Re: (fwd) Re: [FT] F***ters [was: Operational game]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Allan Goodall" <agoodall@hyperbear.com>
To: <gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, February 05, 2003 8:15 AM
Subject: Re: (fwd) Re: [FT] F***ters [was: Operational game]

> > Is increasing the cost of each fighter not an option? Seems
> > a lot easier than coming up with new weapon rules or even
> > reprinting the fleet books.

> As mentioned, the problem is one of scaling fighters. A single fighter
> squadron has a pretty accurate cost. If you have 5 or 6 squadrons,
you're
cost
> is still pretty accurate as far as their capability. If you have a
force
of 15
> to 20 squadrons, you'll pretty much beat anything out there that
doesn't
use
> the same thing.

I'm sorry, this is flat out wrong.  There are two other factors that are
extremely important that everyone who poo-poos fighters seem to always
forget... or not notice in the first place.

(1)  The amount of defenses the enemy brings (and of what sort).  If
your
opponent brings the defenses to stop it, the number of fighters you're
using
is actually a _negative_ thing... especially if your opponent's defenses
are
in the form of scatterguns.  Bring twenty fighters, and your opponent
brings
about 50-60 scatterguns, and you're dead.

(2)  The scale of the battle.  Twenty fighters is far less impessive
over a
10,000 point battle than it is in a 1,000 point battle.  In the former,
it's
almost laughable... in the latter, it's indeed nearly unstoppable
without
bringing either scatterguns or a similar number of fighters.

> One of the big problems is that of a "soap bubble carrier". This is a
carrier
> that has very little other than a drive, FTL, and hangar bays. The
rest of
the
> points are spent on fighters. The math's been shown here before, but
if
the
> flock of squadrons concentrate on one or two ships at at time, they
can
> destroy the ships before they've lost anything close to the equivalent
points
> in fighters. In the end, the other fleet is destroyed and the fighter
fleet
> wins.

...unless the other fleet has the scatterguns to stop the fighters.  In
which case the fighter fleet gets reduced to its component atoms just as
badly.

And of course, this is the main hang-up some people have that I don't
understand.  If your opponent is using soap-bubble carriers, then by
definition it's a custom-design game.  Which means that you're no more
limited in what you're allowed to throw back at them than your opponent
is.
So why are people not simply just throwing the scatterguns together and
extending the digitus imputicus to the soap bubbles?

Granted, it's perhaps arguable that PDS isn't quite powerful enough, and
that perhaps it should be a little stronger.  But fighters, in and of
themselves, are by no means unstoppable.

E
(aka Stilt Man)