Fighter of the Week Workshop #007 - Sabutai

[Trace Coburn]

  How does one fix the Subatai?  How doesn't one?  :D  For starters, you invest in more armour, preferably at least two and a half tons' worth and up the fuel-fraction to at least five tons; that'll cost you a noticeable chunk of pod-space, but IMO the increases in survivability and combat-endurance are worth it.  My take on the canon configs after those changes would look like this:

Class/Model/Name:  Sabutai (base chassis)
Mass:              75 tons

Equipment:                                                              Mass
Power Plant:  300 XL Fusion                                              9.50
Thrust:  Safe Thrust: 6
      Maximum Thrust: 9
Structural Integrity: 7                                                   .00
Total Heat Sinks:    15 Double                                           5.00
Fuel:                                                                    5.00
Cockpit & Attitude Thrusters:                                            3.00
Armor Type:  Ferro-aluminium  (240 total armor pts)                     12.50
                           Standard Scale Armor Pts
   Location:                            L / R
   Nose:                                 74
   Left/Right Wings:                  61/61
   Aft:                                  44

> PRIME: NOSE - Gauss Rifle (2 tons ammo), LPL; WINGS - ERPPC, 2 x ERML; AFT - 2 x MPL

  Use the GR or PPCs for long-range work, then shift to the LPL and ERMLs up close.  Your heat-scale's still going to be a little high if you use both the PPCs and the GR, but you're heat-neutral sticking with the lasers alone, so a little judgement should see you right.

> ALPHA: NOSE - 4 x ERML; WINGS - UAC/20 (4 tons ammo), ERML; AFT - 2 x ERML

  You've lost that big crit-seeking shotgun, true, and alpha-strikes are still VERY Not Good, but you have four times the ammunition endurance and meaningful back-up weapons if you need to fight your way home.

> BRAVO: NOSE - 2 x LRM-20 w/Art-IV (6 tons ammo), LPL; WINGS - LRM-20 w/Art-IV; AFT - MPL

  One launcher's gone, but you actually gain some net damage and double your ammo endurance, plus being able to make bigger holes in capital ships with each individual launcher - which is not a bad thing.  ;D  Okay, you've lost your ECCM capability, but... well, see Configurations C and D below.

CHARLIE: +15 DHS, +1t fuel; NOSE - 4 x ERLL, Active Probe; WINGS - 2 x ERSL, 2 x AMS (2 tons ammo); AFT - 2 x ERML, ECM

  With a godawful primary weapons-bay like that, who really needs secondaries?  Combining an Active Probe and an ECM unit on the same platform more than doubles the canon Bravo loadout's ability to breach enemy Large Craft EW screens.  Between the ERSLs and the AMS mounts, anyone trying to use capital missiles against a Star of these is going to learn a whole new definition of 'frustration' - and lastly, while the idea may have been anathema to glory-obsessed Clan pilots before 3068, the ability to use fighters as an anti-missile (read: anti-nuke) screen for your Large Craft is not to be overlooked in the Jihad's grimdark days of grimdarkian grimdarkness.  ;D

DELTA: +22 DHS; NOSE - 4 x HLL; WINGS - AMS (1 ton ammo)

    As soon as any WarShip commander realises you're bringing a multiple-HLL platform like this to bear on him, he's going to respond by devoting every weapon at his disposal (particularly every capital missile-launcher with a clear arc-of-fire) to erasing the things from his airspace.  That being so, what you need for the Delta is not secondary weapons, but AMS to shield your Star against the inevitable barrage of retributive Barracudas.
  Alternatively - especially if you're an 'offence over defence' thinker like the Jags were - you can go to the Delta-2 version, dropping the AMS mounts and ammo for a nose-mounted Active Probe and a tail-mounted ECM unit so you can punch through dense ECM coverage.  The limited range of the HLLs means you'll have to get close anyway, so you might as well make it count - especially for the other Stars behind you, right?  And mixing up Charlies and Delta-2s makes for a very potent 'sword and shield' team.  }:)

[Moonsword]

I like this as a fix for the Sabutai.  And yeah, the Delta is going to be on the receiving end of a lot of grief.  There are plenty of fighters that are going to be suffering from Critical Existence Failure if they stray in front of it.  One other thing to watch out for are some of the sub-capital missile bays floating around these days - that makes having two AMS bays very handy since it doubles the number of salvos the squadron can blunt per round.  (Note that fighter squadrons only fire their AMS bays once per turn.)