For my second experiment, I decided to bring fighters into the mix. I plan to base 2-3 very small fighters together with each base representing a squadron. Like any ship, the squadron will have Quality, Combat Value, and Defense ratings. Range will be 0 (the fighters need to get in close to launch their torpedoes). They have a high CV to represent the devastating impact of their torpedoes and a good defense to represent the difficulty hitting them. When opposing fighter squadrons meet in a zone, they will use opposed die rolls to represent a dogfight with the loser suffering 1 or 2 hits and have to roll against Quality or else retreat 1 zone.
For this experiment, the Federation (left) has a destroyer and fighter squadron while the Aquians have a fighter squadron (I should have given them 2).The Aquians are trying to reach and destroy the Federation destroyer.
Ship stats:
Ship
|
Move
|
Quality
|
Combat Value
|
Range
|
Defense
|
Destroyer
|
2
|
4
|
2
|
2
|
2
|
Fed. Fighters
|
3
|
3
|
3
|
0
|
3
|
Aquian Raider
|
3
|
4
|
3
|
0
|
3
|
My cruiser from the first game now represents a destroyer while I made some quickie counters for the fighters (I'll make some proper bases at some point).
Starting positions (Federation on the left) |
Dogfight! The Aquians take some damage. |
After taking heavy losses, the Aquian squadron withdraws. |
The end of the Aquians |
- This game lasted four turns - a nice, quick action. It will get interesting with some more ships on the board.
- Treating a fighter squadron as a "ship" with similar stats seemed to work. Unfortunately, I could not get to the destroyer for a torpedo run (the Blue Genies did their job as interceptors!)
- While I usually don't like opposed die rolls for missile combat, I feel that it is appropriate for simple dogfights, where fighters are going head to head.
- I played that a squadron could not move once it was involved in a dogfight (except for retreats). I debated, and am still debating whether there should be some mechanism for breaking off from a dogfight and pressing forward. I initially did not allow it so that interceptors would be effective. Perhaps I could allow a squadron that won the last round of a dogfight the option of breaking off.
- Conversely, being defeated and retreating allowed the Aquians a chance to bypass the Federation interceptors and approach their target. Perhaps I should allow a winning squadron the option of pursuing its retreating opposition into the next zone, keeping the losers locked into a dogfight.
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