I always thought it would make more sense to allow any ship that SERVED from 1905 (or 1901) to 1946 to be legal, rather than counting by launch date. There were several ships built between 1885 and 1905 that served in WW1.
On the other hand, there were also a number of ships built after 1900 that didn't survive until 1906. My club allows any ship that served between 1906 and 1946, but that unfortunately excludes a number of really cool Russo-Japanese War ships, and a few ships from other nations too. Now that I think about it, I should talk to my club about that. We've got a rule proposal that's re-arranging how we decide which ships are legal to build or not, and I may be able to get the date change included.
One of the reasons the french ships due so well in treaty stems from the fact we use actual ship speeds to give model speeds. The french BBs are second only to the New Jerseys. The heavy cruisers are at 35 and 33. The emile -Bertan is pushing 40. The mogadore at 46 is the largesr and fastest destroyer. In big gun I can out fit a french BB or BC at half the price of a NJ or Bismark. I and to those who chose to approach my Dunquirk from the rear 12 .177 at once OUCH . Politics aside I think if the French ships had been given a chance to participate in some of the battles they would have done very well. I firmly believe the french BBs would have been the victors in a 1 on 1 with the Bismark or any axis ship. But then I might be just enchanted by the looks and speed
If "ifs" and "buts" were fruits and nuts, we would all be a bunch of fruitcakes. So we could discuss all of the possibilities of what would have happened in WW2 had the Frenchies been able to get out of port before being fired on by the ships of the other navies till we are blue in the face. But I feel pretty certain that after seeing Bobo sink twice in three days, and the other Bismarck class battleship sink one time during the conference, that they were pretty serious about putting down Mike M's big French battleship during the event, and were not able to make that happen. I will take the safe bet, and just say that we will show everyone what would have happened had the Frenchies met the other classes of battleships on the high seas to battle, instead of being in port, partially dis-armed, and in an in-complete state, when the Allied ships opened fire. Mikey
I too have been impressed by the frebch bbs, they have a really sleek look and yet looks like a tiger if you grabbed hold of its tail.I have been surprised by Froggys Rich. turning ablity with my SoDak that I had to be carefull. I did have a French Light cruier of the Glorie class that my daughter ran and it was a nimble little cruiser. Buddy
Hey guys, do you know of any decent French predreadnoughts? I know the Russian PDN Tsesarevich was French in design, but are there any french ships similar to that?
I'm thinking I want to do a pre-dreadnought for my next project. Jaureguiberry would be great, if it had 11" guns instead of 10.8" guns. Those big wing turrets are just a hair under the cutoff for 7/32" caliber guns in Big Gun. Well, the Suffren looks pretty good. If I do build it, would anyone be interested in a fiberglass hull of the Suffren, or should I just do a one-off wooden hull?
First ship in the hobby was a Frog (Suffren), have a Gloire hull in the garage...thought seriously about a big Jean Bart for a bit until my back explained a few things to me. Been working on this little side project for a bit now: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/5T81B3uIwgF6dPpZcb-y2w?feat=directlink She's not killer by any stretch of imagination, but what the heck. She's small, light and sure to irritate some folks just by being on the water and showing the flag
Very cool. I was planning to build a Courbet, and Bretagne for the kids this winter, but they both like the speed of the faster ships. But I would still like to build them both. It is great to see that someone is building them. I read somewhere that one of the folks up in Canada is building a Bretagne. I also do not anticipate that either of the two classes would be truly great ships in the combat, but like you said. It would be great fun running them. And it would almost certainly give some folks a rash.. Mikey
They don't look like they would be great ships until you start thinking outside the box with gun placement, then they look a whole lot more interesting...
I had always felt that this hobby caters too much to a certain few vessels. From my first contact with this hobby, my aim has been to introduce ships of history for history sake and not for their on the pond combat ability. Thus, I am working on plans for one of the American built, Argentine Battleships. I also feel that the Polish Navy needs a representation. So once I have the building skills, I intend to build the ORP Conrad and Dragon. While on a French warship page and talking about the Polish navy. Over the weekend, I found rough plans for French built, Polish battleship! The comments of ‘might have been’ is interesting regarding the French fleet in action. But a line from the Alamo in Disney’s Davy Crocket comes to mind. “It not so much the power in the gun as the determination as the man pulling the trigger.” When reading the accounts of the Polish navy, it is amazing what they had accomplished. Talk about determination, they had it BIG TIME! If the French had that same determination, I think that the German advance would not have been so quick.
I think much of the French problem in WWII was the upper ranks (politics) like in many countries. Marty
