Originally posted by pendell
I don't think the Midway is undergunned for the following
reasons:
1. BFG (once it's working).
Well, the Midway was never designed to carry a big bug-gun. (Nice that it has a double-hull to mount it between
). The last ship to carry something like that was the PTC on the Confederation class carriers (Concordia and her like), however the powerplant proved unreliable (if it goes, you could lose your whole carrier in one shot).
2. On-board carrier wings act as its guns -- it can launch
strikes and kill bad guys before they even know the
Midway is in the area.
Exactly. The Midway is meant to be a Carrier, making its Bomber wings its primary offensive weapon. You take out the enemy from long range, at no risk to the primary ship. You don't fight at close range where the risk to the primary ship is much higher. Even an outgunned enemy may get a lucky hit, crippling or destroying your ship. Lose your carrier and you pretty much lose the sector.
3. In WCP, the Midway fired a volley of 'training missiles'
at the Tiamat. I assume that those were capship missiles
without the warheads. So load up some real missiles
and go to town!
Yes. The Midway has a capship missile launcher. Unfortunately, she was only on a shakedown mission, so presumeably they only training missiles on board (otherwise why not launch armed missiles?)
The Midway also has Ion Cannon for defence against enemy capships, although we don't see them in action in the game because we don't see the Midway clash 1-on-1 with an enemy capship. You don't fire them at fighters because they track to slowly to be likely to hit - you are just as likely to hit a friendly fighter as an incoming bomber.
4. If the bad guys ever get close to the Midway -- its
supposed to be part of a battlegroup, right? Let the
escorting Plunketts and the Midway's fighters solve the
problem while the Midway runs away.
In peacetime, the Midway is designed to be able to serve on her own, without the need for a backup fleet. Her bomber wings and, in an emergency, her capship missile launcher and ion guns, should be more then enough to deal with any Kilrathi renegade or pirate vessel. In wartime, she becomes part of a carrier group, and, as you said, the escorts deal with any interlopers while the Midway runs away. You don't want to risk losing your carrier if you can possibly help it.