My observations on the game

[Jon_dArc]

Is armour even worth it?
Sure you have more armour on your craft but good luck catching up with anything faster than a scout, which, hilariously, doesn't warrant it anyway.
Sure, a Saracen might have some use with it but I somehow doubt the increase in life expectancy would actually provide any meaningful bonus with the things its hunting.

In general I'd say no—later in the game when you've got bases coming out your ears I sometimes throw an extra interceptor or two with armor into some of the less-important bases, but the only interceptors fast enough to pack armor and still be the primary interceptor for a base are also so tough and powerful that they don't need the armor.

Of course, part of it could just be that armor is far more opaque than speed and range—I should probably dig into how air combat works to be sure.

~J

[rodo]

Yes, armor is worth it.

I usually have two stilletos on my interception/tac mission bases, and two sarracen on production bases, all equiped with ecm, targeting comp and armor (no alien).

Armor will make your ships slower, that's true but it's really not a big deal to loose a single fighter just because it got too far away, normally you get a chance to intercept even with the differences in speed, and in the later stages of the game when you have almost the full earth covered in bases speed for interception is completely useless, I can track any ufo over all land masses and intercept wherever I want, whenever I want.

Dropships are to drop on tac ops, nothing more, you can even use them as decoy to tease some fighter ufo and lure it into a trap (sometimes the game tries to ambush your dropship, poor bastards then try to engage the droppy and I just blast it to hell using escorting ships... they will never return fire, they just go for the first ship they target...move that ship around and that's it).

[Nutter]

Of course,you can do that with fighters as well.

[Triaxx2]

I tend to stick armor only on things like Saracen's, which are already quick enough the penalty isn't that bad. Plus once I have a second base, I can probably launch and engage with a second fighter to pincer any UFO around.

Fighters I've found can be shot down with a Single Stiletto, arm it with one SHIVA, and two Missile Launchers. It'll be nearly dead when it comes back, but it will take the fighter down. (Nine times out of ten, your results may vary.)

[Nutter]

If you send twos, you can have one as a bait while the other shoots it down. No damage whatsoever.

[rodo]

If you send twos, you can have one as a bait while the other shoots it down. No damage whatsoever.

Fighters attack sporadically, the best tactic is always sending two, one will return with 30% of it's integrity down.
You can use the second one in an emergency (which happens a lot on the later stages.

[Star Adder]

Well, other than on alien tech based fighters I have never user the alien craft armor.
Two Stilettos with polymer armor are sufficient to shoot down any scout and fighter. And as we all know Harvesters are best to be left alone. And even if not: Not even two Saracens with armor can shoot down a Harvester.
Starchaser or Stingray... that's a different pair of shoes. And I bet that once the real biggies show up you're gonna need the xtra armor.

Btw, I've never seen any really good reason to use Saracens. They lack in everything other than speed compared to the Stilettos.

[Nutter]

Range. They got a massive range, from what I remember.