Micro-carriers are ok if you have enough of them (you effectively need 1
fighter for every hull point of the enemy) to have *any* chance of
burning through an ADFC net. If the target doesn't have ADFC, 6-8
squadrons will kill any ship before needing to rearm (taking 1-3
squadrons of casualties, depending if morale is used).
I would suggest a few tweaks to your campaign: 1. Carriers *must* remain on
the table while the launched squadron is alive, otherwise the fighters will
"strike its colours". (they can ftl as soon as it dies). 2. Make rules for
squadrons to earn "ace" status; being able to
needle-beam ADFC and PDS will give the player options if he wants to
stick with fighter fleets. It will also encourage him to "stick it out" to
make sure squadrons get away to earn experience.
For yourself, can you "independantly route" some light cruisers to enter
separately? A cruiser dropping in the middle of the soap bubble fleet may
encourage him to build heavier carriers (or at least provide a proper escort).
Also, keep a couple of intercepter squadrons in the
carrier for "mop-up" duty after the enemy run out of endurance.
I have found that soap-bubbles don't work in a campaign setting, as for
the cost of expendables + all the bubbles lost, its better to build
decent carriers with a battleline to back it up. They *are* useful in
providing flexible support to your fleets/bases as you can shift your
fighter assets where you think the next battle will be.
Brendan 'Neath Southern Skies
http://home.pacific.net.au/~southernsk/
> -----Original Message-----
Well it's been an interesting weekend.
We had a big battle there were 4 players with with about 2500 points of ships.
The Micro Carrier fleet launched about 27 squadrons of heavy fast attack
fighters. Supported by a missile attack from their allies it was pretty
effective.
The Dalek ships had a defence net of scatter packs (doing the play test
variation of D3 damage against ordnance) supported by escorting robot
fighters. The Heavy fighters burned through the defence net and ripped the
Dalek fleet apart.
The Daleks gave better than they got though and only about 4 micro carriers
left the battle zone.
When you can make a mass 13 carrier for <90 points with a persistent 36Mu
range attack weapon you get a lot of them very quickly. Compare that against a
light cruiser. 2 squadron of fighters would burn through its defence net and
kill it in one go. In larger games it gets worse. Either the fighters attack
ships individually forcing them to defend themselves or get eaten
alive or they concentrate.
There's no rules in FT that give fighters / missiles a maximum range
that they can operate from their mother ship. So carriers can do a dump and
run attack.
The carriers have to spend at least 3 turns on the table before they can
escape so there is quite a bit of opportunity to kill them, but their fighters
are eating you alive.
We play that all ordnance is replaced at the start of each turn provided
ships are in supply. Cutting off their supply is viable.
I had a big fleet of ships entering from the middle of the table and other
fleet elements that entered from the edge.
None of our palyers think that any sane individual would volunteer for the
space fighter core. Not even the year long training regime at resort hotels
provided by galactic playbeing centerfold models make people want to enrole in
the 20 seconders.
Without a homocidal attack computer no fighter pilot would go anywhere near
the enemy.
We have not yet had a battle where the soap bubbles needed to defend a fixed
point, that is still to be fought.