So to summarise. There is no proof whatsoever that any other design than current aurora starfury existed during the Dilgar War. I'm sure they did use an older version of it though. Less armor, less effective sensors, less effective thrusters, less effective weapons. But the basic design was all the same.
The true glory days of the Tiger, the ones in which it proved to deserve its name, came at the end of its career, when it was yet flanked and progressively being replaced by the Nova Starfury: the Nova furies were standard issue of the Nova Dreadnoughts and of the fleet carriers, but almost all the Starfury wings embarked on the Hyperion cruisers, (Note: the hangar of the Hyperions held six Nova/Aurora starfuries, but originally it embarked eight of the smaller Tiger, with a tactically more rational structure of an half wing), many regular fighter squadrons tasked of intersystem and planetary defence and almost all the squadrons of the National Guard were still based upon the small, nimble Tigerfury: the year was the 2231, the proof was the Dilgar War.
While not as powerful and advanced as the Nova (that was a design 30 years younger), the Tiger was indeed very competitive against the Thorun used by the Dilgars. The Thorun had a superior linear acceleration, more advanced engines, much better sensors and more endurance and range, but the Tiger had its advantages: it was much more nimble, capable of manoeuvres not conceivable with the Thorun, it was vastly sturdier, and its weapon system, based upon a couple of powerful plasma bolters, a 27mm railgun and up to 8 missiles was devastating, and perfectly tuned.
In fact, the Nova Starfury conquered the space dominance against the Dilgars, but the Tigerfury was much more than a second line instrument: it fought and was able to put to the ropes the Dilgar forces from the first to the last day of the war, and achieved more than 30% of the fighter-to fighter victories of that conflict. This was the last, glorious dance of the Tiger.
After the war, and during the reorganization (and reduction) of the Earthforce of the 2230's, the Tigers were decommissioned, essentially because of the expensive maintenance (related even to the ageing of the crafts, but a Tiger, due to the complex design, requests more than twice the maintenance time for hour flown respect to a Nova) and because a relevant part of their combat capabilities were based upon their missile system, logistically heavy and expensive in terms of ordnance and training. Overall, the Nova was a superior design (except for the lack of missile capability, that at that time was deemed as not necessary), but the Tigerfury left a good memory of itself as an effective and well built craft, capable to bring back its pilot even in case of heavy damage, and a deadly fighter. Still today, some aged veterans of the Dilgar War says proudly "I was a Tiger of the Starfuries"...
Info and pics of Tiger Starfury Please tell whether you would like to see it someday in TBP:confused:
