Fighter Groups

Some ideas & questions about Fighter Groups.

Question 1) After a fighter group expends its endurance and returns to the
carrier, how long before it can launch again? I would assume the minimim time
would be 3 rounds (same as endurance) possibly much longer.

Ideas for launch bays beyond 2: 1) Fighter groups with launch bays, beyond the
initial 2, may be bought at a penalty of 1 additional ton per fighter group
purchased applied to ALL fighter groups. Example: a carrier with 3 launching
fighter bays would pay 7 tons per fighter group. A carrier with 4 launching
fighter bays would pay 8 tons per fighter group. Cost would also rise by 5
points per additional launching fighter bay for All launch bays on the ship.

2) Launch bay cost: 3 tons, 10 points. Fighter group with internal bay: 4
tons, 15 points. Yes this is more expensive than standard launch
bay/fighter group combo, but more flexible. You could mount more than 2
launch bays. Also you could build 1 launch bay with multiple internal bays.

Idea for Fighters on ships smaller than Capitals: (I subscribe to the
interpretation that Carriers are capitals that have
> 1/2 of their system tons in fighters)
1) Ships smaller than capitals may mount Fighter groups. However, they may not
recover the Fighter groups once launched. Fighters must return to a carrier,
space station, or planet after expending their endurance. Thus
usually they are mounted only on system defence ships (non-FTL).

> Brian Bell wrote:

I'd say they have to stay on board one full turn minimum. Or one turn for each
turn of attack endurance. The group is recovered on say turn 6, they rearm
during turn 7 and may launch on turn 8. But I don't remember anything specific
in the rules.

In message <961213052523_103311.1205_IHH14-1@CompuServe.COM> Brian Bell
writes:
> Some ideas & questions about Fighter Groups.

> the carrier, how long before it can launch again? I would assume the

Personally, I imagine fuel can be loaded much faster that it will be expended
although I am open to the converse viewpoint.

You might also consider some kind of maintainence burden. Rules for this could
be jigged to make things faster on a dedicated carrier:
say it takes 6 work-points to turn around a fighter group. The group's
own bay contributes 2 points per turn and 1 point is contributed by each empty
fighter bay per turn. If a carrier can stagger the return of its fighter
groups, then the empty bays contribute to the full bays and acheive a swifter
turn around. If you have only one fighter bay on the ship it takes the full
three turns (or whatever is adjudged a fair
time: re-jig the numbers to suit).

> David Brewer wrote:

I've watched the shuttle take hours to load its fuel stores and then later
watch it launch and burn it all off in a few short minutes. It really depends
on what technology you plan to simulate.