Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptHawkeye
Ya know, I still feel like mass fire on a single target kills it faster than distributed fire. A lot more missing true, but by the nature of artillery and the law of N^2, lots of guys missing all at once will still eventually hit something.
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It does somewhat depend on the situation. If you outrange the enemy, then maybe. But if the enemy can shoot back, I think it's better to keep your fire spread out so as to distract as many enemies as possible while not hindering your own shooting.
None of these ships carry that much main battery ammo; only 80-120 round per gun or so. At long range where the above considerations come into play, you're talking an average of 1 salvo per minute or a bit less, so that's really not much combat endurance at the speed of naval battles. At such ranges, unless 1 side is Hell-bent on changing the range, the geometry isn't going to change that much in 1.5-2 hours, nor is the lighting unless the battle starts close to dusk or dawn or a storm is coming. The question therefore becomes how best to spend your limited amount of ammo.