B5 Ship Combat was Re: Cinematic vs. Vector movement

Oerjan Ohlson wrote:

> Doug wrote:
>
>> > >Rotate ship, MD burn, Rotate ship, Fire Weapons
>>  ...
>>  >>rinse and repeat...
>>
>> >Unless of course you have seen Babylon 5, where the EarthForce 
>> Starfuries
>> >behave *exactly* like this...
>>
>> I've never seen them behave *exactly* like this. They approach 
>> 'normally',
>> firing 'normally', then when close, in what SEEMED to be an unusual 
>> move,
>> make one firing 'like this'.
>
>
> Look closer. I've spent the evenings these last two weeks viewing 4-6 
> B5 episodes a day, so I'm quite sure of it :-/
>
<snip>

>
> This is exactly the same behavior you get in FT's Vector movement: 
> while you're at long range and wanting to close you don't have to turn

> much, or at all, between your main drive burn and firing your (F)-arc 
> weapons. It is only when you've reached your preferred range and don't

> want to get any closer, or when you're flying past your enemy, that 
> you need to make radical turns after the main drive burn.
>
>> Natch, I never saw a ship larger than fighter, save for White Stars,
do
>> this even once, but I'm willing to allow that my memory is pretty 
>> scratchy.
>
>
> At least some Drazi ships do similar manoeuvres, and EarthForce 
> heavies seem to do so as well from time to time - though at a much 
> slower rate, making it harder to see.
>
This is blatantly not true.

In the 1st season episode "A Voice in the Wilderness, Part 2", the heavy

cruiser Hyperion does not rotate to bring her main (fixed forward) 
armament to bear, rather she fires all of her turreted secondary weapons

in a port broadside.

In the 3rd season episode (I forget the name) where the Whitestar goes 
to Ganymede to destroy the Shadow vessel and the Agamemnon has the 
Whitestar trapped in Jupiter's atmosphere, she does not rotate in orbit 
to bring her main (forward) guns to bear, but rather fires her turreted 
secondary batteries.

In the 3rd season episode "Point of No Return", when General Hague's 
squadron is trying to get away, they engage other ships in a broadside 
duel reminiscent of broadside gun lines from sailing ships, WW1 and WW2.

 The Schwartzkoff  is shown to be firing broadside before she is hit and

disabled.  (BTW this Schwartzkoff is an Omega Class, not the Nova class 
Schwartzkoff from the 2nd season episode "Gropos")

In the next episode "Severed Dreams", none of the EA ships 
rotate...ever, except for the Nimrod and Olympic (and an unidentifiable 
CH) that turn 180 to "RUN AWAAAY!!!" after the three Minbari war 
cruisers show up.  This is even though they start facing each other and 
the Churchill manages to ram the Agrippa in a T-bone and the Roanoake 
receives fire from B5 broadside, rather than against it's front (I won't

mention the disappearing heavy cruisers or the 
now-you-see-them-now-you-don't turrets on the Alexander, Churchill, 
Roanoake and Agrippa . . . oh, wait, I just did :) ).

In 4th season episodes too numerous to list, the EA fleet destroyers and

heavy cruisers are almost never shown to rotate.  Whitestar class 
escorts often zip past on firing runs, and the EA ships respond with 
fire from their turreted secondary batteries, but they do not rotate the

ship.  Even in the large on-screen battle between the 6 Omega class 
ships and a task group of Whitestars, the EA ships don't rotate, 
although at several points they should, if using the FB2 rules :)

J