Battle Report: Terrans Vs. Dindrenzi

[Ruckdog]

I just posted a report on the blog for the 1000 point game I played with Ryjak last Saturday!

http://www.manbattlestations.com/blog/2016/02/03/firestorm-armada-terrans-vs-dindrenzi/

[Quickdraw]

That sounds like one of those games that is just a grind from the beginning.
I think the focus on torpedoes was really the biggest hurdle in this game. From what I've heard interceptors are HUGE at adepticon, so any reliance on torpedoes is going to be tough (unless you bring those great nuclear spook torpedoes on the battlecruisers).

[Ryjak]

More accurately, the folks from Michigan have found that Interceptors are basically overpowered, so they always bring plenty.   My last two games have featured 11 to 12 of them, and I agree.

Even after I destroyed the Terran Battleship, I thought it was anyone's game.  My lead cruiser squadron was on the verge of completely crumpling; my carrier was severely damaged.  I just got ridiculously lucky when I one-shotted the Carrier.  The odds of that outcome was about 1%.

[DonWade]

It seems to me that the popularity of Terrans due to their Battlestar looks, inclusion in Valhalla, and players instant ability to identify with them (being human) leads a lot of folks to play them.  Heck, half the fleets at Genghis Con were Terran.  Add that torps are such a tempting weapon system due to being unaffected by terrain and not suffering from hull point and crew degradation and you have a situation where every experienced Zenian player knows they need to double down on things that negate torps effectiveness (namely escorts, interceptors and stealth systems).

Three of my regular opponents are Dindrenzi, pure RSN, and Directorate and it only took them one or two games against my Terrans and Hawker (and my lovely guaranteed 14 torp AD Makalu cruisers) to realize this and tailor there lists against torps.

To counter the anti-torp counter my Terran lists have taken the focus off of the castled up behind asteroids torp ships and I'm much more likely to bring shunt bombing Missionaries and flanking nuke Destroyers and Marshals (at 1200pts or higher).  I've also begun experimenting with Horizon assault cruisers as nobody expects a Terran list to actually try boarding.  They're not spectacular but they bring 5 AP each and the Aegis accompaniment adds survival if they're driving up the board (at the cost of an extra BL if the enemy blows it up).

Let em spend all those points negating my torpedoes, I want counting on them anyway.

The problem with this in the tourney setting is whether or not your shunting or flanking reserves will even get on the table in 3 or 4 turns as getting beyond that seems unlikely in 2.5 hours.  Also, Prefect Timing or Charter Legacy (if you have access in your fleet build) TACs become a necessity just to get em on the table.  Even with Prefect Timing it's still not a given they'll get on the board before round 4, if you even get that far.

Effective indirect fire that there is no counter to has me seriously looking at Tarakians.

Edit: Also, I am not a huge fan of decimator warheads (due to being very situational) but holy crap they can ruin the chances of escorts providing PD.  Note that the escorts themselves are not capital class and do not take critical effects the Decimator Warheads MAR just says you have to exceed CR...not that a critical hit needs to happen and it effects the WHOLE squadron.  Could be useful in dealing with escort PD.

[Ryjak]

It's definately a balancing act.  The main issue here, balance-wise, is Interceptors effectively shut down Torps and Boarding, and can potentially stop Bombers and Fighters for a very low cost (if you ignore the carrier cost).  This is compounded by the fact there really is no viable counter to SRE in general, and Interceptors in particular.  However, in order to really use them, you will need to cluster around them, which leaves you VERY vulnerable to Direct Fire Nuclear weapons.  Ruckdog may forget, but there were two times when he almost landed a fleet-splashing Nuke... But CR 8 is a tough target.

The Tarakians have the same issue, as my buddy BigBen can attest, as Torpedoes are really their primary weapon.  The Gravity Weapons are more like a secondary weapon for when your opponent has Interceptors everywhere.

My advice, as a Terran player, is to either:

Shunt-entry half your fleet
Bring Allies with a different attack style

You have a 66% chance to bring in any unit Turn 3; Pefect Timing and Battlelog allows you to mitigate this further.  Use Charter Legacy Turn 4 if you have to, as only a 6 will ruin your Reserve day.

Or bring Allies; Terrans have a boatload of Allies (Hawker, Traders, Syndicate) which compliment them quite well.