Starflight: Starfighters in Alpha Dawn
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One of the most enjoyable sci-fi elements is when the heroes strap into small fighters and fly out to perform dangerous missions and combat. This aspect of the sci-fi hero seems to have been almost entirely overlooked in Star Frontiers—until now.
The uniqueness of different types of fighters and how they’re equipped is sadly missing from the game. The only thing differentiating them in Knight Hawks was whether they were civilian or military. Then articles came along that gave more weapons and defensive options, but still the variety was stale. In fact, in previous information we are counseled not to even use fighters. So what was the point in including them in the first place?
In order to make space fighters usable and more unique, one from the other, and to make space combat possible for these small vessels, fighter vs. fighter, we must look to the smaller combat scale of the Alpha Dawn vehicle rules system and analyze how fighters can be used.
For this system, the space fighters and shuttles have been reclassified as vehicles, instead of spaceships, as they are little more than cloud flyers with minor modifications for space travel. A fighter has very few gauges that can be found on most space ships.
Other treats in this article include more weapons available for fighters and aerospace vehicle system packages.
Though this article focuses on fighters, feel free to use this information to design your own aerospace vehicle. There’s even information here that can be used for ground vehicles.
Aerospace Fighters
| V Size (KH) | Mass in kg | Engine size |
| 1 (1) | <200 | |
| 2 (1) | <500 | |
| 3 (1) | <1k | A1* |
| 4 (1) | <2k | A1 |
| 5 (1) | <5k | A1 |
| 6 (1) | <10k | A1 |
| 7 (1) | <20k | A1, A2* |
| 8 (1) | <50k | A1, A2* |
| 9 (2) | <100k | A2 |
| 10 (2) | <200k | A2 |
| 11 (2) | <500k | A2 |
| * Single engine design only. | ||
The Knight Hawks rules prove particularly ineffective for space units of size 1 and 2. The smaller the craft, the less relevant the spaceship stats prove to be. As it is, they are just relevant enough for the Assault Scout, but for nothing smaller.
To remedy this, these vehicle rules are being extended in this article to units of hull size 2 or less. A whole different scale of damage applies that is not as extreme as large spaceship damage.
The vehicles, weapons, defenses, and equipment in this article are by no means exhaustive, but contain all the items this author feels worth use from previous articles and new creations. Most items from other materials are not included here, but are useable with this system.
Contents |
Size
Though actual vehicle classes are often dependent on area, mass, and even shape altogether to determine size, to keep things simple, a new size rating (as opposed to the KH size system) is given for vehicle types relying on the vehicle’s base mass instead of its length. The cargo weight and weapons do not affect the vehicle’s size, but the engines and computer systems do. Below is the size list with compatible engine sizes. You can either have single engines or dual engines.
Aerospace Fighter Types
Besides the vehicles in the Alpha Dawn rules, more flying vehicles may now be available. These types are defined below. As you read them, enjoy the various fighter types that are graphically represented with each description.
Mini-flyers
| |||
| Pendulum | Lantern | Jaunt | Perilous |
Little more than an air-bubble with a jet engine attached, the mini-flyer is able to reach high altitude space stations from a planet’s surface, but does not have the capability to escape a planet’s gravity without breaking apart. Miniflyers cannot have any defenses and will only fit laser pods. They can only hold a single passenger (the pilot) and have limited cargo capacity. The low cost helps keep them viable, and surprisingly popular for personal transportation to and from orbital stations and high altitude launch platforms.
Personal Fighters
| |||
| Stylus | Hunter | Regent | Dijack |
Personal fighters are often better armed than Cloud Flyers, but can only carry up to 2 people. Personal fighters have no bombing capability or armor to speak of, but their teeth can be nasty. Able to carry small assignments of piston and pod weapons, assault rockets, or missiles, personal fighters are the vehicle of choice for the more discriminating adventurer. They do cannot carry bombs. Careful, though, these aren’t meant for war. Pirates often take on such vehicles and their pilots for a split of the booty, as a private air force is invaluable to commandeering civilian ships. They also prove invaluable for defending civilian ships.
Military Fighters
| |||
| Dark Hawk | Blade | Ripper | Black Dart |
You won’t find these for private sale, as they contain armor and advanced defenses for large scale skirmishes. Even black market traders know that private citizens can’t be trusted with these weapons of mass destruction. No, they want them sold to the highest bidder in the largest quantity. The military fighter is heavy duty in both fire power and defenses and are built with armor standard. Even though military fighters have limited bombing payload capacity, if any, military fighters are ten times more effective than personal fighters. These are often granted under special permission to Privateers.
Military Bombers
| |||
| Reaper | Trapper Arc | Clear Cutter | Massacre |
Often 2-4 times the size of most military fighters, military bombers carry many times more the payload of any fighter and are also armored. These are highly specialized killing machines capable of toppling large building complexes, flattening settlements, sinking sea carriers, and crippling or even destroying large space vessels when grouped with other bombers. Bombers all require a minimum of two crewmen (pilot and copilot/navigator) and are extraordinarily durable. (Bombers are technically Hull Size 2 from Knight Hawks rules)
| Fighter Type* | Size (KH) | PN | ADF/MR | ADM | VM | MM | Cargo Limit | SP | Cost** |
| Mini-flyer | 3 (1) | 1 | 6 | -1 | +1 | +1 | 400kg/4m3 | 10+d10 | 40,000Cr |
| Personal | 4-5 (1) | 1-2 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8,000kg/12m3 | 20+d10 | >55,000Cr |
| Light Military | 6-7 (1) | 1-2 | 5 | +1 | 0 | 0 | 16,000kg/18m3 | 40+d10 | >65,000Cr |
| Heavy Military | 7-8 (1) | 2-4 | 5 | +1 | 0 | -1 | 22,000kg/26m3 | 45+d10 | >80,000Cr |
| Light Bomber | 8-9 (2) | 2-8 | 5 | +2 | -1 | -1 | 55,000kg/38m3 | 45+d10 | >105,000Cr |
| Heavy Bomber | 10-11 (2) | 2-12 | 5 | +2 | -1 | -1 | 100,000kg/50m3 | 50+d10 | >120,000Cr |
| * Ordered according to size | |||||||||
| ** Costs are for empty structure only; it does not include equipment. | |||||||||
New Engines
What is not generally known is that small craft of size 2 or smaller maneuver by means of colloid thrusters (a type of miniature electrostatic ion thruster) which are built into the frames. These work independently of the ship’s engines, though may derive their power from the engines. Because they are built into the aerospace vehicle, they are not a concern when choosing an engine for your craft.
Along with the new scale for fighters are new engine classifications. Engine size A1 is for Knight Hawks hull size 1, and engine size A2 is for Knight Hawks hull size 2 (See the Vehicle Size Table above for fighter size assignments).
| Engines | Jet | Chemical | Plasma | After Burner |
| Size “A1” | ||||
| Fuel Cost | 20xVSize | 10xVSize | 1xVSize/2 | +10** |
| Prog. Level | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| Fnctn Pnts | 2 | 3 | 14 | 1 |
| Cost* | 8,000Cr | 20,000Cr | 55,000Cr | 5,000Cr |
| Size “A2” | ||||
| Fuel Cost | 40xVSize | 20xVSize | 1xVSize/4 | +20** |
| Prog. Level | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| Fnctn Pnts | 2 | 3 | 14 | 1 |
| Cost* | 15,000Cr | 30,000Cr | 100,000Cr | 10,000Cr |
| * Engine, installation and program costs per engine. | ||||
| ** Add this modifier to your fuel cost. | ||||
Jet Engine. These are not as efficient as other engines and are useless for space flight because of their need for air flow. Though they are less expensive to purchase and install, they are more expensive to maintain and keep fueled (they use much more fuel than other engines and require more maintenance).
Plasma Drive. In addition to rocket boosters and atomic engines, there is also the more expensive plasma drive. A plasma drive is considerably safer, more compact, and easier to find, but much more expensive than an atomic drive. Plasma power is achieved by pulling radiant atoms apart through ionization instead of colliding them. Additionally, plasma drives have virtually 0 radiation emissions. They are the most efficient for inner-system travel. These can be sized to fit on any size of craft.
These are the small thrusters you see on many of your favorite space fighters. They are low maintenance, highly efficient, and ideal for relatively comfortable high speed launches, as their thrust requires building, easing into the launch speed. Their big brothers that we’ve come to know simply as Ion Drives, use particle acceleration which can cause a craft to approach the speed of light.
After Burner. This injects fuel directly into the ignited exhaust (“after” the engine), causing the vehicle to increase its acceleration beyond its standard acceleration. This can be useful for escaping an enemy, catching up to an enemy, or getting that extra burst for escaping atmosphere. However, this is an extremely inefficient expenditure of fuel, so use it wisely. This is available for any engine planet-side or in space.
New Weapons
Normal weapons have been thoroughly covered in other articles, so we will only discuss new weapons for aerospace vehicles here.
Previous board game and miniatures rules only provided assault rockets to fighters, and mounted laser pods were provided in the Polyhedron #19 article, Laser Pod, by John Pickens and laser pistons, maxi-missiles and fusion bombs were provided in the Dragon Magazine, November 1986, article, An Interstellar Armory by Gus Monter. Now prepare yourself for several new additions.
With this system, the number of weapons a fighter can have is limited only by the tables in this article. You can have the maximum number of each weapon as long as you have the cargo mass allowance available for the fighter type. Weapons are not limited by cargo volume. This allows for a more realistic distribution of weapons on a fighter, as even today they can be loaded to bear.
| Fighter | Missiles | Bombs | Starbursts | Assault Rockets | Laser Pod | Laser Piston | Dual Piston | Bolt Launcher |
| Mini-flyer | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | |||
| Personal | (2-6)* | (2)* | 1-2 | (2)* | X | X | V Size 5 | |
| Light Military | 2-8 | 2-4 | 1-4 | 2 | X | X | V Size 7 | X |
| Heavy Military | 2-12 | 2-8 | 1-8 | 3 | X | X | X | X |
| Light Bomber | 2-14 | 1-15 | 1-12 | 4 | X | X | X | X |
| Heavy Bomber | 4-20 | 1-30 | 1-12 | 6 | X | X | X | X |
| * Though not permitted, personal fighters may still be adapted to arm these weapons. | ||||||||
