Yeah a 180 arc totally works on a small base, but looking at the toy SF TIE/fo I'm pretty sure it rotates 360.

It may be able to rotate 360 degrees, but because of the wing panels, it can't fire into it's left and right 90 degrees.

Given that they're just a couple laser cannons. It makes sense to use the ships primary weaponry to fire forward, and just leave the swivel guns to fire backwards, since you can't fire two weapons at once in this game(if this were more of a simulation, then you could totally fire both forward at the same time for increased firepower. But currently, the Titled Y-Wing is the only ship in the game that can do that).

Just looking on the Lego website with the boy and spotted that the Lego Special Forces TIE Fighter has two crew in the cockpit.... One facing forwards flying, one manning the turret/rear arc gun!

http://www.lego.com/en-us/starwars/products/episode-vii/75101-first-order-special-forces

It's not unthinkable for a ship of this shape to have a 360 degree firing arc. To avoid hitting its own wings, the pilot can roll and the gunner can fire "down". This is supposed to be combat in three dimensions, after all.

You might as well as why the turret is not mounted on the actual aft of the TIE. Mounting it ventrally means any ships coming from above cannot be targeted. Is this weapon primarily used against ground targets?

Also the wings prevent shots being made directly left and right, but there's a lot of angles it can cover of the gun can depress. I guess it makes about as much sense as anything else in Star Wars, with spaceships banking during turns and generally flying like they are in an atmosphere.

What do you think?

Probably.

Personally, I hope it just gets a rear firing arc. And they save the Turret slot for the TIE Aggressor.

Pretty much this.

What do you think?

Probably.

Personally, I hope it just gets a rear firing arc. And they save the Turret slot for the TIE Aggressor.

Pretty much this.

Rear firing arc and a crew slot... Ties with tactician!

Well, considering that the T-70 has a turbofan that splits in half...

Well, considering that the T-70 has a turbofan that splits in half...

They're static supports, otherwise they'd be blurred (invisible) during flight.

Well, considering that the T-70 has a turbofan that splits in half...

Still doesn't explain why Star Wars ships have wings that provide next to zero lift due to no leading edge bevel and no optimal orientation of those wings.

Nothing about a TIE fighter makes sense, don't even bother trying to explain it. Who would design a fighter where the pilot's peripheral vision is blocked up to four feet infront of them. Its like mounting a pair of garage doors to the sides of a motorcycle.

Hey, if you can't see out, then they can't shoot in.

Here's the official toy:

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Awakens-3-75-inch-Vehicle/dp/B00SOFZLMA

Notice how it's different in the connection from the cockpit to the panels too?

That looks like a serious upgrade to the TIE/FO.

just on general principles I'd like to see an imperial ship with a turret slot.

Making it different from existing ships will be the key - you probably don't want to give it a crew slot, or turn the agility down too much or it starts to look like a HWK. Beef up the durability too much and it starts to feel like a y-wing and not, more importantly, like a TIE fighter.

A dedicated 'annoying little wasp' with a turret would be quite nice, I think.

Well, considering that the T-70 has a turbofan that splits in half...

Looks like it's just an intake. There might be moving parts in the engines somewhere but the semicircle design is probably just aesthetics, or perhaps related to stability. I'm still trying to figure out why any spacecraft have air intakes, other than to maybe facilitate the few minutes of flight that take place in planetary atmospheres, and that flight time is usually concerned with the anti-grav repulser drives and not the 'main thrust engines'. I dunno, maybe X-wings have crazy hybrid engines that do go from air breathing to vacuum operation. X-wings seem to be related to Z-95s after all, and the Mark 1 series was pure atmospheric fighters.

Still doesn't explain why Star Wars ships have wings that provide next to zero lift due to no leading edge bevel and no optimal orientation of those wings.

Ordinarily, I'd agree... but whatever figure FFG managed to produce actually looks like it has half a spinning turbine in each s-foil. Sculpting that detail in there may have been a mistake.

Yay! I hope we will get this thing with a back arc!

This would ... leave the Tie Aggressor to get a turret slot.

I don't think the intake is for a turbine, like on a jet plane, but fuel scoops for skimming atmosphere. I believe a ship did that in one of the new canon books.

As to the TIE, perhaps we will get a new action to represent this turret. this ship could have a 2 attack. But, rather than put a secondary arc, you can only fire directly forward or rear by placing the range ruler in the nubs. If doing so, the range ruler overlaps the target you may add two attack dice to your roll. Alternatively if you put the range ruler on the back nubs you can attack a target with two dice if it overlaps.

Granted, this is a convoluted way to do it, but would allow a skilled pilot excellent shots. As well as allowing some unique pilot abilities. Lining up the shot would be easier if a pilot could use the side edge of a speed one template to do a barrel roll (similar to large). Another pilot could attack two separate targets one with primary forward, and two dice rear as detailed above.

There ARE options besides auxiliary arc or turret that could work.

As i detailed above imagine the relief of an enemy pilot as the range ruler just misses from a forward shot, or the joy of the imperial that barrel rolls into range one to perfectly line up the range ruler to allow a 5 red attack.

I think a rear firing arc on a small ship would be difficult, but not impossible to implement. Considering that I think they are more likely to give us a TIE only or perhaps TIE/FO only title or modification that adds a turret option to the ship. This should probably be a costly modification, 5 or more points, considering the wealth of new possibilities it could add. And while a turret might seem odd, considering there are wings to the left and right of it, try to imagine the TIE flying above the plave of the fight, shooting down in a cone at the enemies below it.

A dedicated 'annoying little wasp' with a turret would be quite nice, I think.

I don't think that's going to be the Special Forces TIE.

The TIE/FO already starts out at 15 points. And the special forces TIE is basically one of those with a bunch of extra upgrade slots.

The TIE Aggressor on the otherhand, depending on whether they use the SWG version, or the FFG RPG version, is a TIE Advance, with no shields, no missles(and thus, probably no target lock).

At that point, it's a basic TIE Fighter with a worse dial. So with a low enough skill pilot, if the addition of an empty turret slot doesn't increase it's cost by more than 2 points, the lowest skill Aggressor pilot could be as low as 14 points.

At that point, you're looking at a ship that actually does something unique. Which is allow you to get 5 TLTs onto the table.

A dedicated 'annoying little wasp' with a turret would be quite nice, I think.

I don't think that's going to be the Special Forces TIE.

The TIE/FO already starts out at 15 points. And the special forces TIE is basically one of those with a bunch of extra upgrade slots.

The TIE Aggressor on the otherhand, depending on whether they use the SWG version, or the FFG RPG version, is a TIE Advance, with no shields, no missles(and thus, probably no target lock).

At that point, it's a basic TIE Fighter with a worse dial. So with a low enough skill pilot, if the addition of an empty turret slot doesn't increase it's cost by more than 2 points, the lowest skill Aggressor pilot could be as low as 14 points.

At that point, you're looking at a ship that actually does something unique. Which is allow you to get 5 TLTs onto the table.

The TIE Special Forces will be in the game, and very soon.

As much as I like the Aggressor, 5 TLTs would not add anything (healthy) to the game.