Re: Fighters

-----Original Message-----
From: Z. Lakel <zlakel@tampabay.rr.com>
To: gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu <gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu>
Date: Tuesday, May 07, 2002 5:44 PM
Subject: Re: Re: Fighters

>How viable an option would it be to have fighters, more to reflect
taste
>than depower them, burn a turn endueance for every gameturn inwhich
they
are
>not escorting a ship and move?  What would be the right # to set
endurance
>at if one wanted to make fighters as strong as current, stronger than
>current, and weeker than current?  Just a though.
>
>Zachariah Lakel

I've played in many FT games and if anything causes problems in FT it's
fighters, PDS, and the things that surround these aspects.  Zachariah
has an
interesting idea here.	One could speculate that fighers can only be out
a
limted number of turns perhaps.  Now Star Wars, B5, and other shows do
clearly have fighters on patrol so this could be an issue.  Maybe
fighters
need to have a limited time 'in space' or have to expend some sort of
combat
endurance to be on the battlefield at all, different from on patrol or
close
escort duty.  This may be OK as it'll stop fighters from moving across
the
table attacking far in advance (see below.)

I've seen several battles with Soap Bubble Carriers that have their
fighters
launch and then race over the other side of the table long before any
defending ship could move within striking range of the Soap Bubble
Carriers
hugging the edges of the table.  I have seen something like 4-5 Soap
Bubble
Carriers launch 18+ fighter groups.  Hard to defend against that! 
Clearly
this isn't fun for everyone, nor does it simulate anything from my
sci-fi
reading or viewing.  Fighters and their roles in history may or may not
be
good examples of FT fighters.  I would suggest most people look to
sci-fi
and sci-fi shows far more to define these roles.

Now I know scenerios and campaigns can make things like this Soap Bubble
Carrier few and far between, but some people do want to just play a
quick
game of starship combat and just push some lead across the table.  Also,
what some people think is 'pushing' the spirit or letter of the rules
seems
fine to another.  My personal opinion however is massive waves of
fighter
can rule and ruin FT games.  I'm not sure what the answer is, but
something
to fix the problem woutld help I think.  Command and Control aspect on
carriers for each group of fighter out in the battlefiled taking points,
systems, and mass from the carriers perhaps.

Aimee
'Blow that ship out of my sky.'

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