Re: [FT] Ship design advice

>	I need to design a fleet to take part in a campaign game with FB
>designs.  I want to make sure that it is balanced with the book designs
>and fun to play.

Good idea.

>	The capital ships I'm thinking about using have L2 screens, a
medium
>sized beam armament, and pulse torps.	What do you folks think about
>using heavy screens with the new rules?  I just found the rule about
any
>rerolls bypassing screens, that makes them less attractive.  Are they
>worth the weight?

Yes and no. Against anyone but the Kra'Vak, I 'd say that screens are
still
worth their weight. There are enough Beam and/or Beam-like systems out
there that they prolong your survivability by a significant margin.
However, taking Level 2 screens, IMO, starts to unbalance your ship.

>	Whenever fighters have been used in the few games I have seen,
they
>have always been slaughtered fairly early.  Is this normal?  Maybe they
>weren't used correctly, as they don't seem to be worth their point
>value, let alone the astronomical cost of the fighter bays.

Sounds like they're not being properly employed. Keep in mind that they
can't be attacked by anything other than fighters until they attack,
excepting ADFC equipped vessels.

Even then you want to time your fighter waves to arrive all together, or
better yet along with some other nasty surprise (like an SML) so the
PDSs
are further divided.

>	Here's one of the designs that I've come up with for an SDN -

If you're going to balance this design with existing FB designs, I'd
change
2 PDS into Class 1 Batteries. The total lack of Class 1s is conspicuous.

Schoon