Babylon 5 A Call To Arms 2nd Edition Vree Conglomerate Fleet Review

    The Vree Conglomerate use ships that are best described as flying saucers. they represent the classic Greys we see very often in fiction. They are technologically advanced, telepathic and secretive, so the classic UFO aliens.

    On the tabletop they have a very strong selection of ships and some quite unique rules. Firstly their ships are all very maneuverable. They lack the agile trait but they can all make at least a single 90 degree turn. Their ships arent particularly fast either (but nor are they slow) but they can all move as if they are super maneuverable, that is, in any direction they choose, as long as they only move up to half their movement score. Their ships also have all their weapons mounted in turrets. This means they can both move in any direction and shoot in any direction. Having all your weapons in a single arc does make you a little more succeptable to critical hits on your weapons, but not significantly so.
The second ability is one that will likely come up as a massive strength in campaign games. Vree get +1 to crew quality checks. This is different from getting +1 to crew quality since they can effectively get a Crew Quality of 7.

    As far as weaknesses go, the Vree have a few. They do not carry much in the way of troops so any scenario that requires capturing a target will be very difficult. This will be especially true in a campaign if a planetary assault is required. Their ships while agile are usually not very well defended. They lack any interceptors or shields, and have relatively low hull and damage values

    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 Vree 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

The Best picks, The Xeel with fighters and an escorting Ximm

Xeel class carrier - While Vree ships have universally high anti fighter abilities, they do lack the organic fighter capacity that you will notice in Earth Alliance and Narn fleets. Their fighters are highly competitive, but there are very few platforms that bring them. you could buy them as individual patrol picks, or instead you can bring a Xeel class carrier. With 4 flights of fighters this ship has a capacity that is very competitive with the light carriers of other races. the ship is also as agile as one would expect from the Vree, and has a respectable weapon. As a negative, even though it is a carrier the ship lacks the carrier trait so it will take a few turns to launch all its fighters. Nevertheless, with a complement of 4 expensive fighters, and its other traits this ship is the first one you should consider in ANY Vree fleet.

Xill War Saucer - The Xill is the only Raid level ship in the Vree fleet and it is an absolute gem. In keeping with all vree ships its only defensive technologies are the ships inherent maneuverability and the Vree's naturally high anti-fighter. In terms of armament, it is incredibly heavily armed at short to mid ranges throwing out 18 Double damage shots. This is somewhat unusual for the Vree, their ships tend towards having fewer shots that are more effective rather than more. The downside of the volume of fire though is that the majority are Anti-matter shredders which have a dangerously short range. If you want to keep the ship safe, you will need to rely on its longer ranged guns only. Despite these shortcomings, the ship is one of the best the Vree have

Ximm Close Escort - The Ximm is an incredible ship with a great deal packed into a very cheap package. The base hull is that of the Xorr-class War Saucer. With the Ximm being a patrol choice and the Xorr being a skirmish, you immediately have a ship that is going to be relatively tough for its points. It has the usual Vree anti-fighter combined with Escort to make it a very effective anti-fighter platform. If that wasn't enough the ship has enough firepower to make it worthwhile as a patrol choice even if the escort and anti-fighter is not going to be used.
Zorth fighter - The Zorth is the Vree space superiority fighter and is an excellent one at that. Very fast with an outstanding dogfight score of +3 and a brilliant 2+ dodge, the Zorth can go toe to toe with any fighter out there with at the very least, even odds. The fighter can even act in a supporting role, using its armament to act as interceptors. The Zorths main weakness is that they are not going to be present in any great numbers, the Vree lack any fleet carriers so you are not going to be able to recycle them, and taking them limits the number of Tzymm Heavy Fighters you can take. The lack of numbers isn't as big an issue as you might think, when combined with the super cheap Ximm Close escort, a handful of Zorths can really decimate enemy fighter formations.

A-Tier

Vaarl Scout Saucer - The Vaarl is, in my opinion the better of the two vree scout ships. It has stealth 5+ which gives it a modicum of protection at long range because the hull is not tough, and the ship cannot withstand much in the way of damage. What makes the ship outstanding is Vree Telepathy rule that gives all vree ships +1 to crew quality rolls. this makes Vree scouting more effective and can really benefit a lot of Vree ships. Vree weapons hit hard with super AP and double damage, but they quite often lack the Twin-linked trait. With Vree on the whole having fewer more effective shots, being able to twin link them can be incredibly effective. The addition of some mid ranged weapons rounds the ship out.

Xonn-class Dreadnought - The Xonn is one of, if not THE strongest battle level ships in the game. It is exceptionally dangerous for any non strike fighter to approach. It has exceptional maneuverability for a Battle Level ship, surpassed only by the Centauri Liati, The White star gunship and the Shadow scout. It is tough with Hull 6 and average damage thresholds, but the stand out feature is the firepower. The Xonn, provided it gets into effective range can overpower any other Battle level ship with ease. While there are plenty of ships with more overall firepower, the Xonn can apply all its fire into a single arc thanks to its turret mounted weapons. The ship isn't in S-Tier on account of it being a battle level ship so there will be situations when it is impractical to take, but when you can take it, you will not be disappointed.

B-Tier

A Xaak with some escorting Xirr's

Xaak class command saucer - The Xaak is a variant of the Xill but is significantly more expensive. As a battle level ship it is competing with the Xonn. In terms of raw firepower and surviveability the Xonn is the better choice, outgunning the Xaak by a small margin and being significantly tougher. Where the Xaak comes into its own is the fact that it has a pair of Torpedo batteries that are long ranged and do triple damage, and it has command +2. This latter feature is quite significant as the Vree have only average Initiative. It fills a different role from the Xonn and is certainly worth taking

Xirr bombardment - The Xirr is one of the Vree answers to hitting opponents from long range. Equipped with a heavy anti-matter cannon the ship can hit targets up to 25 inches away and with three triple damage shots. The shot count is quite low and it lacks twin linked so you will want to pair it with a scout ship to get the most out of it. The shots are impressive, but the volume is low. The platform the weapon is mounted on is quite average being a Xorr-class variant, but it is serviceable. you are taking this ship for the range on the armament rather than any other reason

Xixx Torpedo Saucer - The Xixx is another long range ship this time equipped with Torpedoes rather than a bombardment cannon. This gives it up to 4 shots of similar power to the Xirr but divided into 2 separate weapons. It has the potential to deal more damage in a single turn, but can also maintain fire on a target. I would rate the Xirr as better since if using all the ships weapons you will need a pair of scouts to maximise the effectiveness rather than a single for the Xirr

Tzymm heavy fighter - The Tzymm is the strike fighter of the Vree Conglomerate and has an incredibly impressive armamanet for a ship of its size.It can certainly threaten enemy capital ships from outside anti-fighter range. It lacks in other areas though, being slower than the Zorth, and while it has a better hull, its dodge is only a 4+. The dogfight value is a decent +1 but the Vree lack of fleet carriers and the difficulty in fielding them means this will be a much more niche pick than the Zorth, but still one to consider against some opponents

C-Tier

Vaarka escort saucer - The Vaarka is a ship that suffers from wanting to do too many things at the same time and this leaves it very much deficient compared to a more specialised hull. Like the Vaarl the ship has scout. It also has escort like the Ximm. Unfortunately the ship also has a weaker armament than the Vaarl, and a poorer stealth value on an already very fragile ship. If your points are really stretched you could take it, there is a lot of utility, but most of the time you would do better to take a Vaarl and a Ximm to cover your bases.

The Xorr is a competent ship that is sadly overshadowed by its variants

Xorr-Class War saucer - The Xorr is a well balanced ship that is very much the victim of the quality of the variants. The Xirr and Xixx both offer long ranged firepower, while you can take 2 Ximm's for each Xorr with almost identical firepower in total, and the addition of Escort. The Xorr isn't a bad ship it just has strong competition from other Vree ships. Z’Takk class command saucer - The Z'Takk is a step up from the Xonn class dreadnought in every way. It has an incredibly impressive armament, it is tough. For a war level ship its maneuverability is almost unmatched, at least for the younger races, it has command +2 and unusually for the Vree it comes with a complement of 4 fighter flights. The downside is of course the price tag. there is so much more that you can get if you go for ships of lower priority. If you are playing a high priority game though, this ship is practically an auto include as it is very strong.

D-Tier

Xaar patrol boat - The Xaar is the other patrol level ship for the Vree and while it is faster than the Ximm and has a higher hull and a dodge of 5+ it is a worse pick in almost every single way due in no small part to its armament being significantly weakened in powers and principalities. It also cannot take very much damage. It looks cool, but avoid and take the Ximm instead.

Z’Trikk class heavy carrier - The Z'Trikk is an incredibly disappointing ship. While it is a carrier and has an impressive complement of fighters bringing 16 to the field, the ship lacks fleet carrier so you can't recycle lost flights. The ship is also very weakly armed. The weak armament would not be an issue if the ship was a decent carrier, but it isn't. Command +1 doesn't make up for the ships deficiencies. Just avoid this ship at all costs.

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 others
Miniatures painted by me
Photography by me.