The only major difference between 1/32" balsa and 1/16" balsa is what range your hull gets penetrated at. With 1/16", it's 20 feet. With 1/32", it's 30 feet. Anything closer than that, and you're really not going to see much difference, especially if you're using torpedoes. To be honest, though, I have often thought that a fast Japanese cruiser armed with a rotating twin or triple bow gun would be a very effective anti-torpedo-cruiser. It would be fast enough to play with the torpedo-cruisers, big enough to survive getting torpedoed, and the rotating bow gun is very versatile and useful for harrassment and pursuit missions. The only reason I haven't tested my theory yet is because I can only build so many ships at one time.
If I have heard it once, I believe that I have heard it a thousand times. Fixed cannons have proved to be more accurate than rotating ones. Something about it being more difficult to steer and rotate at the same time....
No, rules are rules in every sense. They are followed within the organization that accepts them. What may account for confusion is that individual clubs' rules can vary between them. Just like small gun rules might seem like "guidelines" if you note that there are differences between IRCWCC and MWC. Somebody who doesn't know might also think that baseball rules are just "guidelines" if they happen to notice that some games/teams use a DH while others don't. JM
I have developed a format that may suit your requirments. It's called Capital Warship Combat -Extreme or CWC-X It's fast gun but with some elements from BG. Torps and mulitbroadside cannons are included. You can check it out on my file on this forum under STOKAMOTO. There's a chart there for unit allocation, speed ect. I am currently building my ships for this format. Any questions you can email from this forum.
Let me guess how many people you heard that from, who actually use rotating guns: Zero. In actual practice, most often turrets are trained, and final aiming is done with the ship as with fixed guns. Rotation allows you to cover all bearings (or, at least, those that the guns can actually cover) & does away with any "quadrant" nonsense. As for being "more difficult", well I guess some people just enjoy a challenge and are up to a little more difficulty. JM
Excuse me Johnm, But I am in a BIG Guns club. Every ship that I have seen in this club has rotating turrets! My armed Liberty ship is the only ship whose gun does not rotate.
John, I don't know how much experience YOU have with fixed guns, but I have quite a lot of experience with both, and I can GUARANTEE you that, on a shot-for-shot basis under equivalent circumstances, fixed guns will hit more often than rotating guns. In my torpedo-cruiser, I regularly put holes in my target 50% of the time, and on some days I even managed a 75% hit rate or better, using fixed guns. Every ship I've seen with fixed stern guns has a much higher hit-rate with their fixed stern gun than with their rotating front guns. ON THE OTHER HAND rotating guns are more versatile, and you can send a lot more shells towards the other guy with a rotating gun. Who cares if your hit rate with rotating guns is half that of the other guys' fixed guns, when you're sending 4 times the steel his way? This dynamic plays a major role iin the design philosophy of Big Gun and Fast Gun ships. It's one of the defining features that distinguishes between Big Gun and Fast Gun just as much as the differences in speed, cannons, and armor. In Fast Gun, ships are limited to 50 or 75 rounds per cannon, and once you run out, that's it. Hit rate is hugely important for them, since they can't just spray and pray. Thus, most of their cannons are either fixed, or switch between two fixed positions. In Big Gun, ships can carry as much ammunition as you can fit on board, and you can always come in to reload if you run out. Instead, they are limited to firing once every six or eight seconds, so time is the limiting factor. They can't afford to take the time needed to maneuver the opponent into perfect firing position for a fixed cannon, so they rotate the cannon instead. They sacrifice accuracy to send many more shots downrange. The Morgret Fire Control that is being developed in the WWCC helps increase hit rate for rotating guns, by providing
I had heard at one time that Carl Cammurati in the IRCWCC had designed an automatic tracking and ranging system for his ships. I've got no idea how it works as it was promptly outlawed if I understand correctly, but his work might be useful for the biggun captains out there. He's on this forum as thegeek...perhaps if you shot him a private message he'd be willing to share what he had worked out.
That is very interesting way of explaining the differences between the clubs but I think you nailed it right on the head. I can see where endurence and long battery life for the systems would come much more into play for big gun as they are out there longer.
I've always thought that it might be fun to do a long battle with small gun ships which allowed reloading, rather then simple sorties...kind of like campaign but without the convoy ships.
