are there any rules in big gun/ausbg that limit the amount of ammo you can have, or is just what will fit in the ship?
Correct. In Big Gun, there are no limits on ammunition asides from the size and shape of your ship, and other physical concerns.
ah, so if you could some how come up with an ammo reserve that would re load the bb's in magazine of the cannon it would be legal, hmmm... interesting, i might put this over in the research and development topics
If you have too many rounds, you will run out of CO2 well before you run out of ammo. If they do not have the CO2 to shoot them, they just rattle around in the ship gathering rust, using up ballast capacity that you could use for something else useful. Plus you will probably be adding complexity or other issues by trying to install a magazine replinisher. Most of the captains in our club find CO2 capacity to be more limiting than the ammo capacity, as far as I can tell. In my particular ship, the ammo and CO2 generally run low at about the same time. Cheers,
I had been wondering about this myself... Roughly how many rounds for a 7/32" or 1/4" cannon does a 'typical' big gun ship have?
I'm far from the typical Big Gunner, but typical for me is enough ammunition and CO2 for AT LEAST 15 minutes of continuous, maximum-ROF firing. My Viribus Unitis carries more than 1000 rounds at full combat load, and a 48ci HPA bottle, with a 20-oz CO2 bottle on the bench ready for quick swapping. Another boat I helped build, the USS Montana, carried enough ammunition and CO2 for 40 minutes of continous, maximum-ROF firing. More common, I think, is 50-100 rounds per barrel.
For main guns on surface warships, hit rates average 2% to 10%, depending on skipper, range, and distance from skipper to ship. I generally expect about 50% of hits to penetrate, the others having lost energy, hit impenetrable/superstructure, or struck at too sharp an angle. Torpedo-cruisers average 25% to 50% accuracy, with a 75% or higher chance of penetrating, but they also average two shots (port and starboard) every 3 to 5 minutes. Please note that these are very general rules of thumb, and that individual performances vary widely, both sortie-to-sortie and skipper-to-skipper.
So assuming your 1000 round ship at 5% accuracy with 1/2 of those hits making holes you only get 25 holes. That's a lot of ball barrings to use per hole.
huh... well then, how many cannons did they have?, makes me think twice berfore fitting out a fully armed Richelieu, if the c02 runs out before the ammo ill need more c02 bottles then ammo bottles
I think I'd better re-check my numbers. That sounds about right for number of holes, but I don't often empty my magazines to do it. There's a battle coming up in May, so I'll keep a close count then.
My Rodney's three triple 1/4 cannon carry approx 150 rounds per magazine. I use a 20 oz CO2 bottle, and have to reload the guns twice per bottle. I can reload a third time, but I run out of gas partway through the third refill. I consider Rodney to be a bit of a gas hog. Remember, each 1/4 ball weighs approx one gram, and this weight is carried just below deck level, well above the waterline.
hmmm. thats sorta close to a richelieu exept 1 less 1/4 inch barrel but then its got 9 (i forget whats the smallest size is in ausbg, but what ever it is insert that here) barrels, sounds like if i use a 20oz it should run out at the same time as the ammo seeing as you have to reload twice for a 9 barrel setup a 17 barrel set up should use up that other half of the co2, well almost use up the whole bottle, assuming they have 150 bb's per mag i also see your concern about the weight of the bb's but to counter this i just have to shoot alot of bb's at alot of other ships , but serouisly ill have to set up the weight carfully as to not get a top heavy ship like that one in the ausbg vids on youtube, not sure what ship it is but its much smaller then the battleships and it tilts and rolls whenever it shoots.
Here's some info to play with. In the town that I live in is the manufacturer of Boom Boy Cannon. He's having a break due to family reasons at the moment but he made heaps of indiana style cannon and my cannon in HMS Lion are CMS cannon heavily modified by him to be Boomers. My cannon are 4in diameter triple barelled 1/4in firing Indiana style cannon. The come apart completely to individual pieces for maintenence which has rarely needed to be done in the last 6 years since he redid them. Each cannon holds 140 rounds of 1/4in ammo and I can empty all the magazines (420) rounds twice (840 shots) befire needing to regas. Lion holds only 1 X 20oz bottle. My cannon are not as efficient as other peoples because I've got 0.7mm windage in the barrels rather than tight bore barrels. Where others get hits on the barrels that stop balls going through mine just keep spitting them out. A Richeliu with 5in mags holde 250rounds per mag (500 rounds) and I would expect to empty twice to need a regas too. If you arm the rear turrets (3/16 firing) you'll obviously run out of gas sooner but at least you're rear end is protected, As for hitting rate it really is on the skippers and experience. Darren's Nelson with 1 shot at my tanker put her under within 2 meters of entering the combat zone,(My fault as I was supposed tobe protecting her, Darren's dad Ron did a much better job of guiding the young skipper driving her earlier) and by the same token I've done that to others. The balls are above the waterline but the barrels have far more effect on balance than the balls as they are even higher and heavier and overhang the sides. Cheers
yep, covering my a$* with the rears well, now that i know that the warships can come into regas/reload in battle(cheers for that Michael), i guess its not much of an issue anymore, ill just have to work on making everything easy and quick to change out in battle...
Remember that in BIG GUNS the rate of fire is a lot slower. Here is our rate of fire table. Scale Caliber of Cannon Rate of Fire 0.177 inches (bb) 1 round per barrel every 4 seconds 3/16 inches 1 round per barrel every 4 seconds 7/32 inches 1 round per barrel every 6 seconds 1/4 inches (except Torpedoes) 1 round per barrel every 8 seconds Torpedoes Non-Reloading
With a Richileu Burnsey you just have the entire Citadel (main superstructure area minus the rear cannon area) removable so you can access your gas bottle, and the turret covers easy to take off with reloading tubes sited for easy access. Lion's 2 superstructure areas are joined by the decking between them and it comes off to give me access to fit my fat hand into the guts to pull the bottle out. the turret covers come off over the barrels and I've got plugs in the reload tubes and pins to hold them there, just pull the pins, pull out the plugs and pour in the ammo. Takes less than 5 mins to fully regas and rearm her while she sits in the water at pond side, I dont bother to pull her out to do it. We're big gun here too so the same rate of fire for all the above, but we can have reloading torps, the non reloading torps would be a pain in the a**. My Skippione Africano (capitani Romani Class Italian super lightweight) has a quad torp set up in the middle, 2 barrels side by side (one space apart) and 2 barrels above (one space apart top to bottom and side to side), sort of 2 on 2 arrangement like the real thing had and it carries 6 balls per barrel, 3 reloads per torp that the real thing had, with a rate of fire of once every 30 sec but she does reload and puts a lovely hole in things when she hits them right. still have to get her into position and do it perfectly but I've sunk my own tramp once with her and knocked a 1in square hole in the rear of a Richileu. Just above the waterline damn it!
with the turret covers, (this has probably been tried before) can you have them held on with reusable tape,reusable tape is like a uber version of Velcro, the hooks and loops are much smaller, i use it to hold the batteries to the chassis of my rc drift car, and its main strength is sideways movement, so (in theory) when the covers are shot they wouldn't come off but when you need to reload they pull off easily.
