Author Topic: War Stories of Alpha Centauri Arena  (Read 9977 times)

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Offline Nightstar

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Re: War Stories of Alpha Centauri Arena
« Reply #30 on: June 30, 2013, 10:40:49 PM »
Quote
Is anyone interested in seeing me do a 2nd Alpha Centauri arena at a higher tech level once this one ends, and if so would anyone be interested in submitting designs instead of everything being my own creation?
Well, I am anyway. In both.

The railgun fleet is totally going to win the next match. Reduced size lasers and shields can't stand up to railguns and armor. The gauss tanks might have been able to stand up if they had a bit more range on their gauss guns. Mixed fleets were generally going to lose, because less than heavy missile capability does poorly against point defense. However, long missiles and standard missile could both have won, with the right tactics. The problem is, the gargoyles stick out. They're the same size as the orcs, but fewer in number. After knocking them out, point defense and long range scanners drop. I think at least a couple ships from the rail fleet would survive, but basic scatter and run tactics would leave them unable to do much damage before reinforcements come. It'd be close either way I guess.

Anyway, the point is that your winning fleet isn't going to fight either of the two fleets with the best chance against it.
 

Offline sublight (OP)

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Re: War Stories of Alpha Centauri Arena
« Reply #31 on: July 13, 2013, 01:21:15 PM »
Link to sign-up for the Alpha Centauri 2 challenge.

Writing Style #8: Simplicity
Black Box recordings Classic Missiles fighting Guass Tanks


1st June 2026: 00:00
Opposing fleets enter the Alpha Centauri System.

5th June 2026: 00:24
Guass EM sensors detect the Falaq active scanners.

5th June 2026: 5:14
Missile Fleet detects Guass fleet on active scanners.

5th June 2026 6:35
Missile fleet launches the first of 3 SuckerPunch waves consisting of 8 salvos of 3 missiles. Each wave targets a different ship of a different class.

5th June 2026 7:18
Guass fleet detects the first approaching wave of missiles. 10 seconds later Guass turrets destroy every missile. The Guass fleet goes on to destroy every incoming missile.

5th June 2026 7:20
The Classic missile fleet begins the regrettably necessary task of closing to a point blank range of 128k km. The two fath colliers that still have full ammunition loads are detached to stay clear of the fighting.

5th June 2026 13:41
The Guass particle beams open fire for the first time at a range of 146k km. Fire is split between one Falaq and one Nahid. 5 shots hit.

The Missile fleet then launches, targeting the Cacle first. 4 missiles are destroyed by CIWS, but the armor is breached and one CIWS is destroyed. The second wave looses only 1 missile and destroys the Cacle with massive overkill.

5th June 2026 13:42
The Missile fleet has no EM sensors and is unable to detect the resolution 1 scanners used by the Guass fleet. They decide to target the Moyotes next since those are firing twice as many of the pesky particle cannons. By now one missile ship, Falaq 015, is streaming atmosphere through holes in the thin armor.

5th June 2026 13:42:41
Falaq 015 is now only marginally combat capable. Roughly half of all combat related components have been destroyed, and the armor belt is reduced to small scabby patches of protection. Orders are given for the wounded Falaq to withdraw.

5th June 2026 13:43:06
After repeated pounding the Moyote tank is finally starting to stream atmosphere. The wounded Falaq is still floundering trying to acknowledge orders and has drifted 14k km closer to the gauss fleet. While the Falaq continues to take the majority of hits, the Nahid 011 has also started to stream atmosphere.

5th June 2026 13:43:46
The injured Falaq -finally- gets under way after drifting to within 85k km of the enemy. The targeted Moyote is still stubbornly alive, even if it has fallen out of formation due to engine damage. With only 6 ASM missiles left to fire the rest of the missile fleet is given orders to retreat to a safe distance to rearm from colliers.

5th June 2026 13:44:46
The missile fleet makes good its escape with no losses, even if the Falaq 15 is too badly damaged to risk in combat again.

5th June 2026 18:01
The lightly damaged Nahid has finishes field repairs, and the missile fleet transfers the last collier carried ASM to the attack ships.

5th June 2026 21:35:36
Round 2 begins. The Gauss tanks target one of the smaller Fath colliers. Both of their previously damaged targets stayed behind for this fight.

5th June 2026 21:36:11
The first wave of point blank Suckerpunch strike the previously damaged Moyote, destroying it.

5th June 2026 21:36:41
The second wave of point blank missiles strikes the remaining Moyote. The guass fleet realizes the wave was smaller than when the fleets first met and correlates this with the absence of the previusly damaged ships. The particle guns switch targets to one of the Falaq.

5th June 2026 21:37:41
The 2nd Moyote is destroyed by the 4th wave of point blank missile in the clash. The guass have less than a third of their starting particle cannons still firing. The Missile fleet is down to 6 ASMs. Orders are given to empty magazines into a Zenzontle and begin the retreat.

30th June 2026 17:54:06
Missile reinforcements make transit, and identify the Zenzontle as having Res-1 scanners. The Zenzontle open fire with two guass turrets and the particle beam each while holding the remainder for point defense. This totals about 25 points of damage every tick.

30th June 2026 17:54:31
The guass tanks fire targeting the Flaq, Nahid, and one of the Fath. The Fath starts to immediately vent atmosphere.

30th June 2026 17:55:11
The missile reinforcements finally overcome their terror and confusion and start moving. The Nahid and one of the Fath have already been destroyed.

30th June 2026 17:55:21
The Falaq manages to limp outside of guass turret range. Slowed as it is it is still faster than the guass tanks. The Fath didn't make it.

30th June 2026 17:55:56
63k km into its run for freedom particle cannon hits destroy the Falaq's last engine leaving it dead in space. Three more rounds of particle beam shots are enough to make the kill.

30th June 2026 18:00
The Missile Fleet surrenders.

------------------------------------
Alternative Ending:

5th June 2026 13:42
Instead of targeting the Moyote the Missile fleet hypothetically targets the Zenzontles instead. The next two clashes play out as before, but leave two intact Moyotes instead of intact Zeenzontles.

30th June 2026
With no active scanners the Moyote are helpless to stop the missile reinforcements. The Missile fleet now has 120 new ASMs to use to take down the arriving guass reinforcements.

6th July 2026
Having found the Cacles, the missile fleet once again closes to point blank range and opens fire: launching 6 waves of 20 missiles, with two waves targeting each cacle.

When the dust clears all three cacles are heavily damaged beyond complete repair, but all are intact and one still has a working active scanner.

8th July 2026
All reinforcing cacles finish repairing at least one engine, and make speed toward the missile fleet entry point. Faced with proof that they can't stop fleet guass the missile fleet surrenders.


Winner: Guass fleet.
Casualties:
   Guass Fleet: 1x Cacle, 2x Moyote
   Classic Missiles: 1 reinforcement wave.

The Classic Missile fleet might have won if they were allowed to use their AMM offensively. Alternatively, they may have won if the fath colliers carried only half as many AMMs to make room for an extra 17 ASMs per collier.
 

Offline sublight (OP)

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Re: War Stories of Alpha Centauri Arena
« Reply #32 on: July 17, 2013, 09:40:29 PM »
> Very Long Ranged Missile
Ineterestingly, the long range missiles again just fail to kill the carriers entirely. This fleet has better luck in that it'll likely spot the fighters before opening fire with the smaller missiles. More fun, while the smaller missiles can probably cripple all the fighters, there may not be quite enough left to finish the carriers. If a carrier can repair itself and a couple fighters, (or you just keep one of each fighter in reserve) the long range missile fleet may end up destroyed by a pair of mesons. Disadvantages of having no beam weaponry!

Nightstar called this one.

At the end of the opening round the Long Range Missiles were left with 2x Short Stop, while the Beam Fighters had 2x E-carreries (one undamaged, one badly damaged) plus four meson fighters (one in hangers for repairs) leaving three meson cannons active when the reinforcements arrived.

In the following fight One grendal collier was crippled before it could escape and destroyed, while the other grendal managed to escape. The fighters then turned on the slow Woden class cruiser, but the Woden cruiser managed to recover from jump blindness first, seriously damaging one fighter, killing a second, and nearly destroyed the previously damaged E-carrier before being destroyed.

I'll post a proper ARR when the fight ends, because the battle is now into the 2nd reinforcement wave and the outcome is still inconclusive. If the Beam Fighters win, then they would next face a rematch against Guass Tanks which they would win. That would guarantee that beam fighters would make my top 3 list of recommended ion-era fleet tactics. Am a that bad at designing missile fleets, did the beam fighters get lucky, or are beam fighters actually viable in 6.x?