Thinking outside the box, I have two scenarios when I try to think about the conversion rules. Neither of these are valid on any canon designs, but you know how wild people can be!
Scenario #1: Weapons are placed such that the attack value for rear mounted weapons is greater then the attack value for forward facing weapons. So let's say my forward arc generates attack values of 1/1/0, and my rear arc generates attack values of 2/2/1. The rules are fairly clear on how this is treated as it states on p.100 of the ASC: "If, however, the unit can deliver more damage to its rear arc than its front, use the rear arc weapons instead of the forward-firing weapons when finding its base attack values."
My understanding is, then, that the Alpha Strike Card would then have the 2/2/1 in the Damage box on the front of the card. If this is true, it leads to a couple of questions then:
1) Does the unit have the special ability REAR1/1/0 as the forward arc now becomes the rear-arc?
2) How is all of this accounted for in game-play? If my rear arc weapons are what now become my base attack values, how would I know this while playing? I would assume the 2/2/1 would be for forward firing weapons, but in reality this should be for the rear-firing weapons. Or is this all irrelevant for the purposes of Alpha Strike combat?
Scenario #2: Similar to the above (and I'll keep this one a little simpler I hope), do I add up the attack values for all three brackets before determine if forward or rear should be considered the base attack values? Consider a unit with an LRM 10 rearward-facing, and two Medium lasers forward-facing. In this odd scenario, the Long Range has a higher attack value for rearward facing weapons, while Short and Medium has a higher value for forward facing.
I believe, as "the unit can deliver more damage to its" forward arc (across all range brackets), the attack value for the 2 mediums is more (2 vs 1.5), so that should be used for the calculation. Thus giving an attack value of 1/1/0 and a special ability of REAR0*/1/1.
Is that correct, or should the LRM count for the Long bracket for the base? Or am I really just overthinking everything here? :)