Re: [GZG] Re: [FT] Vectoring Kra'Vak

David Billinghurst

>Thanks for the comments Laserlight and Oerjan.
>
>Interesting that the thought is turning back to a movement point per 60
>degree turn - isn't this how it was in the original FT rules?

Don't know about the *original* FT rules (the little yellow booklet), 
sorry. FT2 and derivatives OTOH have all used either unlimited rotations

for a single thrust point (FB1 and FB2 Vector) or *30* degrees per
thrust 
point (Cinematic and EFSB Vector - not that EFSB was actually part of
the 
Full Thrust rules corpus, of course).

> >To put it in a different way: in FB2 Vector a single thrust point is
enough
> >to rotate your ship into any facing you want, so even a thrust-2 ESU
> >superdreadnought has as easy a time keeping targets in its (F) arc as
a
> >thrust-6A Kra'Vak cruiser - and the ESU ship pays proportionally far
less
> >for its thrust-2 main drive than the KV ship does.
>
>Hmm, I see your point.  In theory the KVs then have to double team the
SDN
>and split its Fire Arc, the unengaged one nipping in for a close range
>punch?

That can work if you can trick the SDN into tracking the wrong KV
squadron. 
In practise OTOH, since the SDN only needs one single thrust point to 
rotate to any facing it likes it is quite likely to be facing directly 
towards the KV squadron that attempts to close the range... which will
hurt 
quite a lot for the KV :-/

>I guess heavy ESU ships (and NSL units for that matter) will
>go into engagements at low velocity, otherwise if they're rotating to
>engage, they'll just delta V off the table unless they sacrifice
shooting
>for manoeuver.

Pretty much, yes.

>BTW are there SSDs for the new ESU SDN and Carrier?

Ask Jon :-/ (He'll be off-line until after the New Year, though.)

> >Against the *Fleet Book 1* ships (which are designed for Cinematic
> >movement) Kra'Vak do OK in FB2 Vector, because while the KV waste a
lot of
> >points on their *main drives* (which don't buy them any real
advantage in
> >Vector) the FB1 human ships waste a lot of points on *wide fire arcs*
> >(which also aren't very useful in Vector).
>
>I would have thought that wide fire arcs would be of very much use in
>Vector - you're options to manoeuver are more open as you don't have to
be
>pointing directly at your target to shoot. This is the balance of the
KV 
>narrow arc/move in any direction at full thrust.

The problem is that you gain very little manoeuvrability from it. The 
standard Vector manoeuvring sequence is:

1) Rotate to the facing you want to do your Main Drive burn, if you
aren't 
already facing that way (1 Thrust Point)
2) Do your Main Drive burn
3) Rotate to face the expected location of the enemy ships, if you
aren't 
already facing that way (1 Thrust Point)

If you have Advanced drives you can skip step 1; if you have wide fire
arcs 
you can often (but not always) skip step 2 - but both the Advanced
drives 
and the wider fire arcs cost more than simply buying an extra Main Drive

thrust level or two, and in Fleet Book Vector you rarely need more than 
thrust-4 (Standard engines) anyway.

>Or am I missing something?

I'd say that you're missing just how easy it is to keep a target in your

chosen fire arc in Fleet Book Vector, and probably also how little even 
relatively high-thrust ships can manoeuvre in Vector compared to how
they 
behave in Cinematic.

> >OTOH, human-tech ships which are specifically designed for Vector
movement
> >tend to slaughter Kra'Vak pretty badly :-/
>
>How would these ships differ from the FB1 ships?  I haven't designed
enough
>ships of my own to have tried all the tricks.

Massed batteries of single-arc, long-ranged weapons (P-torps, Class-3
and 
-4 beam batteries etc.) all facing the (F) arc. The NAC Furious-class CE

from FB1 is a decent escort cruiser in Fleet Book Vector (by accident 
rather than by purpose, but still); a "combat" version would replace the

ADFC and some PDSs by another single-arc P-torp or Class-3 Beam battery.

Regards,

Oerjan
oerjan.ariander@telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
-Hen3ry

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