Don't ask me I don't really see a need for them in fast gun combat. In big gun or Battlestations, heck yeah. But the IRC/MWCI rulesets are so well balanced that adding torps is messing with a good thing. (MWCI and IRC rules aren't identical, but they are pretty close. If you build to one of them, you can pretty well battle at any fast guns battle in the country).
Because the rules have evolved over decades (literally), with some trial-and-error and a lot of battle testing to be what they are. If you suddenly give one class of ships a big advantage over the others, it messes up the whole thing. Kind of like if I built a Yamato like in the old TV show Star Blazers and put in a Remington 1100 12 guage shotgun for the "wave motion gun". Reasonably realisitc to the original, but not fair at all... My advice is to build a ship for MWCI rules (given that there aren't any active IRC guys in FL that I've heard of), and then IF you have room left over, add torpedoes if you feel you must.
Hmm... i see your point, i just wanted to add torps to make it more realistic. nut i see how some ships can tkae advantage...
Torps are "sort of" allowed. If you read the rules carefully, you will find reference to something called a "spurt gun". This is a cannon that fires all it's bbs at once. Does pretty bad dammage, if it hits. Problem is that it is very had to hit with one. They are only allowed on ships class 3 and less. I don't think anyone sells one, so you would have to build your own. They are not popular due to ineffectiveness.
Spurt guns are allowed on class 1 or 2 ships, and properly employed can cause a lot of damage... but most times, they are just a little off, and don't do so well. Also, once you fire the one shot, it's gone, no more guns and no point in staying on the lake. In campaign (only done at Nationals), they can be useful for sinking unarmed, slow convoy ships.
Hmm... sounds like a submerged Ball bearing gun ( slightly bigger than a BB ) would do more damage. Also Ships that had [i/] trops are aloud to have spurt guns?
Minor detail that under most fast gun rulesets, you can't mount weapons anywhere other than in the main turrets (with one exception for ships like Jean Bart, who have no aft main turrets and can mount 1 gun aft in the secondaries or superstructure). So no submerged guns. Any ship in size class 1 or 2 can mount spurt guns. You'll just get bored after firing your load and then having nothing to do.
Class one and two are the smallest ships around... destroyers and light cruisers. And big gun does have "torps"... ball bearing ones.
Big Gun doesn't USE the unit system. If your little destroyer historically carried six 5.9" main guns and eight 21" torpedoes, then you can arm six .177" main guns and eight 1/4" torpedoes (if you can fit them in). If your big battleship Yamato carried nine 18.1" main guns, twelve 6.1" secondary guns, and twelve 5" secondary guns, then you can arm nine 1/4" barrels and twenty-four .177" barrels. The WWCC is an oddball among big gun clubs in that it limits the maximum armament a ship can carry. It's still based on what the ship historically carried, but because of this, members of the WWCC are sometimes said to be from Alpha Centauri. Battler's Connection was designed around Fast Gun combat. Although the hulls from BC can be used in the Big Gun format, the website does not include information for Big Gun stats. To know what a ship is capable of in Big Gun combat, you must know its historical armament, main armor belt thickness, and top speed.
