Sounds good, except why is only one flight allowed to intercept?  If you're dumb enough to get a single flight near a ship with six CSPs out, you deserve to get gang-tackled.

You might want to allow fighter flights to escort other fighter flights as well (using the same general rules as CSPs), with CSPs having to jump escorts at least one-for-one before they get to attack the escorted (bomber) squadrons.

The "move along with the defended ship" thing will actually make fighters move faster than normal with some ships (small hulls and/or advanced tech engines).

Rich

Sounds like a winner to me as well

I am glad the idea seems to have merit 

I can see the locking of CSP as a mechanism to close the potential for abuse. As soon as you have dealt with enemy fighters yours suddenly gain free reign. Probably realistic but may not necessarily be good for the game.

I would suggest that the flight can land and re-launch to revert to a normal free to act flight. Fluff may suggest rearming for anti ship and removing the boosters required for CSP if fluff is needed. This would create a delay and make a carrier rearming fighters a priority target on that turn. However, this may be less wieldy than is generally the flavour of Starmada.

It only counters enemy fighters if you have rough parity in numbers (no worse than a 3:2 ratio, I'd guess), which is often a mutual destruction scenario anyway even without CSP.  An outnumbered opponent will still find himself swamped under, he'll just get his shots in first before his fighters vanish.  Helps some, but it probably isn't game-winning.

The rules also need to spell out what happens to a CSP when the ship it's guarding gets destroyed.  Presumably it becomes a "free agent" again as it would after an interception, but it would be nice to have it in b&w.

Rich

I think I have covered every eventuality I can think of....

Combat Space Patrol

When launching from carrier a fighter flight can be designated as performing one of two functions. The first is the normal attack mode and the second is combat space patrol (CSP).

Fighters on CSP do not move in fighters phase and cannot attack ships. They are instead allocated to a ship to help defend it and nearby vessels against fighter attack. The fighter flight can only be allocated to a ship within the fighters normal move and is immediately placed with the ship. The fighters are considered to be in the same hex as the ship but for convenience the flight may be placed adjacent. Pick an appropriate marker to designate the flight on CSP.

While on CSP, the flight gains the ability to intercept an enemy flight that strays to within six hexes. After an enemy flight has moved, but BEFORE it has attacked, any flight on CSP can attempt to intercept. Roll a die; if the result is equal to or greater than the range, the interception occurs. The CSP flight is moved to a hex adjacent to the target flight, and its attack is resolved BEFORE the enemy flight gets to attack. If this roll is less than the range, the attempt has failed. The fighter flight is then marked as spent (flip over the counter used if appropriate or turn the flight around). This makes defence of the stationed ship extremely effective with this effectiveness diminishing the further CSP fighters need to move to intercept.

Each flight on CSP may attempt to intercept only once per turn

A flight on CSP cannot move during the Fighter Phase (except to intercept as above); however, it does move with the ship around which it is patrolling.

Once placed on CSP, a flight MUST remain so until an interception attempt is made (successful or otherwise).

If using the optional Dogfight rules (F.3), the intercepting flight may be moved into the same hex as the target flight instead of an adjacent hex. After the dogfight they can return to their charge.

To change a flight of fighters from CSP to normal attack (or vice-versa) it must land on a carrier.

If 2 ships with fighters on CSP move within 6 hexes of each other the fighters do not engage. They are on guard orders and will stay with their charge.

If the ship protected by a flight on CSP is destroyed then the flight can reallocate to another ship within move range. If there is no ship within move range the flight lands on the nearest carrier in the end phase. If there is no carrier it is considered destroyed.

Slow fighters get a -1 to intercept and fast fighters get a +1.

Fighters on CSP can engage drones or battle satellites.

Yes, think squadrons rules as in VBAM:SX. Fighters on CSP can protect a group of ships if they stay close enough together.

... and of course fighters with 2 hex range.

The following is the way it's worded.

Now, the above to me most definitely implies that a CSP flight is assigned to defend a specific ship. If you want to allow them to defend any ship then simply add a sentence or two stating that. I don't really give a rat's ass one way or another. I'm just trying to help make things clearer.
If you want unclear rules keep it the way it's worded.

Kevin
PS: I also agree with Rich in that a fighter should never be allowed to move faster than they're "supposed" to. The way the rules are worded now they can move with a ship they're assigned to, and then theoretically move up to another six hexes to intercept. CSP flgiths should never be allowed to move more than 10 hexes per turn (assuming normal fighter movement). I like the concept. As stated it just needs some work.

I agree the wording was unclear. I have changed it in the post above to clarify.

As for fighters moving faster than normal. I feel this is a necessary abstraction to keep the rules simple. As a fighter flight on CSP can only react and not proactively engage and it must land and relaunch to change modes, it would be difficult to gain advantage from the potential faster move.

One tactic I suppose could be to build a fast escort, assign CSP flights and then it could zip around providing CSP cover where needed by the fleet. That does not particularly ofend me either.

Indeed. The drawbacks (only moving with the escorted ship, only being able to react to opposing flights AFTER having revealed your position) certainly outweigh the benefit of potentially getting up to an "extra" six hexes of movement. At the same time, I don't want to encourage abuse, so a rule limiting the escorted ship to a speed of <10 is reasonable.

No, this is not an abuse because the CSP fighters may not engage ships, they may only react to fighters ending their movement within 6 hexes of the host ship. In addition if the 2 point ship is killed andthere are no other ships within 10 hexes the CSP flights are returned to the carrier making them vulnerable or lost if no carrier remains. Because CSP is a defensive only mechanism, zooming around at 20 does not actually generate any benefit.

To "stop escorting" they have to return to a carrier, land, and refit with anti-shipping weapons (or somesuch technobabble).  So all the movement boost is going to do is get them farther away from the carriers they need to land on.

I don't think they magically teleport back to their carrier when the ship they're escorting dies either, they should have to use normal movement rules.  The "WHY?" is spelled out above, because they need to rearm (or be reassigned to a new CSP target).

About the only thing a super-fast escort with CSP will be good for is for positioning your defensive fighters where they're needed each turn, and maybe establishing a "threat zone" enemy fighters need to avoid...and even then you're taking a chance on the escort being destroyed by ship fire and leaving your CSPs out of action for a turn or two.  Might also be good for dragging fighters past a really deep mine belt, but then what do you do with them afterwards?

The rules do need to spell out what an ex-CSP flight can actually do while it's slogging back to a carrier for reassignment.  I assume they can't initiate offensive action, but do they defend themselves normally if jumped in a dogfight?

Rich

You mean they go boom if they're not smart enough to scoot to the winds when they see the ship taking catastrophic damage?

In the case when a ship is not destroyed and the CSP is returning to the carrier for reassignment, the CSP flight may take no other action other than returning to the carrier...

after all, as been said, they need to rearm appropriately and recharge their life-support systems and fuel cells.

Just my interpretation of the discussion so far.