Torpedo LoS

[regiamarina]

Hey Fellas,

we have been playing a lot more cruiser and destroyer battles of late and a question has come up regarding torpedoes and line of sight. Now on p.16 of the rules under line of sight it states that the three criteria have to be met for line of sight to be blocked, if they're not met then line of sight is not blocked. This part we get. It then goes on to say that for torpedoes only the first two criteria have to be met as any size ship will block line of sight.

Now the situation we had the other night was that a destroyer was firing a torpedo spread and the player decided to target a light cruiser in the arc instead of two destroyers that were closer. The line of sight passed through one destroyer, meeting the first criteria, but the intervening destroyer was not within 6" of either the firing ship or the target so it didn't meet the second criteria to block line of sight. Is this correct? Can torpedoes pass through a closer ship to hit ships behind? This caused quite a discussion in the group. It didn't look right but I think we were reading the rules correctly.

I assumed this was to take into account travel time so a torpedo could pass ahead of closer ships to converge on a ship more distant, they don't just magically arrive at the target.

Any help appreciated, cheers.

Martin

[TheDreadnought]

Jun 28, 2011 22:48:13 GMT -5 regiamarina said:

Hey Fellas,

we have been playing a lot more cruiser and destroyer battles of late and a question has come up regarding torpedoes and line of sight. Now on p.16 of the rules under line of sight it states that the three criteria have to be met for line of sight to be blocked, if they're not met then line of sight is not blocked. This part we get. It then goes on to say that for torpedoes only the first two criteria have to be met as any size ship will block line of sight.

Now the situation we had the other night was that a destroyer was firing a torpedo spread and the player decided to target a light cruiser in the arc instead of two destroyers that were closer. The line of sight passed through one destroyer, meeting the first criteria, but the intervening destroyer was not within 6" of either the firing ship or the target so it didn't meet the second criteria to block line of sight. Is this correct? Can torpedoes pass through a closer ship to hit ships behind? This caused quite a discussion in the group. It didn't look right but I think we were reading the rules correctly.

I assumed this was to take into account travel time so a torpedo could pass ahead of closer ships to converge on a ship more distant, they don't just magically arrive at the target.

Any help appreciated, cheers.

Martin

Yeah, I don't have the rules in front of me. . . but I think you're correct. It represents a torpedo run-time thing. Unless the ship is close to shooter or target, then in al reality it wouldn't probably be in the way at the time the torpedo arrived at the target.

[shigure]

Yes, as pointed out the torpedoes would be fired well ahead of a target and then depending upon the torpedo speed setting and the range there should be little chance of the closer target getting in the way. The only way possible this might happen would be the target ship was moving at something like 20-25 knots and the intersecting ship was moving at maybe 35+ knots. To add something like that in the game would add a lot of complexity.

[regiamarina]

Thanks guys. I assumed it was a run time thing but it just looked odd firing torpedoes through one ship at a ship behind. Glad I was right in my reading of the rules and I had no problems with it as I assumed the turn spans a few minutes so in all likelihood the torpedoes are fired at any stage during the movement step. I think I just explained the point badly to the guys playing.

Having another game this Friday with Italians versus French and British Allies so stay tuned for more queries. ;D The Richelieu is proving to be a beast of a ship.