RE: Ramming.

>Looking in historical records you will find that Europian ship's have
rammed
> their foes when it was in their best interest.  For example a cruiser
ramming
> a Torpedo Boat, A destoyer ramming a submarine, etc.	When the larger
ship
has 
>little to lose, I'm not so sure the rationality of the rules apply...

And HMS Dreadnought sank a U-boat by ramming!  Also, the DD, HMS
Glowworm,
ramming the CA Hipper, and suicide attacks such as Jervis Bay v. Adm.
Scheer, Rawalpindi v. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, a DD escorting Glorious
v.
S & G all show that suicide attacks are perhaps more common than we'd
tend
to think.  However, while I agree that a larger vessel is more likely to
attempt a ram, I'd rationalise that a clear enough size advantage to
encourage ramming will be a greater incentive to avoid being rammed, and
will also be associated with an advantage in terminal maneuvre by the
smaller ship, so there's no reason to make ramming easier.  

I rather like the "single heroic ship" idea posted here- it avoids a
ram-fest at the end of every battle, while still allowing some
"wide-screen"
over the top behaviour.

Cheers
Rob Paul
"Rob Paul
NERC Institute of Virology 
Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3SR	  Tel. (01865) 512361
rpaul@worf.molbiol.ox.ac.uk
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