Last night I got a chance to try out Wormhole with a friend. We decided to start with a minor skirmish (75pts). He deployed two particlebow frigates and a command corvette. I chose to field a battlecruiser (with an extra missile salvo) and a missile fighter squadron.
The frigates were set at opposite sides in his deployment zone, facing slightly inwards, while the corvette was positioned center and forward. My battlecruiser was on one side and the squadron started off on the other side.
We were using a larger than "normal" board, so the first couple of turns were pretty uneventful -- his frigates spent the time charging, while his corvette moved forward to make initial contact. For my part, my fighters hit their afterburners to quickly close the distance and maneuver out of the frigates' firing arcs. The battlecruiser let off two of its missile salvos and lumbered its way up its side of the combat zone towards the closest frigate.
The first shots were exchanged when the corvette and battlecruiser passed each other. A full force laser battery exchange (plus an extra parting shot thanks to the "Pour it on" ability) left the corvette close to dead in space. The 4x Autofire from the BC finished it off at the end of the phase (yes, they were that close to each other). The Hammerhead emerges from the explosion unscathed.
The charged frigates had begun to maneuver by this time and focused their attention on the capital ship. The fighter squadron managed to burn past them unmolested (I don't think he realized how much of a pain they'd become).
Here, the tide turned against me. Poor rolls squandered a couple of early opportunities by the Hammerhead to deal damage to the closest frigate as they passed each other. Some more fire is exchanged, with damage dealt to both vessels, and then the frigate was past the Hammerhead. From that turn onwards it managed to stay outside the firing arc of the battlecruiser. The second frigate stayed at range, opting to fire its hypercharged bow to leverage its superior range. The first (closer) frigate switched between firing modes, depending on whether or not it thought it could get a shot off that turn.
The fighter squadron nipped at the frigates like a yappy dog. It had PLENTY of firing opportunities and maneuvered very well (doing to the frigates what the frigates were doing to the BC), but I rolled extremely poorly (a string of 1's for its attack rolls turn after turn, no kidding!) so it had little effect.
Meanwhile, the poor battlecruiser was getting pounded into dust. I have to say, though, that it can certainly absorb a lot of damage and the 2x repair rolls managed to extend its life a bit. During this time, the Hammerhead fired off its remaining missile salvo. Eventually the great warship succumbed to a high rolling hypercharged particle bow hit from one of the frigates. The other frigate managed to shoot down one of the missile salvos.
The fighter squadron finally managed to land a solid mark on the frigate, but what really mattered was that the remaining missile salvo found an opening, closed the distance and hit the frigate. The frigate explodes.
The missile fighters then make a tight turn towards the final frigate, hoping to close the distance sooner (rather than turning the "long" way, which would have been safer) but were unable to clear the frigate's firing arc, as hoped. The squadron takes a solid hit from the particlebow, sending them straight to Dispersed status. At this point, they decided to get out of Dodge. The remaining frigate was only lightly damaged.
Even though this was only a minor skirmish, it still took about 3 hours to run. That included set up time and rules consultation, though. The later half of the game went by pretty quickly. Questions were raised, but were answered by the rules and the errata sheet I had printed out.
Thoughts in the aftermath of my first game:
1. Frigates are POWERFUL! That 8D6 damage from a hypercharged bow is quite painful and the range is unmatched by any other direct fire weapon! Sure, they can't move while charging, but they can still take the "free" turn, and with the range of the bow that's all they really need to set up for a shot the following turn. The heavy armour and normal mode particlebow damage gives them good staying power even once enemy forces close the distance and begin engaging them. Truly, they are the workhorse warships of the fleet.
2. Missiles are quite powerful, too! 6D6 damage is nothing to sneeze at, and since they can maneuver intelligently like a normal vessel, they provide for a tactical flexibility not seen in any other weapons system.
3. The battlecruiser is quite tough (a "damage sponge" with its heavy armour, high hit points and 2x repair rolls), yet vulnerable at the same time. Sure, it has a lot of firepower and hitpoints, but its turning and firing arc is rather limited when pitted against faster vessels. It's fate was sealed once the frigate managed to get past it. OTOH, what choice did I have? The battlecruiser had to close the distance to use its own weapons against the frigates. My current impression is that the battlecruiser may be more useful as a mid-range "missile carrier" than as a forward front line unit. 60pts + missile costs is rather expensive, though. Then again, see point #2.
The forward-only firing arc limits its effectiveness once things get into knife range; I should probably hold it back next time. With more points, I would've assigned some fighters or ships of my own to screen the BC's flanks and rear. So I suppose maybe I shouldn't have selected a 60pt BC as part of a 75pt fleet.
4. Personally, I like fighters. Fighters are where it's at.
Cheap and cost-effective. If I had rolled better, even the one squadron I had would've done non-trivial damage to at least one of the frigates over the course of the game. One point of damage isn't much, but when it's potentially one point EVERY TURN because the target just can't get away, the damage can add up -- even more so if there are multiple squadrons. I'm sure skirmish fighters would've provided an effective counter to them, but we didn't have any this game.
5. Corvettes aren't meant for fighting capital ships.
My friend had mis-read the stat card initially; he thought they had more firepower and heavier armour than they actually did. The scramble feature didn't prove too effective against the battlecruiser's onslaught, either. They are fast, though, with two moves per turn. I'm thinking they can be very useful when accompanying fighter swarms. Kind of a force multiplier.
So, overall, it feels like most of the dirty fighting is on the shoulders of fighters and frigates. Corvettes feel like specialty ships that come into their own when playing with Order Loss or when leading groups of units, but are not otherwise very combat-capable in and of themselves. Battlecruisers...well, they serve well as missile platforms, and probably are also nice to have when you need to take down a high hitpoint target quickly, like another capital ship, but they are easily flanked by other ships and need to have their own screening elements. I don't think there's much of a place for capital ships in fleets having less than, say, 125pts.
Anyway, I realize that's a lot to draw from just one small battle, but I thought I'd share my experience nonetheless. The important thing is that it was fun to play, and I'm already juggling possibilities and fleet compositions in my head for the next battle.