DDEs vs. DDs

Correct me if I'm wrong, but some list-ite of inestimable worth
indicated that he or she figured the FB destroyer designs were really
DDE designs. Which makes sense if you look at the weapons loadout.

Also, it seems to me Jon the Tuffleymeister went out of his way to
preserve a historic feel - that is to say the caps carry bigger guns
and hit further away. So destroyers carry 2's and 1's mostly. That
replicates the smaller guns vs. the bigger guns flavorwise.

As a consequence, FB destroyers do have trouble engaging caps - since
the cap can pound them before they even enter their RB. If one wanted
to design destroyers to menace the big boys, it seems to me SMRs, dual
3's, single 4's or 5's, dual PTs, or MT missiles would be good
equipment. Mix this with a PDS or two (thus making them capable of
defending themselves versus things like fighters and pirates) or a 1,
and you have a capable little ship that can menace a big boy either in
his max range band or beyond it (since Jon has refrained from
deploying 4s, 5s and 6s in the standard designs very much). At least
with ER SMR, PTs, MT missiles, or dual 3's (if you don't like the idea
of overgunning small hulls or just don't like 4/5/6 class bats on
principle), the DD is a menace to the cap in the caps max range band,
which means bands of them can rip a cap apart in exchange for him
killing a bunch of them.

Or am I way off base somewhere here?

My armaments packages would see a destroyer still on small hull, but
capable of menacing a cap in a useful way. The ships could still
engage in their normal operations (separately deployed). A 4/5 or dual
3s will punch up a pirate just as fast as 2 2s and 2 1s will. In fact,
probably faster because you can fire at far farther ranges. And the
PDS or 1s can be fired if the enemy vessel closes, or to sweep mines,
or to engage hostile fighters.

The type of destroyers I'm talking about are less DDE and more
DD(Torpedo). Travelling in packs, they can really rip up their
targets. And with thrust 6, they can insure that the BBs and BCs don't
close with them. So if they pack a longer range weapon, they can pick
apart the ships from range without a reciprocal threat. If they pack
an equal range weapon, a swarm of them can close quickly with an enemy
and do lots of dice damage. And fire at all RB as they come... but
come fast enough that in theory the enemy only gets 1 or maybe 2 shots
off total.

Anyway, just my latest ponderings.

Thomas Barclay
Software UberMensch
xwave solutions
(613) 831-2018 x 3008