WW1

S

Skaran

Banded Mongoose
I have been going through the Traveller Vehicle Handbook. I have been able to reproduce the TL4 Terror-Roc patrol fighter (the illustration is a large biplane) which based on the tech descriptions is late nineteenth early twentieth century, though looking at the Liberty class ironclad this goes back to the 1860s. The TL5 Vanguard is clearly a WW2 fighter. So where do I get my WW1 artillery and naval guns from? The period is obviously a transitional one from black powder cannon to more 'modern' types but where are they? There is a TL4 field gun in the Central Supply Catalogue and a TL3 black powder mortar and cannon as well.
Any ideas on how to arm a pre-dreadnought with 8 and 12" TL4 breech loading guns? etc. For example the Royal Sovereign class pre-dreadnoughts built from 1889 - 1894 had
2 × twin 13.5 in (343 mm) guns
10 × single 6 in (152 mm) guns
10 × single 6 pdr 2.2 in (57 mm) guns
12 × single 3 pdr 1.9 in (47 mm) guns
7 × 18 in (450 mm) torpedo tubes

I need these for some of my more primitive worlds.
 
The quick but not necessarily accurate way would be to take the TL 4 weapons that you have and create scaled versions to meet your needs. For example you could take the TL 4 field gun example and decrease its Damage and Range (and change the crew?) to create smaller versions. Worry less about historical accuracy and more about creating a consistent feel to scale the game stats.
 
The Bombardment Guns (CSC, p126) probably represent e.g. heavy ships guns of WWII.
The 67 tonne BL13.5" is clearly smaller and earlier, so perhaps 1DD?

The TL4 Field Gun and TL6 autocannons gives us an idea of caliber vs. damage.

How about something like:
1DD _ 13.5 in (343 mm) guns [Lighter Bombardment Gun]
8D __ 6 in (152 mm) guns [TL4 Field Gun]
6D __ 6 pdr 2.2 in (57 mm) guns
5D __ 3 pdr 1.9 in (47 mm) guns
1DD _ Torpedo [VH,p43]
 
AnotherDilbert said:
The Bombardment Guns (CSC, p126) probably represent e.g. heavy ships guns of WWII.
The 67 tonne BL13.5" is clearly smaller and earlier, so perhaps 1DD?

The TL4 Field Gun and TL6 autocannons gives us an idea of caliber vs. damage.

How about something like:
1DD _ 13.5 in (343 mm) guns [Lighter Bombardment Gun]
8D __ 6 in (152 mm) guns [TL4 Field Gun]
6D __ 6 pdr 2.2 in (57 mm) guns
5D __ 3 pdr 1.9 in (47 mm) guns
1DD _ Torpedo [VH,p43]
Click to expand...
I would put the 13.5 in at 2DD (if nothing else to leave space between 6in and 13.5 in)

You also need to consider Rate of Fire and AP.

Rate of Fire is something like: 1 or 2 per minute for the 13.5 in; 5 per minute for the 6 in; 10 per minute ( 1 per round) for the 6 and 3 pdrs.

AP should be good (equal to the ship's armour) for the 13.5 in; poor (1 or 2) for the 6 in and 0 for the 6 and 3 pdrs.
As you increase the caliber from 8 in to 18 in the main change will be to the AP.
 
Jackstar said:
I would put the 13.5 in at 2DD (if nothing else to leave space between 6in and 13.5 in)
Click to expand...
I agree in principle, but the TL5 220 tonne Bombardment Gun is 2DD (heavier than a WWI 18" gun). A TL4 67 tonne gun should do less damage. I could go for 15D or 1½DD, but that is a bit clumsy.


Jackstar said:
You also need to consider Rate of Fire and AP.

Rate of Fire is something like: 1 or 2 per minute for the 13.5 in; 5 per minute for the 6 in; 10 per minute ( 1 per round) for the 6 and 3 pdrs.

AP should be good (equal to the ship's armour) for the 13.5 in; poor (1 or 2) for the 6 in and 0 for the 6 and 3 pdrs.
Click to expand...
Remember that we probably fire AP ammunition with additional AP.

The combat system is not all that fine-grained; all weapons generally RoF 1/round, unless they have a very high fully automatic RoF like autocannon.


Jackstar said:
As you increase the caliber from 8 in to 18 in the main change will be to the AP.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure that is consistent how the combat system work.
 
World War 1 and 2 naval guns were not that dissimilar. There were some advances in AP shell design.

British 15" from 1915-1965; 880kg shell at 800m/s to 35km, theoretical rate 2/minute

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BL_15-inch_Mk_I_naval_gun

German 15" from 1940; 800kg shell at 820m/s to 36km, theoretical rate 2.5/minute

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/38_cm_SK_C/34_naval_gun

Pre-WW1 guns, such as from American Civil War, were much lesser beasts, and were unreliable as well (In game, maybe it breaks if you roll double 1 to hit?)
 
Yea world war 1 is around the start of modern guns, and before that is dodgy, but the thread title is WW1 and I think it's relevant.
 
Annatar Giftbringer said:
Regarding 1 1/2 DD, how about 1DD+3 or something like that?
Click to expand...
That would be better, but we must also define how it interacts with AP ammunition; AP 10, AP15 ?


Annatar Giftbringer said:
For slower RoF, you could give them a longer reload-time?
Click to expand...
Sure, but note that even old manually muzzle-loaded guns have no RoF, so can fire every round of 6 s by RAW... (CSC, p128)

The MgT2 system is very simple, it just doesn't handle such detail.
 
AnotherDilbert said:
Jackstar said:
I would put the 13.5 in at 2DD (if nothing else to leave space between 6in and 13.5 in)
Click to expand...
I agree in principle, but the TL5 220 tonne Bombardment Gun is 2DD (heavier than a WWI 18" gun). A TL4 67 tonne gun should do less damage. I could go for 15D or 1½DD, but that is a bit clumsy.
Click to expand...
The 18 in gun is 151 tonne but in its turret it's 839 tonne (admitily including some armour). More like the TL5 500 tonne Heavy Bombardment Gun (3DD).
 
AnotherDilbert said:
Annatar Giftbringer said:
Regarding 1 1/2 DD, how about 1DD+3 or something like that?
Click to expand...
That would be better, but we must also define how it interacts with AP ammunition; AP 10, AP15 ?


Annatar Giftbringer said:
For slower RoF, you could give them a longer reload-time?
Click to expand...
Sure, but note that even old manually muzzle-loaded guns have no RoF, so can fire every round of 6 s by RAW... (CSC, p128)

The MgT2 system is very simple, it just doesn't handle such detail.
Click to expand...



Well, AP is based on number of dice rolled, so 1DD and 1DD+3 should get the same effect from AP ammo?

I thought there were more weapons that took longer to reload, but apparently my memory is slightly imperfect... :)

The only ones I found was antique rifle that requires a gun combat check to reload successfully and the auxiliary grenade launcher that requires three minor actions to reload.

Screw up the musket check and it’ll be another combat round before you can fire, and aux grenades can fire every other round at best, assuming you do nothing but reload with all your actions.

(It could also be argued that the gun combat check is a separate action from “reload” and that antique weapons thus require minimum two minor actions (assuming the gun combat check is a minor action), lowering its RoF)

I agree on the designed level of detail, but there are tools available if one wants more detail, like “takes two full rounds to reload”, damage xD+Y and so on :)
 
AnotherDilbert said:
Jackstar said:
AP should be good (equal to the ship's armour) for the 13.5 in; poor (1 or 2) for the 6 in and 0 for the 6 and 3 pdrs.
Click to expand...
Remember that we probably fire AP ammunition with additional AP.
Click to expand...
From VH page 35 we get max Protection of 10 for TL 3-5 (ignoring the fact that it is called "Iron" armour) with*3 for AFV (A Battleship must be an AFV) so max 30 Protection . Nowhere near enough for Royal Sovereign let alone Yamato.( A 1DD AP shell has 10 AP and does average damage of 35.)
 
Jackstar said:
From VH page 35 we get max Protection of 10 for TL 3-5 (ignoring the fact that it is called "Iron" armour) with*3 for AFV (A Battleship must be an AFV) so max 30 Protection . Nowhere near enough for Royal Sovereign let alone Yamato.( A 1DD AP shell has 10 AP and does average damage of 35.)
Click to expand...
Here is where things break down a bit.

Ships have no AFV trait (VH, p21), so Armour is max 15 (VH, p34).

A 14 kDt Royal Sovereign would be about 40 000 Spaces so has 160 000 Hull.

A 1DD AP10 shell would do average 30 damage, so it would take about 5300 capital gun or torpedo hits to sink the battleship. Hence the ship is nearly unsinkable.

The problem is certainly not that the guns do to much damage.
 
Jackstar said:
The 18 in gun is 151 tonne but in its turret it's 839 tonne (admitily including some armour). More like the TL5 500 tonne Heavy Bombardment Gun (3DD).
Click to expand...

The 500 tonne bombardment gun is gun only, armoured turret would be extra...
 
Annatar Giftbringer said:
Well, AP is based on number of dice rolled, so 1DD and 1DD+3 should get the same effect from AP ammo?
Click to expand...
Quite, but if we used 1DD+3 to model 1½DD (≈15D) it would be fair to give it AP 15 from AP ammunition?


Annatar Giftbringer said:
I thought there were more weapons that took longer to reload, but apparently my memory is slightly imperfect... :)
Click to expand...
Agreed, the mechanism exists, but is barely used. See e.g. Black Powder Gun (CSC, p128).

Edit:
"Under favourable circumstances, the 13.5 in guns on the Anson could fire once every two minutes. Garbutt, Naval Gunnery, p123"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BL_13.5_inch_naval_gun_Mk_I_-_IV#Operating_characteristics

Once every 2 minutes would be once every 12 rounds.
 
AnotherDilbert said:
Jackstar said:
The 18 in gun is 151 tonne but in its turret it's 839 tonne (admitily including some armour).
Click to expand...
Source?

The BL 15" were mounted in twin towers of about 800 (±50) tonnes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BL_15_inch_/42_naval_gun#Mounting
Click to expand...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BL_18-inch_Mk_I_naval_gun

Note that a single 18 was about the same as a twin 15 in in size. HMS Courageous and HMS Furious were the same size.

What is not clear is how much of the turret is armour and how much the gun carriage.
 
Jackstar said:
What is not clear is how much of the turret is armour and how much the gun carriage.
Click to expand...
Thanks.

We can guess, look at the German 38 cm (15") SK L/45 naval gun.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langer_Max
It weighs 270 tonnes apparently including mobile land mount. This compares with the Bombardment Gun (CSC, p126) of 220 tonnes.

A fixed (but rotating) mount should be lighter?

I would set a WWI-II roughly 15" battleship gun at 2DD.
The lighter pre-dreadnought guns at 1DD - 1½DD.
 
Jackstar said:
Note that a single 18 was about the same as a twin 15 in in size. HMS Courageous and HMS Furious were the same size.

What is not clear is how much of the turret is armour and how much the gun carriage.
Click to expand...
The 15" was 100 tonnes, the 18" was 150 tonnes (gun only).

The single turret on Furious was 840 tonnes, the fixed mount on monitors were 390 tonnes. http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNBR_18-40_mk1.php#Mount/Turret_Data

I think we can assume that armour is a considerable part of the 450 tonne difference.
 
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