"Fire when ready rules" Topic
6 Posts
All members in good standing are free to post here. Opinions expressed here are solely those of the posters, and have not been cleared with nor are they endorsed by The Miniatures Page.
Please use the Complaint button (!) to report problems on the forums.
For more information, see the TMP FAQ.
Back to the Naval Gaming 1898-1929 Message Board
Areas of Interest19th Century World War One
Featured Hobby News Article
Featured Link
Featured Showcase Article
Featured Workbench Article
Featured Profile Article
Featured Book Review
Featured Movie Review
|
The Membership System will be closing for maintenance in 2 minutes. Please finish anything that will involve the membership system, including membership changes or posting of messages.
Old Jarhead | 17 Sep 2015 11:10 a.m. PST |
Gentle persons, I have been using these rules for some time with most enjoyable results. I have noticed that they have a die roll modifier for central fire control. I am wondering when this came into use and if it is appropriate for pre- dreadnoughts. Any information would be most helpful. Colin |
ColCampbell | 17 Sep 2015 12:18 p.m. PST |
From my limited reading, central fire control didn't come into effect until after the Russo-Japanese War (1905). Jim |
Yellow Admiral | 17 Sep 2015 4:49 p.m. PST |
I've never seen that bonus in FWR. Where did you see that? Which version are you looking at? I do see modifiers for optical rangefinders, which started to appear right around the turn of the century. RJW era rangefinders were still a new and untested technology, and only good to 4000-8000 yards (depending on model), so it's understandable that observers were quite surprised when the Russians started shooting at over 14k yards in the Battle of the Yellow Sea. Ironically, the rate of hits at those ranges would also seem to vindicate the mistrust of many Russian officers for newfangled rangefinding devices – like most new technologies, it took time to work out how to use rangefinders effectively. The simple act of conveying range and bearing info to the gun layers in the noise, smoke and bustle of combat was a severe challenge. Real centralized battery fire control wasn't developed until the 19-teens, and was still a new and underutilized invention when the Great War started. There wasn't much need for it until there were lots of dreadnoughts around with big batteries of long-range guns, and even then it was an uphill fight by innovative gunnery experts to convince the establishment that it was needed. It's also a mistake to think of a "central director" as a single thing – it's actually complex system requiring a number of inventions together to make centralized fire direction useful or effective, and it took a good decade of development with military-scale budgets to bring that about. Just sticking some rangefinders and voicetubes in the topmasts wasn't enough. After it was developed it was expensive and required a lot of training and practice, so most ships started the Great War without it (including many dreadnoughts). For a good synopsis of naval gunnery issues in the RJW era, check out this article. - Ix |
Yellow Admiral | 17 Sep 2015 5:53 p.m. PST |
BTW – can you say more about your games with FWR? The more pictures, the better. I like FWR, but haven't played them in years. We found them fun but a bit slow for larger battles (e.g. RJW scenarios). I recently started reviewing them again with an eye toward playing 1-2 ships/player duels in the 1880-1895 era. I love to hear what other people are playing in the pre-dreadnought period. - Ix |
David Manley | 18 Sep 2015 6:10 a.m. PST |
It's there so that you can bring in Dreadnought at the end of the period |
Old Jarhead | 18 Sep 2015 10:35 a.m. PST |
Thank you all. Most of my games are with armoured and protected cruisers (I just enjoy that type of game) I will try to remember to get pictures. |
|