Sink the Scharnhorst!

[gazman]

I don't really have an issue with destroyers being almost unhittable. The issue is with how a fleet can be constructed entirely of them and still be 'legal'.

It doesn't take much to work out the ideal fleet for the two scenarios that are used for the tourneys... both need ships sunk to get victory points, if a ship is hard to hit, it's hard to sink...

I don't think anyone is going to beat 15 Japanese destroyers with their long lance torpedoes. Even if the torpedoes don't kill you then the constant barrage of secondaries will.

You only need to turn beam on to fire your torpedo, after that you can swish about and stay on a six to hit, even within ten inches.

I think the game works fine as long as sensible fleets are selected.

Si

 

[EgstonVonBrick]

Si,

I agree...

maybe next game we should play a 'realistic' scenario to see how well the destroyers cope! rather than a slog until one side is totally destroyed.

Although i'd still be worried about the Destroyers secondaries pummeling me, even if there were only the three of them!

What about a 'mission' based scenario?

Or even see what effect aircraft would have, but if i can remember correctly (not often that i do) weren't these quite powerful in the first game we played?

Cheers
Ev

 

[EgstonVonBrick]

Si,

As an aside; German Destroyer stuff from Wiki so may need checking

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_World_War_II_destroyers

These say they have 8 x 533mm torpedo tubes...

Why then in the rules do they only get one shot for their torpedoes?

Also would they really fire all 8 in one go? I'd have thought you would loose of 4 then you've got more for another go. Also from the pictures here;
http://www.german-navy.de/kriegsmarine/ships/destroyer/index.html
it looks like they would be able to fire from any side - may need to blag some books of my father!

Hmm, I'll let you always hit me on a 6 if i can have a couple of extra shots with my torpedoes

Looking at their fate a few were actually sunk - although, of the first batch two were sunk by 'friendly' fire.

Cheers
Ev

 

[Ben2]

Torpedoes are scaled 2:1. So the Z class with 8 gets 4 dice, the Fubuki with 10 gets five dice etc.

Combining the ability to hit on 7s and the +1 to gunnery (but not torpedoes) within ten inches does mitigate this somewhat.

If people take unbalanced fleets ie all destroyers or all aircraft carriers then it will impact on the relative values of fleets.

I have a Japanese tournament fleet already painted up with three destroyers. Lacking the OOB stuff for the tournament if I go with a japanese fleet that is what I'll take, and I imagine anyone going all destroyer will get pretty poor sportsmanship scores in a tourney.

 

[Wishbone]

odd really, I think the japanese navy was a fan of massed destroyer attacks. they did a lot of naval excersises with them through the twenties and thirties. There were also a lot of practises of massed night time destroyer operations. they lost a suprising number of destroyers in peace time this way! not sure how many operations were conducted like that in WW2.

 

[Soulmage]

I seem to remember reading about several Japanese destroyer pack engagements.

I just remember thinking. . . they should have brought the battleships so that the big boys could duke it out!

 

[gazman]

OK, lets do the other scenarios. See how they turn out.