[0rph3u5]

First Impression of Eldar: Growing Pains, I am having a bit of hard time adjusting (and that every MP enemy right now is playing Eldar too isn't helping) but that is good...

Yes, I am. I am microing their movement as much as possible; luckily, Eldar have enough speed to actually disengage from a fight if necessary. They do not get the Imperial boost or fast turn or the Ork long boost, instead they have a short sharp speed burst on a very short cooldown.

There is also a skill that gives you an imdiate 180° turn, very useful

[0rph3u5]

So got over the bump in the learning curve today - I really like Alaitoc-favour: You have the Eldar Speed when moving, you got the broad access to Torpedoes from the Eldar ships and you are always silent running when you stop (which considering my preference to saturate the map with torpedoes, is basically the first 3-5 minutes of a game)...

[Mikes]

I'm kinda partial to Biel-Tan right now, especially on the smaller cruisers.

One of Eldars major weaknesses is being boarded ... but with Biel-Tan you suddenly got 70 base Troop strenght (79 with Crew) and with the Avatar and LS upgrade boarding suddenly becomes a major strenght on top of everything else that Eldar got going for them. :-)

Especially facing other Eldar it's nice, as it gives you a weapon that is unaffected by Holofields and 70-79 troop strenght with triple assault actions per Strike vs. base Eldar troop strenght of 50 is just NASTY.

[0rph3u5]

Biel Tan is broken ... it's certififed bug

[The E]

There are few things more satisfying in this game than unleashing the full power of a Voidstalker and two Eclipses on ... well, anything, really. I am not sure how well they work in multiplayer since there's a lot of tactical cogitating involved in setting up shots, but goddamn is it nice to just blow things up with massive amounts of beam fire.

Here pictured: The Voidstalker Testament of Lost Gods


It is so beautiful....

[crizza]

So, started playing today...
The three campaign missions, well, I hope once the game is released, you have the option to repjay lost missions, who would've thought these bloody orks would go straight for the transports.
Now I'm skirmishing.
A single Dominator and up to three escorts are nice, although the Firestorm is kind of a sitting target.
But ramming... glorious, glorious ramming, my Dominator was ordered to close the distance, but as I ordered it to charge it smashed straight through a Chaos Cruiser
On my first battle my two cruisers were obliterated by Eldar, holy ****

[StarSlayer]

Dominator is probably the best line cruiser in the IN, I like pairing it with a Gothic for the mix of Batteries and Lances.  I find the Sword to be the best IN escort, especially once upgraded.  They are cheap and fairly autonomous, Cobras and Firestorms need to be micro'd quite a bit more.

[crizza]

How does upgrading escorts work?
At level two you don't get upgrade slots, will they come later?

[The E]

Yeah, you unlock upgrade slots for escorts and transports at higher levels.

[crizza]

So... Level 5 recently... there are several things which could be improved.
Solo skirmished would be neat to actually choose the mission type.
Data recovery, well, I figured I could steal the data with a ightning strike, but was totally surprised when they stole it back, disabled my reactor somehow and I could not abot the jump, but the enemy warped out the second the recovered their data.
And hell, eldar CPU is horrible, as I lost all my escorts I managed to warp out at least, although there was just one cruiser against my two badly damaged. Not to mention I lost one cruiser during warp flight for one round

Next up is a battlecruiser if I can afford it

Overall I like the game   

[StarSlayer]

Yeah make sure you don't auto cast and reserve all your the lightning/boarding actions in data recovery regardless of being attacker or defender.  That info can change hands multiple times.

[rubixcube]

Launch Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3w3XeHpsis

Best trailer yet! 

[crizza]

I think I slowly get the hang of this.
Convoi missions I split the transports and they also got an upgrade letting them afterburn longer.

Which battle cruiser though?
Mars or Overlord?

[StarSlayer]

I typically consolidate my convoy into as tight a formation as possible and shoot them up the map border while I have my warships form up between them and the enemy.  It drastically limits enemy approach vectors and they often end up grinding themselves up on my entire escort force in dribs and drabs.  That said I only play against the AI, YMMV in PVP.

The Overlord is basically a Tyrant with dorsal lances, for the points I don't think it offers enough of an upgrade over taking a line cruiser and more escorts. Mars on the other hand is basilisk with her carrier capability, decent batteries, lances and Nova Cannon. 

While I usually follow the "Specialist Ships, Generalist Fleet" doctrine, Mars is the exception.  I like the overall flexibility she provides as both a standoff threat with her strike birds and NC while still being able to "get stuck in" as it were.  Subject to match size I usually take a Mars along to pretty much everything.

[NGTM-1R]

I ran a very attack-craft-light fleet for skirmish; both my battlecruisers were Overlords. I was generally happy with it, as they provided excellent firepower.

That said, the Mars is rather like the Lunar (mainly because a single Nova Cannon shot isn't that impressive, but several of them will wreck faces): one Mars alone will lose to one enemy BC more than half the time, but two Mars will beat any two enemy BCs more than half the time.

As for convoy, I tend to place an unescorted transport on one side of the map, and the rest under escort on the other, minimizing enemy engagement windows by judicious use of All Ahead Full. The unescorted transport is usually dead meat but will often draw off several escorts or a cruiser and prevent them from attacking the others.

[NGTM-1R]

Musical Data Theft is probably my least-favorite thing in this game.

[crizza]

Right now I'm loosing planets faster than I can reconquer them.
Data theft works, if you're not up against Eldar, planetary bombardment as attacker is rather easy too, but as a defender...

Well I guess loosing more planets than you are able to defend is a way to reflect the hopeless situation of the empire.

[StarSlayer]

Did they open up the Single Player Campaign?  I thought they only had a couple missions long intro available.

[crizza]

The game is live since the 21st

Spoiler:

According to lore, Abaddon aquired the hand of night and eye of darkness to operate the blackstone fortresses. But I snatched both away and they are now kept at Port Maw, wonder where this is going... usable blackstones for the imperial navy? You better flee back into the eye traitors

[StarSlayer]

Huh, I did not notice.

I've been hooked into Naval Action as of late and until I make Capitaine de Pavillon, probably will stay that way.