Post by chuckp on Sept 6, 2018 12:33:43 GMT -5
Just curious how others run light cruisers. We did Dogger Bank as our first game and I had the 2 independent light cruiser groups represented on the table. I didn't include destroyers yet, I wanted to see how long the turns really took before putting too many vessels on the table at once.
We found the German cruisers especially too brittle. While the BC's slugged it out, the 2 cruiser groups engaged each other, but the British 6" guns were too much for the Germans. German cruisers were going down in just one round of fire. The issue was the main battery hits. With technically no main batteries on the light cruisers, they were taking 8 point hits at a pop from the crit damage table (3 base dmg + 5 pt crit).
Any thoughts on making them more survivable?
I'm not one to usually tinker with the rules until I get a few games under my belt, but in this instance, there doesn't seem to be much value in putting individual light cruisers on the table for target practice.
Destroyers avoid the issue by grouping into multiple ships and ignoring crits. Removing crits from the light cruisers would remove some of the flavor and goes too far to the other end of enjoyment and basically ignores their role in naval warfare. One thought I had was was doing light cruiser penetrations by light guns 6" or less as superstructure crits rather than penetration crits. But that removes flooding, engine and other crit results from the equation, so a half baked solution at best. The other option would be to treat main battery hits as secondary battery hits against light cruisers. That should allow them to last a bit longer in combat. Perhaps cut it off at 8" guns or less so if hit with by larger guns the extra damage could still happen?
So any other thoughts on how to make light cruiser battle a little more interesting?
We found the German cruisers especially too brittle. While the BC's slugged it out, the 2 cruiser groups engaged each other, but the British 6" guns were too much for the Germans. German cruisers were going down in just one round of fire. The issue was the main battery hits. With technically no main batteries on the light cruisers, they were taking 8 point hits at a pop from the crit damage table (3 base dmg + 5 pt crit).
Any thoughts on making them more survivable?
I'm not one to usually tinker with the rules until I get a few games under my belt, but in this instance, there doesn't seem to be much value in putting individual light cruisers on the table for target practice.
Destroyers avoid the issue by grouping into multiple ships and ignoring crits. Removing crits from the light cruisers would remove some of the flavor and goes too far to the other end of enjoyment and basically ignores their role in naval warfare. One thought I had was was doing light cruiser penetrations by light guns 6" or less as superstructure crits rather than penetration crits. But that removes flooding, engine and other crit results from the equation, so a half baked solution at best. The other option would be to treat main battery hits as secondary battery hits against light cruisers. That should allow them to last a bit longer in combat. Perhaps cut it off at 8" guns or less so if hit with by larger guns the extra damage could still happen?
So any other thoughts on how to make light cruiser battle a little more interesting?