silly question...
why is it called a "K-turn" when it is a bootlegger turn?
a K-turn is a 3-point turn, a bootlegger is where you slide 180 degrees so you are facing the opposite direction.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-point_turn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootleg_turn
I think it's better to look at aircraft-inspired names. The Immelman is pretty close to what the K-turn is. The Koiogran turn is just a name which makes sense in the Star Wars Universe.
Exactly that, they needed a star wars universe name for the 'split s' turn known in the real world as an immelman as it was a tactic used by the wwi german fighter pilot of the same name.
Obviously there was no WWi in star wars and not that many germanic names (only 'hoth; 
) so they needed a star wars name
personally our group think koiagran is bloody awful and just say k turn or immelman.
Because it's Star Wars and we are talking about space dogfighting, not driving techniques?
A bootlegger or handbrake turn would mean the aircraft span 180 on a level field, thats not what happening in a K turn.
The craft if doing a loop the loop but halfway round flips 180 (ie from upside down to right way), the game is clearly 2d but you have to visualise it as being 3d and that sometimes ships are much higher or lower than their opponent.
That sort of game is a nightmare to realise properly. At games day once we did a 'air waagh' which was 40k and ork fighters in combat, they were mounted on heavyweiht bases and extendable car antennas.... that way you could see how 'high up' they were in relation to each other but short of having a mechanic wear base posts are used to reflect hight (and that would suck as you'd be constantly changing them and also probably nudging postions of models)... well we're going to have to just imagine they are looping round each other.
my nerd cred has failed me...I did not know it stood for Koiogran turn
Well its in the core rulebook so you dont need to be too geeky, just have read the rules
Its only called a K turn on here for convenience. In all the published FFG stuff i'm sure its given the full name.
An Immelman is a maneuver where a fighter attacked a plane on a dive. After the pass the attacker would then climb and then just before he would stall out, would reverse to come back for another attack. In a Split S, The pilot would invert, dive and come around 180. As there really is no vertical movement in X-Wing, I assume either one could be the one representing a K-Turn.
Edited by General MayhemI only enjoy extreme realism and direct comparisons to the real world in my sci fi games that take place in a galaxy far far away
I have one slight problem with this myself. Having read up on where they got the K turn from, I'm bothered that they are using a recent pilots name for a maneuver that has probably been around for thousands of year, and most likely named for another pilot those eons ago.
I can deal with the idea they updated it for the current imperial grandising, to give tye new imperials some pride of service, but it would have been nice to see some reference to the historical aspect.
Just my 2 cents. Otherwise I could care less what they call it, it's basically an Immelmann turn...
Why do they call a bar a catina and use parsecs instead of light years? Because it is not that common use of words so it makes it sound like it is from a different place.