There have been a few comments regarding the posting of Vampires on a smaller carrier in seeming contradiction of comments in the manual. The primary evidence for such a posting is the fact that Excaliburs were posted on the Victory.
This evidence ignores some very simple flaws.
1.) The Excaliburs weren't in general deployment on ANY class of ship of the fleet. Given the window between the final testing of the Excalibur on board the Victory and the deployment of a squadron of Excaliburs to the Victory, I think its more likely to assume that at the time of the T-Bomb run on Kilrah, the Victory was the FIRST carrier flying a fully operational squadron of Excaliburs. Confed hadn't had time to implement full deployment of these fighters, and the wartime necessities required a special, last-minute deployment, to quite possibly the best pilots in the entire navy, in order to make certain that the T-Bomb was properly delivered to its target. A Ranger class carrier was probably chosen for a single reason - it was the largest carrier that Confed could afford to pull off of the front lines to devote to the 'destroy Kilrah' projects. And had the Victory carried a fighter that was already capable of getting through the defenses of Kilrah, then the Excalibur might have been assigned elsewhere.
2.) In contrast to the Excalibur at the end of the war, the Vampires have been in general deployment for some time. Command has already come up with a deployment scheme for fighters.
Thunderbolts - Installations get access to these older fighters until enough modern fighters trickle down.
Excaliburs - Installations get access to these older fighters until enough modern fighters trickle down.
Panthers - Every carrier in the fleet carries these fighters (or will shortly carry them), which are excellent fighters, and capable of carrying out a wide range of duties.
Vampires - The larger carriers in the fleet carry these fighters. They are probably better suited to anti-fighter duty than the Panther, but also somewhat restricted in the duties they can perform. Their superior anti-fighter capability, coupled with their anti-turret Wild Weasel package, indicates that they're geared toward escorting and protecting bombers in strikes against heavily defended targets. Since you usually send only the biggest carriers against a hardened target, the Vampires are restricted to the heaviest carriers as a cost-cutting measure.
One last item. Given that the Midway was waiting for its Vampires and Devestators to arrive at the beginning of the game, I'd say chances are that Confed Navy had already designated that the Wolfpack would be transferred to the Midway by the TCS Eisen. The Eisen was probably already leaving the Core Systems and heading for the Kilrathi frontier when the distress call from the Midway was received. The fighters on board the Eisen would thus be indicative of what the Eisen would normally carry, and thus not be fighters that were switched in at the last minute.
This evidence ignores some very simple flaws.
1.) The Excaliburs weren't in general deployment on ANY class of ship of the fleet. Given the window between the final testing of the Excalibur on board the Victory and the deployment of a squadron of Excaliburs to the Victory, I think its more likely to assume that at the time of the T-Bomb run on Kilrah, the Victory was the FIRST carrier flying a fully operational squadron of Excaliburs. Confed hadn't had time to implement full deployment of these fighters, and the wartime necessities required a special, last-minute deployment, to quite possibly the best pilots in the entire navy, in order to make certain that the T-Bomb was properly delivered to its target. A Ranger class carrier was probably chosen for a single reason - it was the largest carrier that Confed could afford to pull off of the front lines to devote to the 'destroy Kilrah' projects. And had the Victory carried a fighter that was already capable of getting through the defenses of Kilrah, then the Excalibur might have been assigned elsewhere.
2.) In contrast to the Excalibur at the end of the war, the Vampires have been in general deployment for some time. Command has already come up with a deployment scheme for fighters.
Thunderbolts - Installations get access to these older fighters until enough modern fighters trickle down.
Excaliburs - Installations get access to these older fighters until enough modern fighters trickle down.
Panthers - Every carrier in the fleet carries these fighters (or will shortly carry them), which are excellent fighters, and capable of carrying out a wide range of duties.
Vampires - The larger carriers in the fleet carry these fighters. They are probably better suited to anti-fighter duty than the Panther, but also somewhat restricted in the duties they can perform. Their superior anti-fighter capability, coupled with their anti-turret Wild Weasel package, indicates that they're geared toward escorting and protecting bombers in strikes against heavily defended targets. Since you usually send only the biggest carriers against a hardened target, the Vampires are restricted to the heaviest carriers as a cost-cutting measure.
One last item. Given that the Midway was waiting for its Vampires and Devestators to arrive at the beginning of the game, I'd say chances are that Confed Navy had already designated that the Wolfpack would be transferred to the Midway by the TCS Eisen. The Eisen was probably already leaving the Core Systems and heading for the Kilrathi frontier when the distress call from the Midway was received. The fighters on board the Eisen would thus be indicative of what the Eisen would normally carry, and thus not be fighters that were switched in at the last minute.
- I wouldn't try to stand on it. )
