Talk:Air Combat

Singletons vs Teams

The combat strength of a formation is determined by its selected Vanguard unit. Total it's strength as x. Sum the strength of all remaining units in the main body. For the first x in strength of all other units, add +1 dice. For the next 2x in strength of all other ships add another +1. For the next 2(2x) of all other units add another +1, and so on.

R = ln(M/V +1)/ln2, where M is the sum of the strength of all other ships in the main body, V is the strength of the Vanguard, and R (rounded down) is the total Reinforcement bonus. (thanks Peel)

Reinforcement Progression Cheat Sheet
Firepower of the Line in multiples of the Vanguard, vs Reinforcement Steps

1:0

2:1

4:2

8:3

16:4

32:5

64:6

128:7

256:8

512:9

1024:10

Superfighter singleton has Air Attack of 2. Superfighter Flight (4) has Air Attack of 4 - 2 reinforcement steps equivalent.

64 singletons have a total of 128 (64 x 2) firepower, or +6 firepower (on top of 2) for 8FP.

16 flights have a total of 64 (16 x 4) firepower, or +4 firepower on top of 4 for 8FP.

• Let's go for a thousand-fighter raid!

2048 (1024 x 2) firepower, a total of 12 FP from singletons

1024 (256 x 4) firepower, a total of 12 FP from wings

So compared against each other, a homogeneous group has no advantages from flying in wings when it comes to firepower. But what about when it comes to mixed groups?

• 16 superfighters and 32 (8) regular fighters; a 50/50 split by deck points.

Total group firepower is 32 (16 x 2) from the superfighters and 24 (8 x 3) from the regular fighters.

Putting a superfighter in the vanguard gives us 4 reinforcement steps on top of 2, for 6FP

Putting fighters in the vanguard gives us 4 reinforcemend steps on top of 3, for 7 FP.

• Without rounding, the numbers are actually 6.8FP vs 7.2FP

If it was 4 flights of superfighters (base attack of 4), the results would be 7.3FP.

• This is exposing some flaws with singletons. NOT using your best aircraft in the lead is unintuitive and probably not working as intended.
• What about a Vanguard X trait to boost the firepower of specific units (singletons in this case) for vanguard purposes only? This would encourage the use of Superfighters as doorkickers (presumably their 'ideal' role) without inflating the aggregate firepower.

Compared by cost?

A batch of fighters has 5 elements

A batch of superfighers has 4 elements

A batch of fighters fighting has a total of 5 (3 + 2) firepower and 5 hits

A batch of superfighters fighting has a total of 4 (2 + 1) firepower and 4 hits - better save though.

Right now the open question is just what superfighters are really meant for. Their only advantage is improved speed/mobility - this may be worth the relative penalty in a simple dogfight.