Re: Fighters

I haven't read all of the statements about the fighters I just had five
of
the digests to read at once, but here's my own rulings. The first is on
lauch and recovery. The FT2 rules state that a carrier can launch and/or
recover 2 groups per turn, any other ship can only launch and or recover
one
group pre turn. I am against more than two groups launching because it
unbalances the fighters even more than people seem to be complaining
about.
As far as what constitutes a carrier or a "dreadnaught" I have felt that
if
more than half your weapon system mass was dedicated to bays then your
ship
would be a carrier, if 50% or less weapon mass was bays then your ship
falls
into the dreadnaught range (1 group per turn). I use the same rule in
DSII
to determine transport vs. gunship VTOLs. Having one rule of thumb for
all
the GZG games makes it simple to remember.

Fighters in Mothball: Discussions on this list have placed fighters in
the
class 3/4 range in DSII. If you use the vehicle carrying capacity in MT
and
assume that all fighters are class 4 (needed to have the heaviest
possible
armor for aerospace) it takes 16 cargo (at the old 50 cargo = 1 mass, I
don't rember if there is any new *official* ruling on that yet) to hold
one
fighter, so 48 cargo would hold three fighters, and three fighters would
be
kept in "Mothball" for 1 mass, an entire fighter group would take two
mass.

Of course "Mothballed" fighters couldn't be readied in one combat, at
least
not in complete groups . A partial group that returned to the carrier to
refuel/rearm may have a DCP (or maybe two successfull rolls: one dcp
twice,
two dcps in one turn, ect.) attempt to pull a fighter out of mothball
and
get it ready for launch like any other system, but only one fighter at a
time. Replacing a complete group isn't possible under the conditions in
one
battle, but may be possible in campaigns, or when the "judge" or all
players
agree that far too many rounds have pased since signifigant group losses
occoured (I'd say 50% or more) that crews *wouldn't* have been sent to
extracate the additional fighters.

Jim