Hi guys

Considering runiing a RT game, which I have never done before and have fairly limited knowledge of the rules for it, though I have played a lot of Dark Heresy.

So the question is, how useful are Launch Bays and fighters in ship to ship wombat?

Thank you in advance for your help.

You need Battlefleet Koronus for the rules. I haven't used them so I cannot comment.

Fighters are essentially there to protect/destroy friendly/enemy bombers. Bombers and troop-ships are an excellent way to deal lots of damage to an enemy ship using a Command check, which is extremely useful if your RT isn't the best gunner or the best pilot on the ship and is lacking in things to do.

Susanbrindle's basically got it. In relative terms, attack craft are a cheap way of doing serious damage to enemy ships and bypass their shields. Fighters are defensive tools. And since not many people use them, not many ships are outfitted with extensive point-defence arrays (and canny tricks like sending fighters in with bomber/assault boat waves mean you can swamp the turrets of most ships anyway).

If your ship has the capacity, a really good trick is timing your attack wing's bombing run to coincide with an incoming torpedo salvo, as turrets have to choose whether to aim for the fighters and bombers this turn, or the torpedoes. They can't go after both…

Also remember, you've got the capacity to house 3 squadrons for every point of launch capacity the bays give you. You can only launch a number of squadrons up to and equal to that point capacity, but in theory you can do that for three turns without needing to recover craft.
In practice, you've got to balance squadrons of fighters, squadrons of bombers/torpedo bombers, squadrons of assault boats, support squadrons (SAR birds, cargo shuttles, VIP transports) and Aeronautica (anything designed primarily for atmospheric work, usually with rocket boosters for orbital launch and recovery).
That balance is a matter of personal preference (I always reserve 1 squadron slot for support craft, and if there's more than 2 Launch Capacity, I make sure another squadron slot is reserved for Aeronautica. Then roughly half the remaining squadrons are fighters, with the balance of bombers to assault boats determined by how many troops the ship carries).

The thing is yous houldn't be using hanger space for "support stuff" BFK already has rules for how many "utility" craft a ship gets essentially for free. Using launch bay space for that needlessly devalues the launch bay IMO.

You do get a bonus to endeavors for having a squadron of lifters, and it's useful to be able to launch and recover all your transports in one go when you need to get a lot of cargo offworld fast.

Besides, having a SAR unit is bound to be worth it. There aren't any official rules for Search and Rescue ops (yet, but that might change), but every GM I've discussed the subject with reckons that not having a SAR is going to be detrimental to pilot's morale. If nothing else, it should make Maintenance checks for your other embarked squadrons easier (as you won't always be having to replace pilot/crew and craft for every time one is shot down), although again, that'd be at GM's discretion, like all other contributing factors to Maintenance checks.

Just completed our first major space combat where our Dictator-class Cruiser and five friendly Navy ships (Light Cruisers and frigates) went up against fifteen Chaos ships (Mixed builds, lead by a Heavy Cruiser flagship.)

Bombers with a fighter escort proved extremely effective against the Heavy Crusier, since we were having trouble bringing down its double void shields.

Strike craft are fairly essential for capital scale combat - as mentioned above, heavy cruisers pack some incredibly tough shielding and so swamping them with as many weapon systems simultaneously is neccessary to cause any appreciable amount of damage. Being able to launch torpedos, strike craft and then wait for them to both arrive before unleashing lance and battery fire = a lot of damage dealt.

Also as mentioned the hangar bays carry 3 squadrons of craft per point of bay strength. This means even a lowly converted hangar bay in a transport ship can house 3 squadrons of deadly bombers, or a veritable horde of dropships and transport craft to ferry profitable goods to or from a planets surface.

The last campaign i was in we started with a mechanicum outfitted frigate which was tough as nails and good in combat, but we lacked the logistics for any sizable military campaign. Calling in some favours to get my dynasty's seriously damaged light cruiser repaired, we were able to bring in a lot of strike craft for air superiority and were able to begin our campaign to conquer a profitable human colony in earnest.