Convoy Attack/Defense I play fast gun and so that’s what this was intended for, but I don’t see why it couldn’t be modified to work with big gun rule sets. Sinking is what makes this sport truly exciting and different and this scenario should grant plenty of carnage regardless of the caliber of gun you use. Unfortunately, my club isn’t the biggest so when you combine that with a modern pump and a high performance motor it usually takes some sort of failure or gross tactical error to send someone swimming. And when you are short on captains it is painful to ask a captain to make cargo runs instead of manning his or her normal battle stations in order to run a campaign battle. This scenario allows smaller clubs to conduct a limited campaign type battle without requiring warship captains to step down to a rusty old freighter. However you could use guests or even spectators (when available) to run cargo vessels to get people hooked without the risks associated with handing over an armed vessel to someone you might have just met. Unarmed merchant vessels are cheap to build and also make great loaner boats. And in this scenario, merchant captains get to contribute to their cause in a meaningful way. Setup: Split the combat warships into two teams. The defending team is given command of at least 3 merchant vessels that might have appeared in a convoy. The more targets…err…merchant vessels on the water the better. Merchant vessels are given a very small pump (7/8” max diameter impeller and a maximum of 60 milliamp motor but no restrictor is required) and may be either under r/c command or attached to an anchor. This gives them a pumping capacity of around .5 gallons a minute but uses very minimal battery capacity. Merchant vessels at anchor are to be spread out to allow room for maneuvering but not so much that they cover the entire pond. The merchant vessels are granted pumps on the assumption that they are going to take hits, especially those at anchor, but not so large a pump that they are impossible to sink. Merchant vessels may have a foam bumper added to the bow to protect against ramming by inexperienced captains. Game play: Cargo vessels are free to maneuver but have to make runs around the convoy and a floating buoy and then return (forming a loop) to score points. Attackers may attack the cargo vessels or the defending warships. The defenders should attempt to defend the transports however they see fit. Battle till everyone is sunk/on five or for 20-30 minute time limit. Scoring: Counting bb holes is boring and tedious so don’t bother. Instead, count the exciting part of this hobby--count how many ships sunk! Merchant ships are worth 1 point per full 12” of length. That makes a liberty ship worth 3 points. R/C merchant ships that survive a cargo run add one point per full 12” of length to their team. Warships are worth 2 points per battle unit. Points are likely to end up uneven, but that is ok because you just switch sides, rearm/repair and go at it again and then compare the scores to see who really ruled the waves. Simple, easy, and for most folks shouldn’t require a calculator. Like most things in life, this is not a “fair” scenario in that all things are not even. The attacking team is likely to achieve more points than the defending team. But if you reset and the attackers and defenders switch roles then you can compare the points from the two sorties and then you have a fair comparison.
60mA won't move water at all. Even a BC micro pump is 5 to 10 times that much. I think the scenario is interesting, though.
That sounds pretty much like the system we have been using in the AusBG. Merchants have to do convoy runs, and gain points for completing a run, based on tonnage. No counting holes, warships can't score points, fast merchants do twice the number of laps as slow merchants. The carnage can be incredible.
Only if it wants to get shot. Ramming a warship with a merchant is a universally bad idea, it stops the merchant dead, in the killzone of an armed, and rightfully irritated gun platform.
but what if say in Big gun used an aluminum ramming bow and had extra armor on the places it might get hit.
That's a negative on aluminum armor. All ships must meet penetrability requirements. As far as ram-sinking a ship, the challenge is to hit the target in a place that it's penetrable, not getting a harder ram bow. My Viribus Unitis's wooden ram bow is perfectly capable of punching through another battleship's balsa armor if I ram it at 25 knots. Since my ram bow is more than 1" below the waterline, however, there are very few ships that are penetrable that deep, and I know to avoid bumping these particular ships. Most other ships have Atlantic-style bows that end up hitting the target's thick plywood subdeck instead of penetrable balsa, with even less effect than my VU's ram bow. The WWCC does specifically allow transports to ram any other ship. It's their only offense, and it's basically harmless. Most transports are too light and most warships are too stable, so any collision ends as Darren described, with the attacking transport stopped just inside the warship's kill zone. The only exception is if some poor foolish cruiser skipper is dumb enough to carefully position his ship directly in front of a really big, really slow, and really unmaneuverable transport like the USS Neosho. Don't laugh, it's actually happened. Twice. Same cruiser and transport both times, too
My Maru did a full speed t-bone onto a NC, hit the upper 3/8 solid zone and bounced off by several inches. not a good spot to be, but rather hilarious to see
I remember Neosho, the transport that rammed and sank the light cruiser Juneau on two occasions. The ship was still deadly even after it sank! An un-named dreadnought got caught in the Neosho's float during the Last Man Standing. The Juneau saw an inviting, stationary target, and came to investigate, but got hung up as well. The un-named dreadnought succumbed to it's wounds and pulled the Juneau down with it, giving Neosho yet a third claim to sinking the Juneau.
Has anyone tried to control two convoy ships with one radio? I have used two RC car radios with one in each hand to control two ships. It's a challenge to steer with thumbs on steering wheels! I am looking into using one four channel radio with the right stick one ship and the left stick the other ship. That should be easer to control. The two receivers would be both four channel receivers but with only two servos plugged into eash. Channels one and two would control one of the ships and channels three and four would control the other. That way we can get two convoy ships out of the loss of only one combat ship. Just someting I am looking into.
With todays Ghz multi-freq radios, there's no need to economize on frequencies / radios. And I think you'll find trying to handle one boat in the chaos of a melee to be a full time job.
I've never considered it, but it'd be possible I'm pretty sure, but I don't believe I could make use of it with reasonable competency in a combat scenario. I think the important question here is: Why do you want to man 2 convoys yourself?
The obvious reason is to have more ships on the water. More ships = more fun, especially in a small club. That said, as an attacker, one of my first objectives would be to split up the two ships. Once they are well and truly separated, it'd be practically impossible to properly evade attacks with both ships.
I play in a small club. More ships is more fun usually. But I would not say (from my own perspective) 'running two ships at once yourself is more fun'.
Oh I'd try it if someone set it up, for a lark and because I am possessed of enough hubris to believe I could achieve some odd tactical advantage doing it, but I'm not going to go so far as to believe that done on a regular basis, for most people, that it would lead to increased fun.
Who thinks its fun to giveup there fast battleship for a slow no gun convoy ship? Nobody! This challenge is for the small clubs of 3 people who have the room on the wate but the unfair two on one. Now they can have a scenario of a raider and a large convoy. Trade off is who can Commodore two ships away from danger instead of just the one. It would be a challenge like trying to lineup the perfect shot without being shot yourself. I have controlled two ships with two controllers at one time but with no one shooting at me. I will be planing to get blown out of the water when I get back.
We have modified the above rules slightly and in general really like doing it. The cargo (with a BC micro pump) running around a series of buoys is a solid scenario. The cargo is really for a guest though. Guests, family, random people at the pond etc all make great captains. But I have captained a cargo ship several times and it is still pretty fun trying to avoid the attackers while hiding behind the defenders. Maybe not as much fun as running a warship but still a lot of fun. Guests universally seem to enjoy it and its a great recruiting tool. As to running two ships with one captain at a time that would be an impressive feat of skill. Personally I would just run one and then the other as invariably a furball forms around the poor cargo and maneuvering becomes a challenge. I would expect a ram or two from the cargo (which rarely causes damage). We usually allow the cargo to ram as the faster more maneuverable warships can more easily avoid a ram than the cargo.
