Re: [FT] Fighter thoughts (LONG)

Grant A. Ladue wrote:

>I think I'm going to try to test out the fighter escort scenario.  What

>I'm thinking is to see what the average results would be for a NAC BDN
vs 
>several ships from the power that uses salvo
>missiles (name slips my addled brain).

All of the FB1 powers use salvo missiles to at least some extent, but
the 
FSE uses them most extensively of the four and the ESU only have them on

the Gorshkov-class "heavy" cruisers.

>I'm going to have to look up the cpv formulas to figure out what should
be 
>balanced.  I'm thinking of seeing how the results change based on the 
>distance between the ships when the first SM salvo goes in.  It will be
by 
>necessity somewhat simplified, but it should
>show the differences if any.

Manoeuvres are very important in this match-up too - not only because
the 
BDN may very well be able to dodge some of the missile salvoes, but also

because the beta-test fighter rulesfire make fire arcs nearly as
important 
as range even for anti-fighter/missile purposes. By fielding a lone BDN 
without any escorting ships you also ignore the standard anti-SM tactic
of 
using smaller ships as missile decoys.

>If anyone would like to let me know what should be combat balanced
against 
>a standard NAC BDN (I was thinking a cruiser and light cruiser) that
would 
>be great.

A cruiser and light cruiser sounds like a very light force for going up 
against a battledreadnought. Smaller ships fighting larger ships need to

outmass the enemy in order to get an even fight (that's the reason for 
introducing the CPV system!), so three or four cruisers sounds more
likely. 
Let's see...

There are several different versions of the CPV system floating around
at 
the moment leaked to the public during different stages of the
development, 
and the main difference between most of them is how they handle fighters

and fighter bays. I don't remember which of them have been leaked and
when, 
but the most recent version I have puts an NAC Excalibur-class BDN with
1 
Standard fighter group at a CPV of 534 :-/

If you want to use FB1 FSE as the missile opponents you could use eg. 3 
Milan-class CEs (CPV 546), 2 Milans + 1 Suffren-class CL (CPV 520; same 
missile armament as the 3x Milan squadron but fewer beams and hull boxes
to 
back them up), or 1 Milan + 3 Trieste-class DHs (CPV 527; 4 launchers,
but 
the Triestes only have 2 salvoes each and are rather flimsy).

You could also use an NSL missile destroyer squadron of 6 Waldburg/M
DDGs 
and 1 Ehrenhold-class FF (CPV 531, 6 launchers w/ 2 salvoes each but
very 
little anti-ship weaponry to support the missiles). If you want an NAC 
civil war you could use 2 Furious/M-class missile cruisers (described in

the text blurb for the Furious-class CE in FB1)  + 1 Huron-class CL (CPV

534; the Huron doesn't have any missiles, but the Furious/M is the
smallest 
official NAC missile-armed ship :-/).

>Then I'm going to need to figure how the cpv changes when you make it a

>NAC BDN with 2 fighter groups and only 1 PDS.

Depends on exactly how you do the refit. If you only rip out 2 PDSs and 
nothing else in order to make room for the second fighter bay, the BDN 
increases to TMF 151 and the latest-version CPV for ship and 2 Standard 
fighter groups is 599. An alternative could be to remove the BDN's
P-torp 
and B2-6 battery; this keeps the TMF unchanged at 140 and only increases

the CPV for ship and 2 Std fighter groups 541, but of course it weakens
the 
ship's on-board anti-ship armament quite a bit.

Some potential FSE opponents for the CPV 599 variant are 1 Jerez-class
CH + 
2 Suffrens (CPV 594), 3 Suffrens + 1 Trieste (CPV 583) or 2 Milans + 2 
Triestes (CPV 602). If you want to use NSL you could get eg. 7
Waldburg/Ms 
+ 1 Stroschen-class CT (CPV 595), and if you want an NAC civil war you 
could use 3 Furious/M-class missile cruisers + 1 Harrison-class SC (CPV 
597; I doubt that the Harrison would do much good before dying, but it 
might draw at least one or two beam dice away from the cruisers :-/ ).

Good hunting,

Oerjan
oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
-Hen3ry