Best bang for the buck?

[Black_Knyght]

I thought I'd ask the good people here a few Aerospace related questions:


What would you consider to be the operationally best bang for the buck CBT Inner Sphere Light, Medium, and Heavy fighters around 3075-80?

Also - do you pair identical fighters, or pair complementary ones? If you had a Leopard CV, would you use all one type, or various types of fighters?

[Kovax]

I prefer identical pairs, but given a Leopard CV, I'd probably have pairs of 3 different fighters.  The fighter that I'd want for engaging a dropship is different from the one I'd want for fighter-vs-fighter slugfests, or for maneuver and speed.

[Ruger]

I thought I'd ask the good people here a few Aerospace related questions:


What would you consider to be the operationally best bang for the buck CBT Inner Sphere Light, Medium, and Heavy fighters around 3075-80?

I'd really like to expand this to say 3100, so I can say Light: Sternensturm, Medium: Morgenstern and Heavy: Eisensturm...all Lyran Omnifighters, meaning they are mission-flexible...the first two are a tad light on fuel on their base models, but all have a lot of armor for their sizes, and decent thrust (although, personally, I would have preferred a tad more thrust on the Morgenstern, but that would have required an XL engine, or a loss of about half of its pod space)...pod space is also fairly decent on each for their respective tonnages...

Also - do you pair identical fighters, or pair complementary ones? If you had a Leopard CV, would you use all one type, or various types of fighters?

I do tend to like at least pairs of the same fighters...helps reduce the logistical trail...

Ruger

[Black_Knyght]

I'd really like to expand this to say 3100

Unfortunately, given that I'm currently campaigning in 3075 to 3080, THAT won't work...

[Hellraiser]

What would you consider to be the operationally best bang for the buck CBT Inner Sphere Light, Medium, and Heavy fighters around 3075-80?

Also - do you pair identical fighters, or pair complementary ones? If you had a Leopard CV, would you use all one type, or various types of fighters?

1.  What do you define as your "buck"?    BV1, BV2, CBills, Tonnage?  All of the above?
The answer is going to be different depending on what it is your comparing the ASF performance to.

Without more data, all I can say is one of my favorites for each.
Sparrowhawk-7D,  Corsair-V14 (or the rare Samurai-26/27),  Thunderbird-D46

2.  Usually identical.  But its not guaranteed, the RAT tables (and Life) rarely lead to a perfect assignment of pairs.
I recall my first big aero unit rolled up from RATs.  A full 36 fighters.  But in that 18 pairings nearly a 3rd were mixed.

But where possible I at least try to pair up by performance.   For example...
Any of the Stukas, T-Birds, or Chippewa-W10 will all fall into the heavily armored LRM/LL gunboat category.
The medium Stingray, Corsair, Hellcat, or heavier Eagle, Transgressor all make good pairs with their 4/6MP + LL/ML armament.
The Sparrowhawk, Centurion, & Sholagar all make for a good group of similar Interceptors
Also, I've found Slayers, Samurai, & Hellcat-r's to be decent in making a long range big fuel tank group.


3.  For a Leopard-CV.... Probably identical or at least similar, and for the actual fighters.... big, thickly armored & armed to the teeth.
Why?  Because a Leo-CV is my deep space patrol boat for picket & intercept duty & for harassing other dropships.  And for that I want VERY big fighters.

[Black_Knyght]

Thanx, that's exactly the kind of assessment I was asking about.

I suppose to clarify "best bang for the buck" I should say say:  Ignoring BV, costs, or any specific optimization modding, what would you consider the most effective at it's job as a fighter in each of their respective weight classes?

Maybe that'll make things easier the break down.

[Black_Knyght]

Part of the reason I'm asking is that, in-campaign, my mercenary battalion is supposed to have two Leopard CV's with a full fighter complement on each. The GM has requested I fill them accordingly without assigning a specific BV, trusting me to not get ridiculous and max everything out and take undo advantage.

I've considered things like the Corsair, Shilone, Slayer, but I don't know what others are worthwhile in each weight class. Being reasonable I should field at least a mix of mediums and heavies, but could get a couple of assaults in balanced by some lights.

But which, and why, in the 3075-3080 era in the Inner Sphere....?

[Tai Dai Cultist]

The Slayer is excellent as an all round fighter.  It's got the speed to dogfight, it's got the mass to be a heavy bomber, and it's got excellent durability.  The double-large fuel tank is just yet another advantage for planet-side operations.  A Slayer pretty much covers every base for you save two: interceptor speed, and extreme dropship-shattering firepower.

[Black_Knyght]

THAT is good to know, since it's also one of my FAVORITE looking fighter miniatures !!! (providing, of course, that IWM hasn't ruined it with a resculpt yet)

[Hellraiser]

I suppose to clarify "best bang for the buck" I should say say:  Ignoring BV, costs, or any specific optimization modding, what would you consider the most effective at it's job as a fighter in each of their respective weight classes?

In that case, default to my favs above.  They are all solid & while there are others that are similar those will fit the bill.

Part of the reason I'm asking is that, in-campaign, my mercenary battalion is supposed to have two Leopard CV's with a full fighter complement on each. 

Do you have other fighters & dropships that carry fighters.

As I mentioned above, the Leo-CV is my system patrol boat by default.
Something like the Titan is even better in that role but the Leo is the most common for that task.

If you have Light Fighters (or Mediums) to fill out your Mech Carriers (Overlord, Union, Leopard, Confederate, etc etc) then I would fill up the Leopard-CV's with your Heavier fighters.

I wouldn't worry about speed, just Guns & Armor, & to a smaller extent, Fuel.
0-G movement means the above traits will be of primary concern.

[Black_Knyght]

Do you have other fighters & dropships that carry fighters.

For MY part in the campaign, no. By random selection before we started I ended up in charge of two Leopard CVs and their complement of fighters.

The GM stated that, so long as we don't get stupid greedy, it's up to us to pick our our respective fighters/mechs/tanks/etc - understand of course that they'll be facing a roughly equivalent sized force and composition. I usually am a tank or mech ground force commander, so it's a new challenge picking out fighters for the two Leopard CVs.

I've definitely decide on two paired groups of Slayers, a paired group of Sparrowhawks, and a paired group of Corsairs. I'm like to add two paired groups of Shilones, but I'm getting mixed opinions about them from from other players. One says Shilones have a lot of potential, another says they suck, and the third disses anything "Kurita" out of hand (*facepalm*)

[Hellraiser]

One says Shilones have a lot of potential, another says they suck, and the third disses anything "Kurita" out of hand (*facepalm*)

I "want" to diss anything Kurita.  LOL
But I just can't do that to their Aero-Trio.  Its too dang good.
Next to Davion, I think the Kuritans have the best selection of ASF from the original TRO3025.
The Shilone is a fine fighter, though I'm partial to the Stuka or T-Bird when looking for LRM/LL love, but I'll take Shilones all day.

[Tai Dai Cultist]

yeah, anyone who tells you a Shilone isn't a great fighter doesn't know what he's talking about.

That being said, nothing wrong with Corsairs, either.  As far as complimenting Slayers, Corsairs are lacking the reach the Shilones' LRM-20s would bring but otoh the Corsairs are pure energy fighters which has its own advantages for logistics and ground attack.  I'd consider a force with Slayers and Corsairs as having enormous air-to-ground potential.  Load the Slayers up to the gills with bombs and let the Corsairs escort them... if there's not much enemy aircraft the Corsairs can add strafing to the fun.

[Black_Knyght]

How does THIS version of the Shilone stack up?

http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=52817.msg1219074#msg1219074