Re: [FT\DS2] Fleet and Army sizes for games

Brian Burger wrote:
> 
> << SNIP lots of stuff about cheese-reeking bubble carriers and similar
> space-naval abortions...>>
> 
> Reading all this stuff about the power of fighters has been
interesting,
> esp. given that I'm involved in an ongoing argument with other members
of
> my gaming group about the cost of Ft fighters.
> 
> Personal bias addmission: If fighters vanished from FT tomorrow, I
> wouldn't miss them one bit...
> 
> Given that that's not going to happen, does anyone else think that
> fighters are significantly undercosted and/or too powerful for their
> present cost?
> 
> Fighters are, in FT, the *only* weapon system where if one player
brings
> them and the other leaves them at home, the figherless player is more
> than likely to loose... No other single system, if one player doesn't
have
> it, will unbalance the game this way.
> 
> I've not done the design work or math, but fighters are basically 6
> all-arc B1s, with (effectively) near-tabletop range, and they're far,
far
> tougher than any other method of transporting 6xB1, because you can
only
> kill them *after* they can already shoot at you. Not only that,
they're
> the only 6xB1 delivery system that bigger guns cannot kill at greater
> range than the B1s can reach. You've got to have specialized
anti-fighter
> systems to deal with them.
> 
> Two math-type problems that someone might want to tackle:
> 
> 1. With 9 Mass & 18 NPV, what sort of ship could you build, and would
it
> be anywhere near as fast, dangerous or survivable as a basic fighter
> squadron? (My strong feeling is No, most totally No...There is, after
all,
> no ship that's totally unhittable if it's over 6" from your ship...)
That is 9 Mass & 45 NPV (or 51 or 57 or 63 for better fighters) as the
fighters
are not free.
 
> 
> 2. Can 18pts & 9 Mass of ADFC/PDS do a good, quick job on a standard
> fighter squadron? (Probably, but I'm not sure...)

20 pts and 9 mass gets you an ADFC and 7 PDS which should kill 4.67
fighters, 5.6 if you reroll sixes, with average rolls, which will
distinctly
impede the squadron's efficient operation.

> 
> My 'fix' for fighters would have them fire as PDS - 4/5/6(x2) at other
> fighters, 1pt on 6 against ships. That, or at least double the cost of
a
> fighter squadron. Given that the rest of my playing group is much
> enamoured of fighters and doesn't see any problem with them, I've
> got the proverbial snowball's chance of having any modifications
> accepted.
> 
You group does pay for the fighter bay AND the fighters?

If you hate fighters that much, buy FB2 and play the Kra'Vak.  You won't
need ADFC's and every 1 mass 5 NPV scattergun destroys d6 fighters (d3
heavies).
They only fire once, have a secondary use against ships, and typically
destroy
almost twice their value in fighters (more if you include the cost of
bringing
them to the battle).  The extra bonus is that the K-1's, which can be
used
like class-1 beams against fighters, have a 30 range against ships.

Don't forget fighters don't fire until after the PDS's and scatterguns
have
had a go at them.