Fighter Rules - Attacking Fighters

Part 4: Attacking Fighters

DEFENSE LEVELS These rules use "Defense levels" as the primary way to
distinguish effectiveness of attacks, although some DRMs are retained from MT.
Defense levels are equal to the effectivness of beam dice against vaious
levels of screens.

DL 0 = unscreened DL 1 = screen level 1 DL 2 = screen level 2
DL 3 = pree-FB screen level 3
DL 4: 1-5 = no hits, 6 = 1 hit but no re-roll

if the total of defense levels >4, then there is no effect. rerolls against
fighters are made at the same DL as the initial roll, not at DL0.

DEFENSIVE FIRE
  Defensive fire is of two types: Point Defense and Anti-Ship Weapon
fire.

POINT DEFENSE SYSTEMS PDSs may fire at any fighter group or ordnance marker
within 6mu, regardless of the activities of the fighters. PDS may fire at any
fighter group or ordnance marker which is attacking the ship on which the PDS
is mounted. No FCS or ADFC is needed. Point defense fire is fully effective
against targets out to 6mu.
between 6mu and 12mu, targets are treated as if they had +1 DL; from
12mu to 18mu, targets are treated as +2 DL, etc.  Range is measured
from the firing ship to the target group.

Range PDS Effectiveness
0-6       Normal
6-12       +1 DL
12-18      +2 DL
18-24      +3 DL
24-30      +4 DL

AREA DEFENSE FIRE CONTROLS ADFCs have two modes of operation: Escort and Area
Defense
  An Escort-mode ADFC will allow any number of PDS from the ship it is
mounted upon to engage any fighter group or missile volley attacking a single
friendly ship within 6mu. Multiple ADFCs will allow a ship to
split its ADFC-PD fire among multiple ships, 1 ship defended per ADFC,
in addition to defending itself as per the normal PDS rules.
  An AD-mode ADFC will allow a ship to extend the range at which its
PDS may engage any fighter group or ordnance marker by +6mu.  Each
additional ADFC on the same ship in AD mode increases this radius by
+6mu.
Ships with multiple ADFCs may determine the mode (and defended ship)
individually for each ADFC in use.

PD MODE B1 B1s may be used in PD mode as described in FB1. In this mode it may
engage targets as a PDS, but treats fighters as +2 DL at all ranges.

SCATTERGUNS Scatterguns may chose fighter targets in the same manner as
described for PDS, with augmentation by ADFCs as for PDS.
  S-Guns have 6mu RBs like PDS.  They do 1d6 as described in FB2, with
a -1 per full RB.  Thus:
Range   S-Gun Effectiveness
0-6       Normal
6-12       -1
12-18      -2
18-24      -3
24-30      -4
30-36      -5

PD-MODE PULSARS
Pulsars in PD mode are treated exactly as PDs, but with limited fire arcs.

ESCORTING FIGHTERS Escorting fighters may select targets for ranged PD fire in
the same manner as basic PDS. Resolve the fire in the PD Phase, using the
methods described for fighter ranged attacks. Escorting fighters that engage
in neither PD fire nor interceptions may declare ranged fire against fighter,
ship, or ordnance targets. These are resolved at the time their ship is
activated with the methods described for fighter ranged attacks.

ANTI-SHIP WEAPON FIRE
  A-S weapons may fire upon any fighter groups within their range
normally during their ship's activation, whether they are attacking the ship
they are mounted on or not. Each group so targeted requires a FCS, just like a
ship target.

BEAM DIE A-S WEAPONS
Weapons that roll beam dice figure the number of dice rolled as normal against
any other target. Beam Weapons treat fighter groups as if they had an
additional defense level for each size class of the
beam.  i.e. a B1 treats fighters as +1 DL, B2 as +2 DL, etc.
  Pulsars treat fighters as +1 DL if set C, +2 DL if set M, and +3 DL
of set L. Pulsars in PD mode operate exactly like a PDS, as described above.
  SV Stingers treat fighters as +1 DL per range band, so +1 Dl in 1st
RB, +2 DL in 2nd RB, etc.

TO-HIT ROLL A-S WEAPONS
  K-Guns increase the target number by +1 per class, e.g. a K2 adds +2
to the target number in all range bands.
  PTLs increase the target number by +1, and +1 per class, e.g. a PTL
adds +1 to the target number in all range bands, a PTL/2 adds +2, etc.
All TH roll weapons hit only one fighter, regardless of normal damage
calculation.

POINT BLANK DEFENSIVE FIRE At point blank range, PDS are much more effective.
In this
situation, add +1 to the roll of each die in the same manner as an
Interceptor fighter. At point blank range, Class 1 batteries are more
effective than normal. In this situation, they score hits from their dice
rolls against fighters as normal beam dice. At point blank range, AS weapons
figure their effectiveness the same as at 1mu range, but all weapons may fire,
regardless of arc.