RE: FT3?

On Tue, 24 Sep 1996, Adam Delafield wrote:

> This, I would say, is using fighters incorectly. Treat them as part of
the
> carrying ship, and have them always within 6 to 12" of the carrier and
> its escorts. If the enemy want to engage you, they will have to close
> with the fighters. (ie, put the fighters where you know the enemy HAS
> to go).
> 

Which is fine except when the opponent decides to stand off and pound
you 
with A or AA batteries.  We played one game on the floor, roughly 20' x 
20', with six 2,000 point fleets and a 6' cluster of asteroids in the 
center.  The two fleets with carriers got badly mauled by the fleet
armed 
soley with missiles and two fleets heavily armed with A's and AA's. 
(admittedly they were not realistic designs since the A's were two arc 
batteries, port and forward)  Speeds for the game rarely dropped below
20 
since even a capital ship with thrust 2 could easily turn before running

off the board.	A lot of the game was just maneuvering just to get
within 
range of A batteries.

Fighters can be deadly within small, confined boards but moving to huge 
areas they quickly drop in importance, unless someone makes an error and

allows his path to cross that of the fighters.

I highly recommend playing once or twice on a huge board.  Your tactics 
and ship design take on whole new directions.

--Binhan