Its Doctrine, Scouting and Tactics not Fighters

At 4:19 PM +0100 5/6/02, Roger Burton West wrote:
>On Mon, May 06, 2002 at 08:08:38AM -0700, Brian Bilderback wrote:
>>And see, there's the catch.  If ships can be designed that can defend
>>against fighters, then the problem isn't with the fighters, it's with
the
>>FB designs.
>
>Not necessarily.
>
>If the current rules said "each PDS destroys d6 fighter groups every
>turn, no range limit", then it would be possible to design ships that
>fared better against fighters than the FB1 designs. Does it follow that
>the designs ought to be changed, rather than the rules? How about "each
>PDS destroys every fighter on the board"?

That's exactly the wrong way to go. The Rules work for the most part. 
The designs are good starting points. Make minor adjustments to them. 
I have.

>There is nothing holy about the current rule system. The only way any
>design can be evaluated as "good" or "bad" is within the context of
>rules. You and Eric are both saying "FB1 designs are bad, other designs
>are better" as if the current rules were the way things "really
worked".
>They aren't.

The way things work is that when you are using fighters or missiles 
(both a form of expendable ordinance) you get one Alpha Strike and 
maybe a Beta Strike against a foe that you have parity with. Your 
hope is to smash him before he launches his strike at you. Missiles 
or Fighters in piecemeal amounts are a waste.

What is missing isn't a good set of designs. But the context that if 
you are up against a foe that you can't win against because you have 
lots of PDS and he's a got a battle line full of ships mounting Guns, 
you refuse or try to make his life as hard as possible.

You folks need to stop thinking in terms of GW style scenarios. This 
is just like dirtside. Two fleets just don't line up at 500 Klicks 
and advance in line. There is really lots of maneuvering and scouting 
that goes on. There is a massive fight for information before the 
first shot is ever fired. You need to add to the rules, not change 
them.

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