What are the main use of Fighter ships in RT? These are the Guncutters and other small vessels that gith in space? Can a fleet of them actually damage a Frigate Class or Transport for example? Would their main use before boarding tactics? It seems that they'd mainly take out small ships/other fighters, but if small ships aren't a threat in the first place why would anyone have their own fleet?

Just wondering, I have a Voidmaster playing that wants a fighter class type concept and I'm worried that she'd be under-utilized.

qcipher said:

You will want to look at the supplement Battlefleet Koronus, starting at page 10, for what fighters and attack craft can do. You will also want to have a look at the supplement Into the Storm for the Flight Marshal alternate career rank for Void Masters, which is apparently the Rogue Trader version of what we would call a squadron or wing commander.

As for how useful? That will depend on whether your ship is configured as a carrier or not, among other things.

-Kirov

As the above poster said the book Battlefleet Kronus has fighter ships. To give you a break down basically you're going to need to get hanger components which can take quite a bit of space up or you can convert cargo holds (though slightly less efficient) to hold your little squadrans.

Ships get broken down into 3 types. Fighters which don't damage the enemy ship but instead fight off their squadrons, defend you from torpedo's, etc. Bombers which damage the enemy hull (often you should have some fighters accompany these to protect them), and boats which are basically a bunch of miniature boarding parties that attempt the hit and run action.

The same book also introduces torpedo's (which are very cool indeed, slow firing aoe attacks that traverse a straight line each round until they run out of fuel or hit something) as well as Nova Cannons (huge gun batteries that fire massive distances and do AOE damage but have a slow rate of fire and can only be placed on the new ship hull type "Grand Cruiser").

OK good, I have all those books, but so far mainly read what was in Into the Storm which had the advanced career for Voidmaster (which she's already heading for), but the ships/vehicle section didn't seem to have anything that would threaten a large ship, even with fleets of them. If Battlefleet presents options that should take care of my concerns.

Thanks!

Dark Bunny Lord said:

Actually, Nova Cannons have no required fitting except a Prow weapon slot, and the appropriate hull type of "Cruiser." Which means that the Lunar Cruiser could fit one, if you really wanted it to.

Larkin said:

Ah yes my mistake, it has been a bit of time since I've given that book a full read through.