Ground-Based Fighters (longish)

Here's something for you other vaccuum-heads to chew on while all the
mud-foots are reloading their shotguns...   :)

Although most of this discussion will be specific to the Imperium/FT
campaign rules I've been working on, hopefully some of the ideas I'll
present will have general applicability to any scenario in which
ground-based fighters are present.

Two of the problems I'd been running into with the Imperium campaign
rules
(see: http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~jwlyon/FT/imperium/) has been how to
handle fighters and planetary defenses.  I was having three major
problems
making it all fit together:

1) FT fighters were substantially more powerful relative to starships
than
Imperium fighters are; using the same conversion rate I used for ships a
fighter squadron with a combat rating of 1-2-2 or 2-1-2 should have been
slightly more powerful than a scout ship but slightly less powerful that
a
destroyer.  (See:
<http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~jwlyon/FT/imperium/V2ships.txt> for the
conversion rates and for the ship designs with Imperium combat factors,
please see:
<http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~jwlyon/FT/imperium/v2shipsan.htm>)

If I designed a ship with those combat ratings it would have 2 class-1
beams and a submunitions pack or vice versa for a total of 3 mass-1
weapons.  In reality, I was finding that a squadron of standard FT
fighters
would have a combat factor more on the order of 6-0-2 or so.  Note that
this is almost twice as much firepower.

I tried tinkering with the rules for fighters in order to reduced their
firepower and considered increasing their point values but was not
satisfied with any of these attempts and found things drifting further
and
further away from the FT core rules.

2) Fighters in Imperium were supposed to be able to operate from bases
on
outposts or worlds (ie, without a mothership) but this caused play
balance
inequities if players were allowed to purchase FT fighter squadrons
without
accounting for the cost of hangar bays.

3) When I did try to account for the hangar bay in the cost of an
outpost
or planetary defense marker, then it not only limited the number of
points
that could be spent on other weapon systems but also limited the total
number of fighter squadrons that could be supported when it should have
been scaleable.  Even worse, if a player did not purchase fighter
squadrons, then the points spent on hangar space went to waste.

I think I've come up some ideas which will help eliminate most of these
problems without creating too many others.

The first was a conceptual change; I quit trying to translate the
Imperium
fighter squadrons to FT fighter squadrons on a 1:1 basis.  I'm finding
now
that equating a single FT fighter squadron to two Imperium fighter
squadrons is a much closer match in terms of combat effectiveness.

The next issue was to balance the cost of FT fighter squadrons which are
operating independent of a carrier.  There are two ways this could be
handled:

The first is to purchase a minimal base station for each squadron; Mass
10-11, fragile to weak hull integrity, mass 9 hangar bays, cost: 39-42
points.  This can be either a ground base or an orbital station.

The second is a little more elegant in some ways; create a new fighter
variant called "ground based fighters" or something.  This would be a 36
or
42 point (+6 to +7 per fighter) modification which allows the squadron
to
operate independent of a starship or base with a hangar bay due to its
organic support facilities.  (I'm visualizing a tarmac and some prefab
sheds full of aircrew and support equipment, or niche carved out of the
side of an asteroid or even the main hold of a freighter.)

There are advantages and disadvantage to either mechanism; the former is
simple, requires no new rules and creates a distinct target for enemy
ships
and fighters to counter-attack.

The second is a little more elegant and possibly more flexible, but
provides no clear-cut mechanism for resolving attacks against the
support
facilities.

Both solutions eliminate the problems of costing the support facilities
as
part of a planetary defense system and by directly associating those
costs
with each squadron of fighters, makes it proportionately scaleable.

Also note that the new cost of a ground-based squadron of standard
fighters
(either 54 or 60 points) is fairly close to the cost of two squadrons of
fighters in Imperium: 2 RUs or 50 points.

Whether this will achieve the desired effect in terms of balanced the
combat effectiveness vs cost for fighters is something which will need
to
be worked out in playtesting.  I would certainly welcome any feedback on
it.

Thanks.

Jeff