I haven't read the rest of the posts from last night and this morning,
and I 
forgot to keep B Lin's post to reply to it, but I'll try to remember the

gist so I can make a suggestion.

His point was that for a 2000 point battle, his 30 squadrons' worth of 
fighters and soapbubbles could take apart a squadron of 1 800 NPV ship
and a 
passle of escorts.  I actually spent some time on my response, but I can
be 
corrected if wrong.

The first of Binhan's assumptions which I think are wrong is also one
that I 
could have taken as an insult, if I truly believed he actually meant to 
assume that I am too stupid to employ ANY anti-fighter defenses at all. 
But 
I don't assume that.  I'm guessing he just forgot to take that into
account 
(he talks about how much damage 30 intact squadrons can do).  The second
is 
about that 800 NPV Gorilla.  If I know the composition of his fleet, and
a 
SB fleet implies a certain level of predictable munchkinism, I'm not 
bringing a gun to the knife fight.  I'm going to send in my light
squadron - 
a CE, maybe at 250 points, a couple of 175 NPV range CL's, and 4-5 each
DD, 
FF, and CT.  One of the Cruisers will be an ADFC-heavy Aegis type
variant, 
and everyone will be armed to the teeth with Beam 1's and PDS (The CE
and 
CL's will have heavier beams of course -- I want these ships to be
useful in 
other scenarios too).  Maybe even an occasional ADFC on a DE.  Oh, wait,

that's only about 1600 points.	Ok, I'll throw in ummm.... a couple of 
lighters or Jeep carriers or one CVE.	According to the calculations B 
used, that's about 400 NPV to bring in 6 squadrons.  I'll make them 
interceptors, just for grins.  And the squadron will go in in a tight 
formation so that the ADFC's intermesh.

so he sends his 30 fighter squadrons after me.	Only it won't be 30
intact 
squadrons.  As soon as they get close to my ships, I'll send those 6 
interceptor squadrons out to meet them (Now B said 30 fighter squadrons.
 IF 
he then decides to devote some of that number to his own interceptors,
fine. 
  That's less anti-ship capability anyway.  and I may ignore them and go

after the regular fighters anyway).  Let's say he swarms them and
devotes 
enough fighters to killing them.  That's time not spent killing my
ships, 
time spent getting closer to the carriers.  And let's assume the 
interceptors only get a 1-1 kill ratio (Pessimism).  That means he's
down to 
24 squadrons WORTH of fighters.  Or let's assume he ignores them and
presses 
the attack.  With that +1, they're still going to kill about 5-6
squadrons' 
worth of fighters, and still be around to dish out more.  Now he hits
the 
ships themselves, with 24 instead of 30 squadrons, and runs into the
B1's, 
PDS and ADFC.  I haven't done the math on how many fighters he'll lose,
but 
let's be pessimistic and assume ony 6.	Now he's down to the 18 he WAS
going 
to send against my largest ship, only now they're spread out amongst the

whole 18 ships of the squadron.  Or he CAN focus on the CE, but that
still 
leaves a lot of ships in fighting trim.

Now about those tactics.  He said he'd pe running parallel to me at
around 
20, but that's assuming I let him.  I picked the light ship option for
this 
very reason - Thrust.  I'll start the game at around 10-20 thrust
myself, 
increasing it as I get a bead on his fleet.  As his fighters close, I'll
be 
increasing to 24 or so.  once they close, I'll start thrusting even
harder.  
Now his fighters have a choice - burn Endurance to beat me back to the 
carriers, or let me at them.  And if he scatters his carriers, fine. 
I'll 
pick them apart piecemeal, and it will be that much harder for his
remaining 
fighters to regroup.

3B^2

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