OK, I know it looks hellishly complicated but this is the draft version - the final copy will be a model of clarity….
After a pretty hectic couple of weeks and with little time to do anything meaningful gaming wise, I was able to spend a big chunk of today grappling with the ever thorny subject of firing arcs for my new naval rules. Well, after much deliberation I think that I may have finally gotten on the right track. To be more accurate, I am probably now at least at the right station so the right track would be a welcome bonus!
I seem to have managed to have both over and under thought the whole subject of firing arcs - a legacy from The Portable Ironclads Wargame perhaps - but am now cautiously optimistic that they are where they should be.
I mentioned previously that there are six core arcs with an additional fourteen added for extra detail if required. Well, that has now changed a little in that I now have eight core arcs and am hoping to dispense with the extras!
In the short term this will require testing so I will need to (re)spec some ships to the above template. I want this to work and so decisions will need to be made as to what guns can shoot where on all of the ship charts I have prepared thus far. Not to mention all the appropriate chapters that reference the older version.
Frustrating but needed so there is little point in dwelling on the subject - onwards and upwards and all that….
That looks good..a colourised version might be helpful
ReplyDeleteHi Jim,
DeleteThis was very much the working copy and the plan is to have diagrams that show each arc rather than being all on one page.
They will probably be greyscale rather than coloured though.
All the best,
DC
Funnily enough I was considering the same problem as an upgrade to Damn Battleships Again the pre-dreadnaught era rules from Phil Barker. My solution was to create four arcs of fire, two 'broadside' arcs and a forward and rear arc. Each main and secondary turret has an arc of fire usually covering two or sometimes three of those arcs. Each turret brings a number of weight of shot points to bear in the arcs it can cover but can only fire through a single arc each turn. That allows me to give a total weight of fire to each arc. All I have to do is actually work out the statistics for the ships I use (i.e. the boring bit).
ReplyDeleteHello there old chap,
ReplyDeleteI must admit that I have been leaning towards a similar method whereby a ship specification will show the type of gun that can bear in each arc but I have taken the idea forward yet. I rather liked your comment about ‘the boring bit’ - I found that I quite enjoyed the first few ships and then it became a bit of a chore!
All the best,
DC
This looks good. If you want to see another format for firing arcs I would suggest looking at the reverse side of a Catalyst Game Labs Leviathans Destroyer as that also uses a one hex grid.
ReplyDeleteHello there WEK 3,
DeleteI had a further lightbulb moment with this whole idea - I am fast coming to the conclusion that I have been guilty of overthinking this, not because I should but because I could! The mistake was one of description in that the ‘expanded arcs are really just combinations of the original 6 now 8 but likely to revert to 6. In my head it makes sense but I will need to get it onto paper in a legible way first!
All the best,
DC
PS Good shout re the Leviathan Destroyer - something else to take a look at.