R/C Naval Combat

Posted By Darren Scott on 10 Aug 2009 03:54 AM
How did the AusBG style battle work out? Did the merchants get escorted by their warships? What about the skippers? Did they enjoy that style of battle?

Interestingly, we were not aware at the time that AUSBG was doing this.  It was proposed as a "low damage" event for Friday, to better preserve ships for the "Main Event" stuff on Saturday and Sunday.

Best laid plans.  Understanding that it was important for the cargo to get through (or, not, if on the opposing side), the focus shifted to attacking and escorting/defending at all costs.  Highest carnage battle we had seen in some time, and a huge amount of fun.  It also kind of focuses the captains on the real purposes of the navy - to make sure men and materiel get through or to choke off the enemy supplies.

After we got over the stunned shock of getting exactly the opposite result from what was expected, It instantly became a regular feature of NABGO.

Cheers,

Posted By Kotori87 on 29 Sep 2010 01:17 PM
About the only things people still agree on is the speed chart and the sizes of balsa and ball bearings to use.

Is that information available online?

How do you determine how to arm your ship? How many main guns, secondary guns and/or torpedoes can you put on a ship?

I was told once that if the weapon was there and you can fit it in the boat, you can install it. Is this true?

J

The WWCC, NTXBG, and AusBG all have their rules posted online.  I believe the other Big Gun clubs do, as well, but I don't remember their website URLs.  You'll notice that, for the most part, each club's rules are very similar, with only minor variations on allowed rib spacing, margin of error on scale, extra depth, etc.  Unfortunately, resolving all those minor variations is quite a challenge because none of the clubs can agree on which variations to use.

Armament-wise, you've basically described it.  For any gun 3" or bigger, if it had it, you can (try to) arm it.  Arming all the main guns is pretty popular, but occasionally people include secondary guns as well for either anti-torpedoboat work or to defend their aft.  We've even got a few folks who insist on arming all the secondaries instead of the main guns.  Once I even saw a guy who had armed every gun his ship carried, but forgot to save room for a CO2 bottle, batteries, or even motors   That was embarrassing...

It's a bit different for torpedoes, though.  The WWCC has discovered a gameplay limit of 3 torpedoes per side.  Without such a limit, you get ships like Kitikami and Oi with 30+ torpedoes, that can sink any other ship in a single shot and take the fun out of the game.

If you're looking for historically accurate, it's hard to get better than the computer game Jutland:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLFdhewl83M

Kitikami and Oi are still effective boats in the WWCC, despite the limitation on torpedoes.  I helped build a squadron of them several years back.  We laid down four hulls, three of which were sold to pay for completion of the fourth. The fourth proved to be a capable battler, and is only shelved right now because her skipper built new guns for his battleship, and he can only repair one ship at a time.  All the 3-tube-per-side limitation does is ensure that they are properly balanced with the other ships on the water.

Posted By Tugboat on 05 Oct 2010 08:01 PM
Given the historically poor performance of even Japanese torpedoes, I wouldn't expect a properly-modelled wargame to give them a super-shot. The historical hit rate for the IJN (best torpedoes and torpedomen of WW2 surface ships, I believe) was around 6 or 7%. So for 30 torps fired, you're looking at 2 hits. Yes they'd hurt, but it's not all that and a bag of chips.

The A&A minis game isn't really historically accurate, it is just a quick tabletop game that you could play a dozen games in an afternoon.

For a more accurate game we would play Victory At Sea from Mongoose publishing. Many more variables, and a much more detailed overall game.

J

Posted By Tugboat on 05 Oct 2010 08:01 PM
Given the historically poor performance of even Japanese torpedoes, I wouldn't expect a properly-modelled wargame to give them a super-shot. The historical hit rate for the IJN (best torpedoes and torpedomen of WW2 surface ships, I believe) was around 6 or 7%. So for 30 torps fired, you're looking at 2 hits. Yes they'd hurt, but it's not all that and a bag of chips.

The numbers will change if you separate the cruiser fired torpedoes from the destroyer fired torpedoes.  The destroyers were miles more effective as a torpedo delivery system then the cruisers were.  US cruiser design is often faulted for not including torpedoes, but history shows that they really didnt accomplish much fired from a cruiser AND were a very dangerous liability.