Fighters in Imperial Campaign?

[TheMac]

I tend to go for the ships that have hangers, though I've never used the fighters for anything other than defense. I'm watching a YT playthrough and I noticed the tuber sent fighters in first. I know that the enemy NPC's do that to me, sending fighters first, then bombers in later waves. Is it because fighters knock out turrets and the NPC AI hopes that enough of them get knocked out that the bombers make it through easier?

I usually end a battle with my ships having a loadout like this:

Boarding ships - all charges used
Bombers - anywhere from 1-4 charges remaining
Fighters - usually all charges remaining

My fighters are the least used by my forces except during the initial wave at the start of the game. AI sends all their squadrons and I launch a couple fighter squadrons to protect my fleet. They are rarely destroyed and usually return intact.

My take on things is that I want to put ships out of action quickly, and boarding parties lead to Call to Arms, which effectively takes most of the enemy ship's movement and firepower out of the equation. Once I see Call to Arms, I start sending in the bomber fleets which on my Grand Cruiser 4x Hanger look to do about 400+ damage per wave. I just can't see why I would want to use fighters, unless I had no bomber squadrons remaining. Maybe I'm missing something?

[Ashardalon]

send one squad of fighters along with your bombers
they are faster so will arrive a little ahead
they will eat all the aa so your bombers do more damage and return alive to do more damage later

[TheMac]

Originally posted by Ashardalon:

send one squad of fighters along with your bombers
they are faster so will arrive a little ahead
they will eat all the aa so your bombers do more damage and return alive to do more damage later

Thanks. That's a smart idea. :)