Chant with me now: "Fighters are my friend, fighters are my friend, fighters are...". You get the idea. Novas and Omegas, especially Comm omega, can put out more fighers than anyone else can (bar Raiders) without them having to take Patrol Wings to compensate. Having the nasty T-Bolt to use is just icing on the cake. An average Raid or Battle PL 5 pt should be putting out at least 50% more fighters than your opponent can field.
Example 5 pt Battle
1 Avenger
1 Pulse Omega (Works better with the Nova's than Beam Omegas)
2 Nova
6 Hermes
Fighters Total. 26. Thats an insane amounts of fighters for 5pt Battle. Nearly every other race would have to take 2 Carriers to come close, which means less competition to your Omega/Nova Gun while they close. Nearly every race has some mean to deal with fighters, but only minbari could pose a serious threat to this many fighters (Nial/MBs). E-mines can be worked around due to tactics, every other race would ahve to rely on integral AF weaponry to deal with this horde, as +3 Dogfight Satfuries would eat their fighters.
5pt Raid.
3 Novas
2 Olympus
4 Hermes.
Total Fighters. 16. Still quite a nasty amount of fighters, but no fleet carrier bonus or reroll. Squadron the Olympus and Hermes to provide a nasty missle salvo (no need for init sinks, no beams).
5pt War.
In my experience the fighters strategy gains effectiveness the higher the PL, as more fighters can be put on the board for the 3rd Age. While the Posiedon is VERY tempting at this high of PL when pursuing fighters, the Avenger is still the better choice, as an Hull 6 Omega can be taken as well for nearly the same amount of fighters. so....
1 Comm. Omega
1 Avenger
2 Omega
1 Pulse Omega
4 Nova
4 Olympus
8 Hermes
Fighters Total. 60 Fighters. Nearly everything in this carries fighters and you have 4 essential types of combat types here. LR beam (Comm Omega and Omegas) SR brawler (Pusle omega and Nova), Missles (Olypus/Hermes), and lovely fighters. lots of fighters, insane amount of fighters, all of whom have fleet carrier bonuses, due to the Avenger. With that many fighters, your ships dont actually have to kill ships, just wound them enough for the fighters to gank.
10 pt War example. Just furthur illustrate the ridiculousness of EA fighter strenght.
2 Comm Omega
1 Avenger
3 Omega
4 Pulse Omega
8 Nova
8 Olympus
16 Hermes
Fighters Total 96. Nearly a hundred fighters squadrons to swarm your opponent. At this high of a list, the fleet carrier bonus isnt as overwhelming as before, as nearly any race that has one will take one. But you should have nearly 2 to 1 in the numbers game, and the 12 gunships charging his line might provide a mighty tempting target to distract. Long range Beam and Missles may be able to knock out the enemy fleet carrier, thus enhancing your own fighters, and should be the priority target, even before other warships.
So fighters FTW. EA(especially 3rd Age EA), play the fighter game better than anyone else. There are more effective fighters out there, Nials / WS Fighters, Sentris, but they will not be able to stand up to that horde.
BUT if your pursuing fighters, do NOT throw them away. Most races treat fighters as disposable; you cannot, as they constitute a major portion of your offsensive fire. Avoid the temptation to run them out ahead of fleet; they'll simply get beam/cannoned/emined/intercepted to death before they can reach their targets. Deploy them around the flanks and rear of the fleet,so they are in postion to intercept flankers/leakers and intercept enemy fighers that attack your own ships. With this many fighters, having fighter supporting ships is a valid option unless facing Narn.
Yes you can do the Hordes of light ships. It works. The Omeage/Nova gunline works as well, but the gunline is halfway to having the fighter srtike force already.
The pair I had running against vorlons(5 pts war, battle report to follow) were able to cause nice amount of damage with their pulses. Especially in one turn when both had enemies on all 4 arcs(that was fun).
