Capital Ship Tactics

[masque]

I was looking through the 2nd Ed. Imperial and Rebel Alliance sourcebooks, and I noticed that most of the tactics shown seem to be very oriented towards 2 dimensional combat, i.e. all of the capital ships are oriented on the same plane, to the point where they don't even bother covering top and bottom fire arcs, just front, back and sides. Starfighter combat doesn't seem to have this same problem.

I'm wondering if anyone has figured out if the top and bottom fire arcs are stronger or weaker, and if attacks from directly above or directly below would be advantageous. Seeing as I've never seen these angles of attacks used in the movies or EU, I'm thinking they'd work as a surprise tactic at least. My bigger concern, however, is if I've noticed a widespread tactical flaw or if this is a non-issue.
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Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.

[Boomer]

This is the idea that most people simply canot think in 3 dimensions, let alone live in three dimensions everyday...

I have seen the other fire arcs used, in the X-Wing series games. The alternate fire arcs are not weaker. In the case of a stardestoyer it is stronger because you have half of three fire arcs capable of bearing on you. In the games they usually (usually, not always... dum interdictor on that one level) use these situations to their advantage. Things like being above or below a capital ship, and what side each ship faces each other, become a cause for concern.

But as far as most gamebooks, in pretty much EVERY OTHER GAME is concerned, even in space, underwater, in the air, and in varied terrain of hills and mountains and valleys and mesas... the 3rd dimension just doesn't matter because most people don't know how to handle it.

Right? We assume most human beings are too dumb to handle the real world, let alone learn to enjoy it in a game.
_________________
My backpack has jets!
I'm Boba the Fett!
And I bounty hunt for Jabba Hutt,
to finance my 'vette!

[masque]

Looking through the RA sourcebook again, I found this on page 54:

It is an interesting fact that, though space is, of course, three-dimensional, with a vessel's orientation of no particular importance, Humans find it distinctly unsettling to view a ship which appears to be upside down or which appears to be "hanging over" their vessel. To counteract this, fleets almost always orient their vessels so that "down" is in the same direction for all craft. Tradition has it that the approaching vessel orients itself to match the vessel already in position.
This psychological quirk makes capital starship combat surprisingly similar to water-based ship combat. It might be noted that, if a species were fully comfortable with the three-dimensional nature of space, they would be at distinct advantage when fighting Humans in space.

From what I can tell this means that the distribution of weapons is generally geared towards this "2D" psychological blindspot. The video games (which I haven't played) notwithstanding, the arcs described in the sourcebook ship descriptions specify front, sides, back. If they specified turret, as they do occasionally, I'd see the field of fire as being much more flexible, but other ship descriptions are rather specific about the limitations of direction-specific fire arcs.

As mentioned before, starfighter class ships and pilots don't seem to have this problem, probably because of the greater maneuverability they are used to, 3D orientation seems to be less of a problem for them. I'd say smugglers and pirates are probably used to taking advantage of this as well, due to the proliferation of turret guns on freighters and the necessity (for pirates) to surprise their would be targets.

The sourcebooks are generally geared for the time period after Yavin but before Empire so perhaps we could say that the Imps adapted after this strategy began to be used. It of course wouldn't be widespread until after the Battle of Endor, as we can see the 2D orientation in that battle.

I'm thinking of working this into my campaign as a new tactic, perhaps after the promotion of a starfighter pilot to a capital ship, or have pirates start using it against Imps or Rebels. Likely I'll let it give the players some advantage, wait until they start relying on it, and then have the Imps and others start refitting their ships with more turret guns to counteract it and give them a nasty surprise.

My whole thing is that unlike the comment in the sourcebook, I don't think humans are too dumb to adapt to 3D space combat, it's just a matter of having the idea and playing it out. I think it'll be interesting.

"The enemy's gate is down." - Ender Wiggin
_________________
Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.

[Boomer]

Before Yavin, the 3 ships chasing the falcon, two were "upside down" in relation to the other.

During Endor, we see in the background in the massive wash of ships that a few were upside down, and at odd angles. We also see that a few of the ships were actually sneakers, and even in the special edition DVD release Lucas hasn't felt the need to change that...
_________________
My backpack has jets!
I'm Boba the Fett!
And I bounty hunt for Jabba Hutt,
to finance my 'vette!

[masque]

Before Yavin, the 3 ships chasing the falcon, two were "upside down" in relation to the other.

I'm not sure what you're referring to. If you mean the TIE's when they escape the Death Star, I've already stated that I didn't think starfighters had this problem, mainly capital ships. I will have to pull out the movie again to check it out.

During Endor, we see in the background in the massive wash of ships that a few were upside down, and at odd angles.

I'll have to recheck this, too, I remember all the capital ships being oriented roughly the same way.
_________________
Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.

[Boomer]

I mean the small chase above Tatooine. Two ships coming at the Falcon from one side are "upside down" compared to the 3rd ship coming in from the other angle. The Falcon outmanuvers tham and they nearly scrape against each other.
_________________
My backpack has jets!
I'm Boba the Fett!
And I bounty hunt for Jabba Hutt,
to finance my 'vette!

[masque]

I just popped it in, but all I saw was one shot of 2 Star Destroyers side by side, albeit upside down in relation to the planet. I'm looking at my dvd of the Theatrical Version, are you referring to the Special Edition? If what you're referring to is in the Special Edition versions, I can understand why the WEG books would have the statements they do.
_________________
Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.

[hisham]

[masque]

I was familiar with that scene from ESB, but I didn't figure he was talking about that, since they're all oriented the same way, as is visible in those pictures.
_________________
Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.

[Boomer]

Yeah, crap man... guess I remembered incorrectly.

...I wanna watch all the movies now. Because they are all so awesome.
_________________
My backpack has jets!
I'm Boba the Fett!
And I bounty hunt for Jabba Hutt,
to finance my 'vette!

[garhkal]

[masque]

Maneuvers like that are what I'm talking about. Of course, the enemy will eventually adapt, but I figure they're good tactics for a while, at least.
_________________
Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.