I have cruiser and fighting caps is hard ... i still practice shooting with forward gun ...but almost any other cruiser with mortar can kill me ...why? ... because they aim mortar 1000 times easier .. i have to turn whole damn cruiser around to hit him and he can place couple of hits until i turn around ...
i think forward should get much higher damage then light mortar... light mortar does same amount of damage but it can aim in every direction and forward gun ...
i don't know whats energy usage of those guns but i don't think its much different