Deck gun woes

Originally Posted by SteamWake

Yes this topic come up from time to time and the general agreement is that there is little difference between the HP and AP rounds and modding is not worth the effort.

Furthermore I belive it to be historically accurate.

Now dont get me started on the rate of fire and damage model

I understand these issues are being looked into in the next release of GW.

I can't say whether it is historically accurate or not, but this is my two-cents worth on realistically accurate.

HE rounds are designed to explode on impact, using their explosive blast to damage. This is why hull shots are pretty worthless: blasting holes above the waterline doesn't really affect ship buoyancy, structural integrity or performance. Although if they hit exposed flammable or explosive cargo on the decks HE rounds would damage or destroy them, and the collateral damage from the resultant cargo explosions would likely structurally damage the ship.

Striking the waterline with an HE round creates a rather large hole through which water will flood the interior spaces. Enough flooding in enough spaces will gradually sink the ship once it becomes negatively buoyant. It generally takes a lot of rounds to do so in a large vessel; for one thing, that's a lot of interior space. For others, ships (even cargo and tankers) are compartmentalized. Flooding one doesn't necessarily flood others. The compartments usually are bulkheaded, and you can expect the crew to be doing their best to close off damaged compartments and keep the pumps running.

AP rounds are designed to pierce structures and travel a bit past before detonating. They carry less explosive because the shell is more massive due to the added steel casing that aids in penetration. Striking hull or waterline will only make a hole slightly larger in diameter than the shell itself. It's rather like ramming an ice pick through a surface compared to sledge-hammering it. Therefore there will be substantially less flooding from an AP round than using an HE one.

Realistically where AP rounds come in useful would be, for instance, if you intercepted an undamaged small-sized merchant. If you were to target the engine compartment areas, fuel bunkers or propulsion system areas with HE rounds they would simply explode on the hull skin. Granted, enough flooding would eventually stop the engines, but AP rounds would drive through the hull and explode inside. Several in the engine compartment would cripple the ship, bringing it to a dead stop and permitting a more leisurely (and vastly more accurate) HE waterline attack. Accurate shots to the bunkers have the chance of exploding the vessel outright. Neither of which HE rounds have a chance of doing.

The same would apply to smaller warships: AP rounds could penetrate into the magazines, exploding the magazines, and thus the warship. However, considering the comparative rates of fire between your U-boat and anything above an armed trawler, in my opinion hoping for a golden BB to a magazine with your first shot (which is probably all you'd get) is suicide.

Unfortunately, I don't believe SHIII (or any of the popular mods) take into account the different performances of HE and AP rounds. Not complaining or criticizing, just mentioning it. That probably isn't an easy thing to do, as the rounds would have to have different modifiers, and so would the damage models for ships. It is, however, something I'd enjoy seeing incorporated at some point.

Albrecht von Hesse