Couple of quick questions (thanks in advance!)
1) Do Aerospace fighters have to fly in a perfectly straight flight path from edge to edge, or can they curveball their trajectory in flight toward the opposite edge? It would seem like zigzagging evasive maneuvering along the way isn’t in the spirit of the rules, but the rules are somewhat vaguely worded, and say “the flight path is the line from the miniature along its front facing, to the opposite side of the play area.” If you’re using the front hex facet as the guide for the geometry of this with whatever deviation that angle allows, it’s possible for this to be a gentle parabolic curve instead of a straight line. I have a feeling it’s supposed to be a straight, shortest-distance line but I couldn’t figure out why the rules wouldn’t just say “a straight line to the opposite edge” unless the wording was deliberately leaving it open to interpretation and a curved path was acceptable as long as it keeps moving forward into that hex facet.
2) Assuming I’m reading the rules correctly, why can Aerospace fighters not hit anything on the ground more than an inch off of their flight path? If incoming ground fire can hit at range to the nearest point on the flight path + elevation, why can’t the ASF fire back the same way? LoS is always assumed to be clear both ways, and a mech on the ground can fire at any point on the flight path that’s in its front arc because the ASF is understood to be simultaneously at every point on the flight path during the turn. For the mech on the ground the “perfect” shot is the one that’s the closest range-wise, directly perpendicular to the flight path. My thought was the fighter couldn’t return that shot at that point because it would be shooting sideways and can’t torso-twist like mechs can. This isn’t consistent with the way firing arcs work in the rest of Alpha Strike, though (ground vehicles without turrets and WiGEs and other units can still shoot sideways into their forward arc even though they can’t torso twist either). And if that’s the case, why couldn’t I shoot back at the mech at an earlier point of that flight path, when it’s still in front of me (more like hex-based firing arcs)? It might make my shot longer range-wise (altitude down to the point on the flight path and then forward/outward to the mech that wouldn’t be at the perpendicular “optimal” point), but I should still be able to do it, right?
Ex: My Shilone is flying at middle altitude (12 inches), and does 5/4/1 damage, I should be able to do 4 points of strike damage at 12 inch altitude to anything within 12 inches on either side of my flight path, as long as it’s in my forward arc at some point on the flight path. If I can’t do that, it would mean that I’m not actually simultaneously present at every point along the flight path to receive incoming fire, or my medium weapons have an effective range of 13 instead of the regular 24 inches (12 to the ground and one to either side) and for reasons that are unclear can only be fired straight down. This wouldn’t be consistent with how reciprocal attacker/target spacing, weapon ranges, or firing arcs work in the rest of the game, so I’m a little puzzled.
