The relative power of destroyer (and cruiser) launched torpedoes has always rung a little untrue to me.
In game terms cruisers seem a wate of time. One on one against a battleship they loose (as they should). One one one against a destroyerthey take a torpedo salvo and get about a 50/50 shot at taking out the destroyer as it launches. Even if they succeed the odds are the salvo will crepple of sink them.
I think one reason for this occured to me during a discussion yesterday.
I am not questioning the defined range of a torpedo of 10,000 yards. but would like to note that if the torpedo were travelling at 30 knots it would take approximately 10 minutes to travel the distance (this is consistant with the scales involved).
Such a shot, given appropriate time to do the calculations (films on submarine warefare often leave the captain waiting for "a fireing solution" though I have not seen any slide rules in the hands of destroyer crews), seems reasonable only if your target is steaming along oblivious to the threat. I suspect that 10 minutes would be ample time for the targetted ship to change speed and or alter course enough for the torpedoes to miss.
In the case of a submarine attack it is reasonable to assume that the target will be unaware of the attack (though there is a little memory telling me that even sub captains preferred to launch from a maximum range of 3000 yards).
If this assertion is correct there are a number of ways the game could reflect this. The following 2 occured to me.
1. Reduce the range of ship (i.e. not submarines) based torpedoes to 3"
2. Require crew quality checks for attacking at ranges over 3". This would reflect either the calculation required (firer), the last minutes evasive action (the target) or an opposed check.
This, particularly if combined with the secondaries (or even 6" guns a below) are immune to the fast moving modifer at close range rule modification mentioned in earlier threads, would redress the balance.
In game terms cruisers seem a wate of time. One on one against a battleship they loose (as they should). One one one against a destroyerthey take a torpedo salvo and get about a 50/50 shot at taking out the destroyer as it launches. Even if they succeed the odds are the salvo will crepple of sink them.
I think one reason for this occured to me during a discussion yesterday.
I am not questioning the defined range of a torpedo of 10,000 yards. but would like to note that if the torpedo were travelling at 30 knots it would take approximately 10 minutes to travel the distance (this is consistant with the scales involved).
Such a shot, given appropriate time to do the calculations (films on submarine warefare often leave the captain waiting for "a fireing solution" though I have not seen any slide rules in the hands of destroyer crews), seems reasonable only if your target is steaming along oblivious to the threat. I suspect that 10 minutes would be ample time for the targetted ship to change speed and or alter course enough for the torpedoes to miss.
In the case of a submarine attack it is reasonable to assume that the target will be unaware of the attack (though there is a little memory telling me that even sub captains preferred to launch from a maximum range of 3000 yards).
If this assertion is correct there are a number of ways the game could reflect this. The following 2 occured to me.
1. Reduce the range of ship (i.e. not submarines) based torpedoes to 3"
2. Require crew quality checks for attacking at ranges over 3". This would reflect either the calculation required (firer), the last minutes evasive action (the target) or an opposed check.
This, particularly if combined with the secondaries (or even 6" guns a below) are immune to the fast moving modifer at close range rule modification mentioned in earlier threads, would redress the balance.
