acta- ship with escorting fighter

[texican]

I had an interesting situation the other day. I was attacking a fighter that was escorting a ship and my opponent wanted either to defend the fighter with the ship's anti-fighter defence or require a portion of the attacking fighters to attack the ship instead.

His contention was that the wording concerning the escorting of ships by fighters stated that he may engage the attacking fighters and that he was not required to.

So my question is If a ship is escorted by a fighter, can the fighter be engaged separately without the ship using its anti-fighter trait?

Is an escorting fighter required to engage in dogfight if it is in contact with an enemy fighter?

 

[Burger]

The fighter can be engaged separately, yes. If you move your fighters into base contact then it is a dogfight. His ship's anti-fighter trait cannot be used, since you can't fire into a dogfight. If you don't move into dogfight but choose to shoot your fighter's weapons at the enemy fighter, then his AF trait can fire at you first.

Your friend's "may engage" is referring to your fighters that attack the ship, not the fighter directly.

Any fighter that is in base contact with an enemy fighter, is automatically engaged in a dogfight. He can't avoid it.