Firing Arcs - Same Space question

[Kalrithian]

Hello everyone. My friends and I are new to the game and we want to make sure we're doing this right.

Looking at the Firing Arc Chart, all arcs converge in your ships current hex. So, if your ship and an enemy ship occupy the same hex, all weapons can be brought to bear. Is that correct?

Oh! We also had a question about using the DAC. Do you roll a new line for each volley, or do you continue where you left off on the chart if a previous volley didn't finish a row?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Scoutdad]

Hello everyone. My friends and I are new to the game and we want to make sure we're doing this right.

Looking at the Firing Arc Chart, all arcs converge in your ships current hex. So, if your ship and an enemy ship occupy the same hex, all weapons can be brought to bear. Is that correct?

No. Even though alll the fire arcs appear to converge in the ships hex, each individual weapon mount still hasa limited firing arc. The hexes are sooo much larger than the actual ships that the same-hex firing arc is based on the orientation the individual ships had as the entered the same hex.

Let's say your Federation Heavy cruiser is headed towards my Klingon D7 in a head-on pass. As they approach each other, the #1 shields are facing. When they enter the same hex, they are still assumed to be in each others front arcs and therefore only weapons capable of firing into the front arc could be used.

Conversely, if my D7 was chasing your Fed CA and entered it's hex from the rear, the Fed ship would be in the Klingons front arc, but the Klingon would be in the Feds rear arc.

Oh! We also had a question about using the DAC. Do you roll a new line for each volley, or do you continue where you left off on the chart if a previous volley didn't finish a row?

Each volley (or each additional 10 points of a single volley) generates a new die roll to see which line the damage is rolled on.

For example, two volleys of 6 points and 8 points will generate two separate rolls. The first roll causes 6 points of damage on a single line. The second, 8-point volley would generate a new roll to determine the line used.
A 14 point volley would generate 1 roll for the first 10 points of damage and then a second roll to see which row was used to apply the remaining 4 points of damage.

Thanks in advance for your help.

I hope this helped clear things up and didn't confuse you too much.

Will McCammon (djdood on this forum) created a single page PDF file to help illustrate the same hex fire arc issue. With his permission, I'll upload it to my website for future reference. Will???

[Kalrithian]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Although we played with the "all arcs" available, I was really hoping that wasn't right.

Neither answer was confusing at all. Thanks again.

[djdood]

My pdf was based on an example from Mike West (the last time this was asked) and is pending his permission (and ADB's) before uploading anywhere.

[Scoutdad]

Cool. I'll follow up with SVC after the new years crush and have him add it to his Customer Service Wednesday file.

[Kang]

Also if you look up 'same-hex combat' in the rulebook and in the forums here, you may find more clarification.

There is also an old thread with discussions on this topic at:
http://www.starfleetgames.com/federatio ... .php?t=293
which you may find useful.

btw, welcome to the game and to the forum!

[Kalrithian]

Thanks again. I've skimmed that thread, but it's late. So, I'll dig into it with the morning coffee.

Reading the rule book, we did find where it tells you how to determine which shield was hit (3C6d). This may imply that you also use firing arcs the same way, but it doesn't directly state it.

The confusion was caused by the large color reference card that came in the box. It shows all of the arcs converging in the center of the ships hex. You can easily assume from this that all arcs exist there.

Don't get me wrong, I undestand how it works and much prefer the correct way. But for players new to this type of game, the correct answer isn't as obvious as some may think.