Tactics & Strategies - Gunnery

You can build the biggest, fastest, most highly armed Big Gun warship the world has ever seen, but if you can't hit what you aim for, and you don't know what to aim for, you’ve got squat.

"%&#* it! I let him get away again!" How often is this heard? A lot! In our hobby it takes both ship quality and skipper skill to put any pain on the opponent. Let's look at ways to maybe improve both.

Let's start with the ship itself. Cannon barrels in each turret must be perfectly aligned. A slight difference can result in huge pattern differences or actually misses on the bad guy's end. An easy way to ensure alignment is to stick 4 foot long brass tubes, that fit tightly, into each barrel of a turret. Still aligned at four feet? If not, adjust the barrel bracket to get it right.

Twin turrets? Are they in sync? Will Alpha & Bravo cannon fire hit the exact same spot? This is important for both stationary and rotating cannon. On the rotates, do they stay in sync throughout the day? So far the jury is still out on what denoted the best system to insure alignment, but it would seem steel cable is the current favorite. Again, use the brass tubes to visibly see the effects a tiny out of sync turret makes at four feet. Now imagine it at twenty or more. Elevation & depression - again same thing. Are A&B in sync? Adjust the servo rod, etc. to get them exact.

Before moving off the ship let's talk real quick about rotation and depression. This isn't a construction column though. So, are rotation and depression really needed?. The answer is yes and no. Depends on the ship - what is physically possible (cruisers are little-bitty), as well as what you, the human, can actually control. Generally, on main cannon, if you can rotate it - then do so. Exception - ships with two forward and a single rear turret normally leave the rear fixed. As to depression, main armament on battlecruisers and larger should be capable of depression. Remember - whatever toys you add, you must control. Be honest with yourself. Can you keep up with all those functions? Don't over do it.

Moving away from the ship to the radio, what do you have for controls? Two gimbals? Forget that! To compete against other BG models you need to have a modified radio transmitter. If your turrets rotate then you need a rotation knob on your radio with a big white line that tells you which way the shooting end is pointing out at sea. It's hard to tell at a distance when that six foot model looks like it's only a foot. If your barrels depress, you need a big knob for them as well. This way you can quickly see, without looking at the model, what's going on. I can tell you from experience, that in the heat of battle you quickly lose track of which way that airplane trimmer pot needs to be turned to raise and lower your guns. It's a bummer to find out you raised when you should have lowered. As a side note, you better mark that radio landing gear switch as to what is on and off if it controls your pumps. I talk from the school of hard knocks. And firing switches - you need a button for each set of cannons firing as a group. The buttons should physically be arrayed on the transmitter as on the ship. Some folks go as far as shaping the firing buttons mounting plate to look like a ship hull. Anything helps.

That was a lot just to get the basics and we haven't even gotten to the weakest link in gunnery - you, the skipper. To achieve hits the most important thing you can do is practice. Don't think your big bad battleship can even sink a destroyer or an unarmed convoy ship if all you do is play once a year. The fact is, a Destroyer, operated by a skilled vet, may take you out! Practice! Show up for battles! And practice some more! Without practice, you're going to be fish bait.

Examine most any ship after a battle and you will see 95% of the hits are above the waterline, with many in the superstructure. And you wonder why he didn't go down? The fact is, when you fire, if you don't see water thrown from your blast, then you're aiming too high. Sure, early on in an engagement you might want to plug the target a bunch above. This way when you add a few belows, and the ship settles, those aboves quickly become belows. But, ain't nothing going to send them swimming faster than a bunch of shots in the red. Aim for the water an inch or two from the target. Your kill ratio will rise.

Skip shots. I read an article on this and wasn't so sure about the logic. So, one day I spent a 1000 rounds test firing, gauging my accuracy, and examining the effect, of nothing other than skip shots. I found that beyond a couple of skips the accuracy goes way down and the hitting power is dramatically less. And forget belows. Don't get me wrong, distance shots have a place. But use maximum elevation to reach out as far as possible before the shell strikes the water. And remember, even if you do hit, 999 times out of a 1000 it will be above. BTW- I got zero belows.

A moving target is hard to hit. When you are moving as well, the difficulty is doubled. Your aim is far more accurate if your ship is sitting still. Of course, then you are also an easier target. So should you move or sit? My advice here is, if you outgun them, sit still and pound the snot out of them. A side benefit of sitting still is you take on less water from damage than if you are moving. If you are matched or undergunned, keep that gimbal at flank speed. Ships which have no rear defenses (many Richelieus come to mind) should never sit still (except for mailman shots). Others with rotating turrets fore and aft (Bismarck class comes to mind) maybe better off sitting still in an evenly matched competition. Count the trade offs. Think!

Last tactic on gunnery. The closer your ship is to you, the radio operator, the better your aim. Try to entice the enemy closer to you. Giving them some long range fire is often enough to piss them off so they come a calling. Vets are quite skilled at luring rookies to their side of the pond. Again, think before you react. Are you being baited into a trap? This is not to say hang out around your port. After all, this is war! Meet the enemy, face them down, and be aggressive. Put some hurt on them! That's what makes sinks and adds to the fun. Good hunting Gentlemen.