I want to start delving into Aerospace fighters for games and have absolutely zero understanding of what stats are required for what roles. As a note, I am filling in a WoB force so the era is 3060's to 3070's, if that is important. The primary roles for ASF in my mind are below, and what stats I imagine would be good for each. Let me know if I am missing any ASF roles.
Dogfighter: the role of this would be to engage other ASF; primarily these would directly engage opposing ASF that are trying to engage my larger ASF that will be used for bombing. I imagine being fast and having short and medium range weaponry is ideal. Likely would want cluster style weapons to force piloting skill checks, and anything that will bring your to-hit roll down since you will be moving a lot.
Escort: the role of this would be to escort your bombers. Dogfighters can do this, but I imagine the escorts should be flying closer to the bombers than the dogfighters would. These can have medium to long range weapons, like ER lasers, LRMs, etc. They can break away, but I wouldn't want them to go too far.
Bomber/Air-to-Ground: obviously the role of this is to engage ground forces with various bombs and strafing runs. If it is a direct bomber, it probably needs to be big, in tonnage, so you can carry plenty of bombs. Otherwise I don't know what kind of weapons work well for strafing runs. Lasers maybe? Not sure.
As a sidenote, one of the people I play Battletech with said that ASF dominate when they are used compared to mechs, which are supposed to be the king of the battlefield. Is this true? And, should it be true? In current day warfare, I imagine the main battle tank as the king of the battlefield, but without proper support (dedicated AA) I imagine any competent pilot of a jet-fighter with a couple bombs or missiles can smoke a MBT. I would imagine that logic does, and should, hold true for Battletech as well.
Let me know your thoughts, and thanks in advance.
