RE: Re: Fighters

At 8:08 AM -0700 5/6/02, Brian Bilderback wrote:
>
>Boring, but not historically unprecedented -- eg Prince of Wales.

But as the British said, Battleships lying at rest are easy targets 
for aircraft, not so if they are maneuvering and under way. Well, if 
they don't have 30 AA guns between the two of them and little in the 
way of coordination of said AA defenses, then they are still sauce 
for the Goose of Air Attacks.

So really the question is, do you build or change ships so they have 
a greater AA fit? You betcha. Did the US change the amount of AA 
defenses on their battleships from the start of WWII compared to the 
end? Well, the Iowa's had 10 5"38's that were excellent at AA work 
with their large proximity fused fragmentation rounds, 19 40mm quad 
guns and 52 20mm AA guns. Three layers there folks.

Compare that with the 10 5"/38s, 4 quad 1.1" AA guns and 18 .50 Cal 
MGs that the North Carolina's started out with. They had a massive 
increase in anti-aircraft armament.

[note, I'm agreeing with you in this Brian]
>
>Design should be part of tactics and strategy.  A game design that 
>is tweaked to make bad designs work well isn't a good gaming system, 
>it's GW.  Once the designs make room for fighter defense, then it 
>becomes interesting on-board again (Until someone comes up with 
>another design/combo for which you have to readjust.  Welcome to an 
>arms race).

Its called coordination of your designs, fitments, and what gets 
deployed against a given target. Not all battles have everything 
optimal.

All those folks who are bitching about fighters or the rock scissors 
paper argument need to read about the Battle of Savo Island.

>Real ships can't outrun
>>fighters and get creamed by massive swarms when caught. Why bother
putting
>>the figures on the table in the first place?
>
>Which is why real ships employ all sorts of intermeshing defenses, 
>and why well-designed FLEETS are as important as well-designed SHIPS.

Thank you.
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