VAS: Tactical Withdrawl Vs. Long Lance Torpedos...

[Burger]

Tell them that its what is written in the rules that matters, not some vague debatable real-life comparison. We're playing a game here, not real life

As Matt always says, "play the game as written".

 

[E Nicely]

go read the rules again? id love to see anything that says you can out distance a LL torp shot.

being able to do this complicates things too since now you need to try and remember where the torp was fired from to track total distace moved.

Movement comes before the end phase. Torps roll Attack Dice at the end of the turn. A Long Lance has a range of 20". There isn't any way around that.

How does the FIRING ship affect that range? Nobody has yet mentioned the TARGET ship moving, at all! The target was within 20" when the torp was fired. What difference does it make how far the firing ship moves after it has fired? For all the torp cares, it could move off the table, over 20" away, or to the Moon???

Yeah, thats crazy. I never really registered in my head that the torpedo counter as is under the core rules can stay with the ship no matter how far it moves. The effective range of the torpedo is limited only by how far the target ship can move. Crazy.

 

[BuShips]

I'd go with the tactical withdraw rules too, as the solution. It makes sense. If anyone were to argue that they were also following the rules as written and had earned the right for the torpedoes to hit (they were after all fired in accordance with the rules and just haven't hit yet), there would be yet another counter to their issue. "By the rules" it states that the torpedoes would hit on the next end phase but the ship would be leaving the table during the movement phase, right? Since there is an attack phase between the movement phase and the end phase, you really cannot have and end phase with a ship that has left the table. Because the ship cannot have been able to fire during the attack phase, it cannot then have an end phase for the torpedoes to attack it in. So in truth, there is a tiny loophole created that lets a ship that fears it may be sunk by a long range LL torpedo salvo decide to cut its losses and leave a friendly side of the table. If it is close to the enemy side, it might as well take its chances on the table, as it is as good as sunk if it leaves.