q-ship, armed raider, or liberty/victory ship w/ 3" gun. All get the same 1/2 unit under MWC rules. So you can have a 1/4-unit pump and 12 shots from 1 gun (or 5 bb's if it's a spurt gun). Not worth the effort. Plus almost every cargo ship of the era was 1-screw, 1 rudder, meaning you're a slow, unmanueverable billboard that anybody can sink without even trying. You really want to run something unusual? Build a HMS Agincourt. 4 guns, 26 seconds (5.5 units). SEVEN turrets. You're still cold meat, but at least you'll be able to shoot back
Not at all, the rules were actively designed around the firepower(guns) of capital ships. Guns on armed merchants weren't a significant threat to capital ships in real life and they aren't a threat in this hobby either. You can still build them and they can still sink unarmed merchants but they aren't meant to go toe to toe with a capital ship so why would they have the firepower to? The flip side is that armed merchants get the same armor as heavy battleships, if they were being actively discouraged in the rules that would be easy to fix.
If I was writing rules to discourage the use of armed freighters, I'd add a section: A.1.c.56, subsection 42: All models of armed merchantmen must be equipped with a RC-controlled 5"x5" door in the bottom of the hull, that the captain must open when an enemy battleship comes within 3 feet of his ship.
Gunner250, My 96scale USS Artemis is armed with a single 250 round cannon in her.. she Will. Not see combat. I'm using her to get mg shotting better. Nikki
-Tug, how would that discourage armed merchantmen? They are already nearly worthless! In all seriousness, from a combat effectiveness viewpoint why would any captain want 12 bb's (a 1/4 unit cannon) when they could have 150 bb's (3 cannons on say a battle cruiser) to shot at the enemy? And from a fun stand point, that seems like a lot more fun as well as that would be more time engaging the enemy and you would be faster so you have better odds of running away when you want as well. Someday I hope to build the Sea Addler, a German armed sailing vessel. But I have no plans to battle her as there is not real point. I get the desire to build something cool and different but this game is about battleships shooting and sinking each other.
Hovey, I already think they're useless I was trying to exaggerate. But for the record, the tale of the Zeeadler, and her captain who is a Man among Men, is totally epic. The book is titled (I think) 'The Voyage of the Zee Adler' and it's published by Naval Institute Press. Magnificent story.
One of the things I noticed when moving to Fast Gun from Big Gun was how rarely cargo shows up in Fast Gun. Convoy ships and cargo runs are an integral part of Big Gun combat and often defines the shape of a battle, but in Fast Gun they only really show up once or twice per year at Nats. In fact, I have yet to see a convoy battle in Fast Gun.
I am firmly a Fast Gunner, but cargo ships is something Big Gun does better. Outside of Nats, I think my club is the only club that runs cargo in Fast Gun. But to make it work we had to change the rules sightly, but it is a lot of fun! Every club should try our idea, its that much fun.
Cargo ships are indeed fun in Big Gun -- a cargo ship with a single fixed stern gun which gave its attacker a sting each time it evaded would be a nice ship to sail.
@Hovey - negative, shipmate! We don't do it often, but we do run a convoy from time to time in an improvised scenario to spice it up a bit
