(FT) BETA fighter rules, comments

Hi all,

I have just returned from a very extended gaming weekend in which we 
tried out the new fighter rules posted on the list a few weeks back. The

comments that I can think of are as follows;

The new turn sequence works a treat, and saves on an awful lot of 
paperwork in ordnance heavy games. This feature was rapidly picked up on

and went a long way to winning all of us round to the "test rules".

Scatter guns are a lot more balanced, though their fire power has been 
drastically reduced the new turn sequence allows the scattergun armed 
fleet to conserve its shots much more effectively.

The whole anti-shipping vs ordnance was a favourite of mine, though it 
was effective it was never OTT.

Using fighters was a treat. I used to hate the flipping things, but now 
here I was, happily utilising 8 heavy fighter squadrons, escorting the 
main battle, to keep the enemy fighters, missiles, boarding pods at 
bay,  and once all the nasty stuff was moped up my fighters disengaged 
and attacked the enemy. Great!

Fighter casualties in the hardest battles rarely topped 50%, but in 
comparison I didn't destroy any vessels with my fighters (though they 
did cripple 2 capital ships in one game).

Whether as a result of the vagaries of dice rolls or the gods of chance,

1-4 salvo missiles lobbed into an enemy fleet numbering about 4000pts 
somehow seemed to survive defensive fire and get a few missiles in on 
target (never decisive strikes, but some nasty hits inflicted), whilst 
1-6 AMT's/PBL strength 1's fired at the same fleet would normally all be

negated. Very odd.

Jinking is a good feature, at least from our initial tests. It is not 
always wholly effective but then thats kind of the point I suppose. It 
is useful in the sense it helps fighters to soak up heavy weapons fire 
that might otherwise be targeted at the vessels in the fleet itself, but

in return long range fire is useful in forcing enemy fighters to spend 
CEFs in defence.

All in all, from the 6 games we played the new turn sequence, fighter 
rules, and general point defence/area defence set up described by these 
rules was simple, effective and clean (for want of a better word).

Regards,

Matt Tope