Telan's most recent post greatly seemed to diminish what I saw as a well-played tactical maneauver which he should legitimately have no defence against. I maneauverd my ships in such a way so that the six Claymore class Battlecruisers that form the 'core' of my fleet were pointing at the heart of three Star Destroyers of his fleet. Facing the top instead of the front, you see what I mean.
I got into this position quite quickly - in fact, the Empire had to roll their ships over so that I was not facing their underbelly. This was in fact a cunning trap, as meant I was facing the top of his ships, allowing me to fire boarding torpedoes right into his heart.
The key advantage of the Claymore is speed and maneauverability, two things which his Star Destroyers lack by comparison, so I declared the Claymores would rush forwards to point-blank, and fire off a salvo of boarding torpedoes before breaking their formation and scattering - sharply turning out of the way and using their limited Pulse shielding to protect themselves from return fire.
Telan reacted to this by declaring that one Star Destroyer had been hit by no torpedoes, as they had all been destroyed by point-defences. The others were hit by less, and were somehow 'contained' - as though they all landed in the same place and deployed as one. This seems inconsistent with what I believe would be the more accurate response - i.e. the targeted star destroyers would probably be hit by all, or nearly all, the torpedoes and would now be dealing with as many as two hundred and forty soldiers (the full troop complement of the Claymore) aboard their ships.
His primary defence is that his shields and point defence guns would be adequete to bring down most of my torpedoes.
I retort, by saying that his shields - especially the weaker particle shields - have taken a sever beating and are almost certainly down. Before this, his Star Destroyers took salvos of my very large Particle Projector cannons, which considering there are two Claymores for every Star Destroyer and the salvos were on target would probably bring down his shields. That was augmented by a vicious broadside exchange combined with all the fire we could muster while charging directly at them. If their shields were to withstand all of this, it would be quite a feat.
As for his point defence guns, my two-pronged argument against their usefulness in this situation is a) how close and how fast the torpedoes struck and b) the defences of the torpedoes. Each torpedo carries twenty men and is really a large shuttle in it's own right. The front third of a Claymore is little more then a large firing mechanism for these torpedoes. They are shielded and armored. These are not maneauverable fighters or tiny missiles but hulking fists, passing at point-blank range.
The Claymore's great ability is it's speed and maneauverability, as I said. I reported it getting close, firing, and turning away. To expect the enemy to be able to bring both enough firepower to bring down the torpedoes at that odd angle as well as in that brief moment of time seems very unlikely indeed. Were I firing a volley at mid range right at him, then sure, I'd expect half would be lost easily, but these are not pathetic nor any lower tech then your own new technology, and to dismiss them as such may be all right for an Imperial character, but not for the roleplayer.
But to cut the techno-babble and all that jazz, I think the most significant point is that it was a skilled maneauver using a weapon the Empire has not fought before and is unprepared to defend itself against. I feel I have outwitted Telan to some respect, by negating the effectivness of his powerful weapons and moving him into a position for me to use mine. All he has to defend himself with are weapons not meant for the task and not in a good position to do so in the first place - it would not be by his own virtues for him to foil me here, and his technology certainly doesn't seem in any measure greater then mine to warrant it.
That is the gist of my argument, more or less. The Boarding torpedoes should be on target and a pressing concern, as I am in an excellent position and Telan lacks both a strategy or a superior weapon to defend himself with.
