Thanksgiving morning, with nothing really better to do, my girlfriend and I will be fighthing two ships to the death. The plucky little destroyer USS Johnston (attacking a VU): Armed with two torpedo cannons firing 3 1/4 balls each. No pump. 38 knots. VS The slow but powerful HMS Dreadnought. 6 guns, two forward, two rear, one to each side. 1 pump. 25 knots. Should be an interesting battle. Such differant ships fighting one on one to the death, no time limit. The destroyer being so much faster will be able to pick when to attack. It also has those nasty torpedos which tend to deal more fatal damage then guns. However, with a small displacment and no pump, any damage to her might prove fatal. The Dreadnought on the other hand has a really strong pump. Also can out turn the Johnston by quite a bit, showing the little ship it's rear cannons a lot. Also, the two side mounted cannons are low and aimed to kill TT boats. Her guns however might have a tougher time getting fatal hits on the low to the water destroyer. Fun thing is we are going to trade off every couple of minutes. So ship handling stills won't matter. It will be a battle of the ships, not the captains so much... I'll be posting results and photos Thusday afternoon/evening.... in the meantime, to make a fun little disscussion... which ship are you guys betting on? I honesly don't know which I think will come out on top...
Hmmm, I'm going to have to go a bit patriotic here and go with the HMS Dreadnaught, although those torpedo cannons could be bad news.
Should be a fun morning, I'll pu my $$ on the Dreadnought, fast is good but fire power is gooder, not to mention a little damage control. J
Yes. Every two rearms we'll switch drivers. So we'll each get 4 shots, and then switch ships. I really don't know which ship my money is on. I think if the Dreadnought can hit the hull of the DD even once or twice, it's doomed. But hitting a fast moving low to the water DD is pretty tough. Worse is there are no other ships to distract the DD. THe DD has those torpedo guns going for it though. Those things put 3 1/4 holes on or under the waterline with a hit. That hurts fast.
I'll bet the outcome is decided by how close the dreadnought gets to shore. The closer it gets, the greater the odds the destroyer will survive to reload. Farther away, the destroyer will have more time to fill with water. Also depends on whether dreadnought's side guns work.
That's a fascinating battle. They handle damage in completely different ways. Because of the lack of a pump, even one hit and Johnston is doomed. If the hole is underwater, it'll probably be gone in less than a minute. If the hole is above the waterline, water will still get in because of splashing waves and maneuvering, so Johnston will still probably sink without a pump, but it will take longer. On the flip side, Dreadnought is small for a battleship, and only has a single pump. A good hit deep below the waterline will cause big problems for Dreadnought. She has a pump, so hits above the waterline are not much of a threat, and hits at the waterline are survivable. I'd still bet that if two hits deep below don't finish her, three will. Next is their maneuvering characteristics. Johnston will rely on speed to control the battle and dive in a classic "boom and zoom" or "shoot and scoot" attack, trying to minimize turning to maximize the effects of speed. Small size and good speed will make Johnston a hard target to hit on the way in and on the escape. While the attack run is dangerous, there is also some risk from a lucky potshot at a distance. Johnston will need to keep a close eye on those stern guns while setting up the shot and initiating the attack. Dreadnought is much slower, but has a tight turn radius. I'm curious which boat has a tighter radius, Dreadnought or Johnston. I'm also curious which boat has a faster turn (completes a turn in less time). Both factors will be critical in how Dreadnought fights. For the most part, she'll maneuver defensively to give her more time to score the lucky hit on Johnston. Johnston only has the two single-barrel torpedoes. They fire three balls, which tend to spread vertically a bit. This spread improves the chance of getting a hit below the boot, but also reduces the chance of blowing out a large chunk of balsa. On the plus side, torpedoes are generally more accurate than regular cannons, because they are used at such close range, and a good skipper aims carefully before taking the shot. Dreadnoughts second biggest advantage (after the pump) is her reloading cannons. She can blast away as Johnston tries to set up an attack. Her broadside cannons are also a serious threat, since they are aimed at the same spot a destroyer will be when it fires. Johnston will have to stay just out of reach, try to slip in underneath that cannon, or set up a head to head attack to avoid the threat. I'd say Johnston is the underdog in this one, mostly due to Dreadnought's pump, but I don't know by how much (I haven't seen these boats since I shipped out). I can see it going both ways, depending on maneuvering characteristics, captain skills, and luck.
The Dreadnought has a much tighter turn the the Johnston. By far. Faster turn... hum. I know the destroyer turns a lot sharper if you slow down a little, but not nearly as much still has the little battleship. All of Dreads guns are working really nicely. I actually messed with them all today and made sure everything was up to par. I think the Destroyers best bet for miniminzing the risk of those rear guns and side guns will be a head on attack... however without anything to distract the Dreadnought it can foil that pretty easy with a hard turn. It really is going to be a very interesting battle. They are such differant ships. I will say this in the destroyers favor... it's sunk a ship in every battle it's been in so far. Mostly transports, but did sink ships. The Dreadnought has never really "killed" anything, although Dreadnought has also never been sunk.
Hey Hair_apple, what make you guys do this, and yes, it will be a neat battle! I look forward to the photos! Nikki
I don't know why.. just for fun. Why do any of us build pretty models and then blow them away just to repair and do it again? Fun. Besides, Thanksgiving is soooo boring until everyone is ready to eat. haha.
I'm leaning more and more in favor of Dreadnought. I'd love to command the Johnston though: it would be a great challenge. Even if Dreadnought turns away to spoil the head on attack, Johnston may be able to turn it into a more traditional attack and still avoid those side cannons. Sounds like great fun.
Boring?!?!?! What about the Detroit / Green Bay Game!!!! Detroit hasn't had a team like this for years. And what about Rum??? You know the pilgrims had loads of Rum with their feast . Anyway enjoy your battle, I also am looking forward to pics and a battle report. J
I've never really been into (watching) sports. I like football, I just rarely watch it, but really I rarely watch any TV or movies. Worse now then ever becuase I just bought a house and am way too cheap to pay for TV so most of my down time is spent reading or on the internet (reading other things). I actually love Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday by far, but really until the food gets there it's a pretty lazy day most of the time. Best part of this battle will be... I get paid for it. haha. All the bad crap I can say about working for UPS, but paid holidays are pretty awesome. Ok, leaving right now to head to the paintball store to fill the CO2... my next post on here should be a after action report and photos.
Well, that was a very one sided battle. Something I had not thought about was that "run and gun" fighting that my little destroyer is so good at is normally done against ships that are fighting some other ship and not able to totally focas on it. The Johnston couldn't "catch" the Dreadnought. The Dreadnought was able to turn 90 so fast that the destroyer couldn't line up on it ever. Head on, from the side, no matter what I tried I couldn't get close enough to make a good attack. To make things worse, the Dreadnought turns so tight she could keep her guns on my the whole time and within about a minute of getting on the water she hit the destroyer with a glancing shot right on the waterline (from really far away). She could keep the Dreadnought's front guns pointed at me no matter what I tried. With nothing else to worry about the Dread just could just zig zag back and forth to keep popping away at the Destroyer. Another minute or so went by and she scored a nasty hit high on the hull that was the fatal hit. The Desteroyer leans so hard in turns that the water starting coming in fast as I drove around..... and on top of that, the balls went through and hit the servo that controls the guns and broke it lose from the mount. So that was pretty much that... no guns. 3 holes, one on the waterline. I drove around for another couple minutes trying to avoid getting shot again, but it was pretty much just waiting to die at that point. I drove in close to the shore to minimize my swim time, and Danielle came over to admire her work and that was that.... Poor little Johnston. Funny thing is, there was a ton of water in Dreadnought too. Part of why I didn't mind damaging my ships for no real reason was that the Dreadnought is in major need of new balsa. It's at least 12 years old and never been reskined as far as I know, there are lots of cracks that I tried to seal up, but seemed to start leaking somewhere. And the pump didn't work for some reason and so all the little leaks had started to add up. It would have been great if they both sank, although Dread was no where near sinking. Johnston will now be getting some blast shields that we never had time to install when it was built and a pump will be added again. Both ships are due for a refit anyway. Fun morning. Wow it was cold though, I don't think it's more then 45-50 outside right now and light rain on and off.
Wow, that top bb really did a number on the hull! Sucks about the servo, but shouldn't happen again with that armour in place. Daemon
That is a good picture! Pity about the servo, would have been fun to try a couple of runs, except for you Hairy. If your wife is like mine, then she ain't gettin wet!! J
Yeah, I actually saw the holes open up from across the pond... I knew right away that was the end. It was only a matter of time before she landed one, but I didn't expect it to blow out like that. It hit right against the rib and casued it the other side to pop out like that. Ouch. The servo wasn't damaged, it just broke the mount and knocked the servo sideways so it couldn't hit the actuators. I wouldn't have minded going again, but it we were both freezing anyway and I have a feeling it would have been the same result over and over. The destroyer just couldn't get close... the Dreadnought just was able to turn tight enough to keep the front guns pointed at it almost the whole time. Yeah, there was no way I was getting in the water again either. BRRRRRR. I'm glad it sunk 4 feet off of the shore so I didn't have to swim, just wade out and grab it.
