More FT Ideas.....

Fighters that go ZING....
I tried the following system for fighter movement the other day in my
ongoing
effort to make fighters feel more like little nimble ships.  I want
fighters
to be able to move as fast as ships and to have to worry at least
somewhat
about their speed, but not to have to fiddle to much when moving.

The fighters movement is used as Thrust, and a record is kept of the
fighters
speed from turn to turn.  This can be accomplished by using a chit
placed on
the fighter stand, or by simply recording the speed (which seems to be
easier).  When a fighter squadron is moved, the fighters may use any
portion
of their thrust to change speeds and must then move the full amount of
their
new speed.  Any amount of thrust not used to change speeds may be used
to
turn (up to a maximum of six).	The fighter may turn UP TO half of this
amount before moving and UP TO half of this anount at the midpoint of
their
move.  All other fighter rules remain unchanged.

This allows fighters to still move more nimbly than ships since they
have
great turning capacity and are not locked into any set amount of turn at
each
step.  However, they cannot just spin 180 degrees and head back the
other
direction.  Instead they have to make two 90 degree turns, which forces
them
to move in arcs more akin to ships.  Fast fighters become worth their
cost
since they can truly whiz about the board.  Keeping track of the
fighters
speeds was not hard, since you just decided how much change to make when
the
fighter group was moved and then recorded the new speed.  When testing
this,
I did have a couple of fighter groups overshoot their targets and also
had a
couple unable to maneuver into optimum firing positions due to the two
step
turns and their need to slow down.

Wild Weasels:
  A wild weasel is a fighter which has had its weaponry replaced with a
suite
of jammers and defensive electronics.  Any squadron may replace one of
its
standard fighters with a wild weasel.  The squadron then has one less
fighter
available for attacks (but is considered full strength for morale
checks).
 When fired upon, the wild weasel gives all fighters of the squadron the
equivalent of level one screens (-1 damage from scatterpacks).	Heavy
fighters with a wild weasel have the benefit of level two screens.  When
the
squadron takes damage roll to see if the wild weasel is destroyed.

Dedicated Fire Control:
  This system is used most often with torpedoes, but can possible be
used
with other weapons as well.  The dedicated fire control is associated
with
one weapon or group of identical weapons facing into one arc only (shown
on
the ship diagram as a line connecting the weapons and the FC).	This FC
can
only be used to direct fire from its associated weapons and those
weapons may
only fire under the direction of the dedicated fire control.  This
specialization of function adds +1 to all to hit rolls made by the
weapon.  A
dedicated fire con is mass 3 and costs 15.  If replacing an existing
firecontrol the cost is 5 and no mass is required.

Evasive Maneuver:
I am of the school that escorts should be faster than heavies and should
have
a fighting chance against an equal mass of heavies.  Evasive maneuvering
can
be used by any ship, but is written to give a greater advantage to
faster
ships with the idea that fast attack ships will be able to close with
heavy
capital ships without being mowed down.  Also evasive maneuvering should
be
more effective at longer ranges where the time lag makes sudden changes
in
position more effective.

A ship may initiate evasive maneuvers by indicating so in its orders.
 Evasive maneuvering requires 3 thrust.  The remainder of the ships
thrust is
available for maneuvering as normal.  While engaging in evasive
maneuvers,
the violent motions prevent firing of weapons or point defense,
operating
active sensors or ECM, launching fighters or missiles, or conducting
damage
control.  When a ship is conducting evasive maneuvering, all ranges to
the
evasive ship are effectively 150% of the measured range.  This includes
fighter and missile attack ranges, weapons ranges, active sensor scans,
etc.
E.g.  An evasive ship is targetted by two enemy vessels.  The first is
at
range 22" and the second is at range 7".  Against the first enemy, the
effective range is 33" (22 x 1.5) which will greatly lessen the
effectiveness
of the ships fire.  Against the nearer enemy however, the effective
range is
10.5" (7 x 1.5) which will make little difference against fire from the
enemy
vessel.

Long Range Missiles:
Long Range Missiles are in every way identical to standard missiles
except
that they have 6 turns of endurance and do d6 damage.

Any comments/thoughts on any of the above.......

Later

Brian