Stormtroopers N tie fighters

It has been said:

Based on the more "realistic" battles in the 
X-Wing series I can say that 15 X Wings 
can kill a lot of TIE fighters, and a Y-Wing 
that wants to waste torpedoes on a flight 
of TIEs can knock out 6-8 in a head-on 
pass from more than 3km. The Imperials 
want at least 2-1 odds against X- and Y- 
wings, preferrably 3-1 just to make it 
challenging. I could see 90-120 elite TIEs 
being involved, and most of those ending
getting smoked. I'll have to look into the X-
Wing Allliance mod scene and see if anyone 
has tried to do the battle as one big 
mission.

[Tomb] Obviously you never played TIE 
FIGHTER. You were obviously flying against 
the reserve squadrons and the rejects from 
the Empire's first line formations. In Tie 
Fighter, it was admittedly a challenge to 
take on an X-Wing with a classic tie fighter 
(can you see no shields, Batman?) but 
some of the advanced TIE FIGHTERS could 
stand with any rebel fighter in the game. 
And as an added plus, if you learned how 
to fly in a fighter that couldn't take a good 
hit, then you could wade through better 
fighters quite easily. 

[Tomb] A lot of our perception of the 
Empire is from seeing some small chunk of 
them in action against the ultimate Rebel 
Leaders. They did fairly well on Hoth, and I 
think the planet Yavin would attest to the 
potence of Imperial Power. If you look at 
the source material for WEG and from most 
of the novels (argh!), you discover that the 
Empire is large and has very potent military 
forces. Or so we keep getting told. If it isn't 
actually true (and some game rules might 
make one think it was not), then the 
Empire has one incredibly potent asset: 
Great PR. If their guys get slaughtered in 
racks, and they still keep adverts going that 
say a Stormtrooper is the Best of the Best 
and keep getting recruits, that pretty much 
says it all. 

[Tomb] One last thought before you dump 
too much on Tie Fighter pilots. If you 
consider the three sanctioned Han Solo 
books by Brian Daley (the earliest, pretty 
much, of the SW novels, long ago) to be 
canon, then Han went to Imperial Academy 
and was an interceptor/fighter pilot. So 
apparently they have had a few excellent 
pilots from time to time. 

[Tomb] One last thought: If anyone hasn't 
hunted up the internet movie Troops, you 
really have to. It's a cross between COPS 
and SW. It shows a day in the life of 
Imperial Law Enforcement (Stormtroopers) 
on a little place called Tatooine. And it puts 
a WHOLE other spin on the Beru/Owen 
Lars crime scene. Oh, and it is _really_ well 
done for something not done by Lucas 
Himself. 

Tomb Raider
PS - Derek, I think it was 40K Rogue 
Trader, not Rouge Trader.... though the 
latter is a very humorous idea... :) 
---------------------------------------------
Thomas Barclay
Co-Creator of http://www.stargrunt.ca 
Stargrunt II and Dirtside II game site

Corruptisima republica plurimae leges. 
[The more corrupt a republic, the more laws.]
-- Tacitus