Re: Rule problem?

> You're missing my main point, though.

No, I'm not.  See below.

> when you're dealing with ranges like that, the minor effect that
> slight
> variations at the source has would be vastly magnified. For example,
> you
> fire a catapult, and one side of the catapult isn't braced quite well
> enough, causing the stone to fly off two degrees off course (and I
> think
> we can agree that 2 degrees is a very minor variation for a
> catapult).
> At normal ranges that makes little difference and can be considered
> very
> accurate (at a range of 2000 feet you'll be 69.84 feet off target).

Which would miss that ship you're shooting at (think about it, varying
70 feet high or low will miss most every standard vessel).  Thus we
know they are more accurate than that.  1 degree = 35 feet.  Again,
you'll miss most ships.  So we know they're more accurate than 1 degree
error.  And with magic and exceptional crews and exceptional weapons
(weapons of quality or whatever you want to call them) they get even
more accurate.

> At a
> range of 60 miles (which is the range you suggested) you'll be 2.09
> miles off target. So, even if you've managed to   aim perfectly at
> the
> exact centre of your target, unless it has a diameter of more than
> 4.2
> miles, you've missed completely, and that's with a variation as low
> as 2
> degrees! So, if you're doing a long-range bombardment, you have to
> assume that the vast majority of your missiles will miss the target
> completely.

No.  Doing a long range bombardment, using your figures (I'll assume
they're basically correct, I haven't checked) I will have a ~.15 mile
variance (2.09 miles divided by 14).  This is based on the idea that
some ships have as little as 1 deck hence about 10 high side area to
hit.  So if my weapon has more than a ~1/7 degree variance (for ~5
feet) it's got major problems (which would be noticed and corrected).

500 yards (a hex) is less than .15 miles (by my calculations it's about
twice that) so as long as I fire at the broadside of Bral and aim for
the center I should hit.

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