Possible use for Avalons?

posted on March 2nd, 2010, 3:39 pm

I've been running around playing as Risner for a few days and trying to come up with interesting ways to win.  From what I picked up, the Avalon's and Phalanx were more or less dead weight and as such I avoided them like the plague. 

However, I love the way the Avalon looks, so I needed to find some way to play it.  And I found that they do work fairly well as fleet support.  Their impressive phaser damage and long range, coupled with fighters makes them excellent fire support platforms for akira/intrepid groups.  Plus they are available one chassis earlier than sovvie's and defiants (by the time I run in with the euradi yard, im already at chassis 2 for the akiras).  They are fairly adept at stripping shields from smaller ships with their phasers and opening them up for torpedos.  It played the part of a hybrid artillery support ship excellently. 

Compared to the remore, the standard mid-late game support vessel, the avalons don't enjoy the delightful and evil ECM and vector calc abilities and the precise volley is also a shield killer.  However, for someone whose strong point is not microing, the avalons are a lot easier to coordinate.  Remore's also expend their energy rather quickly if used for shield killing, which means you must choose targets with extreme prejudice.  Against mid game cruiser/destroyer fleets, I personally think avalons have slightly more to offer in the category of artillery support. Working in coordination with remore ECM and akira firepower, the results are impressive.

Eventually I lumped them into a group of five and had them tag along with a group of akira/intrepid/canaveral.  With all the little specials being microed, and using tricobalt torps on unshielded big targets when I needed a little extra burst damage.  It became even better endgame with a couple of sovvies to kill pursuit ship's engines if they tried to rush the avalons.  The damage it deals is consistent and accurate and I have found it to possibly not be the black sheep it is claimed to be. 

Any thoughts are welcome and appreciated so i know if I'm on to something or if my brother/ the AI are both just inept in this case.  The strategy has worked so far against all but the borg (for good reason) and the romulan/dominion late game battleships because thier shields are too thick and the avalon is a bit too slow to escape.  But by that late, there are better options anyway, and the remore's shield kill works wonders. 

posted on March 2nd, 2010, 4:05 pm

The Avalon and Phalanx have both become very useful vessels since this patch.  Anything you read about them being underpowered was from previous versions, where they simply didn't cut it.  But they've finally become useful.  So you're on the right track!

posted on March 2nd, 2010, 10:34 pm

Aye, I can only second what Mal has said - the fighter carrier is now quite impressive (as is the Phalanx). Always important to look at the dates on the forum posts as they can tend to be inaccurate if taken out of context  . Happy gaming 

posted on March 2nd, 2010, 10:39 pm

Also, don't lump your slow Avalons into the same fleet as Fast Intrepids or front-line Akiras.

  Make sure that, for example:

Intrepids/Ambassadors/Monsoons/Defiants = Team 1 (The Strikers - Short Range)

Galaxy's/Akira's/Sovereigns/Nebula's/Remoore's = Team 2 (The Front Liners - Medium Range)

Excel I and II's/Sabers/Phalanx/Avalons/Canaverals = Team 3 (Bombardment - Long Range)

 
  I actually end up splitting each of these groups into halves and making them Teams 1-6 in order to Micro better.  That way it's also easier to avoid "Overkilling" with Precise Volley from the Remoore and such.

  Note:  Phalanx's are forward firing with their main weapon and have a pretty good speed, so you can also put them into a faster team if you'd like .

posted on March 2nd, 2010, 11:25 pm

meh, and here I thought I had stumbled on a revelation 

I suppose this is what happens when I play the new versions but haven't paid any attention to the forums since an year ago.

Thanks for the advice boggz, I lump them into a separate group by themselves.  The descent really comes in handy because of the 5 ship limit on them.  It's shield recharge helps keep my precious carriers alive. 

All in all I'm beginning to enjoy playing Risner more than Mason because of the impressive looking balanced fleets I can wield.  Flying against dominion bugs, V-13s, and support cruisers with my galaxies, sovs, avalons, miranda 2s, excelsior 1s, akiras, intreps, and all my fighters in formation.  Sacrifice of Angels all over again and I love it

posted on March 4th, 2010, 12:45 pm

The phalanx has become quite the rank since the last patch. And the avalon is good for pestering auto targeting things like turrets away from expensive ships.

posted on March 5th, 2010, 5:27 am

Indeed!

  Phalanx' really help provide a punch to groups of ships as well as a bit of a psychological threat as it's a very strong ship and means you've got the resources to be fielding mobile cannons .

  The Avalons are like butter for Risner because they are a strong vessel buildable in Chassis 2 (for now ) that comes with unique uses.

posted on March 5th, 2010, 9:19 pm

Well, I always use them as defense towers and Anti-destroyer ships. Same with the Phalanx. I tend to find the Phalanx's lack of 360 phasers a bit annoying though.

posted on March 8th, 2010, 10:51 am

The good thing about the Phalanx is that it packs all its punch in beam weapons, meaning it will never miss.

Its good for taking on Cruisers, plus a double gold bar Phalanx is BEAST

posted on March 8th, 2010, 9:33 pm

Except for the pulse weapons of course

posted on March 10th, 2010, 2:16 am

Except for the pulse weapons of course

oh cause