From: mehawk@c... (Michael Sandy)
Date: Mon, 1 Dec 1997 08:57:36 -0800
Subject: Carrier and fighter questions
Fighter Questions: If a Carrier launches a heavy interceptor squadron and a torpedo-fighter squadron at the same time and flies them to the same target, who determines which squadron is targetted by PDAFs, ADAFs, C-Beams and other fighters? Can a fighter group within range of several frigates target more than one of them? Obviously each of their targets would get to use their point defense against the whole fighter group, but splitting up a torpedo squadron to attack several low mass frigates is better than wasting half their torpedos! I understand that some people play without the restriction of fighters to Capital ships. Having done some of the numbers I'd like to weigh in against doing away with the restriction. Especially doing away with the restriction for Heavy Fighters! As a historical note, in WWII the smaller carriers were often armed with less powerful planes because the best fighters required longer runways. I don't know what sorts of extra logistical requirements the more expensive fighters need, but limiting them to Capital ships is important. As I understand how fighters work, they get half their movement the turn they are launched, but they can attack that very turn. Consider: the Swarm Carrier Mass 18 move 8 systems FCS Needle Beam PDAF fast-torpedo fighter squadron (or other fighter squadron) A fighter group attacks targets within 6", right? So the Swarm could hit a target 15" away from the end of its movement. Against no point defense this attack would do an average of 14 points of damage. This is more damage than submunitions do at 12". 9 submunitions at 12" would do an average of 12 points. And unlike submunition equipped ships, the Swarms can do something after their first attack, namely refuel and rearm, as well as firing their Needle. Fleets would need to seriously up their anti-fighter defenses! There is of course the question of whether the Swarms would survive long enough to launch their fighters, but with Thrust 8 they should only suffer one volley of A batteries at extreme range before they can launch. At long range it would take 6 A Batteries to inflict a threshold check on a Swarm, (or any escort), barring a superior targetting system, and 14 to kill one. At closer range a lot depends on your initiative system, but launch and fighter movement takes place before combat. Fighters may get left behind some high speed combats, but there isn't much dodging a point blank launch. As for how I got on this topic, I was trying to design an in-the-thick of it Carrier which would rearm its fighters during combat. Unfortunately, the larger Carriers are slow and have launcher congestion. So I started looking at Cruisers and Escorts. Anyone have any ideas on how long it takes to reload and rearm fighters? Does it make a difference what the mass of the Carrier is? Swarm II (Cruiser type Carrier) Mass 36 move 8 systems FCS FCS shield shield fighter squadron C Beam PCS C Beam PCS PDAF PDAF 2 Mass Cargo Space for extra munitions for fighters I suppose that with enough extra cargo space the Swarm II could rearm torpedo fighters, interceptors, attack-fighters, basically whichever fighter squadron happened to be near it. You could have 3 Swarms launching 3 different types of fighters, but any squadron could rearm at any Swarm. Considering that the torpedo fighters would need to rearm more quickly this versatility could be important! And on the not too infrequent occurences that a launch bay or a Swarm cruiser was destroyed, the extra cargo area would mean that they could still recover the fighters without blocking the launch bay. By having in-the-thick-of-it Carriers to recover and rearm fighters, a fleet would have the option of keeping its fleet Carriers further back, not to mention spending less on defenses and escorts for those Carriers. I'd like to point out that in terms of both cost and mass, Fleet Carriers are going to be more efficient in terms of total fighter weight. However, the Swarms should have an advantage in terms of launching and recovering fighters. A non-ftl version of the Swarm could afford better anti-fighter defenses, more cargo area and some offensive power of its own. Because of the amount of mass devoted to defense, a non-ftl version of the Swarm would have a great advantage. Swarm II non-ftl version Mass 36 move 8 systems shield-3 (I forget if you can actually put Shield-3 on a Cruiser) fighter squadron 3 Mass Cargo space A Beam PCS C-Beam PCS ADAF PDAF PDAF Unless your enemy has Pulse-torpedos or submunitions in large quantities, this Cruiser is going to be tough to kill.