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DeRuyter

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Everything posted by DeRuyter

  1. Actually a square rigged ship won't be sailing closer than 60 degrees because you can't brace up the yards any further. So it is the inherent design of the rigging that causes the limitation, a hard limit, more practically 65-70 degrees. In general I agree with your point that certain SOLs usually 74s could run down frigates "in their best conditions" and there were certainly recorded instances of this happening. But @Wyy makes a valid point that those conditions were not always present. Frankly in the wind state represented in NA no SOL would get near hull speed and a frigate should easily be able to escape. One point he made was about windage which was a factor on large ships with high freeboard, ie; multiple guns decks. I disagree with the point that they were better in every way though even setting aside cost issues. Logistically it was more efficient to send a frigate on patrol or commerce raiding than a line ship. Frigates were more maneuverable and could go places a line ship could not. 5th and 6th rates were used for every duty except fighting in the line of battle, and they even did that on occasion. They were just more versatile. At the end of the time period the trend was to build more larger spar decked frigates. For example the British did not send 74s to hunt down the big US frigates, rather they razee'd several 64s and 74s and built a new class of single gun deck 50 gun ship (HMS Leander, Newcastle) in response. I do agree with your suggestion since we won't be getting variable wind strengths (something I have been posting about since 2016 along with actual ship drafts).
  2. Fascinating. Looks like one of Leonardo's inventions!
  3. I understand, but it still should render as you see how close he got during the battle.
  4. It should have rendered at the distance in the screenshot. At least I hope it would have that looks to be in range of the forts guns.
  5. Fluffy I don't disagree with your assessment amazingly enough, but to be fair she did have some unique, or unusual if you prefer, design elements. Diagonal riders, framing spaced more closely than normal which gave her hull additional strength and prevented hogging for example. The mission she was designed for was also different than those earlier ships you mention in particular in the first half of the 18th century. Frankly at one time there were two decked "frigates". The US 44s were designed to fight anything equal or smaller and run from anything larger which primarily meant British 64s and 74s. So here we have her in game classed with 74s a ship class that she was never meant to fight. People have mentioned the disadvantages already, also the modules category shifts to 1-3 the most expensive. In the end I agree - 4th rate is best fit.
  6. Some nice photos of the yards braced close hauled.
  7. Steering back on course; the issue is not the cost but the stacking, bonuses + mods + books of the same type. Ports should not be building ships with every bonus anyway. The port owner should have to choose which ones to invest in but all the big ports have too many points.
  8. You can compare the fire resistance of different wood on the NA Map. https://na-map.netlify.com/
  9. Well the $30 one is only a pre-order price and does not get you in the closed beta. My guess is that the release price will be in the $40 range so it is a savings. Still debating whether to pick up the middle one and start playing. Steam sale so lots of other options out there, not to mention Naval Action of course!
  10. More realistic near term to do: Implement a Raid mechanic Fix Trading - bring back old weights for trade goods combined with reduction in reals reward for cargo delivery is best way IMO.
  11. This is very good news for me since I am about to start a build with a RX580 (8gb)! This will be with a Ryzen 5 2600 like the OP. My current potato rig is lucky to get 25 FPS in small battles lol.
  12. While the skirmishers are too close together. Having skirmishers as a separate unit type does also raise doctrinal issues given the changes during the time span of the game. Plus you have light infantry acting as skirmishers like jaegers and later you have skirmishers drawn from the light companies of line regiments. (For that you could have a button to detach them like UGCW).
  13. Thanks for posting. Now I can see the craziness of having ports able to produce multiple level 4 bonuses! Just having one level 4 combined with other mods certainly calls for a cap in addition to a nerf.
  14. Very nice! I see you have climbing harness on. Are all L'Hermione crew required to go aloft (topmen) during a voyage or can you choose to serve on deck only.
  15. Yeah I just lost a long post on the raid mechanic because of this.😥
  16. Yes 2% for Guacata and 3% for Almira I think. Also using the book for knowledge will survive the release wipe (unless that changes again).
  17. Mine also - KPR being a capitol (uncapturable) will remain British.
  18. I beg to differ. You focus too much on the large US 24 pdr frigates, but let's stay with that for a moment. Ironically you have just used some British propaganda by using the total gun count for the US ship and the long gun count for the British ship! HMS Java was rated as a 38 but carried 46 guns. Having said that we all can agree that the US 44s were bigger and heavier ships that the standard 18 pdr frigate and that was by design. I would hardly call it "preying" on smaller ships, which gave battle willingly and with full knowledge of the power of the US frigates. The propaganda war goes both ways. During the war a number of difficulties worried Whitehall and afterwards the embarrassment of defeats by this small upstart former colony was whitewashed by William James. The victories certainly had an incalculable effect on American morale, which may have been worth the cost. Now, answer me this question; Why is it that British 18 pdr frigates were most always able to defeat larger French 40s and 24 pdr armed frigates? The equal frigate engagement that is always referred to ofc was Chesapeake v Shannon. No excuses there the US ship was outfought, however by probably one of the best frigate captains in the RN who had a very well drilled crew. Still the rather green US crew put up a good fight. By stating that it was all down to the larger vs smaller trope you are missing out on where the real concern lay. There were after all a number of fleet engagements and actions or duels between smaller ships, of equal size. Let's see there is the small matter of the lake battles, which had great strategic import in the war. The Battle of Lake Erie and the Battle of Plattsburgh resulted in the capture of entire British fleets. Nothing minor about that I would venture to say. Then there were a number of duels between sloops and brigs, but you are right, still minor and having no effect on the mighty RN. But what were all those small US ships, ship-sloops, brigs and schooners doing out at sea anyway? Commerce raiding. That indeed had a big effect on the British war effort and insurance rates. The USN being only a small part of it with the privateers ofc. One of these privateers the Chasseur fought and beat an equally armed RN warship. We have one example in game the Prince which withstood a cutting out attack by another ship in game HMS Endymion whilst heavily outnumbered. So again I certainly disagree with your premise here and I think the British media at the time reflects a level of concern that you are trying to dismiss. Circling back to the big frigates they did cause a shift in RN strategy and ship building to counter them. Building a whole new class of 50 gun ships to fight them and diverting more fleet resources to catch them. BTW the answer to my question is one of the prime reasons why the USN and US privateers were indeed a thorn in the side of the RN in 1812.
  19. @Fluffy Fishy @LeBoiteux Your ideas would make perfect DLC if the base game is going to be just RN&USN. I like the idea of taking command of the French navy in the AWI. Even the Venetians could get in on the action with a campaign in the Adriatic and Med (Lissa 1811, etc.).
  20. This is what I was wondering about. Does the join timer not work in the PZ?
  21. If you go to the web site it shows the player can choose either the RN or the USN.
  22. I think @Snoopy posted the advantage/disadvantage in fleet combat nicely. In general the British preferred to be the aggressors and control the engagement, as Nelson later said that a captain cannot go wrong by placing his ship alongside the enemy (paraphrase). Since the French preferred to disable the enemy and fire high the leeward position was fine for their tactic, of course it also allowed disabled ships to drop out of the formation, or for the formation to retreat. As @Henry d'Esterre Darby noted there were exceptions depending on the fleet positions or strategic situation.
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