[Long]General Tactics? Re: [FT] FSE-tactics

Can't help much with tactics; my experiences are that SM-laden FSE need
no
help. However, the faster the battle, the harder to predict your
opponent's
location for hitting.

I would hope we expand this into a general tactics discussion, though.

When Thomas Anderson announced a GZG chat, I went on and we covered a
few
germaine topics.

I had mentioned a maneuver I'd used once successfully, playing ESU
against
FSE. Given that FSE ships spin on a dime in comparison to most fleets, I
thought of the 'Thatch Weave', where a pair of fighters would swing back
and
forth across each others forward arc, allowing the guns of one fighter
to
cover the other's rear. This was used in the first part of WWII's
US-Japan
pacific campaign by US pilots to negate the Zero's superior
manueverability
to almost all US planes of the time.

Tom sez: that sounds like half a corral.

I'd never heard the term as a flight manuever, so he explained that four
planes would form a box, with each ahead of and facing 90 degrees to the
following plane. I then mentioned having heard of the same tactic on the
Russian front, where a number of Sturmoviks would form a circle, and
slowly
move across the countryside, and any German fighter attacking would
receive
fire from one fighter's rear gunner and the fore guns of another fighter
at
least, and plenty of other rear gunners that might be ableto swivel.
Apparently VERY nasty.

Let me point out that these manuevers are very difficult to recreate
with
granularity of FT's, or most any other, movement system.

It may be that my success with the Thatch Weave was mostly due to the
FSE
player assuming that my swinging out would be followed by attempts to
swing
around flanks, thereby his wasting SM's on where I was definately not
going
to be.

Still, I'd like to hear if other's have thoughts on tactical maneuvers.

Likewise, I'd like to hear about fleet deployments. I hate lining all
the
ships along an edge, then moving in. Do any players use deployment
areas,
or off-table deployment?

The_Beast