Both the MWCI anr IRCWCC websites have ship lists which list units, speed, length, width, numbers of shafts, rudders, ect by nationality. Go to http://www.ircwcc.com/Members-Area.html; and click on ship list. The list includes all ships legal for use in the hobby, so you'll have to look just a bit to find the different nationalities Strike and BC offer.
Thanks for the replies. I am formulating some ideas and doing some more comparisons. Anyone have a good thread on how to build a HMS Tiger...from a Lion fiberglass hull.. Greg look forward to meeting you.
Randy in the MWCI did the conversion. Don't think he did a tutorial though. If you get the Tiger plans, it's pretty straightforward though.
Slower than Invincible, better than Vanguard. It's all relative. Long and lean usually isn't as good at turning in a hurry as short and stubby, but short and stubby turns better. Usually.
Tiger should turn as well or better than Derf. Twin Rudders (side by side), just an inch or two longer. Very similar ship. You could run 3.5 guns and a full unit pump (I would reccomend this for your first season) and when you gain more experience, switch to a half unit pump and 4 guns (how my derf runs) if you want a little more firepower in exchange for less ability to absorb punishment. You won't out turn a boat a foot shorter, but you'd be agile enough if you keep your head on during the battle. Summary: Tiger would be a good choice, you won't be dogmeat. And she's not bad looking (though not quite up to the standards of the Kaiser's fleet).
I ran a Lion when I first got into the hobby. She's not horrible at turning, but I'm more of a scrapper than an artiste, so I moved to the less elegant but good infighter of Invincible. The Tiger definitely has better Q turret placement than Lion. Brian K modded my Lion to to run twin sterns and a 1.5-unit rotate in the B turret. Very functional, just have to remember that you can't out-turn the 26- and 28-second dreadnoughts. But they can't catch you if you don't want them to Same applies to the Tiger. Randy did tell me that Tiger's stern is about 3/8" wider than Lion's, which is nice because it lets you sit the rudders a hair wider which would improve turning. Lion's got a tiny heiney!
Very interesting. I am am trying to catch up and compile some notes. Between some email traffic and this and some other thread i need to go through and put down all the info. Anyway....I am sure i will have more questions in a few days.
I've got a Queen Mary, and as Tuggy says it doesn't turn spectacularly well. While my QM is treaty, I used to battle IRCWCC long ago for a short time and a Lion-based ship is not what I'd recommend for playing tag with a bunch of other WW1 heavy hitters. I think you'd be best served looking at a Moltke Invincible, or one of the excellent Indefatigable hulls if you're fortunate enough to find one. Indefatigable is likely the best rookie boat out there, and I'm also an Invincible driver. It's a bit larger than the Invincible which makes it an easy build. Twin rudders makes it highly manueverable. Class 4, so plenty of room to grow and decent hull volume. My advice would be to set it up like a cruiser initially: twin sterns and a bow gun. Play the cruiser game at first to learn how the game actually plays out. Put your twin sterns in your wing turret, and you should have some down angle so you can actually shoot belows if your shooting is good. I have the stern gun in my Invincible there, and I've shot belows with it. If you don't have sidemounts, you won't be tempted to get into slugging matches you aren't going to win. Trust me, you aren't going to win them at first. My Invincible was my first boat and I got hammered pretty hard at first. Then I ran my cruiser Salem for a few seasons, and that experience made me a far deadlier captain in my I boat when I finally went back to battle cruisers, because I understood the angles better and learned how to give hits without taking them in return. Don't fall into the macho trap of taking a hit to give a hit. Those BB's have more hull volume than you and can /afford/ to do that. Once you'd got a season or two under your belt, refit the boat to run two sidemounts and a stern gun. That's the beauty of the small battle cruisers. You can play cruiser games while you're learning (and play them well) and when you think you've got it figured out...the same boat makes a pretty good slugger too. You completely change the battling characteristics of the ship, without having to actually build a new ship.
Ralph Coles does the indefatigable hull I believe, it isn't hard to get. Just email him at ralphster30@hotmail.com
I didn't know if he was still making them and how hard it is to get them shipped from Canada if he still was. I'm glad to hear he is still making them as I think they are one of the most balanced boats on the water.
2" longer does not make an ounce of difference in easing that build I would say they are functionally equal, especially when shipping costs go up due to the international shipping. Seriously. Buy the I-boat and you'll be 100% as happy, since they are (apart form the length) identical. Same gun layout, same width, same props, same rudders, same speed. Not saying that Ralph Coles doesn't make the best hulls in the hobby (he does, by a mile), but for combat purposes, the Strike I-boat is a great ship and equally capable.
