Babylon 5 A Call To Arms 2nd Edition Pak'ma'ra Fleet Review

The Pak'ma'ra are the Pacifists of the Babylon 5 universe. They are also have a reputation as carrion eaters and cannibals, both are true. They are incredibly peaceful so most other races just find them to be disgusting.

On the Tabletop they are one of the weakest factions. They have a very limited selection of ships as well as some major disadvantages. They have -1 to their crew Quality scores, which is massive as it makes a lot of things really hard, their faction initiative is an astonishingly bad -3 and they are incredibly light on troops. they will lose boarding actions every single time.
Its not all bad though, Pak'ma'ra have a natural 6+ save against any and all damage inflicted. This is improved to a 5+ when you close blast doors, but has the advantage of always being active. Added to this is the fact that most their ships are naturally more durable with them only being crippled when they are practically destroyed. These 2 factors combined make them incredibly tough and able to keep fighting at maximum effectiveness right until they are destroyed.
Additionally their Plasma Web rule that allows ships in a squadron to combine their plasma cannon fire into energy mines. Pak'ma'ra don't have much in the way of fighters and they lack scouts entirely, but what they can do is deny entire areas of the table to enemy fighters and counter to some extent stealth and dodge.

The Earth Alliance Intercept a Pak'ma'ra Convoy

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 Pak'ma'ra 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 'Pak'ma'ra' ship

Sunhawk-class Battlecruiser - The Pak'ma'ra version of the Sunhawk is an outstanding little ship. It loses a little speed compared to its Drazi counterpart and has zero troops which makes it very vulnerable to boarding but in return it has a much more impressive armament. The Plasma torpedoes hit incredibly hard and are backed up by the bore-sighted plasma cannon.

The plasma cannon can be used as if it is an energy mine if the ship is fielded in a squadron,
but since this is a patrol choice it will likely be used as an initiative sink so you are unlikely to be able to be in a squadron and if you are you will lave to line up your Plasma web shots in the movement phse which will make them incredibly easy to avoid. With that said, the Sunhawk is the best ship the Pak'ma'ra have, and frustratingly for the Drazi, is better than the Drazi version in my opinion

A-Tier

Halik-class Frigate - The Halik is an outstanding ship. It sports an incredibly potent armament for a raid ship with 8 AP double damage shots to the front, very good anti-fighter and Escort into the bargain. The side armament is also quite intimidating and the ship is also quite agile with 2 turns. This ship is a total package whose only real weaknesses are that it lacks any long range weapons and its number of troops is very limited. A very Strong pick

The top Pak'ma'ra ships are all conversions of other races ships

Ikorta-class Armed Merchant - The second Brakiri hull is the Pak'ma'ra version of the Ikorta. This is a very tough ship which in addition to a healthy damage pool also sports Interceptors making it surprisingly durable. With all round firepower backed up by a pair of plasma torpedo shots you will want to take these ships in numbers.

B-Tier

Hurr Gunship - The Hurr Gunship is the only Battle level ship the Pak'ma'ra have access to and has a ludicrous amount of firepower. It will easily outgun most ships of similar priority and has all round firepower. The ship has no blind spots. Its not particularly quick, however, and it is lumbering so will be at a disadvantage if it needs to change direction. It is also not particularly tough but has interceptors to take the edge off shooting that comes its way. It will drop quickly to concentrated fire with its hull of 5, even with the Pak'ma'ras natural 6+ save.

Pak'ma'ra designs are very distinctive

Urik-Hal-class Supermerchant - One of the few actual Pak'ma'ra ships in the fleet the Urik'hal has a very tough hull of 6 and a respectable armament. The plasma torpedoes give it long range punch, and it also sports forward firing heavy plasma cannons. The ship is slow and lumbering but the main strength is that the ship has a Jump drive so in situations where this is a requirement you will want to take the Urik'hal.

C-Tier

Pshul'shi-class Convoy Guardian - The Psul'shi is the largest ship the Pak'ma'ra has access to and follows a similar philosophy to the Hurr gunship.It is over-gunned so it will cause horrendous damage to anything it can shoot. Long range torpedoes mean it can start influencing the battle from the start, but the ships main failing is the fact that it has a comparatively low damage score meaning that the ship will rapidly succumb to enemy fire. the slow speed and lumbering do not help much in this regard. If you can get it into a position to leverage its firepower, it will do work.

D-Tier

Portafis System Patrol Boat - The Portafis is slow, has a terrible dogfight score and is quite under-gunned for a strike fighter. It does mount a plasma torpedo with a best in class range of 8 inches, but everything else about the Portafis is terrible. The anti-fighter it has is quite rare for fighters but this will not save you. It simply cannot act in its intended role. This is exacerbated very much by the fact that the Pak'ma'ra have no carriers of any variety so you will be paying a patrol point for 3. Its just terrible

Warbird-class Cruiser - The Warbird is very similar to the Sunhawk. It has a bore-sighted plasma cannon and the same plasma torpedo armament as the Sunhawk. The ship is a little tougher with better hull and more damage but its not worth taking over either a pair of Sunhawks, or an Ikorta. There is no reason to take this ship, ever.

What could have been

The fleet we could have had 

I find the Pak'ma'ra to be an incredibly disappointing faction. In Babylon 5 Wars they had plenty of unique ships, most of which didn't make it over to A Call to Arms, instead being replaced by ships borrowed from other races. The limited ship selection combined with their limited number of weapons makes them an incredibly boring faction to play with and against.
There have been gaps filled in with fan supplements but it irks me somewhat that the pak'ma'ra could have been a visually distinctive faction with an interesting playstyle, and instead we got a faction with almost zero effort put in and is terrible on the tabletop.

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

If you like what I do, please consider supporting me on Patreon or buy me a nice cup of Coffee.

thanks for reading, and I will see you next time.

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