Re: [FT] Rules Questions

Shawn M Mininger wrote:

> Honostly, fighter swarming seems like a valid tactic
> to me, especially if you're playing a campaign where
> you are conquering planets and using limited resources
> to build your fleet.	Fighters are great for system
> defense (my starbases have tons of fighters because
> they are only protecting the starsystem they are based
> at and don't need FTL)  Fighters are also great as
> attrition units as they are cheap and can be produced
> fast.

Fighter swarming runs into problems if non-human tech is allowed.  If I
suspect that you will be basing your entire fleet strike capability on
fighter swarms, my horde of Kra'Vak scattergunboats (mass 10,MD4, FTL,
hull 3, 4 scatterguns, NPV 40) will clean your clocks.	The hollow
carriers (mass 12, MD2, FTL, ftr bay, NPV 45 + ftr cost) will have at
least a 2:3 numerical inferiority, so each fighter squadron will face at
least 6 scatterguns in an equal point battle, and if I only field one
scattergunboat for every pair carriers, I can loose one blat of
scatterguns at the fighters and have the whole force jump outsystem and
still win (by attrition) with average die rolls; unless, you are using
nothing but heavy fighters.

For base assaults, I bring in a swarm of ships with a mkp's (mass 11,
MD4, FTL, hull 2, FCS, 2 MKP, 3 scatterguns, NPV 45), and thoroughly
destroy it and its complement of fighters.

Because, this fleet does not need NPV parity to gut an all fighter
opponent, the rest of the fleet can be well balanced, and if no fighter
swarming player is found, the scattergunboats are slowly converted to
something more useful.

The designer's notes from the TSR reprint of SPI's "Air War" had the
following piece of advice:  "Never let your fangs grow too long, or you