SFB Tactic of the Month
SEND ME YOUR POOR, TIRED, FIGHTER MASSES
- Cadet William Beasley, USS Illinois
When commanding Hydran Fusion forces to take advantage of the ability of the fully-capable carrier nature of these ships, under (R9.R4), to loan electronic warfare to their squadrons. To go a step further, and save some of those carriers some energy, consolidate those forces into 12-fighter squadrons. By rotating the fighters through landing on one carrier, using the rules in (J4.465) and (J4.466), and an appropriate number of Deck Crew actions, you can base an entire 12 fighters out of a carrier that only brought as few as two to the fight.
As an example, let's look at a patrol group of three Hydran Lancers. Each carries four Stinger-2 fighters. By using the above procedures over two turns, you are able to consolidate all 12 fighters into one squadron based out of one Lancer, instead of three. This Lancer can lend the entire squadron electronic warfare under (J4.93) and (J4.623). This saves the other Lancers the energy that they would have spent on electronic warfare for their fighter squadrons, while the third, "carrier" Lancer operates the same electronic warfare output as it would have for four Stingers. The other two Lancers can still service the squadron, effectively becoming combat escorts.
Similar methods can be used to spread the fighters out, instead of consolidating them, from a main carrier. If your Carrier Group has a NAC in it, by "transferring" excess fighters from the Carrier, and possibly up from the other Escorts, you can form a new, 12-Stinger squadron from these, and save the Carrier and Escorts the energy needed to support them with electronic warfare. The extra fighters can come from anywhere, so long as the Hydran carrier to which they are being transferred can support them to begin with. This generally rules out anything other than the standard Stinger-2.
