> At 09:55 PM 3/25/97 -0800, Paul Calvi wrote:
Even with modern fire control a BB would have a heck of a time hitting a DD
with its main guns (pick any historical battle). Historically BBs were very
distructive when they were in range to make their attacks. When German Battle
Cruisers engaged British Dreadnaughts, they were very effective. The same
occured when Japanese Battleships engaged British and Dutch ships in the
Eastern Pacific. This is why Yamoto wanted to use his Battleships to destroy
the American Task forces once his carriers neutralized the American Carriers.
The trouble was he was not able to get his BBs into position. Had he, the
outcome of the war in the Pacific may have been very different... Torpedoes
are very deadly but so is a battlewagon with heavy guns, even today the
Russians have some very accurate and heavy guns on their ships. We can assume
in the B5 universe that weapons direction systems are pretty effective and so
I'm not sure that adding size vs. targeting rules to the game gains us
anything except confustion. I have often destroyed large battlewagons with
Destroyer squadrons, because I'm very mobile and have a lot smaller
infrastructure cost for each ship. Phil P.
Perhaps in a campaign setting the current system is self equalizing. In our
experience, the little guys almost always get waxed unless there is greater
than a 5:1 advantage (in points).
I do agree that in the future it could be silly to think "big guns" couldn't
hit as well as "small guns", but then again, if they can miss at all then why
not say the big guns have a higher chance of missing?
Paul
----------
From: Phillip E. Pournelle [SMTP:pepourne@nps.navy.mil]
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 1997 11:08 AM
To: FTGZG-L@bolton.ac.uk
Subject: Big Guns
> At 09:55 PM 3/25/97 -0800, Paul Calvi wrote:
Even with modern fire control a BB would have a heck of a time hitting a DD
with its main guns (pick any historical battle). Historically BBs were very
distructive when they were in range to make their attacks. When German Battle
Cruisers engaged British Dreadnaughts, they were very effective. The same
occured when Japanese Battleships engaged British and Dutch ships in the
Eastern Pacific. This is why Yamoto wanted to use his Battleships to destroy
the American Task forces once his carriers neutralized the American Carriers.
The trouble was he was not able to get his BBs into position. Had he, the
outcome of the war in the Pacific may have been very different... Torpedoes
are very deadly but so is a battlewagon with heavy guns, even today the
Russians have some very accurate and heavy guns on their ships. We can assume
in the B5 universe that weapons direction systems are pretty effective and so
I'm not sure that adding size vs. targeting rules to the game gains us
anything except confustion. I have often destroyed large battlewagons with
Destroyer squadrons, because I'm very mobile and have a lot smaller
infrastructure cost for each ship. Phil P.