Lyran CA has sufficient energy and is undamaged, and the Stingers are on the centreline: Four disruptors will kill the four Stingers with five points of damage. The four phaser-3s will kill two more Stingers, the six phaser-1s will kill three more, so all nine are dead while only three can fire. That's a best-case scenario for the Lyran, of course.
- If the Lyran player is flying at Base Speed 16 or above, he may choose to tractor Stingers which could not fire, then death drag them. At one point of power each for a guaranteed kill, plus acceleration cost if necessary, it's cheap. Just hope you take out his tractor beams.
