Re: Wet Thrust for WW2

On Tue, 4 Nov 1997 campbelr@dns.kunsan.af.mil wrote:

Status: RO

> I somewhere on my hard drive still have the rules for this, and I did 
> have one problem that I would like to bring up. It may be just me, 
> but I feel the ships have to many guns. For example the Iowa class 
> only had 3 main batteries, (and IIRC) 10 secondary, and 24 or so
> tertiary batteries.
> I think the game would have to go through a major re-write for this 
> so as it is it's just a pet peeve, and IMHO anyway. But I thought I'd 
> bring it up.
> 
> Randy
> 
Actually the Iowa is rated at 9,  16" guns in three turrets which
translates to 9 A batts in 3, 3 arc groups.  The reasoning for giving
the
Iowa 9 A batts to to be able to scale in larger and smaller calibres. 
For
instance the 18" guns of the Yamoto are rated at 2 18" guns = 3 A bats
and earlier 14" guns are rated at 3 guns for 2 A batts.  This allows
guns
with similar range to be grouped as similar batteries but allows
differentiation between calibres since the weight of fire will be
different.

Also, late in the war, American ships did have an excessive amount of
short range firepower.	The Iowa class mounts 9, 16" guns, 20 5" dual
purpose guns and anywhere from 40-100 40mm and 20mm AA guns.

Compare this to Post WWI battleships with 6-10 14" guns, 10-12 5-6"
secondaries and maybe 10-20 AA guns.

Another reason for assigning ratios close to 1:1 for guns to batteries
is
that it makes some of the British designs easier to deal with.	Center
turrets need to be modeled well since since an entire design concept was
based on it.  The theory being that broadside weight was the critical
factor, but to keep turret size and weight down, the guns were
distributed
along the length of the ship - front, middle and stern.  Most middle
turrets were double gunned although there are cruisers with triple
mounts.
If the ratio of gun to	battery was too high then these middle turrets
would be difficult to rate correctly.

Individual turrets are not marked for critical hits.  You can't get a
turret hit and knock out all three guns on an Iowa.  The best you can do
is take them out individually.	I didn't think it was worth the extra
effort to try to work that particular factor in.

Therefore, the current rating system for batteries is a compromise
between
detail and maintaining the simplicity of the FT system.

One common complaint is that it takes too long to pound a battlship
while
cruisers and destroyers die very quickly.  This is due to the low armor
(2
and 1 respectively) as well as the low tonnages of these ships.  I still
not certain if it is necessary to adjust this since historically there
were very few Capital ship vs. cruiser/escort battles.	The instances
I've
read about seem to indicate that destroyers that did close got ripped
and
usually stayed a respectable distance away and let the big guys slug it
out.

--Binhan