Aquan Tactics

[Axhead]

After fighting a few battles against the other firestorm races, I have found in the majority of games that the battleship, frigates and carrier are very capable ships were as My cruisers tend to get knocked out of action before they can have much of an impact on the battle.
I use them in a v formation to make use of multiple arc linked fire but unless Im using them as frigate hunters they tend to go either go pop or catch fire whilst still in range band 3, do any other Aquan admirals have any tips to help My pretty pretty cruisers avoid their sad fate??

If you dont have terrain to hid behind, you can either hang back with them or just accept their fate.  If the enemy really wants to kill cruisers and they have LOF, you can expect them to die sooner or later. 

A big part of the game is getting the first effective turn of shooting at range band two.  This doesn't mean run up either your Cruisers or battleship to take one shot only to recieve two in return.  YOU want to be the one getting in the optimal fire with your killers (ie everything except the frigates).  I try to use Flights or Frigates to control the activation order.  A bit of luck helps here too.   If necessary you are often better off going a little slower on one turn so you can get to your optimal range in force the next.

Hope that helps.

[CraigJ]

Thanks for the advice axehead, I played a game against the dindrenzi this afternoon and I use the cruisers as long ranged torp support and frigate hunters, they lasted the length of the battle  destroying one squadron of frigates and seriously damaging the other, playing against a race with decent broadsides will undoubtedly yield different results as the cruisers tend to draw fire in the early stage of a battle  simply because they have a lower crit rate than the other races, guess it will be just a case of seeing how things turn out.

[Warm Steel]

What fleet compositions do you guys use?

At 500pts and at 1,000pt levels?  Many thanks.   

[Axhead]

Thanks for the advice axehead, I played a game against the dindrenzi this afternoon and I use the cruisers as long ranged torp support and frigate hunters, they lasted the length of the battle  destroying one squadron of frigates and seriously damaging the other, playing against a race with decent broadsides will undoubtedly yield different results as the cruisers tend to draw fire in the early stage of a battle  simply because they have a lower crit rate than the other races, guess it will be just a case of seeing how things turn out.

Glad to help.  Hanging back against Dindrenzi seems dangerous due to their big fixed fore guns, but if it worked you can't argue with the results 

[CraigJ]

What fleet compositions do you guys use?

At 500pts and at 1,000pt levels?  Many thanks. 

We have yet to have a points based game we either just use a starter fleets and carriers or we use what ever the scenario calls for so I havent really given much thought to a points based fleet so I shall have a think and post a listing later.

Glad to help.  Hanging back against Dindrenzi seems dangerous due to their big fixed fore guns, but if it worked you can't argue with the results 

I didnt hang back I just tried my best to stay out of the front arc of the cruisers and Battleship while My cruisers got rid of the lethal dindrenzi frigates and My frigates tried to hold the attention of the Dindrenzi cruisers and battle ship.

[Killionaire]

Aquans suffer from having really, really bad cruisers. I mean they're terrible.

Lowest effective CR of any race cruisers (Dindrenzi are 8 CR, Sorylian are 7 CR, Terran are 6 CR + 1 shield). It has too many secondary weapon systems that are easy to neutralize, like mines and torpedoes. They die really, really quickly and their broadsides are only at frigate firepower!

I think the way to go is to run the battleship (since the Aquan battleship is fantastic! That extra maneuverability and the fore/broadside arc split allows easier multiarc firing), and more frigates (who are also kinda bad), but also a carrier as a sort of Battleship Lite. I think the Aquans really do need to rely then on their carriers 2 shields as a more solid gun platform, since it alone outguns two Aquan cruisers, and is harder to kill than two Aquan cruisers IMO.

[CraigJ]

Aquans suffer from having really, really bad cruisers. I mean they're terrible.

Lowest effective CR of any race cruisers (Dindrenzi are 8 CR, Sorylian are 7 CR, Terran are 6 CR + 1 shield). It has too many secondary weapon systems that are easy to neutralize, like mines and torpedoes. They die really, really quickly and their broadsides are only at frigate firepower!

I think the way to go is to run the battleship (since the Aquan battleship is fantastic! That extra maneuverability and the fore/broadside arc split allows easier multiarc firing), and more frigates (who are also kinda bad), but also a carrier as a sort of Battleship Lite. I think the Aquans really do need to rely then on their carriers 2 shields as a more solid gun platform, since it alone outguns two Aquan cruisers, and is harder to kill than two Aquan cruisers IMO.

I agree the Aquan cruiser doesnt stand up well against the other ships in its class (it feels like it should have a dice of shield and and extra AD for  its port and starboard broadsides) , but it is fast enough to make a good Frigate hunter providing you have something that can keep your opponents cruisers busy.
Aquan frigates arent to bad at this but the Aquan carrier peforms more like a Heavy cruiser that carries fighters as a hobby or fashion accessories.

[Killionaire]

Aquans suffer from having really, really bad cruisers. I mean they're terrible.

Lowest effective CR of any race cruisers (Dindrenzi are 8 CR, Sorylian are 7 CR, Terran are 6 CR + 1 shield). It has too many secondary weapon systems that are easy to neutralize, like mines and torpedoes. They die really, really quickly and their broadsides are only at frigate firepower!

I think the way to go is to run the battleship (since the Aquan battleship is fantastic! That extra maneuverability and the fore/broadside arc split allows easier multiarc firing), and more frigates (who are also kinda bad), but also a carrier as a sort of Battleship Lite. I think the Aquans really do need to rely then on their carriers 2 shields as a more solid gun platform, since it alone outguns two Aquan cruisers, and is harder to kill than two Aquan cruisers IMO.

I agree the Aquan cruiser doesnt stand up well against the other ships in its class (it feels like it should have a dice of shield and and extra AD for  its port and starboard broadsides) , but it is fast enough to make a good Frigate hunter providing you have something that can keep your opponents cruisers busy.
Aquan frigates arent to bad at this but the Aquan carrier peforms more like a Heavy cruiser that carries fighters as a hobby or fashion accessories.

Except it doesn't really make a good frigate killer. An Aquan Frigate can throw out 4 AD to broadsides. The same is true for the cruiser. Only the Aquan Frigate hits on 4+, while the Cruiser hits on 5+. The Cruiser has a 6AD fore arc, but even then, that barely breaks even due to the hitting on 5+ vs enemy frigates.

Torpedos really aren't that good, since anyone competent has a tight enough formation to prevent them from doing anything for 90 percent of the game.
Mines are alright for killing frigates, but that requires you to be at point blank range to use effectively, given the rules changes regarding them only exploding if an enemy begins or ends activation in them. Plus, they're double edged swords.

[Axhead]

Well someone needs to have the bottom end Cruisers and we just ended up with the short end of the stick, and it happens to be us.

Sure we can whine about it, or we can figure out how to get the most bang for our buck.  Here is what I see as their good points:

Personally I think they are awesome frigate hunters.  They have wide PW arcs, mines, fast movement and full arc torpedoes.  In this role their DR/CR stats can be seen as an advantage.  Since they are relatively easy to crit, enemy frigates aren't terrified of them since they can actually seriously harm them.  Although this is true their high DR and their decent PD make them quite resistent to frigate fire.

Also their main attack arc is to the front which makes them excellent pursuit/rush craft, since they can go straight at the enemy.  When you factor in the fact that you can have squadrons of 4 Cruisers you are looking at an optimal front fire arc of 15AD, which is enough to crit almost anything with an average roll.  Then you get to dump 10AD of torps on almost anything on the table... By turn 3-4 this will be crushing seperated frigates and finishing off enemy cruisers.  At the same time they can still get serious frigate killing broadsides off.

Most games have a certain amount of rock/paper/scissors effect.  The trick is to make the most of your match ups.  So to follow the analogy if our cruisers are paper we want to apply them against rocks/battle ships/carriers.  Carriers they can take is straight up fights, especially if they get the first shot.  Battle ships are meat on the chopping block if you can get behind them.  

A side effect of our BBs toughness and the fragility of the Cruisers, is that the BB tends to get ignored in favour of attacking the much softer Cruisers.  This lets our BB stay more dangerous for longer.

[Axhead]

Except it doesn't really make a good frigate killer. An Aquan Frigate can throw out 4 AD to broadsides. The same is true for the cruiser. Only the Aquan Frigate hits on 4+, while the Cruiser hits on 5+. The Cruiser has a 6AD fore arc, but even then, that barely breaks even due to the hitting on 5+ vs enemy frigates.

That is a good point, but with frigates you tend to trade on a one for one basis.  With cruisers you should be able to win the engagement and keep your card generating capability. Eventually you will get the repair cards needed to fix any dammage.

Torpedos really aren't that good, since anyone competent has a tight enough formation to prevent them from doing anything for 90 percent of the game.
 

Most people start fairly tight, but they tend to spread out as the game progresses.  Damaged ships often split off to avoid being finished off with main guns and preserve their card generating ability or avoid mines/boarding actions.

Mines are alright for killing frigates, but that requires you to be at point blank range to use effectively, given the rules changes regarding them only exploding if an enemy begins or ends activation in them. Plus, they're double edged swords.

Right but we want to be at point blank range since that is usually the best way to get 3 arcs shooting at the same time.  Again a fair comment on the double edged nature of mines.  I have killed one of my own cruisers and critted my BB with my own mines, but statistically we are more resistent to mines than anyone else.  Personally I would rather use them than not,  if nothing else I find that just dumping tons of mines really affects how my opponent moves.  On terrain heavy tables they can force the other guy to make hard choices which is always to our advantage.

I don't mean to be an Aquan fanboy, but I am generally an optimist and tend to see the glass as being half full.

[Axhead]

.... but the Aquan carrier peforms more like a Heavy cruiser that carries fighters as a hobby or fashion accessories.

All of the carriers seem really low in the FW department.  In WWII, carriers were the real killers. In FSA its the battle ships which are the heavy lifters.  Personally I think this is a good thing since a big part of my enjoyment of any miniature game is the miniatures.  Even if I bought fighter miniatures, they are not nearly as pretty as the glorious big ships.

~edit:fixin' quote tags.

[CraigJ]

I have generally found that the Aquan cruisers DR of 5 has let me shrug off fire from most frigates in the longer range bands and their 10" move has let Me close to range band two pretty quickly, with Me averaging 3 hits from 6 AD against frigates its been working out quite well for Me.
On the other hand when I try and use them against other cruisers I find that Im still only doing one point of damage per attack but the low CR means the return fire results in My cruisers either catching fire (its the most common result rolled against Me when I play as the Aquans) or taking a double critical (which turns up alot in games against the Dindrenzi) and ending up destroyed.
I think we can all agree that our cruisers suck but our Battleship and Carrier more than make up for it

[Axhead]

So if we assume that we are better with Carriers than Cruisers, how would you build a 500 point list?

How about this:

200 Battleship
160  Carrier with 6 Wings
140  7 Frigates
----------------------------
500 points

With the wings I would probably go with interceptors and attach them to the BB and Carrier.

[Graeme]

I flew the Aquans for the first time last night against Dindrenzi and the entire fleet disappeared by the end of turn 4. I assume it was rust. The only real damage I did was when he ran over a mine I had dropped before the last ship crumbled.

[Axhead]

How much terrain did you use? You really want to hide behind asteroid fields and planets as long as possible as you close in.  Since Dindrenzi can be severely handicapped by terrain, I recommend either using the random rules provided or a referee/non-player to set it up and then dice for sides using the initiative rules.

With the Dindrenzi you really need to close the gap and start a circling dog fight or (as you noticed) they will crush you.  If you are playing with cards you really want to get your hands on the following: dual activation and  +2AD in all arcs.  On the way in you want to use disruption fields, Repair and anything that makes you go faster.  I recommend discarding anything else that you can't immediately use.

Hope that helps.