Re: [FT\DS2] Fleet and Army sizes for games

stiltman@teleport.com wrote:
> 
> I've had an ambition to set up some sort of larger campaign game where
> resource management winds up meaning something.  OTOH, I could easily
see
> that getting out of hand -- e.g. a carrier force attacking a
battleship
> force, the carrier side trades their fighter complement (but no ships)
for
> the opposing task force, nullifying both of their striking power for
the
> time being, but the carrier side goes and buys much fancier fighters
the
> second time around whereas the battleship side has to replace their
whole
> task force, thus the campaign quickly becomes worse for whoever falls
behind.
> --

It costs at least 45 pts to field a fighter squadron (mass 12, MD 2,
FTL, Hull integrity of 1, fighter squadron bay), plus the cost of the
fighters (18 minimum).
Yet I would fearlessly face an equal value of these carrierlettes in a
single Konstantin (The Konstantin has interceptors*, the carrierlettes
have whatever), because I know that with six squadrons on defence and
level-2 screens, I should just be able to weather out the storm and my
class-3's will be giving some of the enemy pilots dark thoughts about
getting home

If you actually decide to defend these ships against enemy fighters,
they need escorts that can survive.  This either requires more fighters
(expensive), or extra hulls that mount ADFC's and PDS's.  To defend
against direct fire weapons, it has to have more thrust, but more thrust
than three requires a larger FTL, and another hull box (mass 17, MD 5, 2
hull boxes, FTL, ftr bay, cost 60).

If the carrier force is composed of FB1 style fleet carriers, able to
take some punishment and equipped to fend off enemy scoutships and
corvettes, the number of pts per ftr squadron increases even more.

A dedicated cruiser escort, a-la Atlanta class from WWII (mass 60, MD 4,
FTL, 18 hull boxes,2xscreen, 2xADFC, 14xPDS), costs 202 and, with the
fighter break off rule, can fend off 2, maybe 3, fighter squadrons
simultaneously.  The tyranny of numbers means that it does have a
limited anti-ship capability with its PDS suite, allowing it to finish
off the defenceless 45 pt carrierlettes that tried to attack it.  A high
acceleration ship with a single class-4 beam can snipe away several of
the carrierlettes while dodging the fighters (mass 50, MD 10, FTL, 10
hull boxes, FC, PDS, class-4(F), cost 161).  In a desperate situation, a
quickly produced design of small escort(mass 12, MD 2, FTL, hull box,
ADFC, 7xPDS, cost 47) should negate the power of min. pts per ftr
carrierlettes for less cost.

So the carrier uber-task force is at the mercy of other kinds of task
forces made up of ships that a balanced spacefleet will have on hand in
sufficient numbers or can quickly build (assuming small ships build
faster [compared by mass] than large ships).  Now all you have to do is
prevent the "Two entire nation fleets meet in an unbalanced situation",
which is done by allowing fleets to disengage from battles they do not
need to win.

Richard Bell