Sorry I've gone near this subject before but I've a question.
If I'm buying ships in ratios to reflect their overall ability in universe, with only 1 TIE Phantom to represent it as the most scarce, how many of the other ships should I get? (Reflecting a minimum of 1 being the number for the absolute rarest.)
I'd go 1 phantom per ten ties.so get 4 phantoms and 40 ties
. No really that many will make a table look good.
The thing is at a rarity of 1 is a defender 1 or 2? You can't get half a ship and give the absurd galaxy spanning nature of the empire you would probably still need thousands of ties, if not hundreds of thousands.
I say buy enough of whatever you want to build the lists you want to play.
Assuming a max of 8 tie fighters since you can't field any more, I'd say it should be for in universe proportions:
5 Interceptors
3 Bombers
2 Advanced
1 Defender
1 Phantom
Well, let's look at the standard compliment of an Imperial I-class Star Destroyer, which should provide a good idea of how many of each ship is in the fleet:
48 TIE/ln Fighters (later in the war it was modified to 24 TIE/ln and 24 TIE/I Fighters)
12 TIE/sa Bombers
12 TIE Boarding Craft
8 Lambda-class Shuttles
15 Delta-class Stormtrooper Transports
5 Assault Gunboats
Variable number of Skipray Blastboats
Various other support craft.
If you go by these ratios and assume eight TIE/ln fighters as the max, then you get the following numbers:
8 TIE Fighters
8 TIE Interceptors
4 TIE Bombers
4 Lambda-class Shuttle
The others will take a bit more logic, but let's assume both TIE-series fighters in the new wave are comparatively rare, which they were. They will probably be numbered as follows:
2 TIE Defenders
1 TIE Phantom
I would go with this as my fleet numbers if you wanted to reflect Imperial fleet ratios of fighter types.
Well, let's look at the standard compliment of an Imperial I-class Star Destroyer, which should provide a good idea of how many of each ship is in the fleet:
48 TIE/ln Fighters (later in the war it was modified to 24 TIE/ln and 24 TIE/I Fighters)
12 TIE/sa Bombers
12 TIE Boarding Craft
8 Lambda-class Shuttles
15 Delta-class Stormtrooper Transports
5 Assault Gunboats
Variable number of Skipray Blastboats
Various other support craft.
If you go by these ratios and assume eight TIE/ln fighters as the max, then you get the following numbers:
8 TIE Fighters
8 TIE Interceptors
4 TIE Bombers
4 Lambda-class Shuttle
The others will take a bit more logic, but let's assume both TIE-series fighters in the new wave are comparatively rare, which they were. They will probably be numbered as follows:
2 TIE Defenders
1 TIE Phantom
I would go with this as my fleet numbers if you wanted to reflect Imperial fleet ratios of fighter types.
Math fail? Did you not mean to just divide by 6? 8 Interceptors is a lot. Granted, I'll have more than that after Aces comes out, but I also have a squadron and a half of TIE Fighters. (Target sales, couldn't resist).
My mates and I like playing with the "constraints" of what would be available. What would the Rebel set up be? A-wings and B-wings are advanced ships but not nearly as rare as an E-wing. Likewise, I feel like the Empire fielded more TIE Interceptors than the Rebels did A-wings. same for TIE Bombers/B-wings. It seems like the Rebels have a split advanced category similar to the Phantom and Defender but in greater numbers. Suggestions?
Interesting. I thought the "standard" TIE complement pm an ISD was one squadron (that's 12 ships) of Interceptors, a squadron of Bombers, and then FOUR squadrons of basic Fighters although some of those may be specialized variations. Other support ships follow.
I'm not sure what time frame you are looking at but you'd need to dump a big pile of money into getting just TIE Fighters to have them "in proportion" to the number of Phantoms or even Defenders that were produced.
(I'm obviously limiting by proportion, so no more than 8 TIE Fighters since you couldn't field anymore anyway. Ergo, if the rarest ship is represented by a single unit, and so forth. I'm not seriously thinking about getting dozens of TIEs. Well, not from a purchasing point of view. Sigh.)
Good lord, if you were to consider the entire Star Wars universe in order to get ratios, you would probably need somewhere on the order of 10 thousand TIEs for every advanced TIE platform, and probably something on the order of 100k or 1m TIEs for a single TIE Phantom.
There were TIEs everywhere, on every planet, making up the bulk of their space defenses. I think you and your mates are better off keeping the ratios based upon ability, which is reflected in the points cost, because otherwise you would have a terribly uniform distribution of ships. If you are interested in having it at least resemble "real" numbers, then maybe restrict yourselves to no more than a single advanced platform in every game. But of course, that will seem odd because "in real life" it would be unlikely for you to see an advanced platform at all, but on those rare occasions you DID come across one, you would encounter an entire formation of them.
They are like Navy SEALs. There are very, very few of them compared to the size of the US armed forces as a whole. But when you DO meet them, you are much more likely to encounter a squad of them operating independently than you are encountering a single Navy SEAL mixed with a group of 100 US Marines.
Good lord, if you were to consider the entire Star Wars universe in order to get ratios, you would probably need somewhere on the order of 10 thousand TIEs for every advanced TIE platform, and probably something on the order of 100k or 1m TIEs for a single TIE Phantom.
...
They are like Navy SEALs. There are very, very few of them compared to the size of the US armed forces as a whole. But when you DO meet them, you are much more likely to encounter a squad of them operating independently than you are encountering a single Navy SEAL mixed with a group of 100 US Marines.
I don't think the SEAL metaphor is completely accurate. You could easily have a SEAL (or more) operating with 100 Marines and they would just be providing more expertise. In X-Wing the comparison is something like having Luke/Wedge flying with Rookie pilot.
A more accurate example may be something like a single F-22 flying missions with a number of F-16 or even older aircraft. I don't know what current bomber numbers are but a B-2 with B-52s could be another example.
When you see a single "advanced platform" operating with lots of older models I believe it is there for one of two basic reasons: The first is for a basic performance evaluation or prototype vehicles and the second is because they can perform a specialized function that supports the older models but which they can not perform themselves. If there is enough hierarchy I guess you may also see an improved ship for a leader although that can be counter productive unless it is more survivable.