"Star Trek ships and firing arcs?" Topic

Hey,

I've done a lot of searching on Memory Alpha and Beta regarding this. Sometimes (maybe most times?) it's a bit unclear to me whether or not ships in the Star Trek 'verse have different firing arcs, or should the fire in a 360? Some ships, if I understood correctly are limited, I think Klingons mostly fire to the front, and some have a rear firing Torpedo launcher. In general though when playing a game not based on Star Trek, would it make sense to house rule firing arcs for the various ships used? I hope that makes sense…any thoughts on this from the Star Trek experts out there?

Thanks!

The reality is indeed that in Star Trek ship's weapons are limited arc, blocked by the ship's own bulk if nothing else. However, unless you're pulling them from existing wargames or RPGs, you are not going to find ANY consistent information out there on this topic. So yes, I'd just house rule it for whatever game system you're using.

-Will

Thanks! That does confirm what I've read at least, it gets quite confusing when reading about TOS, TNG, VOY, DS9, ENT, and then throw in the movie franchises as well…I've been using 5150:Star Navy with good results and just adding in fire arcs based off of what I found on Memory Alpha/Beta and some info from Attack Wing.

Try having a look at the info from STO – Star Trek Online, the mmo game. In that you have to outfit your ships with the various weaponry and it gives details with fire-arcs, rof, energy drain etc.

The direct link to the weapons section (which includes torpedo's, exotic weapons, and all the main races damage types) can be found here –

sto.gamepedia.com/Ship_Weapon

I have always felt that despite what is published in game reference manuals, phasers are not independent turrets. Rather they are just emitters all tied together with a common power source. Why else would you have only one phaser emitter for each arc like on the original Enterprise? Each emitter is designed to pump all the phaser power through it. So for gaming it only matters how much phaser power you have not how many emitters.

For a simple solution on the Fed ships, try this:
Saucer based phasers can fire to all sides except directly aft (basically, 315* arc, with the 45* gap to the rear.
Secondary fuselage phasers fire to the sides only, one half to each side (90* arc).
Aft phasers (two on a Constellation class, if I recall correctly) fire in a 90* arc to the rear.
Torpedoes fire either directly forward or directly aft, depending on launcher location.

Or even simpler, go with a three-quarter, half/half, quarter rule:
3/4 of the phasers can fire to the front 90* arc, half can fire to each side, and 1/4 can fire to the rear. (This assumes all phasers are equal in power.)

@Parzival – is your suggestion something used for G.O.B.S.?

Thanks, I'll check out the MMO game as well for more info!

No, it's not used in GOBS, as firing arcs aren't part of the game. The 3/4, 1/2, 1/4 approach is based on an arc system I've considered as an optional update.

Do the original blueprints only have one phaser per arc? I thought it was 2 per arc, but I might be misremembering. Either way I actually agree, it makes sense that the phasers are only an emitter, and the energy is stored in some sort of capacitor (SFB actually does something like this). You might still want more than one per arc though, since there might be a cool-down time or throughput limit on the phasers themselves.

-Will

@wminsing

SFB has the capacitor idea, but the weapons also have limited arcs. Most of the phasers are in twin banks, but can also be single, and occasionally in triple banks.

@Parzival

I like that three quarters, half/half, quarter idea. That could possibly work well as a house rule in "Engage", for example.

@zonk76

If you want more detailed fire arcs ideas, either look at SFB or Federation Commander from ADB, or the old STSTCS game from FASA.

I've considered Federation Commander or SFB, but I think there's too much detail for me. Well…hmmmm…which set of rules would you use for managing just the 1 ship, is it SFB or Federation Commander? Sorry, thinking out loud.

@Parzival
I'd like to see how that fire arc designation could be incorporated in G.O.B.S. hope you get a chance to test it!

One phaser bank from the original series and the movies was a pair of emitters slaved together firing at a single target for both. The next gen uses phaser strips and have wider arcs. I think they operate otherwise the same way; a central power source tied to all the banks/emitters/strips on the ship. Also in SFB phasers can only fire one shot or pulse whereas in Wraith of Khan you see one bank fire a spread of shots.

Based upon the movies, TOS, the Klingon/Romulan D7s can definitely fire torpedoes to the rear.

A very useful tactic when needing to disengage and keep the enemy from pursuing.

As I recall, some sources cite a popular Klingon tactic as overflying the enemy in a sort of close pass by that feints disengaging and then firing the rear torpedo once past. The intent is to try to capitalize on the common tactic to put shields full front when in a face to face encounter.

-Eli

Makes sense to me, and would be very effective in a lot of scenarios, at least the first time it is used against an opponent.