RE: [FT] back to fighters

>G'day,
>
>> While I don't like the idea that only a limited number of fighters
>> can attack in a game turn (poor PSB), the suggested variant that
>> fighters must attack ships in waves of 6 (?) squadrons is quite
>attractive.
>> PDS wouldn't be able to shoot at more than one squadron per wave, but
>> could shoot again at the next wave. Any number of waves can attack in
a
>turn.
>> PSB would be that it's hard to coordinate large numbers of
>> fighters and that the PDS would have time to reload/reacquire
>> targets between the incoming waves.
>
>Sorry if someone else has already made this comment (haven't had a
chance to
>really keep up with this thread), but limiting it to waves of 6 isn't
really
>going to help I would've thought. May be we're just not very good
>players/designers down here, but a stack of 6 fighters is usually a
pretty
>good way of dispatching/crippling ships down here (especially if you're
>aiming at taking out the supporting cruisers first). In addition, even
with
>multiple waves you're dropping the total number of fighters going in by
>between about 1 and 4 fighters per 6 groups coming in (so with morale
in
>play too you may see an extra group or two pull out, but not exactly a
major
>deterrence). I wouldn't have thought that was enough of a change to
bother
>doing it (especially if you have to justify it against all the "space
is
>big, VERY big" problems people like me are going to see with the
argument).
>
>Cheers
>
>Beth

I KNOW I'm going to regret getting involved in this argument
(er..."heated
discussion") at this stage, but here goes nothing....

As several people have already pointed out, the PSB behind fighters is
all
down to what style of fighter attacks you are trying to simulate. For
what
it's worth, my intention behind fighter attacks has always leaned
towards
the "attack run and fire at close range" type of thing, as you see in
most
of the movies/TV series that employ space fighters, where the fighters
swoop towards the target ship, jinking their way through the flak from
the
PDS, fire antiship weaponry at fairly short range, then pull out with
typical flyboy flair before regrouping for the next pass..... all very
cinematic and jolly good fun, wizard prang chaps and all that!
The idea of a 6 mu" "range" for fighter attacks was never intended to be
a
stand-off range for their weapons, but the distance at which they would
start to make their attack runs against the ship.
Now, if you take the opposite tack and assume that fighter attacks
consist
of launching guided stand-off muntions (or firing beam weapons) at 6 mu
range, then the "space is big" argument holds and there is no PSB reason
why you can't have huge numbers of fighters could potentially attack
simultaneously; but if you subscribe to the "attack run" idea then the
space IMMEDIATELY AROUND the target ship actually ISN'T all that big
anymore, and is going to get awfully crowded with lots of fighters
zipping
past each other, especially if they're arriving from different
directions!!
In this case, making fighters attack in "waves" (or even as individual
groups), with PDS able to fire at each successive attack, becomes
eminently
reasonable under the PSB......

I'm not making ANY decisions yet on which rules options to go for
(though I
will say that I like Tom's (?) idea of presenting a number of options
for
differing genres, with a default option for the "official" background),
but
I just thought I'd add to the fun a bit......	;-)

Jon (GZG)