Babylon 5 A Call To Arms 2nd Edition Earth Alliance 3rd Age Fleet Review

After the review of the Earth Alliance Early Years fleet, this time I'm looking at the fleet you are probably more familiar with, the fleet of the 3rd Age as it was in the events of the series from the end of the earth Minbari war up to the start of the 'crusade' TV series

It is probably an understatement to say that the Earth Alliance came off badly during their war with the Minbari. Earthforce suffered horrific casualties and lost the majority of their pre-war fleet. Nevertheless the Minbari war machine was stopped in its tracks at the battle of the line and the Minbari subsequently surrendered.
The priority for Earthforce was to rebuild its numbers and the 3rd age list reflects the casualties suffered as well as the new ships that were immediately put into production. Compared to the Early Years fleet you will notice there are more higher tier ships, but fewer choices overall. The choices you do have give you the opportunity to build a well rounded and capable fleet.

The priority system used by A Call to Arms for fleet selection is intended to make each ship of a given priority level be of equivalent strength. In practice this is not the case and some ships will be obviously more capable than others. This leads to be being able to rank ships against each other within a list, and against similar ships in other lists. Here is the ranking system I am using. Note I am only comparing ships in the Earth Alliance 3rd Age fleet against each other, please consider my rankings in that context. I am also only considering ships from the official mongoose publications from second edition, those being the Fleets book and Powers and Principalities.

Tier Rankings

S Tier: Reserved for ships that either significantly under costed or have a combination of rules that perform well above ships in similar roles. These ships are often called “auto includes” as any list stands to be made better with their inclusion.

A Tier: These units are some of the best the fleet has to offer. They excel in their specific roles and commonly help form the core of most lists. While not auto include, they are great in almost any list they are taken in and will be seen frequently.

B Tier: These ships have a mix of strengths and weaknesses that make them very playable but balanced. These ships work great with specific roles in mind; however, their weaknesses mean they do not help every list. In a perfect world, all ships would fit into this category.

C Tier: C tier ships may still shine in niche lists and roles; however, they will feel under powered when compared to similar units in the fleet. Decidedly sub optimal, you could make them work but frequently will see other things that are just better.

D Tier: Ships that need some considerable love and attention. You will struggle to find any role for this ship that another ship couldn’t do better. Very often you will see these ships labeled as “unplayable”.

S-Tier

Hermes - At first glance the Hermes doesn't look to be too impressive. It isn't particularly tough, although it does have Interceptors, nor is it particularly well armed compared to comparable ships in other fleets. Look beyond your first impression and you have a ship that is one of the best Patrol level choices in the game. The ship brings a flight of fighters in addition to itself, and it has a respectable range on its missiles allowing it to stay out of trouble and act as a very effective initiative sink. What pushes the Hermes to being amazing is the Jump Drive. One of only 2 Patrol level ships in the game with a jump drive, it allows you to open jump points to and from the battlefield without having to sacrifice the firepower of higher tier ships. In a fleet of Skirmish level or above, you will want to take at least 2 of them every time.

Aurora Starfury - Fighters are one of the signature units of the Earth Alliance, and the Aurora is one of the better ones in the game. They will be present in almost any force you field, and they will be present in large numbers. Out of the 3 options available to the 3rd Age fleet, the Aurora is the one you will probably take in the largest numbers. Fast, well protected, well armed and with a high dogfight value, this is what you will be bringing and you will bring lots of them.

A-Tier

Artemis - The Artemis is very close to being the best Skirmish ship in the game. One of the fastest ships in the Earth Alliance fleet it has very punch railguns and a decent amount of protection from Interceptors and a very surprising anti-fighter 4. Like both versions of the Nova dreadnought the armament is spread over all its fire arcs and that means its best suited to engaging multiple targets. Also in keeping with the Nova you have to practically kill the thing to stop it firing at full effectiveness. In smaller games the Artemis will more than pull its weight, but be wary in larger games as its just a skirmish ship and so has relatively low damage and crew values.

Hyperion Assault - The Assault Hyperion is an outstanding little ship. In the Early Years list I think it is inferior to the Rail gun armed variant but that ship is not a part of the 3rd Age fleet. they were withdrawn from service through attrition....
Naturally the ship is a solid choice in missions requiring capturing a particular objective with troops but it also boasts quite an impressive, if short ranged, arsenal of weapons. The defining feature though is this is a Raid level hull at Skirmish level which provides exceptional value for the cost.

Olympus - The Olympus is a very solid all round skirmish choice. It can engage enemies at all ranges since it has a mixed armament of missiles, rail guns and plasma cannons. Overall the ship has less firepower than an Artemis but it can put more damage on to a single target than the more heavily armed ship. This comes from the fact it is equipped with weapons in turrets giving a full 360 degree arc with them. As a trade off though, the Olympus is more poorly protected than the Artemis and slower. It is an excellent choice in any fleet as it can fill a variety of roles. You can enhance this multi role capability by using the variant missile types it has access to.

Nova - The 3rd Age Nova dreadnought is a much diminished ship when compared to the version you can take in an Early years fleet. The Heavy Plasma Cannons are gone, replaced by Heavy Pulse cannons. The Pulse cannons have more shots and are twin linked, but lose the AP and double damage in exchange. The ship has noticeably less firepower than the earlier version but the greater number of shots can burn through interceptors and ships of lower tiers will find themselves rapidly taking damage. Differences in armament aside, the ship carries 4 flights of starfuries and you will want to be placing the ship with enemies in multiple fire arcs to maximise the potential of the all round firepower. One other thing to note with the Nova dreadnought, with its damage thresholds as they are, the ship will only lose weapons efficiency when it is shockingly close to being destroyed.

 

Omega - The Omega-class destroyer is the most recognizable ship in Earthforce and is a very solid choice in the game. It boasts very credible secondary weapons, almost on a par with the Nova dreadnought but has a very good forward firing heavy laser cannon. The range and hitting power of this means you can close slowly with your opponent and deal serious damage as you close, and then be able to deal damage in multiple directions like the nova, once the distance has closed sufficiently. The ship has the best Hull value of 6 and decent Interceptors and can swat away annoying fighters easily. Its not all good though. The Heavy laser, whilst long ranged is a, bore sighted weapon and the omega is lumbering so getting shots on target might be more difficult than you would like, and the Omega has a comparatively low damage threshold. Beam weapons will be particularly painful since interceptors do nothing to stop them. Overall though, a very strong choice.

B-Tier

Oracle - In the Early Earth fleet the Oracle synergises nicely with the plasma weapons that the majority of the ships are equipped with. Plasma weapons generally lack the twin linked trait. In the 3rd Age fleet these plasma weapons have been largely replaced with Pulse weapons. These weapons are generally twin linked and so will not benefit from that particular scouting ability. That isn't to say there is no use whatsoever, there are still a number of Earthforce ships that will definitely benefit, The Rail guns on the Artemis and Warlock, missiles on the Olympus, mini beams on the Omega and so forth, but you will find that there are far fewer ships that will benefit. The ability to degrade stealth is still there though, so taking them whilst fighting races with lots of stealth ships will be a good use of them

Avenger - This is the dedicated fighter carrier of the earth alliance fleet bringing a full 8 flights of fighters. The ship itself is reasonably tough and has a respectable amount of close range firepower which means closing to close range isn't without a little risk. The fleet carrier trait is what makes this ship so worthwhile. Earth fleets will run with lots of fighters and the fleet carrier not only improves all fighters on the board by increasing their dogfight value, but also allows you to recycle them should they be destroyed. An added bonus is the +1 command they bring to the fray. The Avenger is not strictly required since you will usually have fighter superiority anyway but it does allow you to skew very heavily into fighters if you want to.

Badger - This heavy fighter sits between the Aurora and the Thunderbolt in capabilities. It can act as both a space superiority platform with its superior dog-fighting score, and as a strike fighter with some standoff capability with its missile rack. Compared to the Aurora though it is slower and has a worse dodge trait, and compared to the Thunderbolt it is again, slower, and also has half the missile armament. It is a very solid fighter though when compared to those of other races

Hyperion Heavy Cruiser - The Hyperion is a reasonably tough, reasonably fast and agile and has a respectable amount of firepower. It carries a single flight of fighters as part of the whole package. With 2 turns you can fairly easily get the Medium Laser cannon into action and the secondaries can add to the damage. As a package though it looks like it will be better than it is, it's just missing 'something'. I'm inclined to think that the Beam weapon is valued more highly than perhaps it should be. The lack of any other ships with beams at this tier or below means that the Medium laser cannon is the ships standout capability. Beams can ignore interceptors which are the most common defensive feature and start hitting the hull straight away, and the ship has the speed and agility to be where you want it.
temper your expectations with the ship though.

Tantalus - Introduced in Powers and Principalities, the Tantalus is a dedicated assault ship for use in scenarios where delivering troops to a target is required. As a Raid level choice it is surprisingly well armed. compared to a Nova dreadnought it loses a few shots from each arc, but in return has far more troops and has assault shuttles. The fighter complement is also somewhat sub optimal as you are forced to take at least 2 breaching pods. While you can exchange fighters for breaching pods, you cannot swap breaching pods for fighters. This is a very well rounded ship.

Thunderbolt - This is the fleets premier strike fighter with a very solid armament of 2 AP missile shots. Its fairly fast but falls short of the Aurora, and is worse in dogfights and is generally less surviveable. Compared to fighters of other races though it is still superior to what most factions can bring, so while the Aurora is an amazing fighter, you could take all thunderbolts supported by an Avenger and still be able to stay competitive with most enemy fighters.

 
Warlock - The most technologically advanced ship in the 3rd Age fleet, and also the ship with the most impressive armament this is a ship that can take a pounding and also dish out a lot of damage in return. With the longest ranged weapon in the fleet (outside of specialised missiles) this is a very intimidating ship. Triple damage beam shots are not to be ignored, and if the dice don't go your way the ship mounts more secondary weapons in its forward arc than a lot of ships have weapons. The icing on the cake is the fact it has command +2.

C-Tier

Poseidon - The Poseidon is one of 2 dedicated carriers in the Earth Alliance 3rd age list and can carry one of the largest number of fighter flights of any ship in the game. With the quality of the Earth Alliance fighters this is no small feat. The ship has Fleet carrier and carrier traits meaning you can launch huge numbers of flights and recycle losses and also brings command +3 to the table. It also has a very respectable damage and crew pool. This can quickly be eaten through though and the Poseidon doesn't have much to reply with except its fighters. In one recent battle a Poseidon was quickly destroyed in only a handful of turns. I would argue it is better to take 4 Avengers instead of a single Poseidon if you want to bring lots of fighters, and even then it is probably overkill, Novas and Omegas bring lots of fighters already. I would personally avoid this ship entirely outside of very specific builds.

D-Tier

Breaching Pods - Breaching pods are, interesting. They are slow, lose dogfights automatically, are fairly easy to kill, but on the other hand, boarding actions, when they occur, can be devastating. Ordinarily, when you launch a boarding action the criteria are fairly hard to meet. Breaching pods skip every step you would otherwise have to take and you just have to contact an enemy ship with them. On the downside, If you take them they are either cost you a patrol point, and in most fleets almost anything else will be a better choice, or else you have to use carriers to carry them and they replace fighters. they also take up troops from your own ships when deployed in this way.

Command Omega - I was tempted to add an E tier for this ship alone. There is no way to sugar coat it. This is an awful choice. If you want a combat ship a Warlock or pair of omegas are better choices in almost any conceivable situation. The ship has very poor surviveability and only one redeeming feature in the form of command +3. The additional command over the warlock is not any justification to take this ship. If you are absolutely set on command +3, take the Poseidon instead. The only reason you would ever take this ship is if you have suffered a severe blow to the head. This is a Turd.

Omega Pulse - The pulse cannon armed omega is essentially just an up-gunned Nova dreadnought. while it does have hull 6 there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to take this ship. Take a pair of Novas if you want pulse weapons. you will get more of them, and double the number of fighters. or just take a standard omega. avoid!

Explorer - The Explorer is an incredibly unusual Raid level ship. It has a ludicrously high damage threshold, a much lower but still very high crew. It carries lots of fighters, Its a scout, has a jump engine and command +1. These are all features that are desirable in a ship since it combines a lot of things other ships do into a single package. On the negative side the ship is slow, has a low hull and the weapons are very short ranged. Short ranged weapons and being slow and lumbering mean that you are unlikely to shoot your weapons in anger. It can come as a shock to people though as it is quite an unusual pick and it will at least ensure that your scout ability will persist.

Do you agree with my tier rankings? what would you change. let me know

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Miniature STL's by Tyrel Lohr and Badqueen creations
Miniatures painted by me
Photography by me.