• Registered: 2005-03-29
  • Posts: 859

Topic: Two suggestions for Admiralty Edition anti-fighter defence

I've been thinking about AE for the last few months, particularly with regards to fighters, strikers and seekers. An issue with the AE rules as-written meant that strikers and seekers, especially fast versions thereof, could in theory attack ships with virtual impunity and that only fighters could engage them before they attacked ships. I had been thinking of ways to improve the AF capabilities of ships but they revolved around the use of slow 'interceptor platforms' designed to remain on Combat Interception to intercept strikers and seekers on their attack runs, but that wasn't a perfect solution--and besides, it didn't allow the ship itself to attack their potential killer.

Then the Combat Interception rules provided an answer in another guise--those rules form the backbone of an optional rule I'm calling 'Anti-Fighter Alert', which allows Fighter-Exclusive weapons to attack fighters on their attack runs. The second suggestion focuses on making Anti-Fighter Batteries more effective in their primary purpose, by also allowing them to engage fighters on their attack runs.

Questions and comments welcome as always...

  • Registered: 2005-06-08
  • Posts: 760

Re: Two suggestions for Admiralty Edition anti-fighter defence

Have you tried using Drone flights as Anti-Drones (Klingon Armada AE) against fighters?
If they can be used against attacking drones before the dice are rolled I do not see why they can not be used against fighters that are making an attack.

Paul

  • Registered: 2005-03-29
  • Posts: 859

Re: Two suggestions for Admiralty Edition anti-fighter defence

Well...

One of my aims was also to develop the capacity for a HH-style universe with missiles represented by strikers/seekers but with their virtual impunity it'd be less like the battles represented in the book, it'd be "missiles streak in, detonating before their target's point defence could cope"

And I do know that you can use fighters/strikers such as anti-drones against opposing strikers/seekers, but my other aim is to make it possible for a side to not have to field some form of fighters because, at the moment in AE, fighters are almost necessary if you want to have a relatively good chance of winning.

  • Registered: 2009-01-20
  • Posts: 7

Re: Two suggestions for Admiralty Edition anti-fighter defence

murtalianconfederacy wrote:

[...] strikers and seekers, especially fast versions thereof, could in theory attack ships with virtual impunity and that only fighters could engage them before they attacked ships.

I've been thinking about this myself, as I tend to prefer a WWI/Jutland feel for my space navies, with big ships slinging big guns at each other and smaller ships buzzing around on the periphery.

(Daniel's Law of Starship Combat Games: all games are either Trafalgar, Jutland, or Midway)

I had been thinking of ways to improve the AF capabilities of ships but they revolved around the use of slow 'interceptor platforms' designed to remain on Combat Interception to intercept strikers and seekers on their attack runs, but that wasn't a perfect solution--and besides, it didn't allow the ship itself to attack their potential killer.

Well, historically this is exactly what happened when fast automotive guided torpedoes were developed (and later on, combat aircraft).  There's a reason no one builds battleships any more. 

The simplest fix is to just remove weapons that drive the tactics - eliminate seekers and fighters, and restrict what you can do with strikers in terms of changing the default parameters and traits.

The second suggestion focuses on making Anti-Fighter Batteries more effective in their primary purpose, by also allowing them to engage fighters on their attack runs.

The fix I've used (but wholly inadequately playtested) is to eliminate AFBs as equipment (feh, there's a set of universal weapon design rules for a reason) and modify the dual-mode trait: a weapon is either in anti-fighter mode or anti-ship mode.  If it's in anti-fighter mode, it can only target fighters, can only be used during fighter activation, and fires after fighter movement but before fighters resolve their attacks.  A Range 3, DMG 1, RoF 5 weapon works pretty well for this.  You could add a Battery trait to allow a RoF 2+ weapon to split its RoF across multiple flights.

This seems pretty balanced; it allows ships to chop up fighter flights more effectively at the cost of one of their weapon batteries, and it allows small ships to have a dual role main gun.