Fun With Naval Terminology

[Urwumpe]

Also, a lot of relatively lightweight NATO warships carry an helicopter or two. Some, like the Seahawk, are amongst the russian sub commander worst nightmares.

Also the smallest NATO subs are those, who strike most fear in both NATO and Russian capital ship and submarine commanders.

Knowing that a German (or a Swedish) submarine is somewhere out there, but you are not knowing where, is really bad for your PR after a NATO manoeuvre. Somebody nasty will make photographs through his periscope that prove that your Nimitz carrier had been in perfect attack range while your escorts did not even notice the intruder.

They might not be as large as a nuclear submarine and not carrying as many weapons as a nuclear submarine - but such modern conventional submarines (including the Russian Kilo, which is why German submarines are so popular as OPFOR) are literally like a cloud of silence in the ocean.

Sadly the German 212 class does still not carry IRIS-T missiles in its torpedo tubes. Otherwise, they would also be causing nightmares for helicopter crews. :lol:

 

[boogabooga]

In the Royal Navy c. WW1, light cruisers were designed for two primary roles:

1. Fast scouts for the Grand Fleet. HSF used them the same way.

2. As destroyer squadron leaders - primarily as they had a bit more room for staff.

They were sometimes used independently for commerce protection/raiding - but this role was primarily filled by the true cruiser (far longer range).

This role evolved to be more varied and complex in WW2.

If you are interested in the pre-WW2 period buy this (but I warn you it is very addictive):

http://nws-online.proboards.com/thread/335/rtw-rule-waves-information-downloads

LOL, I have Rule the Waves. I thought it was a super-niche game and did not expect to see it brought up here on O-F. It amazes me how similar game tastes among Orbinauts.

 

[jedidia]

I decided to give Star General a go after a crazy day with the kids, and I like it. There's some really good design decisions in this thing (but then again, this is SSI), especially how ranged units get a reaction shot when neighbouring units are attacked. Encourages nice chessy block-and-cover strategies.

 

[TMac3000]

This is why I loved Great Naval Battles: North Atlantic. It's a realtime game and you're basically the admiral in charge of a squadron of ships in combat on either the German or British side. Naval big gun combat is a slow enough pace to think and make decisions but fast enough to be exciting.

And the game also had a strategic campaign mode where you few the theater as a whole and either try to bottle the Germans up to protect your convoys or try to run the British blockades. There are radio reports coming in, and you use light cruisers to scout the GIUK gap along with aircraft carriers to patrol the area, then build formations to go out the meet the enemy.

Like a WWII-based version of Harpoon--sounds really interesting!

Anyway, their distinctive sign, the extremely high speed of 33 knots

Between that and the armor, one could almost argue the Iowa as a battlecruiser (though you won't see me try:lol

On the taxonomy of spaceships

Took me a while to find it again, but it sums up nicely what different classes of ships represent in navy and sci-fi

That was a fascinating article. I'm going to post the ship taxonomy section of my SG tutorial tonight, and see what feedback I get.

I decided to give Star General a go after a crazy day with the kids, and I like it. There's some really good design decisions in this thing (but then again, this is SSI), especially how ranged units get a reaction shot when neighbouring units are attacked. Encourages nice chessy block-and-cover strategies.

Some good, but also some bad/very strange. Like the AI dropping ground units on your planets and then doing nothing with them, and the inability of AI races to ally and coordinate with each other.

The race taxonomy in that game interests me as much as the ship taxonomy. The Hressans are built for speed, the Cephians for stealth, and the Khalians for commerce raiding and looting. The Fleet and the Schleinel are more balanced, the Dragonians are great on defense, and Xritra have the only ship that can act as a tender, a transport, and a fleet missile cruiser, all of which combined make it horribly effective as an assault carrier, like the US Navy's Tarawa

 

[Urwumpe]

..., like the US Navy's Tarawa

I never understood why the America class initially started without well deck.

 

[TMac3000]

I suspect that's because it's focused on deploying Marines ashore by air.

 

[jedidia]

Some good, but also some bad/very strange. Like the AI dropping ground units on your planets and then doing nothing with them, and the inability of AI races to ally and coordinate with each other.

Well, that sounds more like an implementation issue than a design decision :lol:

 

[TMac3000]

The inactive ground units are surely a bug, but coordination was something I don't think they intended--you aren't supposed to go having multiple races on your side, but I love to do it

 

[K_Jameson]

Between that and the armor, one could almost argue the Iowa as a battlecruiser (though you won't see me try:lol

Oh no, the percentage of armor in respect to the light displacement - if the public data for the Iowa class are correct - is 39,5%, to be compared with the 40% of the North Carolina class and 40,5% of the South Dakota class.

In a battlecruiser, the typical percentage of armor is lower: for example, 25% for the Renown class, 31% for the Alaska class, 32% for the Hood, 35% for the Kongo class, sometimes referred as battleship class.

The Scharnhorst class is a curios case: often classified "battlecruiser", it had a protection typical of the battleships: 40% of the light displacement. That is higher than the Iowas. Their armored belt was even thicker than the Bismarck!

(source: "Le Navi da Battaglia della Seconda Guerra Mondiale" - G. Giorgerini - 1972).

---------- Post added at 07:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:57 PM ----------

Last year I was aboard the Iowa-class New Jersey, now a museum ship. [...]

Good for you, Andy. I've never had the privilege to visit one of these majestic leviathans (when it will happen, my first choice will be the USS North Carolina :thumbup.

Shame that, here in Italy, we could not preseve one of our beautiful Littorio class battleships. Although it might have been controversial - unpleasant fascist memories, etcetera...

 

[TMac3000]

Sovremennyy Class: 6600 tons, 156 m, destroyer
Kynda (Badasski I) Class: 4400 tons, 141.9 m...cruiser

Okay, seriously, Russia?

 

[Urwumpe]

Sovremennyy Class: 6600 tons, 156 m, destroyer
Kynda (Badasski I) Class: 4400 tons, 141.9 m...cruiser

Okay, seriously, Russia?

Downsizing reaches warships? :lol:

Actually, the Kynda was slightly heavier than the Neustrashimy class destroyers designed a few years earlier in the 1950s.

 

[TMac3000]

An interest note that the Kuznetsov is roughly the size of a Forrestal

---------- Post added at 01:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:39 PM ----------

Downsizing reaches warships? :lol:

Actually, the Kynda was slightly heavier than the Neustrashimy class destroyers designed a few years earlier in the 1950s.

Never heard of those, but they must have been more like gun corvettes.

 

[Urwumpe]

Never heard of those, but they must have been more like gun corvettes.

Rather like a classic WW2 destroyer, looks like the Chinese Luda-Class, which is still in use.

The Kotlin class destroyers had been designed in 1955, weight about the same (3200 tons) and look also similar, but have already guided missiles replacing guns.

 

[TMac3000]

Downsizing reaches warships? :lol:

Actually, the Kynda was slightly heavier than the Neustrashimy class destroyers designed a few years earlier in the 1950s.

I played Strike Fleet on a Commodore 64 when I was in middle school, and the Kynda and the Slava were two of the worst things you could run into.

 

[Urwumpe]

I played Strike Fleet on a Commodore 64 when I was in middle school, and the Kynda and the Slava were two of the worst things you could run into.

Hardly surprising, if you remember how relatively poor even the first generation AEGIS system fared against contemporary cruise missiles. Took a few upgrades until it really had a chance to survive a salvo of MiG-sized fire power.

 

[Linguofreak]

If you are interested in the pre-WW2 period buy this (but I warn you it is very addictive):

http://nws-online.proboards.com/thread/335/rtw-rule-waves-information-downloads

Downloaded it, tried it, instant addict. Thanks a lot. I'm not at all sure if I mean that sarcastically or sincerely.

 

[mojoey]

Here's something of note for this thread:

http://jvhageshii01.wordpress.com/2015/05/15/on-the-taxonomy-of-spaceships/

 

[Hielor]

Here's something of note for this thread:

http://jvhageshii01.wordpress.com/2015/05/15/on-the-taxonomy-of-spaceships/

Was already linked only a couple of pages ago

 

[boogabooga]

Downloaded it, tried it, instant addict. Thanks a lot. I'm not at all sure if I mean that sarcastically or sincerely.

Rule the Waves is pretty cool.

It was amazing how captivating it is without any graphics to speak of.

They need to work on the AI and diplomacy/alliance models though.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Currently somewhat hooked on World of Warships. Pretty quick and dirty action