I'm a new Full Thrust player and ran into this problem while practising moving
formations of ships with cinematic rules.
If you have two or more ships in line ahead (hey, it worked for Nelson) moving
at velocity 8" and with 8" spacing between the ships in line, they can turn to
port or starboard and stay in line ahead easily: the first ship turns on move
1 while the others go straight, the second ship turns on move 2, and so on. No
change of velocity required, all turn the same amount.
But if the ships are closer together, say 2", they can't turn and stay in line
ahead. Real world ships or aircraft would have the leader turn straight away,
the second ship move 2" and then turn, the third ship 4", and so on. It's
exactly the same velocity and turn amount, but can't be done under a literal
interpretation of the cinematic rules.
This seems a shame to me, it's a very nice formation to
use. Cinematic even :-) It would be nice to be able to use
line ahead without the full complexity of vector movement.
Has anyone come up with a house rule or convention for allowing this kind of
turn? My idea would be a new "follow" movement order that allows ships in line
ahead to maintain a fixed relative position to the one ahead. (Provided the
ship ahead doesn't accelerate or turn faster than it can, of course.)
***
If you have two or more ships in line ahead (hey, it worked for Nelson) moving
at velocity 8" and with 8" spacing between the ships in line, they can turn to
port or starboard and stay in line ahead easily: the first ship turns on move
1 while the others go straight, the second ship turns on move 2, and so on. No
change of velocity required, all turn the same amount.
But if the ships are closer together, say 2", they can't turn and stay in line
ahead. Real world ships or aircraft would have the leader turn straight away,
the second ship move 2" and then turn, the third ship 4", and so on. It's
exactly the same velocity and turn amount, but can't be done under a literal
interpretation of the cinematic rules.
***
Well, getting into those lines was somewhat difficult and time consuming,
and usually out of range. And, it tends to accentuate the 2-d nature
of
the game in a 3-d 'world'.
However, I think it might be interesting concept to play with; I've not done
much FT of late, even at last weekend's small con, but I'll try running some
solo table manuvers later today.
One idea is to place a 'turning point' marker before the start of the game
turn. It would give control to make certain that the turn mode that FT DOESN'T
use would be covered; it would also give a bit of a telegraph of the move, the
way I'd expect for such manuvering. Likewise, a limited number of fleet moves
and restrictions on moving in and out of formation are possibilities.
Not that it makes a LOT of sense to me; most ship designs keep their
'alpha strike' in their forward arcs. Close-to-battle in line ahead,
engage in line abreast.
The_Beast
> --- Hugh Fisher <laranzu@ozemail.com.au> wrote:
...
Hugh, Our group used a form of 'squadron' movement
to accomplish this. Pick a ship near to the
middle of the formation, move it and have the other ships form around the
measured movement ship. In line astern, move the first ship and have the
followers...follow! It is rare to find that fractions of an inch have any real
effect on the play of the game. It will depend on the people you play with, as
to how precise the movement rules are played.
Bye for now,