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Post by drwyrard on Aug 21, 2010 1:44:14 GMT -5
One of the fleets I've put together is entirely composed of rapid deployment ships. They're aliens, and I figured this would give a very different feel to them, as opposed to the clunkier, oft-heavier ships of humanity.
I was wondering what people thought of RDF fleets, generally--their weaknesses/ strengths and how they should be used.
The one thing I find daunting is the lack of screen ships. I can max out on point defense, but is that enough against a missile-heavy opponent? My fleet has maneuverability, granted, but my enemy can always discharge their missiles at close range. Hmm...
On the plus side, there's the tech levels. An RDF fleet can't have BBs, so there isn't much need to put any points in orbital manufacturing, meaning one can put points elsewhere.
If anyone's had much luck (good or bad!) with rapid fleets, I'd be fascinated to know.
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Post by warchariot on Aug 21, 2010 16:23:21 GMT -5
CB is really designed to have multi-roles in the fleet. You have already pointed out two disadvantages in not having screens or BBBs. The strenght, of course is the abiliity to get behind the enemy where only missile weapons are likely to bear. I would pointed out (again) that missiles are NOT close in weapons. There is a long thread at: www.steeldreadnought.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=cb&action=display&thread=53Which talks indepth about this.
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Post by drwyrard on Aug 21, 2010 20:56:26 GMT -5
Thanks for the link, there. Quite a thread; very informative.
One thing I've been thinking is that I could always build a screen ship and fill it full of engines (Delta 4 or 5 maybe), so that it might keep up (in theory) with all its RDF chums. As for the lack of BBs... maybe build battle cruisers are that designed with BB-killing in mind; tooled up with railguns and/or plasma torpedoes.
I fully accept building a total RDF fleet may be an act of folly, but I always seem to go through a dog-chasing-cars phase when it comes to a new set of rules!
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Post by warchariot on Aug 21, 2010 22:30:28 GMT -5
Been there, done that...
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unclejoe
Lieutenant Commander
Posts: 199
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Post by unclejoe on Aug 22, 2010 11:02:42 GMT -5
An ALL RDF fleet? Probably not the best plan. As you've noted, a fast Screen ship is a good addition. Also, I would highly recommend a minimum size Flag BC (likely a missile ship so it can stay back out of harm's way). The power of RDFs goes up SIGNIFICANTLY if you can control the initiative. And I think if you play without the speed limit and/or without the 'relativistic distortion' rule that eventually your RDF fleets will completely mop-up battleline or defender fleets without much problem.
We eventually decided that RDF was too powerful for the opportunity cost and modified them down somewhat. This has resulted in far more interesting games for us where missiles and terrain matter more (RDFs make a mockery of them otherwise).
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Post by warchariot on Aug 22, 2010 16:02:15 GMT -5
We use the speed limit rule and have tried Joe's RDF limits with good results. This does mean a more balanced fleet is a better fleet. I forget about the Flagships as we use those with a dual role as described in the house rules section.
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Post by TheDreadnought on Aug 22, 2010 21:10:21 GMT -5
Yeah, I'm considering adopting Joe's RDF tweak in the 2.1 release.
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