Fighters

FIGHTERS

The smallest of all ships are the single-man fighters, a more or less universal design. Consisting of a tiny hull, an engine, a cockpit and a weapons array, the fighters don't need a design submitted to enable their manufacture. There are two types of fighter available for construction, the standard fighter and the heavy fighter equipped with more armour and a larger weapons array.

One important difference both types of fighter have from all other craft is the absence of any sort of powerful engine - they are unable to enter orbit alone, cannot move between orbits and only have very limited fuel capacities. They are used in one of two ways - they can be built and stationed in planetary bases, where they will fly into near orbit to help defend against attacks, or they can be loaded onto Carrier craft. With this second option the fighters become mobile, can be carried anywhere that a normal ship can go, and operate as the initial wave of firepower in any ship-to-ship combat. Fighters can be taken to colonies that do not have shipyards and unloaded as normal cargo, forming normal defences. Fighters can never leave the inner atmosphere of a planet under their own engine power, so cannot form an offensive force against enemy ships in orbit above their world.

During fleet-to-fleet combat where fighters are launched, standard fighters are the first wave of any attack. If both sides in the combat have standard fighters they will engage each other first, next to attack are the heavy fighters from either side and finally any remaining craft will swarm into the opposing fleet and fire upon it (taking return fire) before heading back to the carriers when their fuel is exhausted.

A tech one fighter is a very basic machine, with limited weaponry. It is capable of destroying (if it hits) another fighter and inflicting up to 5 points of damage on a starship. A good solid wing of fighters can therefore be a strong weapon against smaller ships, while doing considerable damage to the shields of larger ones too. Their importance in all combat should not be overlooked. As the technological level of the fighters increase, the weaponry improves accordingly, giving the fighters a greater chance of hitting and of doing more damage when they do hit. In all attacks the lowest tech standard fighters are sent in first, being hit by most of the defensive fire. The highest tech heavy fighters attack last. This order of precedence is reversed in the recovery of fighters after the attack/defence. This means that if your carrier force has been reduced in the main battle, the highest tech heavy fighters are recovered first until all available bay space is taken. Any fighters remaining after all fleet space is occupied are lost.

Fighters cannot be upgraded; it would cost more to upgrade them than to manufacture new ones.