If you're not closing on the Carnage and you're attempting to obliquely cross the T there are only 2 directions in which you can do this; to the fore or aft of the Carnage. To the fore and the Carnage will either be moving into your fore arc to get a prow shot or if you're so oblique the Carnage can turn away so you're not closing the gap at all and both are simply abeam of each other (though the Murder out of range). To the aft and you end up circling. Either way, you're not shooting your prow lances, so one must wonder why you took the Murder at all.
Um... did I say I was doing this with a murder? I'm pretty sure that I mentioned I typically play IN and do this to the chaos player using the carnage. Which makes perfect sense since most of my weapons are port/starboard and my prow torpedoes just need to go off in the general direction.
What? So you only have to worry about 60cm guns? Once you hit 45cm you're magically immune to them? You can somehow shoot at 60cm range without closing and the enemy can't close in return? Nids have 45cm range prow WBs that'll fuck you up. Tau have potentially range-ignoring 45cm forward guns. The IN have both the Oberon and Emperor, two very good stand-off carriers. Marines have great speed and bombardment cannons for which the only defence is to be abeam! You REALLY don't want to be closing the distance against them! As for Orks, you're moving directly into their torpedoes as well as cutting the distance (staying away is good!) and when they finally do get close you'll be closing, making those heavy gunz actually worthwhile! With Eldar aspect does not matter to them, they'll always count you as closing, but the Carnage has far better weaponry to deal with them! And then, on top of all that, you do have to worry about "mirror matches". Chaos is one of the most common fleets. Why would you make your fleet weak to one of the most common fleets around?
Stop being dense. If you are closing at 60cm and your opponents are shooting 45cm batteries, it doesn't matter if your prow armor is 2+ since they aren't even getting to shoot you. I.E. it doesn't matter if you are closing at 60cm. You do realize that the forward arc on a shipis 45` right? You don't have to point right at a ship to still be in the forward arc. Obviously once you come in range you will have to account for enemy fire; I didn't think I needed to spell this out for you. (speaking of the oberon, I had one hulked in a single turn of shooting with 2 murders, a hades, and a repulsive... true, it was mainly due to a subplot that kept me from using SO for three turns so no BFI, but that's still considerably firepower from >45cm).
If the 3 hits from the Carnages "isn't that great" then how are the 3 hits from Murders any better? You think that the Murder is just as effective because it matches the Carnage in worst case scenario? What about the Carnage being twice as good in best case scenario?
What part of "just as viable" reads as better? And what's best case at 60cm? Shooting at something abeam? I've seen both of these fleets use and both ships taken many many times. The result has almost always seen the murder doing more than the carnage. TO account for personal preference and play style variations, I say both are probably just as effective and useful although they are different ways of employing the chaos fleet.
What you should be sorry about is letting your anecdotal experience blind you to the obvious.
You make me laugh Sig, really. So, you are really saying that real world experience and observation is only good if it supports your position? Last I checked a huge part of science was based on OBSERVATION. Would you really say that if a theoretical prediction doesn't match the observed result the theoretical prediction is infallible?
And for the record, I'm suggesting that new players try more than just one thing before they settle into a fleet. Either is viable and both fit different play styles.