I'm experimenting with a small-ship, LBB2 Proto-TU: So, setting aside the impotence of fighters in HG:
In LBB2 combat, it's taken as a given that large numbers of missile armed fighters can overwhelm a starship: it's a great way of adding hardpoints to a fight. So it seems that battle fleets would field a great many fighters, and that the initial engagement would be between opposing fighter wings. Each wing launches missiles at the other; in what I've played out so far, it seems inevitable that all the missiles will make contact. No?
Assuming like numbers of standard lbb2 fighters armed with missiles, that means that each wing will be taking the other's missiles on the chops, and the victory goes to the side who lucks out the most on damage rolls.
That doesn't seem like the sort of scenario a navy's going to want to bank on: it reads like Antietam in Space.
I can see some improvement if you up the computer in the standard fighter to be able to handle ECM; that should significantly improve a wing's ability to survive initial engagements and carry the fight to the opposing carriers.
It occurs to me that laser-armed fighters might be able to perform well against a like number of missile armed fighters: their armament can reduce some of the missile fire leveled against them. But they can't produce the sheer volume of fire that missile-packing fighters can, they can't hit as hard, and they're not much use against anything with a decent computer.
In LBB2 You can pop a pretty big computer in a ship's boat, have some laser capability along with missile capability, but you sacrifice 2/3 of the hardpoints you can deliver with your basic 10-ton death-sled.
So again, setting aside HG and later systems, how would you design a fighter to be able to win and survive a screen vs. screen combat, and be able to serve usefully against the opposition's starships?
In LBB2 combat, it's taken as a given that large numbers of missile armed fighters can overwhelm a starship: it's a great way of adding hardpoints to a fight. So it seems that battle fleets would field a great many fighters, and that the initial engagement would be between opposing fighter wings. Each wing launches missiles at the other; in what I've played out so far, it seems inevitable that all the missiles will make contact. No?
Assuming like numbers of standard lbb2 fighters armed with missiles, that means that each wing will be taking the other's missiles on the chops, and the victory goes to the side who lucks out the most on damage rolls.
That doesn't seem like the sort of scenario a navy's going to want to bank on: it reads like Antietam in Space.
I can see some improvement if you up the computer in the standard fighter to be able to handle ECM; that should significantly improve a wing's ability to survive initial engagements and carry the fight to the opposing carriers.
It occurs to me that laser-armed fighters might be able to perform well against a like number of missile armed fighters: their armament can reduce some of the missile fire leveled against them. But they can't produce the sheer volume of fire that missile-packing fighters can, they can't hit as hard, and they're not much use against anything with a decent computer.
In LBB2 You can pop a pretty big computer in a ship's boat, have some laser capability along with missile capability, but you sacrifice 2/3 of the hardpoints you can deliver with your basic 10-ton death-sled.
So again, setting aside HG and later systems, how would you design a fighter to be able to win and survive a screen vs. screen combat, and be able to serve usefully against the opposition's starships?