Re: SMLs/The GZG Digest V1 #608

Sindre Cools Berg wrote:

[BTW, when you reply to a digest post - PLEASE change the header to
something appropriate... I know I've sinned against that quite often
too, but I berate myself everytime I realise it]

> Though I agree with you on the need for small ships I see a problem
with > the willingness for a fleet to sacrifice large amounts of small
usefull ships > just to soak up damage...

One small, cheap ship can soak up damage which would cripple or even
kill one large, expensive ship. Which of the two ships would you prefer
to have hit, if you're the target?

> In theory only one jammer per salvo (at least if the firer spreads
his
> missiles in an intelligent fashion), 

In theory, yes. In practice it isn't always that easy to be intelligent
- I've seen intelligent-looking 4-salvo spreads concentrate on a single
corvette (out of usually 4, arranged in a diamond pattern around the
capital ship they protected) more than once. (I've also seen
"stupid-looking" salvo placements ignore all decoy units completely and
concentrate on the real target, but that's rarer <g>)

> but take a decent NSL fleet with one
> Super-Dreadnought as the main ship. With 2 overlapping Light escorts 

[Ie, the Kronprinz Wilhelm, escort version]

> you get 10 PDS + the ships own PDS on any ship in the convoy..

Any one, or any two, ships in the convoy. Each CLE (more to the point,
each ADFC) can only protect one ship at a time. However, for the cost
of those three ships (2xCLE + 1 SD), I can get about 7 SMLs. *All* of
them will hit something, and if you don't bring granaatscherven (or fly
in a very tight formation, or very fast) they're all quite likely to
hit your thrust-2 SD. 7 SMs vs 14 PDS means on average some 50 points
of damage... but with granaatscherven, they're unlikely to score any
real damage at all - some salvoes usually hit the SD, but not enough to
get through those 14 PDS.

> > on the other hand, the german capitals are the best _targets_ for
SMs > > ever invented :).
> 
> I don't know really, the NSL fleets have the best Fleet Book equipped

> ADAF ships IMHO...

No, the ESU do. The Beijing/BE has only slightly more PDS than the
KW/E, but its screen and larger hull lets it survive considerably more
punishment. 

In addition most ESU capital ships (ie, everything up to DN size) are
fast enough to force the attacker to dodge at least some salvoes, at
least in Cinematic; NSL capitals can't dodge regardless of which
movement rules you use.

> > > Anyway I've seen missiles do excellent damage due to clever > > >
placements,
> > > but of course we have a house rule that says you can't place
escort
> > > ships closer to the big one than the miniature allows...

<chuckle> That's never made any difference for me, and the minimum
possible distance in our games is on average 3 mu (rather than approx.
1, for you inch-measurers).

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