Fighters versus capships; role of fighters in SW

[Smiling Bandit]

Honestly, I don't think any fighters would do any good against even ST capitals. Nevertheless, they could prove critical in taking downa ship. One onf my questions relates to the ability of ST ships to fire at off angles. Specifically, they do not appear to have top or bottom facing a guns. In SW, this might be acceptable, as in the focused emplacements of the Star Destroyer, because the ships are often designed to be deployed as part of a fleet with fighter escorts. But ST caps are made to go solo.

Therefore, it seems that a perfectly good fighter tactic would be to hover shortly above the enemy ship or below it, or any other area where they cannot get a shot off against you and keep firing. You'd have a perfectly close range line against engines. Therefore, while even a few fighters couldn't pop the shields, with any kind of friendly capship to wear away the shields, the fighters will do immense damage.

Which leads me to my final point. It seems obvious to me that there are essentially two endpoints for fighters in SW: Those ships which are designed to kill other fighters and do local support damage to surface structures on enemy ships, and those fighters (really, bombers) made to take advantage of any weak shields and punch holes in the shields and ship. This is more fo a continuum than a series of steps. The range essentially goes from:

A-Wing/TIE -> X-Wing/TIE Interceptor -> B-Wing -> TIE Bomber

Small fighter-killer ships, would be in formation around the bg boys to pick off fighters, and provide support to keep other enemy ships from flanking. In toher words, the battle plan seems to be to have a rock-solid core, with looser ships around it, filling the gaps with fighter support.

Or maybe my rambling post is blatantly obvious.

[Lord Pounder]

Ahs this thread not been done, several times already.

[Smiling Bandit]

Well, that's true; I was trying to codify and assemble work on the subject.

[Master of Ossus]

Okay, this thread has been done a number of times. I am moving it to the Pure Star Wars forum, but I'll leave it up to the mods there to either lock the thread or leave it open, at their discretion.

[Mad]

The only thing to comment on is the ST aspect of the post, really...

One onf my questions relates to the ability of ST ships to fire at off angles. Specifically, they do not appear to have top or bottom facing a guns.

Phasers can pretty much fire in any direction. If you can see the emitter, the phaser can aim at you. That includes straight up. The only places a standard Federation ship can't fire are where line of sight has been blocked by nacelles or some other part of the ship. Torpedoes, however, have much more limited firing arcs.