as requested ACTA B5 fighter rules - Noble Armada is similar
Using Fighters
Fighters are represented as flights in A Call to Arms, using either a single counter or base (if you are using miniatures). Though counters and bases show six separate fighters, the entire flight is treated as a single entity in the game, much like a ship. In fact, a flight of fighters is treated as a ship for all purposes, unless otherwise mentioned below.
All ranges for Fighters are measured from the edge of their base or counter, rather than the centre. Note that fighters do not have Crew Quality scores.
Deployment
Unless otherwise stated by the scenario, all ships carrying flights of fighters may deploy one flight before the game begins. This flight may be placed anywhere in your deployment zone, and may even be left in hyperspace if those rules are being used.
Flights purchased separately from ships are deployed normally.
Movement Phase
A fleet with fighters moves all its ships in initiative order as normal. Once all the ships of all the fleets involved in the battle have been moved, the player who won the initiative must then choose whether to move his fighters first or force his opponent to do so. Once this decision has been made, then all the flights of fighters in a fleet are moved at the same time. Then the opposing fleet does the same with their fighters. This is done to reflect the relative freedom of movement small craft have in battles involving huge warships and also keeps things quick and easy in battles featuring many flights of fighters.
Anti-Fighter Weaponry
Many warships mount highly specialised point defence weaponry, developed to pinpoint small, fast-moving fighters and knock them out of the sky before they can launch a devastating attack.
Ships with the Anti-Fighter X or Advanced Anti-Fighter trait automatically roll against any fighters within 2” at the end of the Movement Phase. They will roll as many dice as their Anti-Fighter trait score indicates, splitting this between multiple flights if they desire. Any dice that equal or exceed the Hull of a flight will automatically destroy it, ignoring any Dodge trait the fighter possesses.
Anti-Fighter rolls may not be made against flights involved in dogfights. However, some special fighters may also have the Anti-Fighter trait, which may be used just before a dogfight is initiated, as enemy fighters move into contact (if opposing fighters have the trait, they are resolved simultaneously). Once the dogfight has started, the trait may not be used.
It should be noted that the Anti-Fighter and Advanced Anti-Fighter traits are not counted as weapons for the purposes of these rules and will not be affected by a ship being Crippled or under Special Actions, nor will they be affected by traits on fighters, such as Stealth. However, as traits, they can be lost as normal when the ship is Crippled.
Attack Phase
Though the bigger guns mounted on warships are designed to hit other large vessels and not small fighters, there is always a chance that a flight can be hit and destroyed by these huge discharges of energy.
A flight may be attacked in the same way as a ship. Any successful hit that equals or exceeds a flight’s Hull score will automatically destroy it, but the flight may use any Dodge trait it possesses as normal.
(Hull score is the to hit number so SF ships are effectiovely Hull 4, in B5 fighters ranged from 3-6)
Fighter Attacks
Fighters make their attacks in the Attack Phase, before any other ships may fire. The player who won the initiative for the turn attacks with all of his flights first, followed by his opponent. Simply nominate targets for each flight and then resolve their attacks, just as if you were nominating targets for a ship’s weapon systems against different targets – in effect, all of your flights act as a single ship in the Attack Phase, with each flight being one weapon system.
Flights attack as normal, though you will usually find their weapons have a very limited range. You may fire on other fighter flights, treating their attacks as if they were ships, as described above. However, you will find fighters are far more effective at destroying one another in dogfights.
Any number of flights may attack a single ship in any one Attack Phase, and you are free to place them on top of a ship’s counter or base, though you may not stack flights upon each other. Flights that are in contact with a ship’s base or counter may ignore its Stealth trait, if present.
Dogfighting
Though most fleets rely heavily on Anti-Fighter weaponry for defence against hordes of fighters, there is only one sure way to effectively clear the skies – send your own fighters to destroy the enemy’s, so you are free to attack heavier warships without interference.
Once you move into base contact with an enemy flight, you are considered to be dogfighting and so follow these rules. Fighters may only conduct dogfights against other flights, not ships. A dogfight starts automatically once two or more flights are in contact with one another and no flight involved may move until the enemy has been destroyed – you will soon find it is very important to retain the initiative when fielding large numbers of fighters!
Every flight has a Dogfight score, as found in the Fleets of Babylon 5 section and the Fleet Lists book. This is a reflection of a fighter’s potential to move into position and destroy its enemy.
You resolve all dogfights your flights are involved in when you nominate your fighters to attack in the Attack Phase. When two opposing flights are engaged in a dogfight, both players roll one dice and add the Dogfight scores of their flight.
Add +1 to your dice roll for every extra flight you have in base contact with the enemy flight you are dogfighting. A Flight may support any number of dogfights in this manner but a flight supporting a dogfight may never initiate a dogfight itself. Other than this, it is up to you how you arrange your dogfights for the best advantage!
You may occasionally come across a situation where several flights have all jumped into a mass brawl where every flight is touching another. In cases such as this, working out who is dogfighting who can be confusing!
There is an easy way to resolve fights like this. Simply remember the following.
• The player who nominated his fighters to attack chooses which of the enemy flights will be attacked by each of his own flights, and which of his remaining flights will be supporting.
• If the defending player has any flights not directly engaged, only then may they support.
• No flight may both dogfight and support!
• Each separate dogfight will destroy just one enemy flight, no matter how many flights are supporting on each side.
Launching and Recovering Fighters
A few ships are able to carry a squadron or two of fighters. Other ships act as full-blown carriers and may have many such squadrons on board. Fighters act as point defence for larger vessels and are able to deliver precision attacks that, while light, can still cause a large amount of damage to an enemy.
A ship that has not performed a Special Action may launch one flight. At the end of the End Phase, place the flight anywhere within 3” of the ship. In the next turn, the flight is free to act.
Recovering a flight also requires a ship to not use any Special Actions, and for flights to be moved into contact with it. A ship may recover any friendly flights, even those belonging to other ships. However, it may only do so if it has less flights already on board than are listed in its Craft score on its roster. A Hyperion cruiser, for example, could not recover a wandering Starfury flight unless it had already launched its own.
Unless otherwise stated by a scenario or special rule, a ship carrying flights may deploy just one of those flights at the start of a battle, representing a routine combat space patrol as the ship searches for the enemy.
Supporting Ships and Flights
Most fighters are used to launch fast strikes at enemy ships or provide a long-ranged screen to stop such attacks. However, fighters are also adept at providing close escort for ships and other fighters, protecting them from any sudden attack.
Up to four flights may be moved onto the base or counter of a friendly ship, and one may be moved in contact with another flight. When this happens, the flights are automatically considered to be supporting the ship or flight and will be moved whenever the ship or flight is moved (though they will be forced to leave its base if the ship or flight travels further than their Speed). Flights may also be placed on the base of a ship before the battle starts.
Whenever an enemy flight attempts to attack the supported ship or flight, one or more supporting flights may be immediately moved in base contact with it, starting a dogfight. Whatever the result of the dogfight, the attacking flight may not go on to attack the ship or flight, even if it destroys all supporting flights. All defending flights that survive the dogfight may be returned to the base of the ship in the End Phase (even if they are locked in the dogfight).
If a supporting flight is not involved in a dogfight, it may attempt to shoot down incoming attacks aimed at the ship it is protecting. Each supporting flight adds +1 to the ship’s Interceptors trait (or temporarily grants it the Interceptors trait if the ship does not possess it). However, if any dice roll a 1, then a flight is automatically destroyed. A flight acting as an Interceptor must do so for a whole turn – you may not choose to withdraw it in the middle of the turn.
Any flight that only has weapons with the Weak trait may not be used to add to a ship’s Interceptors, as its weapons are simply not strong enough to repel heavy attacks
Example Fighters
Razik, Dedicated Interceptor - Centauri
Move 12", Hull 3, Dogfight +3, Dodge 2+,
Particle Gun Range 2" 1 AD,
Sentri, Multi-role - Centauri
Move 12", Hull 4, Dogfight +2, Dodge 2+
Particel Guns Range 2" 3AD
Rutarian - advanced stealth fighter - Centauri
Move 12", HUll 5, Dogfight +2, Dodge 2+, Stealth 4+
Particel Guns Range 2" 3AD TL (re-roll misses)
Ion bolt 2AD, Range 4" Precise, Double Damage
