Re: FTL capable fighters

At 01:48 PM 7/11/97 +0000, you wrote:
>>X-ListName: Full Thrust Combat Game Mailing list
<FTGZG-L@bolton.ac.uk>
>>Warnings-To: <>
>>Errors-To: owner-ftgzg-l@bolton.ac.uk
>>Sender: owner-ftgzg-l@bolton.ac.uk
>>Date: Thu, 10 Jul 1997 14:13:55 +0200 (MET DST)
>>From: Oerjan Ohlson <f92-ooh@nada.kth.se>
>>Reply-To: FTGZG-L@bolton.ac.uk
>>To: FTGZG-L@bolton.ac.uk
>>Subject: Re: FTL capable fighters
>>
>>On Thu, 10 Jul 1997, She stands on things I can't understand wrote:
>>
>>> That, along with the
>>> fact that these 'short-range' fighters seem to be able to traverse
most of
>>> known space, and fight for extended periods of time makes me want to
just
>>> not use the endurance rules any.
>>
>>I don't think the B5 fighters are considered as "short-range" in the
show,
>>especially not when they are quite often referred to as "warships"
rather 
>>than "fighters". OK, so the bigger warships carry them and the term 
>>"fighter" is used often as well, but even so...
>>
>>How long a time (in the B5 universe, not on the screen) did the
longest 
>>battles involving Starfuries last? (Battle of the Line, or possibly 
>>Ivanova's little brawl with the Raiders - or something in Season 3 or 
>>later, which I wouldn't know about)?
>>
>>Later,
>>
>>Oerjan Ohlson

	Then again, they've had 250 years for the usage of the terms to
evolve- it's 
not that long since a common American description for a fighter aircraft
was a 
"pursuit ship".  As to the Omega "destroyers"- well, the term destroyer
has
already 
referred to 3 radically different forms of warship this century,
beginning
with enlarged 
torpedo boats, moving on to light fleet escorts, and finally expanding
to
include great 
muckle vessels like Burkes and Spruances, which are "obviously" cruisers
by
older 
definitions.  Personally, I like the all too brief USN classification of
DLG/CLG as 
"Frigate"- a much more appropriate use of the term than the current
usage IMHO.

cheers
Rob Paul

"
Rob Paul
Dept. of Zoology
University of Oxford
South Parks Road
Oxford
(01865) 271124

rpaul@worf.molbiol.ox.ac.uk

Once again, villainy is rotting meat before the maggots of justice!
"