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Ammunition critical hit


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#1 persia

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Posted 27 December 2020 - 01:08 AM

An Italian 12.6" shell hits Warspite at 15000 yards. The shell penetrates BB armour. Warspite has BB armour and (BA) armour on her turrets. The shell causes a critical hit on ammunition. In 1.7.2, the ammunition damage description states that "penetration of a main battery turret, barbette or magazine leads to a magazine explosion if not flooded quickly."

My question: does the shell penetrate the BB armour and threaten a magazine (could be a secondary 6" one), or does it bounce off the BA turret/barbette? If the latter, then presumably the ammunition critical hit only matters if a turret is penetrated. If the former, it makes more sense to me - I believe one theory for Hood's demise was an explosion in a secondary magazine.

Appreciate any clarification.

#2 Dave Franklin

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Posted 28 December 2020 - 08:40 AM

Persia,

 

I have always played it that since the damage description says "Penetration of a main battery turret, barbette or magazine..." (my italics), an Ammunition critical hit needs to penetrate the target's main battery armor.  So I would have played it that it bounced.  This might also have been a holdover from GQ1/2 - it might not have been as ambiguous in the older rules, but I don't recall.  That said, as you pointed out, you can certainly make the argument it could be the hull armor that is applicable.

 

Note that even if you play it uses the hull armor, the Equivalent Damage Roll value for the Italian 12.6" vs. a BB is 1/2, so the Italian would either have had to get at least 2 hits to score 1 "equivalent hit", or if they only got 1 hit, roll odd on another die (i.e. 50% chance).

 

Dave



#3 persia

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Posted 28 December 2020 - 09:52 PM

Thanks Dave

I hadn't understood the equivalent damage rules, so that's clarified things very helpfully for me.

Gunfire damage on Warspite hits Main Turrets on 4,5,or 11 and sure, you need to penetrate BA armour to have a chance for the ammunition to explode.

A critical hit happens on 12, then a 5-7 gets ammunition, if you can penetrate the armour.

If the armour in question is the turret/barbette armour, then this critical hit is exactly the same as hitting a main turret, which makes me wonder why it's included, instead of calling this a hit on a main turret.

If the armour is not turret/barbette, but the main BB ship armour, then if you can penetrate it, there's a 25% chance Warspite goes bang, so it's an unlikely, but possible outcome, with the further caveat that the 12.6" hit only has a 50% chance of inflicting damage in the first place. This seems more interesting to me than the alternative, which is Warspite is invulnerable to anything but hull damage.

Robin
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#4 Brooks Witten

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Posted 28 December 2020 - 10:03 PM

We had always played the Ammunition Critical Hit as the turret armor rather than the hull in all versions of General Quarters.

It's really a playability issue.  Bogging the game down with minutiae.
(Not that we've had a problem with that!  If everyone agrees on a 'house rule' we go with it)

As to HOOD being an example?  It doesn't apply.
BISMARCK's 38 cm SK C/34 was capable of penetrating any of HOOD's vertical armor at the range she was hit.

So the rule, as written, does accurately portray historical results.

 

Can't ask more of the authors than that.






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