Where to go, what to conquer, what to build?
These questions are perfectly reasonable in the light that the Shaltari are not an easy faction to wrap ones head around. In today's article we will go over some things that the shaltari might need more of than other Factions. I am no expert and have less play time with the Shaltari than any other faction so this may not be a long post.
So you have gone feet first to the enemy's base eh?
On paper the Shaltari do not have much in the way of decisive firepower and their ships can fold faster than any other faction due to low Hull and low armor however they have the best Point Defense in the game, some unique weapons and maybe an extremely strong Troop game. Well lets get into it!
What you have currently:
If you built the recommended fleet you will have
3x Voidgates
2x Topaz-class Frigates
2x Jade-class Crigates
1x Emerald-class Mothership
1x Amber-class Cruiser
1x Obsidian-class Heavy Cruiser
This is a great selection. Not only viable but tough enough to be a good seed fleet so it will be easy(ish) to expand from here. I will warn, you will need more cruiser for they come with the life blood of your list, Motherships and Voidgates.
How to Expand:
The Shaltari are the only fleet I will really have to explain on how you should expand. This is because the Shaltari have an extra add on to their Cruiser Sprue. The Void Gate.
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| Shaltari Cruiser Sprue |
Due to this, you will need 3 Voidgates per Emerald-class Mothership you wish to bring. So I HIGHLY recommend 3 of the Starter sets before moving onto other kits to add ships on. This gives you 9 Void gates and 3 Motherships which I recommend for 1500 points. You really want 4 Void gates per Mothership so that you can use them to create a Gate Network and have extras in case you lost a couple.
Other Ships:
A few other ships to consider with your expansion are the Basalt-class Fleet Carrier. As a Launch 4 Asset it can provide you with a host of tactical decisions as well as be an aggressive platform that can reach out and touch ships up to 30" away!
Another is the Turquoise and her sister ships. They are Bombardment ships but they can also force ships away with their 12" Close Action Weapons and then bombard targets!
For a bit of fun and full on shenanigans that will not work all the time, I HIGHLY recommend the Aquamarine and if you are feeling really cheeky the Palladium which is just a Turquoise and Aquamarine combined! Though you do have to be a Kickstarter backer and have ordered one of the Adamants. If not you will have to wait till retail in Springs 2017 or so for the Sapphire. The Aquamarine has Gravity Coils so you can force ships to spin around. . . if you hit.
Frigates:
Shaltari frigates are mean! You have the Bean Close Action that can just ruin days and the Particle wielding frigate as your specials and they are great for what they do. However, never forget some Shield Boosting Opals!
Thoughts:
The Shaltari have a lot of cool toys to play with and are a blast when played correctly. They however do fold under heavy fire so be careful of that! Use your range and be a smart hedgehog!
I honestly don't think you can fit 3 motherships into a 1,500 point list, just like you can't fit 3 PHR Troopships into one, even though we would like to do that. You just don't end up with enough free points or slots to take the firepower/other options you need for the rest of that fleet. At least, that's what it feels like to me, but time will tell...
ReplyDeleteMajor Awesome has put up a nice 1,500 pointer on the Hawk Forum. www.hawkforum.co.uk. Dropfleet Commander Forum >> Advice on Creating Armies. Check it out...
So there is an issue with your thought though. 3 Motherships is 180 in Voidgates and what, 300 in the ships. That leaves you with 1020 for everything else.
DeleteYou can try with 2 Motherships but you will lose in the ability to deploy to just a single troopship.
If you can only drop 6 units and turn and they can 12 who is going to win that?
It just doesn't seem to work out to take 3. But I'll keep trying. 8^D
DeleteI've got to try Derek Ho's spreadsheet, see if it helps me wrap my head around the points consumption...
Well if an opponent took 2 dropships and 4 Strike Carrier's like I think will be the norm. Then they have 8 drops a turn compared to the Shaltari 6-7. Seems like just a little less but Troopships allows for a Turn 1 drop as well as more troops so you can go from contesting a cluster to owning it.
DeleteYou need to factor in the voidgates ability to act as a defense battery. This can be the reason you can drop to 2 motherships and still compete in the ground game.
DeleteI disagree. At best you are shooting down 50% of bulk landers and 33% of dropships but the opponent can also drop defense batteries and shoot down 33% of your gates. If you come up against someone who is bold enough to have 6 Strike Carriers and 2-3 Troopships you WILL be spread too thin to reinforce by transferring tokens to other clusters.
Delete