RE: Small ships and SMLS & Killing Torp armed fleets.....

> Mass 20
> hull integrity 2
> Thrust Factor 1
> FTL (yes)
> 2 points of armor
> 1 Class 1 beam
> 1 SML
> 2 SMR(ER)
> 1 Fire Control
>
> and thats it for the 20 tonner

No maneuverability, no fighter defense, no power once it has shot its
load.
Also your notation is a bit off.  SMRs are single shot Salvo Missle
systems
and have a launcher built in.  You probably mean a magazine of 2 ER SM
reloads.

> Mass 30
> hull integrity 2
> Thrust Factor 1
> FTL (yes)
> 1 SML
> 2 SMR(ER)
> 1 Fire Control
> 1 fighter bay with 6 fighters
>
> thats the 30 tonner

There is an error in this one, all the systems come up to Mass 31 (I
tried
it on V.4 of the FTFB spread sheet plus V.3 and V.2 and all came up with
Mass 31).

Plus make sure you add the cost of fighters to the ships, in your 1500
pt
Battle #3, 14 Mass 31 ships (114 points each) is 1596 points then add
another 252 for the 14 fighter groups (18 each), for a total of 1848
points.
No wonder this battle was easy.

>From the battle reports, these were the only custom ships, all others
were
from the FB.  Being custom designed for one-off battles, it is not
surprising that they beat ships designed for more than a single duel. 
Your
ships don't take into consideration any campaign problems like resupply
and
more than 1 wave of attackers.	Once the SMs are launched, these ships
can
not maneuver and can not defend themselves.  All the opponent has to do
is
survive the first couple of turns and these ships are toast.

But how to survive those turns with all the SM fire?.  If our opponents
still use FB ships, they should speed up and use more escorting ships. 
The
capitals are needed for long range firepower and staying power, but
smaller
ships would soak up some of the salvos or dive right into the your
formation. A few good escort cruisers like the Beijing/B escort variant
(lots of PDFs and a ADFC) would increase the survivability of the
capitals
too.  The extremely low thrust of these ships also would allow other
fleets
to keep out of range until a better opportunity presented itself and
then
attack.

Dean