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[Lenglon]

so 2-3 fighter squadrons, 5-6 bomber squadrons, assuming the default 8 squadrons?

[Sirus]

Leaning towards 3 and 5 respectively. Having punch is good, but if we come across hostile attack craft we will want to make damn sure that we (and our bombers) are adequately protected.

Six isn't all that much greater than five, anyway.

[Egan_BW]

Counterpoint, boarding craft means more loot. Pillage, THEN burn.

[Sirus]

Countercounter point, if we can't mess up the enemy ships at least a little they'll shoot all our boarding craft down and we'll neither pillage nor burn. We can focus on acquiring boarding craft as we go but for now we need something that can put up a fight.

[Caellath]

so 2-3 fighter squadrons, 5-6 bomber squadrons, assuming the default 8 squadrons?

I think 3-5 or 4-4 work well for the following reasons: bombers can cause a maximum of 3 hits, plus +1 max per each bomber squadron after the first one (each one also gives +5 to the bombing run test). When escorting bombers, each fighter squadron causes -10 BS to the enemy's turrets attempts at shooting down the small craft (Crew Rating + 5 per turret rating). So:
1 - A run of 5 bomber squadrons escorted by 3 fighter squadrons can cause a maximum of 7 hits with a success +6 DoS (7d10+28 - enemy's weakest armor = total dmg), and enemy turrets firing at them will take -30 BS. If the enemy crew rating is 30 and they have 2 turret rating (most cruisers), they'll be rolling against 40-30 = 10% chance. Low chance but just a single success already takes down an entire squadron and not just a single craft, mind you.
2 - A run of 4 bomber squadrons escorted by 4 fighter squadrons can cause a maximum of 6 hits with a success +5 DoS (6d10+24 - enemy's weakest armor = total dmg), and enemy turrets firing at them will take -40 BS. If the enemy crew rating is 30 and they have 2 turret rating (most cruisers), they'll be rolling against 40-40 = 0% and auto-fail, meaning ships with less training/defenses will get pummeled unless they have fighters of their own to intercept our squadrons. Even if their CR is 40 and they have 1 turret rating (experienced pirates in a raider or frigate for example), they'll be rolling against 5%. For the chances to go back to 10% would require a cruiser with a Crack crew.

After doing the numbers I think I'm leaning towards the second option because while the ceiling for damage is lowered a bit, Marco would need to roll very well to make usage of that ceiling anyway, and having enough fighters screening means not having to worry about craft losses unless the enemies are harder to crack. Lowering our chances of losing entire squadrons might trump losing out on a bit of damage in case we get a very lucky hit.

As the game progresses we might decide whether to skew the rates or even whether to amass larger strikes by having the craft loiter and wait for another batch to be catapulted out of the carrier for example (for a total of 16 squadrons).

Counterpoint, boarding craft means more loot. Pillage, THEN burn.

The best way to capture a ship with as less damage as possible is via boarding since that way you can choose between causing damage to the enemy ship's hull or just to its Pop + Morale. That sort of action favors having troops (like from a Barracks) and being fast enough to end our movement turn within 1 VU of the enemy to initiate boarding. Or being specialized in boarding and having a harpoon-gun macrobattery.

Hit-and-run attacks are lightning raids and have extra steps to cause damage so it's usually better to focus on them only if you have something that'd give you an overwhelming advantage like barracks full of troops, murder-servitors, a teleportarium and so on. They also cause hull integrity damage, and their main real usage is causing critical hits to cripple the enemy ship. Murder-servitors help because you can pick a critical between 1 and 6 instead of rolling 1d5.

[Lenglon]

Cael has convinced me that 4 fighters 4 bombers is the way to go with the above numbers.

[Sirus]

No objections. A nice even force.

[Stirk]

4/4 noted.

[Caellath]

Cael has convinced me that 4 fighters 4 bombers is the way to go with the above numbers.

Yep! Looking deeper into carriers shows they're pretty interesting mechanically, even if you do have to crack a lot more numbers. Notably, you can specialize your deployment based on the situation if you have full hangars. They're also a pretty interesting option to install a Nova cannon on if you have a fleet since they can stay out of range of the enemy but that's a talk for a different time.

Also since it's a maiden world-turned fortress world I suppose that if there's no big trouble happening at the very least we can go and do some recreational hunting for megafauna. As a rogue trader crew we're more or less obligated to have fabulous clothing and accessories.

[Stirk]

Eaagh. I was just remembering that PC representative was an option. Guess if I made an Elf now I wouldn't have that bit of authority. Living a couple weeks in the past atm, please wait to see if my brain snaps back to the present.

So are you gonna be a space elf or Navi? Navi is going to Navi soon.

[Caellath]

Egan, if you go Navi then I suggest the Navis Scion starting alt career rank 1. It's both high-class and has Hard Bargain for purchase in its list, which's a pretty nifty talent, what with raising PF gain by +1 per endeavor.

If you like the idea of both navi and elf, you could go elfdar and still do navigation duties since the elves should be able to navigate using Navigation (Webway) for webway paths and (Warp) in case bad rolls means we end up in the open Warp again. Our Runecaster helps.

Or if you want to just go non-navigating elfdar, you can make a character that has or will get an utility skill, like Tech-Use or Pilot (Spacecraft).

So are you gonna be a space elf or Navi? Navi is going to Navi soon.

We could RP to delay a bit if necessary, tbf.

[Egan_BW]

bluh. just so you know I've done zero looking at books or anything yet. But I would like to be a navigaty elf still v.v

RPGs which are more than like 1 page are hard, ok

[Stirk]

Egan, if you go Navi then I suggest the Navis Scion starting alt career rank 1. It's both high-class and has Hard Bargain for purchase in its list, which's a pretty nifty talent, what with raising PF gain by +1 per endeavor.

If you like the idea of both navi and elf, you could go elfdar and still do navigation duties since the elves should be able to navigate using Navigation (Webway) for webway paths and (Warp) in case bad rolls means we end up in the open Warp again. Our Runecaster helps.

Or if you want to just go non-navigating elfdar, you can make a character that has or will get an utility skill, like Tech-Use or Pilot (Spacecraft).

So are you gonna be a space elf or Navi? Navi is going to Navi soon.

We could RP to delay a bit if necessary, tbf.

You would need the Elf not-warp drive to enter the webway. Ark Royal (Name still pending?) is unable to enter the webway with her current drive.

[Caellath]

Definitely the Ark Royal.

And crap, I've just now saw we'd probably need a Warp Plotter. I thought a Runecaster would do the trick.

[Sirus]

Maybe we'll be able to pick up one of those later, if we do good on our assignments.