Effect of Boon on anti-fighter fire

[AnotherDilbert]

Let's see what a Boon (Sensor Lock) does to laser fire on fighters.

Take a triple pulse laser (Long Range) turret fired by a warship at a fighter (Armour 15 + Reflec = 18):

Very Long range:
+2[pulse] +6[gunner] +3[AdvFireCntl] +1[aid gunner] +1[sub-command] -4[range] -2[evade] = +7, autohit, average Effect 6.
To actually do damage we have to roll high on both Effect and damage so we only do damage occasionally,
Average damage is 0.93 and the chance of a crit is 30%.

With a Sensor Lock and hence a Boon higher Attack rolls becomes much more likely, pushing up the chance of doing damage and inflicting a crit.
Average damage is 1.56 and the chance of a crit is 48%.

We see that with a Boon average damage goes up considerably, but not enough to embarrass medium fighters. The chance of crits is high making fighter squadrons very problematic since each crit kills a fighter if it's a part of a squadron.

Light fighters (10 Dt, Hull ~4) are mostly killed by a single hit either outright or by sustained damage crits.


Without Reflec the average becomes 3.71 damage and a 73% chance of a crit.

Without Reflec the damage more than double making even medium fighters take notice. There can be a lot of laser turrets in a fleet, so Reflec is probably a very good investment for fighters.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

If we instead use Particle barbettes:

Very Long range:
+6[gunner] +3[AdvFireCntl] +1[aid gunner] +1[sub-command] -4[range] -2[evade] = +5, hit on 3+, average Effect 4.
Average damage 3.56, crit 26%.

And with a Boon:
Average damage 4.74, crit 49%.

So, damage increases a bit but not dramatically, the chance of a crit increases to almost double.
Again light fighters and squadrons are toast, but individual medium fighters are not all that concerned...

 

[AnotherDilbert]

And probably the best anti-fighter weapon: Tachyon Cannon Barbette (whatever that is...)
We have to take a Long Range upgrade, instead of a better upgrade like Accurate or Intense Focus.

Very Long range:
+6[gunner] +3[AdvFireCntl] +1[aid gunner] +1[sub-command] -4[range] -2[evade] = +5, hit on 3+, average Effect 4.
Average damage 6.00, crit 28%.

With a Boon
Average damage 7.46, crit 52%.

Now medium fighters start to look worried...

 

[AnotherDilbert]

The problem with fighters is often that they dodge like crazy with extremely high agility. We can counter that with Ion Barbettes, a single hit and the fighter is likely to stop dodging...
We have to use a Long Range upgrade to get even a range of Long.

Long range:
+6[gunner] +3[AdvFireCntl] +1[aid gunner] +1[sub-command] -2[range] -2[evade] -6[dodge] = +1, hit on 7+ (58%).
We have a 50% chance of suppressing 60 Power or more, totally disabling a medium fighter, making it easy prey for other barbettes.

And with a Boon we have a 73% chance of disabling a fighter.

Then we can attack the disabled fighters with Tachyon barbettes:
Long range:
+6[gunner] +3[AdvFireCntl] +1[aid gunner] +1[sub-command] -2[range] = +9, autohit.
Average damage: 11.46 and a 96% chance of a crit.

A single barbette is likely to kill the fighter with sustained damage crits. A second hit will definitely kill the fighter.

Or even laser turrets:

Requiring ~3 turret attacks to kill a medium fighter. Ouch.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Unfortunately the Ion barbette tactic does not work for ships since ion barbettes can't attack at Very Long range and we probably spend too little time at Long.

But the tactic would work very well for other fighters...

In order to not get slaughtered by Ion fighters our fighters would have to harden the M-drive raising the price of the fighter airframe by ~10%.

Tactic countered, our fighters loaded with another expense...