Dramatic SFB: Flexible Escorts

[Matt]

> I'm struggling to wrap my head around the knock-on effects of S8.315 
> "must" vs S8.311 "may not" vs the R charts vs F&E 515

Tl;dr: True carriers of all stripes must be escorted. Hybrid carriers 
and casual carriers do not.


***

Ok. I'm getting alot of push-back on this subject and some genuine 
confusion. Many of the questions are repeats.


/(S8.315)//Players may adapt the "flexible group" rules from F&E 
(515.0). These can be summarized as follows: Carriers are divided into 
three types (size class 2, size class 3, and size class 4). Size class 2 
carriers must have three escorts and can have four. Size class 3 
carriers must have two escorts and can have three. Size class 4 carriers 
must have one escort and can have two. At least one escort must be size 
class 4, but otherwise, players may select any escorts available in the 
selected year so long as they are of the same empire./


I have come down on saying that the above rule replaces the Section-R 
carrier escort table for each true carrier. I've heard from several 
people on the issue. I tried to summarize what was said on both sides, 
when I made the final ruling. Efforts to go to the Main BBS with the 
question were out of place once the ruling was made. People had seven 
whole days to start that conversation on the main BBS, but only did so 
when I made a ruling they did not like. It's not changed my mind, it's 
made me grumpy.


My ancient copy of F&E doesn't even have (515.0) in it, so the above 
rule is what we are using. We are not using whatever text(s) are in F&E, 
because we are playing SFB, not F&E. If this were a 4X campaign, it's 
/possible/ that we might use elements from F&E, but that isn't the 
dramatic SFB campaign.


There are four types of carriers in SFB: "True" carriers, hybrid 
carriers, casual carriers, and non-carriers. F&E introduced a fifth 
type, the "single carrier group", which we aren't using here (more 
later.) To repeat from the webpage I have linked to 
<sfb.mattnet.org/carrier.html> several times:

*Non-Carriers* are ships that have no fighters. They may not purchase 
fighters, they have no fighter supplies, they have deck crews only 
through (J4.814). There are some exceptions to this, primarily escort 
variants (who have fighter supplies but no fighters.) Note that F-7s and 
G-7s are shuttles, not fighters.

*Casual Carriers* are ships that have one or two fighters. Most often 
these are HDWs. The rule of (J4.62) defines what ships are casual 
carriers and (R9.R6) defines casual carriers for Hydrans. Casual 
carriers do not need escorts (normally or through the flexible escort rule.)

*Hybrid Carriers* are ships that have several fighters and usually the 
logistical train of a true carrier, but don't have the operational 
importance and large fighter presence of true carriers. (S8.322) defines 
what is a hybrid carrier for most everyone. In the case of Hydrans, if 
it carries fighters but does not fall in (R9.R6) or (R9.R4) then it is a 
hybrid carrier (per S8.321). Hybrid carriers do not need to be escorted 
(normally or with flexible escorts.)

*True carriers* are ships that have sacrificed weapons and power to hold 
fighters. A ship that carries fighters and is not a casual carrier or a 
hybrid carrier, is a true carrier. True carriers must be escorted 
(normally and in the flexible escort rule), but have several advantages 
over other carriers. They may swap out their fighters for heavy 
fighters, they may purchase extra deck crews, they can carry MRS shuttles.


As mentioned above, F&E canonized the *Single Carrier Group*. This is a 
true carrier that has no escorts. These carriers have all of the 
advantages of the normal true carriers, but operationally were not given 
(or occasionally not given) an escort train. Each empire have their own 
reasons for this, but (speaking broadly) these carriers function either 
as lone raiders or as exploratory vessels.


The entire discussion revolves around this concept of the single carrier 
group. I've said before that I am officially not admitting the concept 
of single carrier groups in the campaign. My reasons for this are many, 
I've said them before, and all I can do is repeat myself on the subject.


Some questions have come up on specific carriers:

*Hydran true carriers*: The Hydran carriers that need to be escorted are 
defined in (R9.R4) and/or have an "N1" note in the Master Ship Chart. 
Other Hydrans don't need escorts (most are hybrid carriers and are 
defined by (S8.321), but some are casual carriers and are defined by 
(R9.R6))

*Romulan Heavy Hawks*: Go by the above carrier definitions. The 
Superhawk (SUP) is a true carrier because it has more fighters than are 
allowed as a hybrid carrier. If you want a Hawk hybrid carrier, make 
Farhawks instead.

*Police carriers*: These are true carriers. The ship's descriptions give 
many clues, either in using naval fighters or shuttling of fighters to 
the naval units. The fact they have an escort table is a strong 
indication, for hybrid carriers largely do not have them.


--Matt

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