Federation Commander

Fighters and Mines...I'm not sure this question belongs on this board but let me know if it's a problem.

I'm reading the fiction in CL#9 and the story by Ed McKeown makes reference to Zorans, the Klingon Z-1 fighters. They are described as not being able to turn 'worth a fig' and it lead me to wonder if the fighters in SFB had different turn modes to reflect this?

I've also noticed, reading through the fiction from these first CLs that mines and transporter mines play a big role in combat. Is this actually the case in SFB?

Transporter bombs have several uses,

One being defensive use vs Drones (transported or laid from hanger),
another to channel, force your opponents movement
--slows down pursuit when dropped from hanger, or
--by transporter can made them turn to avoid damage on down shield
Then just as a static weapon

Large mines in fields are helpful in base defense,
even some with weapons (drones, phasers etc)

Yes, they can have a major affect on combat.

Mines generally only play a role when a base is involved in a scenario. When a base is involved, though, mines play an absolutely huge role.

Transporter bombs (aka small mines) are used as the sentient tank describes. While the number used will vary tremendously, in SFB it is incredibly common for most ships to end up with one or two in just about any scenario, as they can be freely acquired using Commanders' Options. Also, while SFB no restricts ships to carrying a relatively small number of bombs (two for small ships; four for cruisers), SFB originally let any ship carry up to twelve bombs! So, in those old Captain's Logs you can see them used more than they would today.

Transporter bombs can be useful, but the limits on the amount you can have and how they are placed make getting good use out of them troublesome (unless you are an Andro that doesn't have to drop his shields).

IN SFB all fighters have the same turn mode. The scale of the game, being based on the big ships, means all fighters pretty much turn at the same rate on the map board. But they can get into the tight turning dogights with each other which are abstracted into the game and this is where the described poor turning is handled as the different fighters have different "dogfight ratings" with respect to each other.

Sebastian - As far as I remember all fighters had the same turn mode in SFB but had different speeds and "Dogfighting Ratings". Zorans were pretty much dog chow. But then again they were just barely above a shuttle craft with 2 drones bolted on the side.

Zorans had 3 things going for them cheap to build, easy to fly and numbers. Once the Feds started fielding Hornets and Eagles the game changed.

Thank you all. I just love the 'historical' aspect of these games. It adds a whole new dimension to the game. I've got to say I'm really enjoying those old CL's.

For some reason I always hated transporter bombs. They ruined so many drone waves

I'm not advocating Fed Commander should add this, but I never could understand how the Dogfight Rating worked in SFB. Could someone please explain the basics of this feature?

I could, but then I would have to shoot myself ...

Dogfighting only matters when opposing fighters are in the same hex, rating affects which Fighter has the advantage (on the 6).

Other than that, don't have a lot of feeling of it.

Dogfight Rating was a measure of the relative performance of each fighter, which translated directly into its chances of gaining the advantage during a close-in scrap.

As Bolo says, the factor only came into effect when the fighters are in the same hex, so it's everything that would affect the peculiarities of such close-in combat; for example, I liked to think that it included things like acceleration, agility, avionics and things like that.

The other thing is that it only reflects the relative abilities of fighters; it doesn't affect interactions of fighters with ships in the same hex.

I don't have a problem with the fighter rules being an option for BoM. For my group, they just add another dimension to our gameplay.