Re: FT: turning ships in line ahead?

***
 If you have two or more ships in line ahead (hey, it worked
 for Nelson) moving at velocity 8" and with 8" spacing between
 the ships in line, they can turn to port or starboard and
 stay in line ahead easily: the first ship turns on move 1
 while the others go straight, the second ship turns on move
 2, and so on. No change of velocity required, all turn the
 same amount.

 But if the ships are closer together, say 2", they can't
 turn and stay in line ahead. Real world ships or aircraft
 would have the leader turn straight away, the second ship
 move 2" and then turn, the third ship 4", and so on. It's
 exactly the same velocity and turn amount, but can't be done
 under a literal interpretation of the cinematic rules.
 ***

 Well, getting into those lines was somewhat difficult and time
consuming,
 and usually out of range.  And, it tends to accentuate the 2-d nature
of
 the game in a 3-d 'world'.

 However, I think it might be interesting concept to play with; I've not
 done much FT of late, even at last weekend's small con, but I'll try
 running some solo table manuvers later today.

 One idea is to place a 'turning point' marker before the start of the
game
 turn. It would give control to make certain that the turn mode that FT
 DOESN'T use would be covered; it would also give a bit of a telegraph
of
 the move, the way I'd expect for such manuvering. Likewise, a limited
 number of fleet moves and restrictions on moving in and out of
formation
 are possibilities.

 Not that it makes a LOT of sense to me; most ship designs keep their
 'alpha strike' in their forward arcs. Close-to-battle in line ahead,
 engage in line abreast.

 The_Beast