Tightening turns

[Walter Hard]

There’s been comment over the fact that turning radii are the same fro boats, regardless of their speed. Has anyone tried this as a partial way to address this?

Allow a 30-degree turn at the beginning of movement for any vessel moving at slow speed (in addition to the normally allowed turns, of course)

[Big Al]

How are the radii the same regardless of speed? If you move a boat at slow speed, say 8cms and you make a turn every third, that is a much tighter radius than one that turns every third at a faster speed. The faster moving boat moves further in each third before turning, making the radius much larger, even though it uses the same 30 or 45 degree turn.

[Walter Hard]

I don’t think that’s the case, Big Al. A boat moving at faster speed will end up turning more degrees in one turn than a boat moving slowly, but the radius (in the game) is identical.

Take a small boat whose max speed is 30 cm. Regardless of its speed, it’s going to move 10 cm, then turn 45°, then move another 10 cm and turn 45°, then move a third leg of 10 cm and turn another 45°.

It’s just that the boat at fast speed will do it in one activation, the boat an slow speed will spread it out over three. The radius of the turn is identical. Can make a big difference if you’re trying to avoid running off the board or into an obstacle.

[Walter Hard]

Ah . . . I see where our rules interpretation differ. You’re interpreting the rules to say you can turn after every one-third of your movement for the activation. In the example I gave, you’d turn after every 3 1/3 cm, if moving slow.

I think the rules mean to say that you essentially move in legs or segments; this is why the max speed is always exactly triple the slow speed. You get one turn at the end of each segment. Following my example, I think at slow speed the boat moves one 10-cm leg and then turns. At fast speed, it moves 1 10-cm leg and turns, then a second 10-cm leg and turn, then a third 10-cm leg and turn.

Maybe the designer could pop in and clear this up. The question is, how many turns does a boat moving slow get during one activation, one or three?

[elcee]

Im pretty sure we had this one already. The wording is not the best in the first version of the rulebook.
This was adressed in the errata though, it might not be perfect but its better than in V1.
I’ll quote the Errata here (see the sticky post at the top):

During their move, each vessel cna make either a red or yellow turn once, after each speed level moved. The vessel’s turn angle is given on their ship cards. …

So it depends on the maximum distance the ship can travel (=full). The rules currently don’t cover that a boat might turn tighter when moving slower. The only exception is that stationary boats can pivot 90°.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by elcee.

[Mike B]

Although I understand the turn allowance per speed level as written in the rules (1 per Game-Turn if Slow, 2 per Game-Turn if Combat and 3 per Game-Turn if Full), the above query does beg some consideration.

I’m thinking a ship moving at Slow speed (whether Forward or Astern) might be allowed to adjust its distance to ANY cm desired not to exceed its maximum allowance. In other words, a ship with a maximum speed of 30cm at Slow could choose to only move a distance of 2cm and turn; or 6cm and turn; or its full allowance of 10cm and turn.

This WOULD in fact allow for a tighter turn radius and would be useful in cramped spaces.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Mike B.

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