On 09/10/14 10:53, Ian Whitchurch wrote:
> Forgive me for getting my Stringbags mixed up.

No offence intended, it was just me being pedantic  :-)

> Surface damage is annoying for warships - there are sensors and screens and
> PEMS arrays on the hulls, outside the armor.
>
> But the key to the Jeune Ecole is that small ships could, in the torpedo,
> carry big-ship killing weapons, and .
>
> And in the Traveller universe, as shown by Book 5 High Guard, they cant.

I think we're approaching this question from diametrically opposed
viewpoints.  You seem to be arguing that the rules define the setting,
while I prefer to work from the setting backwards.  I accept that the
rules say fighters are useless but, to me, that is manifest nonesense as
both the setting of the 3I and real world experience says otherwise.

But there are lots of things the rules don't say - you may as well argue
that there are no accountants in the 3I as the rules don't allow you to
create an accountant PC (though why anyone would want to is beyond me).
  In such cases, I either just shrug my shoulders and move on, or if it
becomes important to me, I houserule it.

Who was it that said they prefer to think of them as guidelines?  :-)

David Shaw

PS - taking a better look at RTT High Guard, a book I've only ever
skimmed before, I discover that a 10 dTon fighter can carry a single
torpedo which, if it hits, would do between 4d6 and 8d6 damage depending
on type, which means that, if attacking a Tigress, they could do one
triple plus one double hit.  A 50 dTon fighter can carry two - in either
case, the fighter would be incapable of carrying any other ship weapons.