[FT] Fighter combat

Fighters are a powerful single strike weapon (both historically and in
sci-fi tv and novels) but usually suffer from a lack of ordinance to
follow
up the attacks effectively.
Sure, in one turn 20 fighter squadrons can totally destroy an SDN, but
that
isn't the whole story regarding balance.  Part of the current problem is
that those 20 squadrons can do the same thing for 6 turns, but usually
more
like 4 turns after burning endurance due to a bad movement guess or
failed
morale checks.

Simply changing the endurance (as has been suggested by someone else)
would
probably go a long way towards fixing most of the problem.
Reduce the standard fighter endurance to 3 (6 for Long Range) reduces
fighters effectiveness over a game by at least a third, but still allows
a
devastating first strike.

Burning Endurance:
Extra movement: 1 point
Declaring an against a starship attack: 1 point
Dogfighting: 1 point

Dogfighting with no endurance left: resolve defensive fire AFTER the
attacker (not simultaneous).

Note that just declaring an attack burns endurance, if you fail the
morale
check, you have simply expended resources ineffectually.

This still results in a dead SDN after 1-2 turns, but your enemy now has
several turns to pound your eggshell carriers flat, as you have to
recover,
rearm and relaunch before your offensive weapon can attack again.  And
recovering and relaunching makes your course very predictable as the
enemy
can move faster than your fighters to catch you.

Someone mentioned allowing Class-2s and above to engage fighters at
their
full range; I did this for my HH rules, but I had increased the power of
fighters threefold over "normal" FT fighters.
If you decided to do this, it would probably need to be limited to one
FC
per weapon per squadron, otherwise fighters could be wiped out at 24"+
before they even get into range with the heavy beam armament of some
designs.

Brendan
'Neath Southern Skies