Page 30 - Launching and Recovering Fighters

[skavendan]

There is abit on here that confuses me so bear with me here last section on the page:-

"Recovering a flight also requires a ship to not use any Special Actions"

OK I get that

"and for flights to be moved into contact with it. A
ship may recover any friendly flights it could normally carry, 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."

What exactly is the point of recovering a fighter? It seem's a tad pointless.

Fighters can enter hyperspace under there own power so why "carry them off the field of battle"

? Am I missing something here.

 

[Lorcan Nagle]

It's mostly listed for completeness, but at the same time, you may want to recover fighters for some arcane reason

 

[wkehrman]

Because, had this provision not been there, every two months or so, someone would hit the boards with "can I recover my fighters once I've launched them?"

Why would you want to is an excellent question. I think the hyperion examle might not be the best.

The rule itself relates more to carriers, IMHO. If an Avenger carries 8 Starfuries, it can only ever hold 8 Starfuries. If it had not yet launched any Starfuries, it could not use it's Fleet Carrier trait to recover a destroyed fighter. Further, the Avenger could not recover fighters from an allied unit unless the ally was using Starfuries.

But that's just how I read it.

 

[skavendan]

Why would you want to is an excellent question. I think the hyperion examle might not be the best.

IF the example had been an avenger I would have thought only carriers could "recover"

I supose in a few games once you have destroyed all the ships on the board that do not have anti fighter they could return to the parent ship(s)

but saying that should the parent ship be destroyed they are destroyed along with it.

mmmmmmmmmmm

 

[Ripple]

Reasons you might want to recover fighters...

You have lost your carrier and wish to withdraw by hyper. Having the fighters load onto ships prevents easy vp sniping in the turn you prepare to jump. (on ship's not opening jump points of their own.)

Moving one side of the battle field to the other you might want to recover fighters onto a carrier to prevent sniping, redeploying the slow/low dodge bombers close to a target.

Ripple

 

[Delthos]

The only reason I can see for recovering fighters is that as fighters move after ships, it is possible to strand your fighters on the table if you retreat via a jump point.

The inverse is also true if you have fighters deployed in hyperspace. The first time I used the hyperspace rules I made a mistake and almost stranded all my fighters in hyperspace because they move after ships. I quickly learned that if you plan to keep fighters in hyperspace, they really need to be onboard ships if you don't want to have to stagger your entry to keep a jump point opened for the fighters.

 

[Chernobyl]

not really, but the other option is to maintain the jump point open for an extra turn.

Chern

 

[skavendan]

Good point but only reason I can see to load the fighters back up is if the enemy has energy mines!

My fighters are faster than my ships so getting them off the table wouldn't be a problem.

 

[Burger]

Sky Serpents might want to re-dock with a Strikehawk, since they are slower.

 

[skavendan]

Sky Serpents might want to re-dock with a Strikehawk, since they are slower.

I guess from that point of view so would way ward breaching pods.

 

[Iain McGhee]

If I had a mix of carried and independant wings in use and my fighters were losing badly, I might want to land the independant wings back on any ships with free berths to save VPs.

 

[katadder]

more a campaign thing really, for fleeing through jump gates etc if you dont want to lose any more fighters. or if fighting ISA and they have a Gaim ship jump in you may want to save your fighters for later camapign turns.

 

[Na-Po]

If my fighters go back in me on next turn I can launch them 30 away ...
Who am I ?

 

[locarno24]

If my fighters go back in me on next turn I can launch them 30 away ...
Who am I ?

Someone choosing not to fire a quad damage beam in favour of launching a half-dozen naff fighters?

 

[The Adept]

The only reason I can see for recovering fighters is that as fighters move after ships, it is possible to strand your fighters on the table if you retreat via a jump point.

The inverse is also true if you have fighters deployed in hyperspace. The first time I used the hyperspace rules I made a mistake and almost stranded all my fighters in hyperspace because they move after ships. I quickly learned that if you plan to keep fighters in hyperspace, they really need to be onboard ships if you don't want to have to stagger your entry to keep a jump point opened for the fighters.

Try having the fighters flying close support for the ships in hyperspace. That way, they get to move along with the ships when the come through the jump point.