Re: [ft] Fighter Momentum Conservation (was: [OT]Unpredictable AI)

G'day,

 >how do you handle having 28 ships on the table then?

By using one set of orders for multiple ships mainly.

 >Whats a few more?

Unfortunately it can be a whole hell of a lot more than a few (before he

left town the guy who played the Free Orange would plonk 25 fighter
groups 
on the board for his fleet alone without batting an eyelid).

 >The data sheet for a squadron seems much simpler
 >than the simplest ship's data sheet anyway.

Why?

 >Dogfights -- one turn only...that is if neither side wishes to match
 >direction/velocity with the other, or stop.  If one wishes to, then
the
 >dogfight continues.  If both wish to, they both stop right there and
continue
 >the dogfight.

Must have impressive braking systems then ;)

 >Fighters attacking ships -- The fighters get to attack a ship, if, (1)
it 
is in
 >range of the squadrons weapons, and (2) it is in the squadron's fire
arc (if
 >important).  Then make your normal attack rolls, ect.

Fighters are gonna lobby for longer weapons ranges then, how often do
your 
normal ships get within 6"? ;)

 >(I never understood why fighters needed their own move segment, their
own
 >attack segment, their own move system, ect.  Seems much simpler to
treat them
 >as very small ships -- Which is what they are anyway.)

Are they though? I know naff all naval stuff (at least past about 1 AD)
so 
I may be speaking out of turn, but fighters of today don't act like
little 
ships do they? They have a flexibility to go places and do things you
just 
don't see other things do (at least not yet). In a funny kind of way the

current fighter rules kind of portray that flexibility while remaining
fast 
and simple to execute. If they didn't have their own sequence of doing 
things then writing orders for them could get tedious, not writing
orders 
but putting their movement in the ship phase may lead them to being too 
reactive (though the guys who dispensed with order writing for all ships

may disagree). There are flaws in the fighter rules, but fixing them and

still ending up with a simple and fast system has been problematic. 
However, that shouldn't stop us all trying to come up with suggestions
;)

Cheers