Looking at Battlefleet Gothic, I see that the Dauntless-class Light Cruiser made 90-degree turns while transports made 45-degree turns. I've long been in favor of having Transports switched to 45-degree turns rather than RT's 90-degree rule, and I'm considering the change for the Dauntless (as a rule for it specifically, NOT as a general rule for all Light Cruisers) as well. This will enable Dauntless-class Light Cruisers to lead squadrons of raiders and/or frigates without cutting the turning rate down to 45 degrees.

Can anyone see any major problems with this ruling?

It makes light cruisers a bit more viable. In all honesty, they don't have much going for them right now, anyway. Especially the Dauntless offers very little over a well-kitted frigate - not enough to warrant the steep increase in SP cost, in my eyes.

Addendum about transports:

That one's more tricky. Transports are poor as they are. If your party isnt using one as a flagship I don't see a problem, but if they are… Well. It just ensures their combat-suckiness even more, and thats not something they need much help with as its now, already.

I agree that the Dauntless doesn't currently have much going for it. Everyone either wants a well-built frigate or wants to jump up to a full-on cruiser. This change will give the Dauntless something that makes it special since it will truly have nearly the firepower of a cruiser (or at least the ability to use most weapon components usually seen on light crusers and cruisers) along with the manoeuvrability of an escort (although it'll be among the least manoeuvrable of these) as it's advertised in BFG.

As for Transports, I don't mind weakening them. As is, I feel that they are too capable against fighting ships, so reducing their turning capabilities sits well with me.

After further reading of the BFG texts, I think I'll be going beyond the Dauntless-class and changing all Light Cruisers (except for those specifically called-out as only making 45-degree turns, such as Ork vessels) to 90-degree turns.

Also, per BFG, all transports and escorts (raiders & frigates) are capable of landing on a planet's surface (and, presumably, of taking off again too). This seems somewhat surprising to me, but I'm considering putting this into RT as well.

Remember that in BFG transport ships were all pretty small things - in RT ships like the orion and the transports listed in the core book would be fine for landing, but could you imagine a universe class trying to land? it'd tear itself apart in an atmosphere and decimate an entire continent when it crashed…

Raiders being able to land is perfectly fine in my books, though i imagine it should put some strain on their ships and not be attempted all too often.

Frigates… i'd be tempted to say they can't because they can have armour levels approaching cruiser levels and an array of large add ons all of which add up to an incredible mass.

I've so far opted to make the change for turning (transports now have a base turn of 45 degrees and light cruisers now have a base turn of 90 degrees), but I've still ruled that none of the ships can routinely land on planets (crash landings are another story).

As a variation on this rule, why not have any ship with a Manuverability bonus greater than +10 be able to turn 90 degrees without check? This eliminates all Grand and Battle Cruisers, as well as every Cruiser hull except for the Ambition, and every Transport except for the Orion Star Clipper. This also helps to give a more concrete bonus to modifying maneuverability with components, as now having an awesome Pilot Check is not the only thing to consider for your ships.

Erathia said:

I like this - means it's worth considering manouvering thrusters and other upgrades to get your ship turning more in tactical scale.

Kasatka said:

I don't favor this. There are no Imperial (full) Cruisers that can make 90 degree turns. The proposal given makes it way too easy as one simple addition (Augmented Thrusters) now allows every cruiser to turn as well as a light cruiser while still having twice the broadside. Considering how close the cost of a light cruiser is to a cruiser, I'd like to see the light cruiser have an undeniable advantage in one area (in this case, turning).

Just saw this thread but figured id chime in with my 2 thrones.

Any ship reguardless of size/class could make the turn 45* or 90* IF....IF they mounted sufficient augmented thrusters..THAT is what they had in mind when they included them...the biggest deal with it is simply the cost in powerdraw of them...it must balance out with the amount of firepower they want to bring to bear...since the cost in power of making a battleship with a starting Man of -10 get to a bonus of +10 ( id personally use the +20 that the LT cruiser/frigates have that can make the 90* turns ) would severely hamper their ability to mount large amounts of weapons due to the stagering cost in power to get it there....A battleship costs 7 power for every +5 to its Man score..and if you were using my preffered idea for it ( needing a +20 Man to gain the 90* turning ) then that would be a necessity of 6 augmented retro thruster buys...at 7 power apiece for a total of 42 power. Now consider the battleship has a normal engine producing 150 power and the avg battleship only has 10 power left over...that means you would have to find a way to reduce your ships powerdraw by an additional 32 points....The only battleship that could do it without losing wepaons would be the Emperor class since its design gives it an additional 56 remaining power due to its use of nothing but macro cannons and launch bays....as opposed to seriously damaging lance arrays or other larger guns instead of macros