Prow + Port/Starboard Salvo possible?

By Idares, in Rogue Trader Rules Questions

With a Light Cruiser is it possible for the Prow Macrobattery to make a joint salvo with the Port/starboard Marcobattery Broadside?

If so, wouldn't that be a no-brainer rather than torpedoes on the Prow?

Yes it can, even a Prow Lance can fire to the Port and Starboard fire arcs. This does not mean torpedoes are a useless addition, they represent a tactical diversification of the ship's weaponry. At close range Torpedoes can provide a ship-killing burst against a target that may be outside the LCs class or they can screen a flanking route from raiders and delay their attack by forcing course corrections. Also against stations or other large objects torpedoes provide a means to strike with impunity.

Just strapping more guns onto a ship is not always the best solution... though saying that, putting torpedoes on a Light Cruiser when you don't have a fleet backing it up and have the option for Macros or a Lance Battery is choosing the play the game in hard mode.

From a Rogue Traders point of view, torpedoes might indeed be an inferior choice most of the time. They operate far from the possibility of resupply more often than not, and many operate only a single ship, and their ships often have better use for the space usually 'wasted' on an armoured prow.

Torpedoes, instead, are designed for fleet actions with the logistics of the Imperial Navy behind them. A single battery on a cruiser will increase firepower a little, but thats it. Torpedoes on several cruisers coupled with armoured prows on the other hand provide entirely new tactical options, and a group of torpedo equipped raiders (such as the Cobra) can wreak havoc against larger ships and space stations with near impunity.

I don't usually put them on RT ships. The exceptions are those with actual fleets (Hello, Winterscale!) or with small flotillas such as Sun Lee, who fields a stealth-focused torpedo destroyer among her escorts in my game.

TL;DR, what SCKoNi said.