In my experience the Firetail needs all the help it can get. I’m assuming you’re wanting a discussion about 1v1 style scenarios.
If you’re bothering with spending PG fitting a neut then you want your damage to also be in that range, which is not going to be PG-hungry Artys unless you enjoy down-fitted Light Arty Cannons w/ Quake still missing every frigate with more than 500m/s transversal while in 4km neut range.
The typical arty firetail fit is usually flown at web-kiting range, so discussing this piloting method is doubly bad since A) web-kiting range makes the neut pointless as its beyond neut range and B) the fit under discussion has no web. At 8km distance – just under scram distance – your DPS of a down-fitted Light Arty w/ Quake is still going to be cut in half just by having a transversal of 1km/s because of tracking. So you’re gonna wanna sit still when you shoot. This implies you only want to fight super-close-range brawlers where 8km is outside their optimal+falloff damage application, and sitting still isn’t increasing their DPS application. Because other scram/web kiters will just blap you with their pulse / rockets while you sit still. But those brawlers are going to be AB+web fit themselves so without a web of your own, they’ll just close range anyway, making this piloting style moot.
If a kiter is already at range and maintaining range control with any respectable transversal over 1km/s, the poor tracking of Light or Howitzer artys is going to at best ranges cut your volley damage in half, and DPS accordingly. That tickle isn’t going to push them off of you. So best case scenario: You’re going to have to manually pilot to intermittently match their orbit’s velocity vector to reduce transversal as your artys come off cooldown. If you are comfortable with that skill (I personally am not) then more power to you.
Then, autocannon Firetail DPS is rather lackluster. It really needs the neut to shut down the opponent’s modules (preferably DPS modules) ASAP. The DPS benefits of hail are crippled by its poor tracking, meaning you have to sit still at close range to apply damage with Hail, which means any other brawling weapon system (rockets, blasters, pulse lasers) are going to win the DPS race. So you’re looking at the other ammos usually, and doing everything possible to neut them out. You’ll still probably have to do the usual “very choosy targets” and skilled piloting. For example, this can mean engaging brawlers, but sitting 20km away at full cap, and letting them spend cap burning over to you so they start at a cap disadvantage. It also can mean starting the frig fight with maximum transversal, and as their ship spends all its capacitor to deal mediocre damage, reducing your transversal and increasing the DPS pressure, as they’re unable to spend capacitor to monopolize on their better application.
In my experience, non-SAAR armor reps are generally unimpressive. If you can get it to work, I want to hear about it. 
For reference this was the fit I was looking at and analyzing. I didn’t even try to come up with an arty fit:
[Republic Fleet Firetail, wtf]
Multispectrum Energized Membrane II
Small Armor Repairer II
Reactive Armor Hardener
Warp Scrambler II
1MN Afterburner II
Small Compact Pb-Acid Cap Battery
Small Compact Pb-Acid Cap Battery
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
Small Infectious Scoped Energy Neutralizer
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Small Nanobot Accelerator I
Small Projectile Burst Aerator I
