STAR CRUISER

	I agree that Star Cruiser is one of the most confusing game put out
by GDW.  I assume that the firing arcs are for ships in adjacent hexes, but
that's not the only problem.  I think the biggest problem is that beam
weapons have such a short range.  Considering that most military ships can
move 7 hexes in a turn this turns space combat into a "knife fight."  It also
means that you can detect a hostile ship long before you can fire on it.
	The idea I think is that missles are supposed to be the main form
of combat, but when you're fighting a Delta Class Kafer battleship the thing
is going to close with you eventually. In my experience, all movement stops
at this point and the two players sit in the same hex, blasting away at each
other with their lasers.
	What I have done in my games is to make long range for beam weapons
3 hexes and short range one hex.  This helps keep ships from parking in
the same hex and plugging away at each other.
	I have also experimented with limiting a ships acceleration and
deceleration by saying that they from a dead stop they can only move half
speed the next turn.  Likewise they can only decelerate to half speed their
first turn and must wait until the following turn to come to a complete
stop.  Along with this, ships may only change facing by one hex side per
hex of forward movement.  This prevents ships from spinning in place and
doing 180's in space.
	The net effect is to make combat more swooping and graceful.  The
extended range of beam weapons and the limits on turning radius also make
the firing arcs that began this discussion all the more important.  :)

	Let me know what you think of these ideas.