Nerhesi said:
a) They carry more weapons per-ton than other craft (firmpoints)
Questionable... Fighters can carry single turret weapons, where a ship would carry triple or quad turrets. Single turret weapons are generally ineffective against armour. The only real advantage is that a 35 dT fighter can use a barbette, but barbettes are generally less effective than turrets so only fighters will use barbettes (except missile barbettes).
In this example:
http://forum.mongoosepublishing.com/viewtopic.php?p=903702#p903702
I had two forces at equal cost, three 2900 dT escorts = 8700 dT, and 100 fighters à 35.5 dT + a carrier 6200 dT (+6200 dT drop tanks) = 9750 dT (+ drop tanks). The ships carried a large bay and 19 turrets each for a total of 1557 dT weapons, and the fighters carried 100 barbettes for a total of 500 dT weapons.
The ships actually carry more weaponry per dT or per MCr.
The other side of the same coin is that fighters have less hull points. In the example we had three escorts with 1276 Hull each = 3828 Hull against 100 fighters with 17 Hull each = 1700 Hull. The fighters are vulnerable to crits, but the ships are not.
Nerhesi said:
b) They can generally get in range much faster due to massive reaction-drives
Yes, but since they can only hit at close range they absolutely need massive reaction drives to get into range quickly, before they are killed by long range fire. The reaction drives cost a lot of space, perhaps 50% of the fighter's volume, but at trivial cost.
Nerhesi said:
c) They are harder to hit with anything above a barbette
d) They enjoy significant bonuses to hit, and penalties to be hit when in close/adjacent/etc range with their target - unless that target is another strike-craft squadron.
This is somewhat mitigated by the bigger computers with better software that big ships employ. Fighters can of course use the same software, but it is prohibitively expensive.
In the last public beta Fighter squadrons allowed you to combine 12 fighters into a single battery, like the turret rule, with an additional +DM on the attack for every fighter after the first. So 12 pulse laser armed fighters attack with +11 and do 2D + 24 damage, always hitting, always critical hit, always cutting through armour like butter. I hope this will change in the final release, otherwise this is a huge advantage for fighters.
