The Thunderbolt

[greenboy]

I would think the Aurora would be marginally better in a dog fight because for the more compact body shape giving both a smaller profile and better positioning of the thrusters to the centre of mass, and if you boost the dog fight score too high what do you do with the badger the rear gunner must help that out in a dog fight. What i would like to see is a up graded T-bolt with antigrav tech maybe in the covert ops list

 

[captainsmirk]

I suspect that any gravimetric drive fighter the EA produce will be of a completely new design...

The T-Bolt is meant to have those maneuver pods and the aerodynamic shape, all of which are redundant in a fighter with a gravimetric drive. I doubt fighters are big enough to have the grav/reaction combo drive system like the Warlock...


Nick

 

[Alexb83]

Is it stated that the Minbari gave the EA gravitic drives, or simply some sort of antigravity deck plating in the post-warlock era? The Warlock and later EA ships still seem to have honking great engine vents which are notably absent from all Minbari ships.

Anyways, wrt Thunderbolts firepower - either reduce the AD they can fire every turn to 1AD (and /maybe/ make it precise), or up it and make it single use. This makes them a good fighter/bomber - you fly them in, fire in their full payload of missiles to soften the target, then have them close in for the kill or withdraw them. It also stops them from being used as an anti vorlon mob, which presently is a pretty much guaranteed win in any game.

 

[tneva82]

Is it stated that the Minbari gave the EA gravitic drives, or simply some sort of antigravity deck plating in the post-warlock era? The Warlock and later EA ships still seem to have honking great engine vents which are notably absent from all Minbari ships.

Second last episode of S4.

 

[Voronesh]

Overall the T-Bolt sure is one of the more poweful fighters around (especially since its so easy to get), but it isnt a problem.

IMHO (yer yer allt hose posts with IMHO ) the problem is thats its nearly a nobrainer vs the Aurora. You lose what, 2" speed and one point of dogfight?, and we gain a better hull, and far, far better firepower.

Bah what kind of choice is this......ultimately tabletop games are about killing enemy stuff. and surviving enemy fire. The T-Bolt does both better, only that te Aurora might get a nice places where it doesnt get shot sometimes, due to its better speed. And thats it :S.

Worse yet, you can mix both, and since only a single Aurora needs to be present in a dogfight, to confer its better bonus (T-Bolts pile in for support), its even better. Since when attacking ships only the firepower counts, but of every single fighter base, but dogfighting its best fighter plus 1 per base :S

 

[Chernobyl]

the starfury also positions the pilot ina better position to withstand G-forces of acceleration, the thunderbolt has them sitting like a regular fighter plane.

Chern

 

[Target]

The starfury was one of the reasons i liked B5 so much it looked awesome & flew like a space fighter should in the battle scenes, oh then there was the actual story. :lol:

 

[Reborn]

Can of worms and a tin opener, anyone?

 

[Silvereye]

the starfury also positions the pilot ina better position to withstand G-forces of acceleration, the thunderbolt has them sitting like a regular fighter plane.

The Thunderbolts seated position is proabably a better position for the pilots once they are deep inside a gravity well in particuler within an atmospere. I think the fluff for the Aegis Project (the one to design starfury) said they found that the centreline standing position minimised the g-forces acting on the pilot in tight manoeuvring. Whether this is scientifically true is another matter, but it seems a reasonable argument.

 

[captainsmirk]

Is it stated that the Minbari gave the EA gravitic drives, or simply some sort of antigravity deck plating in the post-warlock era? The Warlock and later EA ships still seem to have honking great engine vents which are notably absent from all Minbari ships.

Well I always thought (admitedly this is just my idea, with no corroborating evidence) that the EA (and possibly the Centauri too) were unable to manufacture a fully operational gravimetric drive like the Minbari have and so use a sort of hybrid system. Gravimentric drives generates gravity and are used to turn the ship and then large amounts of thrust are generated by conventional reaction drives...


Nick