Yeah hehe, <^_^> believe me, I wouldn't have suggested it if you couldn't do it.

2 torps for and aft... I've never done it to be honest; but I don't see any reason it wouldn't work. The only concern I would personally have would be taking down their shields fast enough to start putting those torps on the mark. Given that you'll want the same skills whether you use 6 beams or 4, I'd say just give it a shot, see what you think of it.

Well, honestly, it's what I've been using so far for pretty much all of my ships. I've found it works reasonably well in most instances - give them a four beam broadside for a little while, then when they turn their weak side away from you, you can alter your course and hit them with torpedoes. Still, I might try the six beam idea with one torpedo fore and aft....very often I can get one torpedo, two if I use the high yield option from my tac officer...but I can't often do more than that without losing my shields!

Oh, another question. Is Photon Grenade 1 sufficient for a Boff? or do I need to train out Photon 1 and give her Photon 3?

Well, any of them are useful; but obviously the higher you go, the better the damage. It really depends on this followup:

Is there something in the Lt. Commander slot you'd rather have? If not, Photon III is awesome. If so, Photon II or I are perfectly effective. (And you don't 'need' them either really; I just find them really useful.)

I suppose it depends. How good is suppressing fire II?

Suppressing fire is quite nice. At present I highly recommend having it at least on one boff with an AOE weapon. The whole combination of a snare and damage penalty is beautiful. It also lasts 9 seconds, instead of 3 like it used to, so it's easier to get the debuff on everything you're fighting.

All told, it's a great ability to have imo.

Regarding skill point allocation: guide in my sig

Regarding ship and weapon choices:
I wouldn't look away from beam arrays just yet. A very common tactic for cruisers is to use all beam arrays and "broadside" a target, keeping it within the overlap zones between front and rear beam arrays.

I've only seen science ships pull off the Torp Boat tactic due to their easy access to shield-stripping powers like Tachyon Beam and Charged Particle Burst. Best keep it simple and stick to single torps fore and aft, timing your shots when openings come.

3 beam, 1 torp fore, same aft. Basic load out for many cruisers.

If you want to mix it up, you could swap out a beam array in the fore for a dual beam bank for more forward oomph. Just remember cruisers don't turn on a dime, so you'll probably be relying on broadsides more often.

I have seen successful cannon cruisers (turrets and single cannon) work, but are often troubled by having so many weapons firing at once, draining weapons power to dangerously low levels. Keep this in mind. A weapon firing is a weapon draining, and a weapon draining is denying other weapons full power to deal full damage.

Lastly, since you've got free respec's to burn, take time to experiment just make sure to keep one left for your "final" setup.

Don't forget ground combat either!