run away! run away!

"Again it seems that the FSE ship excels at running away :-)="

Perhaps it's doctrine. Way back in the age of sail the French
(wishy-washy
buggers that they were) commonly surrendered the "weather gage" to opponents,
meaning that they chose to fight downwind. The other side (ie the RN) held the
initiative and could sail down to attack. French tactics called for attempting
to cripple the enemy on the approach, fight a bit and then use the advantage
of being downwind to turn away and sail off when things got too warm.
Trafalgar was such a crushing victory because Nelson,
in a rather gutsy move for a one-armed, one-eyed guy, sailed through the
French line and engaged from the downwind side, the wind effectively held the
French on his guns.

The FSE emphasis on SML armament makes "running away" an obvious choice for
fleet doctrine. You go in, spit out your missiles and then run the hell away
because with light guns and no armor the last thing you want is a drawn out
close range slugging match.

                        -M

> In a message dated 7/12/99 9:13:50 AM EST, edens@mindspring.com writes:

<<
Perhaps it's doctrine. Way back in the age of sail the French
(wishy-washy
buggers that they were) commonly surrendered the "weather gage" to opponents,
meaning that they chose to fight downwind. The other side (ie the RN) held the
initiative and could sail down to attack. French tactics called for attempting
to cripple the enemy on the approach, >>

Don't forget that being down wind allowed the French ships' engaged side to be
firing at much longer ranges, because the ship was heeled over and the guns
were more elevated by the wind's force against the sail. Thus the French ship
could open fire much earlier than the ship intending to force the issue.
Conversely the wind gage was an advantage only while you held it, and was
given up once you engaged closely.