Beam, Radar, Night Fighting and Torpedo questions

evilsam

Mongoose
Hi guys,

A buddy and I played our second game last week. Tons of fun and I think he's ready to buy the game. We played the Cruiser Action off Guadalcanal scenario and a few more questions came up.

Beam Bonus:
How do folks determine if they get the beam bonus? I couldn't find any guidance in the rules (both books). We were playing if the line of fine goes through the Pt or Stb arc of the target ship, the attacker gets the beam bonus. Is this what most folks do?

Radar:
As this is a night mission, we got to try out the radar rules. On pg 16, when it says a ship with radar will detect any ship on the table on a 3+ does that mean any and all the ships on the table or just the ship it wants to target limiting it to one ship detection per turn.

Also, fast ships at night seem pretty impossible to sight/hit without some sort of illumination.

Night fighting:
During the game, a ship with radar detected an enemy ship at extreme range. When it fired, the shot was just out of range (since pre-measuring isn't allowed). Since the shot automatically misses, were we correct to assume the fire ship was illuminated by it's main guns?

Torpedoes:
Torpedoes seem too powerful. Have there been any amendments to those rules (from the core rule book) that I've missed or was it just an big lesson to keep away from them?
 
evilsam said:
Also, fast ships at night seem pretty impossible to sight/hit without some sort of illumination.
I cant comment on rules, but this was spot on in history. Night fighting could only really be done either using star shells or radar directed guns. See the battle of cape matapan. A British BB was able to close to within 2 or 3 miles without being spotted by Italian forces and open fire. Long range night fighting was almost impossible as you couldn't correct fire by shell splashes...
 
read about the night battles around Savo island during WW2

pretty much it was all knife fighting range(under 10,000 yards more like 5000yards)

1 American DD got so close to a Kongo class BC that the BC could not depress it's guns to shoot the DD
The DD was close enough that it's shells could punch the BC armor in some places
 
Beastttt said:
1 American DD got so close to a Kongo class BC that the BC could not depress it's guns to shoot the DD
Saying that, the minimal ranges of BB's and BC's are actually quite high, because of how high the deck was above the water and the height of the turrets. There was no negative depression like on modern tanks.
 
evilsam said:
Hi guys,

A buddy and I played our second game last week. Tons of fun and I think he's ready to buy the game. We played the Cruiser Action off Guadalcanal scenario and a few more questions came up.


evilsam said:
Beam Bonus:
How do folks determine if they get the beam bonus? I couldn't find any guidance in the rules (both books). We were playing if the line of fine goes through the Pt or Stb arc of the target ship, the attacker gets the beam bonus. Is this what most folks do?
Thats how I do it.

evilsam said:
Radar:
As this is a night mission, we got to try out the radar rules. On pg 16, when it says a ship with radar will detect any ship on the table on a 3+ does that mean any and all the ships on the table or just the ship it wants to target limiting it to one ship detection per turn.
One ship per radar check per turn. I myself use 4+ for home games since 3+ is pretty powerful.

evilsam said:
Also, fast ships at night seem pretty impossible to sight/hit without some sort of illumination.
Secondaries and radar, Smaller ships love the cover of darkness for this reason

evilsam said:
Night fighting:
During the game, a ship with radar detected an enemy ship at extreme range. When it fired, the shot was just out of range (since pre-measuring isn't allowed). Since the shot automatically misses, were we correct to assume the fire ship was illuminated by it's main guns?
Any ship firing would be illuminated miss or not.

evilsam said:
Torpedoes:
Torpedoes seem too powerful. Have there been any amendments to those rules (from the core rule book) that I've missed or was it just an big lesson to keep away from them?

Torpedo belt is the word or you are in trouble when a torpedo slams into your big ships.
DD's and Cruisers can be hard to hit but die easy. BBs are easier to hit but have better protection in most cases.
Do you have both books? Theres a little more rules and clarification in the second book.
Remember DD's carry 1 Torp, Cruisers carry 2 Torps and Japanese can get a 3rd.
Ray
 
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