Torpedo Arc?

[AndrewChristlieb]

Ok ran into this tonight with a couple of guys. Torpedoes straight ahead only or within front arc? I have always played them front arc (as is stated) but when we looked it up there was nothing in the BBB or FAQ I could find to back this up (or disprove it). Is there something Im missing? I did find this on the old bfg mailing list site but does that pass as legit? Im assuming it would (being from AC and all).

[horizon]

They can fire in complete front arc. In the FAQ there are references to be not over the line of the arc when firing.

Plus torpedoes have ' F'  in the stats. F is front arc. There is no line in the book saying ' straight forward' .

[AndrewChristlieb]

Thats what i thought but its hard to convince someone theyre wrong without something to back it up . The closest thing i found in the Faq was the blurb about massed salvos all being in the same arc but they didnt seem to understand that a squadron could combine their salvos either . At any rate if this is such an issue that an entire group has it wrong maybe this should find its way into the ?next? Faq...

[Wolf]

So are we saying that you can fire torpedoes along any line within the forward arc ?!

[horizon]

Yes, ofcourse. F arc is front arc or do the F lances on a firestorm and dauntless fire straight on? Only logical explanation to me. F is Front.arc. Same for lance or torpedo. There is nothing that says otherwise.

[AndrewChristlieb]

Yes although most torpedoes are "dumb" and only follow a straight line they can still adjust the initial launch direction (if only slightly). After all as pointed out from the faq why else would a squadron only need to worry about the directon of travel being in all of the ships correct arc and not make sure that the ships are all aligned correctly with each other?

[Wolf]

Huh well then  that's very nice to know

[Talos]

Quick related question: how do you angle the torpedo salvo? Does the flat side of the marker have to be in contact with the ships base, or is is angled a different way? And when a swuadron fires a combined salvo, although it travels from the furthest ship can that salvo damage other ship in the squadron that are in base contact?
Ex. Say three cobras, touching bases in a triangle formation. The salvo travels from the far left rear one, but the marker has to pass through the front cobras base to hit the target. Is that cobra safe or blown to smithereens?

Sorry if this is a derail...at least its related.

[horizon]

Hi,
question one: back side touches base, angled as you want but not past the front arc.

question two: lay them with front one, but measure from the last. So no hitting own vessels.

[AndrewChristlieb]

Ya an easy way to do the angle is to run a ruler from the stem in the direction you want the torps to travel (within arc of course) then line the edge of the torp marker up to the ruler. This ensures that the torps remain within the correct arc. On the second question its also worth noting that the FAQ states you may fire through friendly ships you are in base contact with even if they are not in the same squadron. Pg7

[Talos]

Thanks for clarification...on the subject of the faq/rulebook, I was not certain whether you could fire torpedoes through friendly vessels, as I thought the rules (at least blue book anyway) had torpedoes attack any ship they ran into, friend or foe...This seems silly; one would assume the tracking suites on the torps would not home in recognized ship signatures. This is 40k after all, and torps are described as having powerful machine spirits in the fluff.

[AndrewChristlieb]

You would think so, but torpedoes still do not ignore friendly vessels if they are not in base contact with the ship firing or if they contact a friendly ship any time after they are fired.