Hi everyone, I'm one of Beowulf's friends from Jacksonville. Although I frequently visit this forum, a game Beowulf and I played yesterday has inspired me to make my first post.

Last night, I experimented with fighters for the first time. Although Beowulf had used them previously, and was less then impressed, I wanted to try my luck with them. During the battle, I was forced to come to the same conclusion he did: Fighters just aren't all that effective.

In this battle, I ran a 1000+ point carrier, whose 30 fighter squadrons (20 fast/weak/fragile, 10 fast/strong/tough) barely managed to inflict 20 points of damage on a single vessel before being annihilated. I found myself wondering why fighters aren't able to be improved further, the way ships are. I know that in earlier editions of the game, this was most definitely the case. Why are fighters' options so limited now?