Massing Manticores creates a simple, inexpensive base of fire with a useful missile system. Their low cost makes them a plausible general-purpose unit for a fictional space navy. The problem is geometric: fore-and-aft guns invite an opponent to attack from the beam, where maneuverability and missile capacity cannot make up for a missing gun arc. Top-and-bottom mounts or weapons able to cover a full circle would use a spacecraft's three-dimensional form more effectively.
Notable Point · 1:19-3:04
Manticore corvettes: useful mass, weak firing arcs
The inexpensive Manticore corvette works as a missile-firing base of fire, but its fore-and-aft guns leave dangerous blind areas.