When attacking another ship with fighters: If you attack them with an equal amount of fighters, chances are good you'll be able to salvage some goods and holds. An equal amount of figs will not work if the other ship has corbomite devices. There's a prompt within the attack mode that shows the percentage amount of shields of the other ship your attacking. The command Alt-C within TWAR will automatically do this for you. (DMD 1/31/96)
 
"How to calculate the minimum number of fighters to attack with:
 
(his fighters) * (his odds)

(your fighters) = -----------------------

(your odds)

Ex: If he has a Scout Marauder (2.0:1) and 200 Fighters, and you have a BattleShip (1.6:1), you need to attack with (250*2.0)/1.6, or 312.5 (313) fighters. This assumes no shields on his craft and does not account for the slight random factor in the calculations the game uses. Shields are at
2:1 odds, regardless of ship type (I THINK. I'm sure Joel or Gary will correct me if I'm mistaken.)" (IWM p.46; ¶6, 1995)