From: Jeff Lyon <jefflyon@m...>
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 14:07:38 -0500
Subject: Ground-Based Fighters (longish)
Here's something for you other vaccuum-heads to chew on while all the mud-foots are reloading their shotguns... :) Although most of this discussion will be specific to the Imperium/FT campaign rules I've been working on, hopefully some of the ideas I'll present will have general applicability to any scenario in which ground-based fighters are present. Two of the problems I'd been running into with the Imperium campaign rules (see: http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~jwlyon/FT/imperium/) has been how to handle fighters and planetary defenses. I was having three major problems making it all fit together: 1) FT fighters were substantially more powerful relative to starships than Imperium fighters are; using the same conversion rate I used for ships a fighter squadron with a combat rating of 1-2-2 or 2-1-2 should have been slightly more powerful than a scout ship but slightly less powerful that a destroyer. (See: <http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~jwlyon/FT/imperium/V2ships.txt> for the conversion rates and for the ship designs with Imperium combat factors, please see: <http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~jwlyon/FT/imperium/v2shipsan.htm>) If I designed a ship with those combat ratings it would have 2 class-1 beams and a submunitions pack or vice versa for a total of 3 mass-1 weapons. In reality, I was finding that a squadron of standard FT fighters would have a combat factor more on the order of 6-0-2 or so. Note that this is almost twice as much firepower. I tried tinkering with the rules for fighters in order to reduced their firepower and considered increasing their point values but was not satisfied with any of these attempts and found things drifting further and further away from the FT core rules. 2) Fighters in Imperium were supposed to be able to operate from bases on outposts or worlds (ie, without a mothership) but this caused play balance inequities if players were allowed to purchase FT fighter squadrons without accounting for the cost of hangar bays. 3) When I did try to account for the hangar bay in the cost of an outpost or planetary defense marker, then it not only limited the number of points that could be spent on other weapon systems but also limited the total number of fighter squadrons that could be supported when it should have been scaleable. Even worse, if a player did not purchase fighter squadrons, then the points spent on hangar space went to waste. I think I've come up some ideas which will help eliminate most of these problems without creating too many others. The first was a conceptual change; I quit trying to translate the Imperium fighter squadrons to FT fighter squadrons on a 1:1 basis. I'm finding now that equating a single FT fighter squadron to two Imperium fighter squadrons is a much closer match in terms of combat effectiveness. The next issue was to balance the cost of FT fighter squadrons which are operating independent of a carrier. There are two ways this could be handled: The first is to purchase a minimal base station for each squadron; Mass 10-11, fragile to weak hull integrity, mass 9 hangar bays, cost: 39-42 points. This can be either a ground base or an orbital station. The second is a little more elegant in some ways; create a new fighter variant called "ground based fighters" or something. This would be a 36 or 42 point (+6 to +7 per fighter) modification which allows the squadron to operate independent of a starship or base with a hangar bay due to its organic support facilities. (I'm visualizing a tarmac and some prefab sheds full of aircrew and support equipment, or niche carved out of the side of an asteroid or even the main hold of a freighter.) There are advantages and disadvantage to either mechanism; the former is simple, requires no new rules and creates a distinct target for enemy ships and fighters to counter-attack. The second is a little more elegant and possibly more flexible, but provides no clear-cut mechanism for resolving attacks against the support facilities. Both solutions eliminate the problems of costing the support facilities as part of a planetary defense system and by directly associating those costs with each squadron of fighters, makes it proportionately scaleable. Also note that the new cost of a ground-based squadron of standard fighters (either 54 or 60 points) is fairly close to the cost of two squadrons of fighters in Imperium: 2 RUs or 50 points. Whether this will achieve the desired effect in terms of balanced the combat effectiveness vs cost for fighters is something which will need to be worked out in playtesting. I would certainly welcome any feedback on it. Thanks.