Starships rules with carriers/fighters?

[TheBlackCrane]

Continuing my current vein of interest in doing some sort of sci-fi project, I'm wondering what rulesets are out there for starships etc which have a good mechanic for fighter squadrons & carriers? Ideally where fighters don't get splurged as soon as they are anywhere near a capital ship? (Ok, "realism" aside!)

Ideally looking for a decent game out of a few capital/escort type vessels alongside a carrier or two with several squadrons, rather than fleet-sized battles (yes, I'm busy being picky)

I'll add a proviso that I've tried Full Thrust on several occasions and always end up selling my fleets off, so I'm afraid FT are out.

Anyone with experience of how Firestorm Armada plays? (I've downloaded the rules from Spartan Games). Or would the Star Wars Armada rules be adaptable (given I assume they must have a decent fighter system)?

Thanks!
Rob

[Malebolgia]

Starmada has good fighter rules IIRC. Not a big fan of the  current edition (Nova), but the Admiralty version was really nice in its simple base design with lots of options to add on.

[Ballardian]

I've found Firestorm Armada to be generally pretty good, nice minis, decent ruleset, (if not the best written book) & very playable.
 How much detail with regards to fighters/bombers etc did you want - in Firestorm they're  quite (but not too) powerful, but holding on to your squadrons until the optimum moment is important, as you pay for them out of your total points & when they're  destroyed - that's it.
 I'd recommend looking up a few game play vids on YouTube to see if it appeals, hope you find something you like!