Artillery vs Naval Units

Post by **BattleGoat** » Oct 10 2002

How well should naval units do against bombardment from Artillery Pieces??? Should a battalion of Artillery decimate a ship in nothing flat, or are today's ships able to withstand artillery barrages pretty successfully?

Let us know what you think!

tkobo · Post by **tkobo** » Oct 10 2002

If the ships are silly enough to get into the artillaries effective range they will get sunk fast.

Ships have no defense against incoming art shells.
It is even worse now than it was in ww2 because the armor on ships has steadily decreased over the years and the accuracy of the arty has increased greatly.

Hellfish6 · Post by **Hellfish6** » Oct 10 2002

I agree. I'd slap a ship commander that got into land artillery range. Granted, I haven't heard it happening since Korea in '52, but...

Post by **George Geczy** » Oct 11 2002

Of course, the question comes from the fact that in a test game David lost a group of 6 ships very quickly to six battalions of artillery (which would be about 70 artillery pieces in this case), and he thought they should have lasted a bit longer.

I guess the big question is whether artillery units on shore should be such a good counter to ships passing by within range. Of course, this would also apply to artillery as a defense against landing craft.

Our naval strength numbers are not yet determined, so we're feeling around for ideas on what does well or poorly against what.

-- George.

Juergen · Post by **Juergen** » Oct 11 2002

I would say it also depends on the type of the artillery.
If we are speaking about "normal" artillery firing shells than I would agree.They are accurate and their shells have enough power to sink a ship.Their range however is a bit limited and unless they are close on the coast I dont think they can reach the ships easily.

And besides todays ships are also very capable at destroying land targets from quite a distance using land attack missiles.
I believe the artillery would get hit long before it can reach the ship.

Coastal SSMs would be another matter.
The range of the missiles are usually very high and the warhead of them is also usually heave enough to severly damage a ship.
But the ships are capable of shooting the missles down so their defense against them would be higher.
But if they get hit by the missiles the ships will feel it.

Hellfish6 · Post by **Hellfish6** » Oct 11 2002

Seventy artillery pieces probably won't spend much time finishing off six warships. You have to remember - warships today are not considered armored like they used to be. Most are made out of aluminum. Look at what a motorboat filled with explosives did to the USS Cole. Or the USS Stark, which was hit by a single missile and considered out of action. A few well directed (forward observers and/or targeting radars) artillery hits will go a long way to making a ship hurt bad. It might take a little longer to actually sink the ship, but I imagine just a few 155mm or 152mm shells would ruin a ship's day.
You may want to look into how other games like Harpoon and Fleet Commander handle gun damage to ships. Put two gun-only ships 2nm away from each other and see how long it takes to knock each other out. Extrapolate from there.