Re: FT: Launching fighters

Paul Grogan wrote:
>>> owner-gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU at internet 01/05/00 07:55AM >>>
>I've been experimenting with various rules on launching fighters and
>where 
the launched fighters should be placed.
>Has anybody else got any suggestions for what they think works best?
>At Gencon UK last year, Jon suggested that the launched fighters are 
>placed directly in front on the launching ship at a distance equal to
the 
>launching ship's speed. i.e If the carrier was moving 10, the fighters 
>would be launched 10 inches directly in front of the carrier.

We've done this a variety of ways...
1. Sometimes just dropping them at the midpoint and leaving them there 
assuming the fighters were regrouping after launch.  This always seemed 
goofy to me as it would seem like they lost the inherited momentum from
the 
mother ship.
2. Another method was to place fighters only in a straight line ahead of
the 
ship, at the ship's endpoint of movement, using a fixed distance like
half 
of the max fighter movement.  This did a decent job to simulate firing
out 
at speed from a launch tube.

I personally like using #2.

>Does anyone allow movement for fighters on the turn they are launched, 
>instead of just being placed directly ahead of the launcher.

Using the Fleet Book rules we use the ability to burn an extra unit of 
endurance after ships have moved.

>Can fighters engage in combat on the turn they are launched?

Unless you use something in a special scenario, I don't see why not.

>As a final question, I'm trying to get my fighters on bases so that I
can 
>easily remove them to mark casualties.  I've tried mounting 1 fighter
per 
>base with a little dice representing how many is left in the squadron
but 
>it doesn't look right.  The same argument goes for permanently basing 6

>fighters on a stand and then using a dice to say how many of them are 
>actually still alive.	I run the game as a demo for a lot of beginning 
>players and they want to be able to see how many fighters are still
alive 
>at a glance.

I think the mini dice are the simplest solution and work well.

Michael Miserendino
Senior Software Engineer
Lincoln Re
mtmiserendino@lnc.com