RE: Re: Fighters

I'm afraid I'm pretty much in the "Fighters as written Are Too Powerful"
camp.

For starters, they cost (SWAG here) about half what they're worth, for
the
stock rules. Maybe not half, but they're way underpriced right now.

Either double the price, or redo the fighter weapon systems as PDS -
kill
1 fighter on a 4,5; 2 on 6; do one point of damage to a ship on a 6. Let
interceptors kill 1 fighter w/ 4; 2 on 5,6; no damage possible to ships.
Leave the torp fighters as is - they're balanced. This has the advantage
of making the fighter & anti-fighter weapons use the same mechanic.
(KISS
principle)

Having a half-range B1 that can't be killed beyond 6" away, and can't be
killed unless it's actually attacking you, sucks royally.

I'm talking FB-stock ships/fleets here, not custom oddness. I'll grant
that you can balance fighters with custom ship designs with all the
costs
as they are, but with the FB ships as they are fighters are too cheap.

Lots of personal preference here, of course. Using historical naval
examples, I'm much more likely to play 1915 High Seas Fleet vs Germans,
or
Hunt the Bismark than Midway. Having your real ships just lie there and
be
swarmed by fighters has always struck me - historically and in FT - as
an
incredibly boring game. There are, basically, no tactics beyond the
ship-design stage if you play FT this way. Real ships can't outrun
fighters and get creamed by massive swarms when caught. Why bother
putting
the figures on the table in the first place?

My $0.02,

Brian - yh728@victoria.tc.ca -
- http://wind.prohosting.com/~warbard/games.html -