Firing Arcs for Bk2 ships

[Bob Weaver]

Does anyone know of/have at hand house rules for determining firing arcs, analogous to the "batteries bearing" rules in High Guard? Looking for a bit of chrome for my TU. It would make the most difference on large (1000tn+) Bk2 ships rather than the good old Type S.

Best Regards,

Bob W.

 

[far-trader]

Never really needed them The time and range scale and ship sizes are such that you can bring everything to bear. Even High Guard doesn't impose a firing arc limit until 20,000tons.

I'd say it depends on what effect you're going for and how to make it balanced in the game.

For example I've toyed with the idea of stern chasers and fixed fire mounts (from CT AM Solomani).

Fixed mounts are fired by the pilot at a minus 2(?) to hit. I figure that's because they're treated similar to a spinal mount and the ship is being aimed at the target while also avoiding fire. You can trade the minus to hit (part or whole) for a bonus (equal) for the enemy to hit you (while running straight at them). But you can't run away and fire fixed mounts...

...unless it's a stern chaser. A fixed mount in the rear. Same minus 2(?) to hit and fired by the Pilot, but you get to run away instead of at the enemy. Same trade of minus to hit for enemy bonus to hit (like running straight away instead of evading).

Not sure that helps, but if you want to introduce firing arcs and limited engagement of weapons to Book 2 combat I think you'll have to change a lot more of the rules. Like turn length, range, weapon bonuses, and such.

 

[The Oz]

While not a rule about firing arcs, Supplement 7 did mention that the empty spaces on either side of the rear loading ramp of the Pinnace could be used to mount "sternchaser" weapons.

 

[far-trader]

While not a rule about firing arcs, Supplement 7 did mention that the empty spaces on either side of the rear loading ramp of the Pinnace could be used to mount "sternchaser" weapons.

...which come to think of it is probably what made me work up a bit of a rule for that

A little throw away description without any explanation, and I was off to the races...

 

[robject]

Never really needed them The time and range scale and ship sizes are such that you can bring everything to bear.

I thought of this, too. If one wanted to model 'age of sail'-style combat with relatively few ships, as miniatures on a hex grid, you'd cut the turn length down into minutes and decide on some firing arcs for your weapons.

Probably, turrets have a generous firing arc. My first guess would be maybe 180 degrees (assuming your ship isn't oddly shaped and get in the way). But, since we usually model a 3D world in 2D, we've generally only got port-starboard-fore-aft, so cut that back to 90 degrees on the sides (or: whatever wedge works out well on a hexmap), and perhaps just straight foreward/back for the nose/stern, for playability's sake. But then I've not tried this out.