Figuring Firing Arcs in 3D for Traveller Squadron Strike

[Ad Astra News]

This example for 3D firing arcs in Squadron Strike: Traveller uses the same orientation as the movement example. If you haven't read that, please read it so that orienting the ship in 3D makes sense. Thanks!

Shooting a Bearing to the Target

The AVID is part of a 3-D firing arc solution. Finding the window a target is visible through is called shooting a bearing.

Shooting a bearing is a multi-step process: Check if the target is visible through a hex side or a hex corner. If you think of the AVID as being sliced like the wedges of an orange, this will tell you which wedge you see the target in. If the target is 3x as far away in one map direction as it is in the other, it’s visible through that map direction. Otherwise, it’s visible through a hex corner.

The horizontal bearing illustration above shades hexes according to this rule, with the triangle representing our ship. If the target’s hex is in a gray zone, it’s visible through a hex corner; otherwise, it’s visible through a hex side.

For the rest of this example, we’re going to shoot a bearing to the target shown with the circle on the hex map below.

The stylized spaceship is our ship, which has completed the pivot we drew back in Plotting Facing Changes. It’s now facing the C/D hex corner at altitude level 0, with its Nose up in the blue ring. Counting hexes, it’s 2 hexes away in D, and 5 hexes away in E. Checking the horizontal bearing illustration above, that means we see it on the D/E hex corner relative to our ship. The +4 in the circle means it’s 4 hexes above us.

Next, we count the distance to the target on the hex map, and the difference in altitude. We’ll use these numbers on the Range/Angle Lookup Table (RALT), shown below. When we cross-referencing the difference in altitude with the map distance, the number in the cell is the range to the target and the cell color tells us the AVID ring it’s visible through.

Extending our example, a target 7 hexes out, with 4 hexes of altitude difference would be visible through the blue ring, at range 8.

Combining all the steps, we’d write the range to the target in the blue window facing the D/E hex spine, like we’ve shown on the AVID below.

View large image.

 

[Ad Astra News]

[b]Checking Firing Arcs[/b]

Checking Firing Arcs

Now we need to determine what weapons bear on the target. The next illustration has firing arcs for mounts S, T and U.

Where the AVID is a top-down view of a sphere fixed to the map, firing arcs are a sphere that’s fixed to your ship, with the Top of the ship at the top of the diagram. When looking at the firing arcs, we use the same triangle, semi circle and angle braces for Nose, Aft, Left and Right as we did on the AVID.

Count from the Top of our ship on the AVID (the star) to the target bearing (the number 8). This comes to two or three windows, because the star is on the spine, so the attacker gets to choose. We’ll treat it as two windows down from the Top, putting the target’s bearing two rows down from the top window.

Next, count from the closest orientation marker on the AVID to the bearing (the Right side marker). The target is one window away from the Right marker, diagonally towards the Nose and up. We’ll count the same way on the firing arc diagram. If the resulting cell is white, the weapon bears, otherwise it doesn’t.

The cell that the target can be seen through is outlined in red on the diagrams below. Mounts S and U can shoot the target, but T can’t.

 

[Ad Astra News]

The cell that the target can be seen through is outlined in red on the diagrams below. Mounts S and U can shoot the target, but T can’t.

(Image was missing from post above. Sorry!)

 

[Ad Astra News]

The example continues with Firing Weapons in Squadron Strike.

You can also find out about the AVID Assistant App, which automates a lot of the navigation and firing arc functions for new players. It makes it a lot easier to convince people to try Traveller Squadron Strike and for them to really enjoy it instead of worrying about the 3D rules. If the Kickstarter makes the stretch goals, we'll be able to add full-scale movement plotting to it, which will make things even easier for new players. Only 3 days left, so go show your support.