NA: Light Fighters - useful at all?

[Lancer X]

All the light fighters seem to be sporting Weak slug guns. Given that most of the heavy fighters and fighter-bombers have Shields 1, what is the practical use for light fighters? They don't seem useful even for defending against torpedo bombers.

How often are any of you using light fighters?

 

[Totenkopf]

All the light fighters seem to be sporting Weak slug guns. Given that most of the heavy fighters and fighter-bombers have Shields 1, what is the practical use for light fighters? They don't seem useful even for defending against torpedo bombers.

How often are any of you using light fighters?

but you don't use guns to kill said heavy fighters and fighter-bombers, you get into a dogfight and take them out that way.

 

[Lancer X]

but you don't use guns to kill said heavy fighters and fighter-bombers, you get into a dogfight and take them out that way.

Oh crap - clearly I haven't gotten to that part of the rules yet, lol. Nothing to see here - move along... :lol:

 

[Greg Smith]

They can also help finish off badly damaged ships that have lost their shields.

 

[starbreaker]

They're utterly worthless against Vuldrok at the moment, FWIW. And really, they aren't all that useful unless you're facing a massive carrier swarm fleet, in which case there are likely to be so many more enemy craft that they can sometimes outnumber you enough to win a dogfight even with a +1 versus -2 modifier. Initiative becomes extremely important in that kind of matchup.

Against small numbers of bombers, fighters will kill them quick, but then they're pretty much done for the fight. Most times, I'd rather smash a small bomber force with shipboard guns instead and use the points I didn't spend on fighters and a carrier for more guns and troop/psychic upgrades instead.

OTOH, the cheaper suicide fighters, the new gunboats, and Hazat boarding shuttles are scary enough that they make dogfighters more attractive, so the environment is in flux.