[FT] Fragile Carriers (was Re: Fw: Carriers and other updates)

G'day guys,

First up Keith said:
>The fighters are obviously the main punch, 
>but the disadvantage here is that you really
>only have 6 attacks, since the odds of getting
>the fighters refueled before the battle ends are
>fairly small.	This still beats SML's generally, 
>though, I think... 

If you roll like me it does ;)
However if you roll as the law of large numbers would have it then SMs
do
seem to just edge out fighter damage if done sensibly and you've got a
good
eye (i.e. you get a heap in the right spot and the roll reasonably for
the
number going in). The killer combination though, is if you use them
together so they overwhelm the enemy PDS, when I play FSE this has
become
close to my sole tactic in many games as I've really only got two or
three
mass salvos (i.e. every ship that can launches simultaneously) before I
leave the board so I have to make them REALLY count.

>Beth's philosophy (correct me if I'm wrong Beth!) is that if
>the carriers ever get caught, they're dead.  Period.  

That was pretty much my attitude, though they can take a (little) bit of
damage simply because they've got a reasonably large total mass in the
first place. If the opposition gets to my carrier then the rest of my
fleet
must be cactus already [or will be when command gets hold of them ;)  ].
Though keep in mind this comes from someone who really only plays vector
movement, thinking about it last night I did realise that the use of
fragile carriers would be less 'safe' under cinematic were you can just
whip around the board at high speed without the fear of having to spend
8
turns plotting moves around the kitchen (room beside gaming room) before
you can claw your way back onto the board.

>I have to say though, the sight of 100-plus fighters
>screaming toward the enemy was an awesome 
>one.. <g>

There's a guy here who plays an 'anime' fleet, all wave guns and mech
fighters (more expensive than standard fighter and three of them count
as
an offensive factor for boarding action purposes), so anti-fighter
tactics
(especially having enough fighters to match him, the screen that Keith
mentioned) have become essential - otherwise you get you butt VERY
painfully kicked. Though I haven't tried mines yet, do they effect
fighters
too? I'll have to check. Another thought, while I'm processing my
neurons'
spasms out loud, has any one tried a game where they played out a long
range (off board) carrier strike, where x pts of fighters flew on the
board
vs x pts of ships?

Then Michael asked:
>This might not work in a campaign setting. 
>Just how many spares do you have, 
>and how quickly can you get them in service?

I haven't played a campaign with my fragile carrier fleet yet, but I
have
starting playing one using the FSE (vs Derek's NSL) and straight up the
impact of the FSE design was evident as I had to have at least two or
three
times as many Fleet Auxilaries as Derek just to keep me topped up (which
meant we had to bump up the fleet sizes a bit so I still had a halfway
decent fighting force). We haven't got so far into the campaign yet that
my
demand has out-striped supply, but I guess it could be on the cards -
especially if Derek finds a way of blockading me in so I can't get to
the
FTL boundary if extras brought in by reinforcements end up being my only
option.

Cheers

Beth

------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Elizabeth Fulton
c/o CSIRO Division of Marine Research
GPO Box 1538
HOBART 
TASMANIA 7001
AUSTRALIA
Phone (03) 6232 5018 International +61 3 6232 5018
Fax (03) 6232 5199 International +61 3 6232 5199

email: beth.fulton@marine.csiro.au