RE: FT Thrust question...

Date sent:  17-OCT-1996 08:37:06 
>Hello all,

>	Has anyone out there noticed that the small ships in fleet 
>engagements tend to get blown up too easily.  Our group has.  Maybe
it's
>just the tactics we're using but it seems to me that our small ships 
>get blown to bits in the first few turns.

Yes, but I don't see anything wrong with this. If you improve the
survivability of smaller ships, then 'swarm' tactics will become
invincible.
A large cloud of small ships already has a reasonable chance against
an equal points large ship.

At present, I use two tactics for smaller ships (most of which are a
minimum of mass 12. Smaller simply isn't worth it). 1.) Relatively
unmanouverable ships (Thrust 4) hang out with the carriers and
capitals, to add their ADAFs and Cs. These have quite a low
survivability.
Secondly, I use destroyers and other heavily armed 'escorts' as a kind
of reserve force. They can usually maintain a good distance from the
enemy,
and can be valuable as a threat if the enemy fleet fails to cover itself
correctly. (A difficult thing to do if all the fleet is headed in the
same
direction.)

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| Adam Delafield, I.T. Officer	      | Bolton Institute,  |
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