Offside fire arcs was Re: NI/NAC AAR

>> >As for lopsided firing arcs, this is certainly a plausible
>> >design if you take the FB roll-ship maneuver into account. If you
know
>> >force is trying to blind side you, you can flip and blastem.
>>
>> Doesn't work if you get doubled though.

Oerjan said:
>
>If you misjudge where the enemy is going to end up, you're out of luck
>anyway. The off-set arc designs are more vulnerable to that than
>weapons-all-around a la the NSL, but OTOH the off-set arcs ships hit a
>lot harder when they can fire :-/ If you use Noam's tactics of
long-range
>circling, there's no real way for the enemy to blind-side you.

Comparing the "normal" FP/F/FS and, say, AP/FP/F ( the usual IF
configuration), then instead of trying to catch him in your F arc, you
try
to keep him in your FP arc.  No real difference there.	Two points that
are
different::
 a) you don't have to be going head on to your target to keep him in
optimal
arc--this way you can do the "circle at optimum range" maneuver.  I
actually
came up with this idea when I read someone's description of battles as
"head
on to close, then a turning contest between the big ships."  I figure if
you're going to be turning, have some side coverage; and
b) Given the FP/F/FS arc, when you roll, your coverage is...FP/F/FS.  If
you
want something else, you have to change facing.  With offset arc,
rolling
changes AP/FP/F to AS/FS/F, another 120 degrees of coverage without
changing
facing.   You have to know when to roll, of course, but hey, if it was
easy,
we could use GW players for captains, eh?