What is in your opinion the best convoy ship. It doesnt matter if it is allied or axis for those of you that like to argue that point(although allied ships were just better[]). The best speed, the best turning and the ability to take the most punishment. i know that all ships are different based on who builds them, but for the sake of finding the best, set that aside.
There is no best to be honest. Each has it's plus and minus factors. For example, a small ship is harder to hit then a large ship, but a large ship can take more damage. So, it depends on the preference and style of the captain in question.
Well Boomer I agree with Crazy there is no best and as I have sadly found out after my son wasted his time, yes we both learned a lot but what’s the use if your club yes the one we belong to doesn’t really use them. for instance at NATS there are only 2 scheduled convoy events and I’m told one usually gets canceled so don’t waste your time and if you are thinking like I was that it is cheaper well not by much and where it is your first ship it will be just about the same as most of the stuff you will need to buy for building will get used for builds to come so don’t due it stay away don’t waste your time as we did [V]
Are you going to do something else for your son monk? I hate to hear he isn't going to be able to play with you guys...
In treaty we allow ALL ships to be armed as 1.5 unit ships so even if someone wanted to build a freighter, they could always add a 1.0 unit gun and a .75 gpm pump and be perfectly legal.
One of the guys is offering to loan him a ship but the kid is bummed he busted his cookies working on the liberty ship.[!]
There's no reason you can't play both. We have a couple of people who do just that. The ships are for the most part identical; the only change you'd have to make to your Boston is to slow it down to 27 seconds instead of 24, and restrict your pump to .75 gpm. For my Invincible, I just changed the props (still have my IRCWCC 26 second props in my box) and put a restrictor over the top of my pump outlet. Swap the props back and remove my pump restrictor, and I am back to IRCWCC legal. Lee Donahue converted his Yamato last year lake side at a battle in about 30 minutes. It's pretty simple to battle to our standards. Something else you might consider doing is just doing some convoy battles with your son on the weekend 1v1. If he completes X number of convoy runs, he wins. If you sink him, you win.
That doesn’t sound like much fun for him I’m faster and have a bow gun that spells doom for him and if I take it easy on him he will know and quit he doesn’t like it when people baby him as he calls it LOL [8D]
LSTs are pretty sweet, so if you want an allied convoy its hard to go wrong with an LST. Tiny little buggers that can turn in reverse. Well and Dana's PT boat (I think its about 6" long, and fully legal), thats just awesome to watch.
There's free plans for the Mehoshi Maru in the File Manager, if you want to learn how to build a wooden hull. It's a small oiler, and the low profile oilers have is hard to hit. It's not as small as the small tramp steamers my brother and I built. LSTs are also good small ships. They have more freeboard, but are a bit shorter and have twin rudders so they will handle better. I still can't believe that convoys are unwanted in fast gun clubs. I've had a blast running my cargo boat so far this year, and had a blast escorting one last year. It's different from trying to dish out the most damage. Is anyone willing to experiment with running convoy vessels in regular battles and giving them a small pump? Set out a simple course, and for every time they complete the course they score some points for their team. Convoys can contribute to their team just like any other ship.
"That doesn’t sound like much fun for him I’m faster and have a bow gun that spells doom for him and if I take it easy on him he will know and quit he doesn’t like it when people baby him as he calls it LOL" All he has to do is turn away from you and keep his impenetrable stern pointed at you. A cruiser is never going to get a shot on a well captained liberty ship. I guarantee once he gets the hang of it YOU'LL be the one pulling your hair out in frustration.
Its not that convoy ships are unwanted in fast gun. A lot of people would like to do more battles with convoys but at the same time some people would like to forget about them all together, it kinda evens out. The only time we do campaign battles at NATS due to size and setup/work required. I've heard talk about people wanting to play some scenarios and such with them at local battles but I don't know that anyone has. I personally have never been to a local battle where someone showed up with a convoy ship and wanted to set up some sort of game with it or something. I think another reason is because there really aren't as many convoy ships made for fast gun. I don't know why you would ever build a convoy ship as your first boat in fast gun, it just doesn't make sense. They aren't good starting ships so they don't get built first. Second boat is normally a bigger battleship, battleship on the other fleet, or a secondary boat(cruiser/destroyer). So only once you have a few boats do you think about building a convoy ship. And even then most of the guys would rather drive their battleship than a convoy. I dunno maybe fast gun guys just don't like being targets as much? It seems to me that fast gun is more ehh ?violent? than the other rule sets, maybe that has something to do with it. Convoy ships just don't stand as much a chance as they do in other formats? I'm just speaking based off the pictures and such I've seen of damage from various battles. So i could be totally off but I think fast gun ships take more damage on a regular basis. We have stronger pumps so it works out ok, but since convoys don't have pumps that ends up hurting them.
I have noticed that with transports, there are two important features that you can choose to emphasize: maneuverability, and survivability. A ship that emphasizes maneuverability is as little as possible, usually with low freeboard and short length. A ship that emphasizes survivability is as big as possible with as much freeboard as possible, so that it takes a really long time to sink. Generally these two abilities are found at either extreme of the size spectrum, and attempts to combine them with a mid-size ship usually fail at both. A few big ships: Titanic (stay away from icebergs) Queen Mary (troop transport in WWII, AKA "Grey Ghost") Normandie (burned in USA before it could be converted to a troop transport) A few small ships: LST (see build thread on this forum) T-103 (Japanese LST, ask Tugboat for more info) Puma 3-island tramp (my ship, see build thread on this forum) Mehoshi Maru (CAD-modeled plans) Empire Campden (see BLT in the WWCC gallery) A few mid-size ships: USS Cimarron (American oil tanker) Mamiya Maru (Japanese food transport, see "sunken ships" in the WWCC gallery)
I find it a refreshing break to not have to worry about CO2 or guns. It's a much more relaxing day. Also, I really enjoy spoiling a big bad battleship's shot. Sometimes I'll even sail right past them to taunt them, and I'm so small they still have trouble hitting me. It's a different kind of satisfaction than crushing your enemies and hearing the lamentations of their women. It doesn't have to be as complex as the campaign battle at Nats, just remember KISS. All it takes is someone to try it and you can find out for yourself. heehee Mamiya Maru (Japanese food transport, see "sunken ships" in the WWCC gallery)
Lets not forget that in most every format except fast gun the rate of fire is limited. Big Gun and even Treaty have time limits on how fast a cannon may be fired. What does that have to do with convoy ships? Welp, the convoy ship takes far less damage so they don't sink as often. A convoy ship in fast gun has to contend with unlimited rates of fire and take far more damage. The convoy ship would sink a lot! And that is no fun.
Thanx everyone. Carl, i really liked that forum on ur Pumas and thats what made me want to build one. I know u used alot of things u had lying around, but if u made it from new material, how much would 1 have run you? Do you still have the plans for it, because i surely wouldnt mind getting my hands on those. I would like to do a convoy, because right now, i really dont have the money to do a big warship like an alaska(which everyone tells me is a bad idea) or A North Carolina, or the know how to set up guns and CO2.
To answer Sniper Boomer just hit it on the head if you have someone wanting to try it out but not wanting to spend tons of cake convoy fits the bill. you are looking at a two channel radio and some wood a motor and you are off and running easier for a club to have one hanging around as a loaner to get that guy who is off in the distance watching to bite the hook and set it. As well as and I’m talking from personal experience it is much easier to talk mom into letting Jr. run a non combative ship to get started than a ship that you are going to shoot your eye out with. of course she doesn’t think of all the other shoot your eye out ships around but hey it got us in but some moms and even some dads feel that way in today’s society I mean look in some states they can even get married now just kidding but it is a more practical way to get younger kids with less income or less begging from mom and dad to buy me this and that involved and yes drag there dads with them I’m living proof. as for the more shots and what not yes fast gun hence the name are a bit more violent I think is the term used but rules could be tweaked to help that maybe a pump and a gun if the ship was so inclined I mean you can arm a destroyer but a liberty ship which has a 3 inch bow and 5 inch stern gun is unarmed .why not allow the 5 inch stern to be active a little deterrent for the chaser a little more float time for the convoy []. Well these are my thoughts and experiences on this subject for what they are worth. This hobby is a lot like my job a hundred years of tradition unimpeded by progress fire fighters hate to change too. []
Perhaps a good alternative for someone in your situation (hind sight is 20-20 of course) is getting a t2 tanker hull, and building it as an escort carrier and telling momma that it's a convoy. Then, when the time is right, drop a half unit pump and a half unit gun in, crank the speed up to 28 seconds, and now it's magically a warship. No lost work. Of course a BETTER idea is to get a Cleveland hull from BC, build it as an Independence class CVL until momma gives approval for guns, then swap the carrier deck out with a Cleveland deck, and now you've got a three unit cruiser out of your previously un-armed convoy. No wasted work, AND you can swap that carrier deck back in and use it for convoy battles on that blue moon when it they happen! You could always run the Independence as a 1.5 unit ship too if you really wanted to...or even as a decoy in convoy battles. I'm a huge, huge fan of multi-purpose ships.
