Actually, there was talk at last MWCI Nationals about testing sidemounts on DNs and PDNs at regional battles to see if it impacts the game for the worse. If it didn't, I believe the plan was to submit a rules proposal.
Has any one ever used a triple stern and 1 rotating canon in the secound bow turret on a Sharnhorst for fast gun?? Or even Dual sterns and 1 rotating canon in the bow with 100 bb's?? If that's even leagal? The reason is the increased angle posible in the secound turret would be nice on both sides I think??
Some people have used a rotate in a Scharnhost with triples. However, one needs to be carefull with rotates, as they are more dammage prone than a fixed cannon. A bump that would not even bother a fixed cannon, can realy mess up a rotate. A 100 round rotate would not be legal in a Scharnhorst. Placing cannon in "B" turret to gain extra down angle is not realy as effective as many think. The problem is the down angle results in a short band of range where the bb can actualy dammage other ships. The "A" turret location is actualy more effective, and most ships can have sufficent down angle there. The "A" location is beter, due to it being closer to the waterline, so more difficult to get under it. Generaly, down angle for sidemounts in the bow should be in the 6-10 degree range. To figure your range band, consider that your target is about 1" above (or less) and 1" below. So say 2" total. So for a given down angle your range band is: 5deg 22.86" 6deg 19.03" 7deg 16.29" 8deg 14.23" 9deg 12.63" 10deg 11.34" 11deg 10.29" 12deg 9.41" 13deg 8.66" 14deg 8.02" 15deg 7.46" 16deg 6.97" 17deg 6.54" 18deg 6.16" 19deg 5.81" 20deg 5.49" Half, of course would be under water. This assumes that your shot not effected by water changing its direction (which it does, but spin makes a difference) and that gravity is not important. (which should be true given the short times involved) Note that some where about 4-6 degrees the bb bounce, instead of going under water. Also, to take advantage of large range band under water, a cannon with a good bit of velocity is required to make a hole after traveling through that much water.
Going back to Justin's original question I have a couple points. First, why the allergic reaction to fixed guns? If anything I think fixed but elevating sidemounts would be far more useful. You could drop them down for close-in work or raise them up for standing off. It's really quite frustrating to not know which range the guns are set to. We had one boat with a fully functional rotating cannon and he took it out and replaced it with a fixed one after a few battles as he was having a hard time lining up target and popping off rounds. I've heard from several people that the speed difference between fast gun and big guns is enough to throw off the effectiveness of rotates. Not saying one is better, just, difference in game play might change how boats are set up.
Brian Koehler uses fixed-aim cannons with variable elevation to great effect. He just added that to his Vanguard this past year. Quite entertaining to watch people who don't know about it get hit outside where they expect to from sidemounts.
