Vertical Envelopment: (Working Title) - The premises itself is fairly simple and straightforward, have Fighters that are equipped with Troop Transport Bays be able to conduct a special Ground Support Mission that I'm going to refer to as "Vertical Envelopment" from this point on. I'm open to a better name.
This Ground Support Mission allows any Fighter Sized craft with a Troop Transport Bay to give a random formation an extra breakthrough chance when supported by eligible fighters assigned to said mission. The formations to be supported are chosen at random, with each fighter assigned choosing one until all eligible fighters with this mission are assigned. Formations gain a breakthrough chance increase equivalent to the Troop Transport tonnage of all supporting fighters, divided by the largest unit in the formation then multiplied by the number of eligible fighters assigned. Formations with FFD can have fighters assigned to them to provide support for them as per the usual rules for FFD and Ground Support Fighters.
- The breakthrough chance is applied in it's relative phase, but a fighter assigned to a "Vertical Envelopment" Mission still takes AA fire in the relevant stage. Light AA fire will be taken by the fighter from the formation that was engaged by the formation that the "Vertical Envelopment" support was provided to. Medium AA fire will be taken by the fighter from a formation that was directly supporting the formation that was engaged by the formation that the "Vertical Envelopment" support was provided to. Heavy AA fire will be taken by any fighters taking part in "Vertical Envelopment" Missions regardless of what formations are supported by them, assuming the Heavy AA is in a valid position to fire. A fighter with both a Troop Transport Bay
AND at least one Fighter Pod Bay may also fire as if providing CAS during the relevant phase, but will not draw additional AA fire as a result of this.
- If fighters assigned to a "Vertical Envelopment" Mission have a formation loaded into their Troop Transport Bays, instead of the usual bonus they will provide a breakthrough bonus equal to the tonnage of their largest unit multiplied by the number of units. For the purposes of this calculation, LOG and S-LOG do not count for unit tonnage when determining the largest unit tonnage and are not counted towards the number of units multiplier. Formations assigned to fighters that themselves are assigned to a "Vertical Envelopment" Mission are treated as part of the formation that they are supporting for the purposes of ground combat and can take casualties as such. These formations also use supply AND provide supply during that phase as if they were a part of the formation that the fighter they are assigned to is supporting.
- Fighters destroyed during a "Vertical Envelopment" mission will also automatically result in the destruction of any formations that they were carrying. I would not be against some kind of derived percentage of survival with the surviving remnants treated as normal ground combatants from that point on, but I feel it might add too much complexity. Different types of Troop Transport Bays will NOT add any additional benefit over a Standard type, however the Drop Capable bays could allow for an "Orbital Envelopment" mission. The differences between the "Orbital Envelopment" and the "Vertical Envelopment" would be that Fighter Pod Bays would NOT allow a fighter on an "Orbital Envelopment" mission to conduct a CAS mission. Fighters on an "Orbital Envelopment" mission COULD provide Orbital Bombardment in the appropriate phase IF they had a suitable weapon. Fighters on an "Orbital Envelopment" mission would NOT incur AA fire, but WOULD incur fire from enemy STOs. Orbital Bombardment could be toggled by unassigning the B-FCS, or by having a separate set of orders for "Vertical Envelopment w/ CAS" and "Orbital Envelopment w/ Orbital Bombardment".