Re: DDEs vs. DDs

Thomas Barclay wrote:

> 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.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean here. Yes, the FB DDs all carry C1s
and C2s; that's mainly because the bigger weapons require bigger hulls
if you want to fit things like engines or hull as well.

> As a consequence, FB destroyers do have trouble engaging caps - since
> the cap can pound them before they even enter their RB. 

<chuckle> Get a bigger gaming board so you can fly faster, or play
Cinematic instead of Vector :-/ With average independent (ie, not tied
to capital units) DD speeds about 20-ish (Vector) or 30-ish
(Cinematic), it is very rare for my small fry to take more than one
turn of long-range fire before they get to reply. Often they don't even
take that one turn.

> 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. 

Um. Your DDs need to be either low-thrust, weak-hulled, or mass about
40 in order to fit that kind of payload (assuming that you want those
PDS but use single-arc main mounts). The first is bad if you want them
to maneuver (which they want if they're to keep the range open), the
second bad if you want them to survive when breathed at, and the third
makes them what I think of as light cruisers (or even heavier, in the
C5 case). They're no longer "small units" to me.

I don't see how a DD could fit a C5 battery and still be both
maneuverable and reasonably survivable. A C5-1 is 16 Mass. A Markgraf-
or Voroshilev-class CA carries 16 Mass of offensive weaponry; a
Huron-class CL carries 16 Mass of *equipment* (ie anything except
engines and hull).

Make sure your weapons are mounted in the AP or AS arc. That way you
can run from the enemy and still shoot at him :-/

While a DD with long-range weapons can harass enemy capitals, they take
a *very* long time inflicting any serious damage. They also cost quite
a bit. For example, take this design:

Mass 28
Cost 98
Weak hull (6 hull boxes)
FTL drive
Thrust 6
1 FC
2 PDS
1 C4-1 (AP)

Eight of these cost about as much as one Komarov- or Theuerdank-class
SD with a Heavy fighter squadron. If the DDs stay in RB4, all of them
fire every turn and neither the SD nor its fighters ever manage to
shoot back at them, it'll take them 20-25 turns to kill the Komarov, or
about 16 turns to kill the Theuerdank... It's more like "Death of a
thousand cuts" than anything else.

PTs have potential to inflict damage fast from fairly long range
(unlike the long-range beam weapons). Unfortunately even C3 batteries
outrange them (and out-shoot them, unless the PT ship is screened).

Regards,

Oerjan Ohlson
oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
- Hen3ry