Surprise... Deck gun sinks liner?

piersyf · 04-02-08, 06:21 PM

I think there's something missing in all of this... I agree that either in the notion of a hit point system for ships or the sinking model, a deck gun has it's work cut out for it, but I could guarantee to stop ANY liner with a deck gun (for real) in about 12 rounds. Go for a mobility kill. The 4"50cal gun has a penetration of 3 inches at 3,700 yards using AP. A dozen rounds into the boiler room of a ship travelling at 19kts? I say a dozen rounds because you have to hit and breach the boiler, so pegging the engine room isn't enough, but would you want to be in the boiler room when one is ruptured with a full head of steam? The deck gun was the primary method of sinking merchants in WW1. If it took over 50 rounds for a medium sized ship, that makes no logistic sense. A mobility kill, force the crew to abandon, then scuttle. If you look at any footage of gun kills of merchants you'll notice that one of the first rounds is in the guts and there's a burst of soot from the funnel. A hit to the boiler room. I don't expect this to be modded, but what I would suggest is not to up the armour on that liner. I just put 120 rounds of mixed common and AP into a medium freighter before it went down. My guess is the liner was a statistical fluke that is not outside the realms of possibility. Of course if it happens a lot, that's a different matter.

04-02-08, 06:21 PM	#1
piersyf Mate Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: australia Posts: 52 Downloads: 1 Uploads: 0	deck guns I think there's something missing in all of this... I agree that either in the notion of a hit point system for ships or the sinking model, a deck gun has it's work cut out for it, but I could guarantee to stop ANY liner with a deck gun (for real) in about 12 rounds. Go for a mobility kill. The 4"50cal gun has a penetration of 3 inches at 3,700 yards using AP. A dozen rounds into the boiler room of a ship travelling at 19kts? I say a dozen rounds because you have to hit and breach the boiler, so pegging the engine room isn't enough, but would you want to be in the boiler room when one is ruptured with a full head of steam? The deck gun was the primary method of sinking merchants in WW1. If it took over 50 rounds for a medium sized ship, that makes no logistic sense. A mobility kill, force the crew to abandon, then scuttle. If you look at any footage of gun kills of merchants you'll notice that one of the first rounds is in the guts and there's a burst of soot from the funnel. A hit to the boiler room. I don't expect this to be modded, but what I would suggest is not to up the armour on that liner. I just put 120 rounds of mixed common and AP into a medium freighter before it went down. My guess is the liner was a statistical fluke that is not outside the realms of possibility. Of course if it happens a lot, that's a different matter.