Re: [FT] arcs in vector

On Tue, 05 Sep 2000 10:24:47 +1000, Beth Fulton
<beth.fulton@marine.csiro.au>
wrote:

>Most likely and we don't have anything like your 5th amendment (or if
we do 
>they're keeping damn quiet about it) so honesty is probably the best
policy ;)

Well, Tom is Canadian and WE don't have any ammendments to our
constitution so
I don't know what he's talking about! *L* But, we do have a right
against
self-incrimination, which is the same thing, and I believe Australia
does too.

>We also see only a few ships targeted a turn - either the 
>missile boats or big buys usually - so when the 'usual' targets are
split 
>between groups you can see them wince (as they end up picking off
secondary 
>things or over killing the primary one)

I thought that was what you were getting at in your discussions. FT runs
into
a sort of "Ogre" like situation. In Ogre, do you go after the treads of
the
vehicle or the weapons. In FT, do you take out all the small ships
first, or
do you take out the big ships. Taking out small ships is easier and
eliminates
"platforms". Taking out big ships takes a lot longer, and for much of
that
time the bigger ships are usually close to 100% effective. But with
small
ships, it's easier to get "overkill". Destroying a 4 hull box escort
with a
roll of 8 damage points is annoying. 

I guess the point is that there is an optimum path for taking out ships.
If
you have two pincers and both have all available targets in firing arc,
they
can destroy ships in the optimum order. If you don't have all of your
opponent's ships in firing arc, you have to destroy what you can and
it's
often suboptimum.

To get to Tom's comment, sure if a fleet attacks in two pincers the
limited
fire arc fleet can just jump on one of the two wings. The problem is
that if
your optimum plan is to destroy all the escorts in one fleet, you can
only
destroy all the escorts in the one wing. Then, you have to start working
on
the bigger ships. Meanwhile, the other fleet is free to hit the limited
arc
fleet in an optimum manner.

FT is luck based to a fair degree, but picking an optimum order for
destroying
your opponents swings the odds in your favour. I noticed, though,
watching the
FT tournament how few people looked for an optimum path of destruction.

>The guys here don't sit still either and it's taken a while to get
pincer 
>width and swaying with the target down pat (the first few attempts were

>less than satisfactory... OK attrocious), but I'm getting better at it
now 
>just took a bit of practice .

How are you at countering pincers? I would guess that the best plan is
to
pounce on one wing while it is out of support range from the other wing.
I
guess that's where the spacing, size, and speed of the pincer is so
critical.
Get it wrong and you end up with two unsupported fleets, with one
getting
destroyed before the other can support. 

>Oh and if anybody else is still listening to this thread.... I need a 
>second... any volunteers to come to the aid of a mai... wenc... lady in

>need? ;)

*L* I would, but I don't have the spare time or the requisite
experience. *L* 

Allan Goodall		       awg@sympatico.ca
Goodall's Grotto:  http://www.vex.net/~agoodall

"Surprisingly, when you throw two naked women with sex
toys into a living room full of drunken men, things 
always go bad." - Kyle Baker, "You Are Here"