Naval Thunder Part 4 Shooting Example

We're finally to the shooting example between our two ships, Renown and Littorio. 
Here's part 1, part 2, and part 3.


Shooting Example
Let’s take a look at these two ships in battle. First example (turn) has them shooting at each other at 40” and the next turn involves them shooting at 12”.

Immediately, you can see the difference gun size plays into this. the Littorio’s main guns are firing at a Medium range, therefore only adding a +1 to their “To Hit” number. While the Renown is having to add a +3 because their guns are firing at Long Range. Thi si offset a bit by the -1 modifier for Fire control. However, they still need a 9+ with a d10.  


Also apparent, the number of guns firing means that Littorio is rolling (firing) 9 dice compared to 6. The results came out to 1 shell landed for Renown and 2 for Littorio.

Next, we roll for the penetration of the shells. Again, the gun difference, modifiers, and Armor Value (AV) make a big difference.  For the Renown’s shells to penetrate the Littorio’s 18 AV, they’ll need to roll a d10 and add it to their shell’s modified penetration value of 12. (Actually, because the shell is coming in from Long Range, there is no modification.) So, to get a critical and full damage, they need to roll a 7+. If they roll 6 or under they’ll just get half damage and no critical. they don’t roll enough and therefore get only 5 points of damage.

 
The Littorio on the other hand, needs to beat Renown’s AV of 14. Before modifications, Littorio’s penetration value is 14. Even with 1’s every shell will be critical. But, as an added bonus, because her guns are firing at medium range, there is a +1 modifier to her penetration roll. Obviously, both shells penetrate, each causing 10 points of damage and both, in this case, each destroy a secondary battery turret.

None of the ships’ Secondary batteries can reach out at this range, so that’s all the firing for this turn.


Final tally for first turn - Renown loses 20 points of hull damage and 2 secondary batteries. the Renown Captain would choose to take away 2 of the 3.5” batteries, thus only losing 2 guns. This would bring those guns/turrets down to 4 for that side of the ship.

The Littorio just loses 5 points of hull damage and no criticals.


Now, let’s assume it’s a later turn, both ships are facing the same broadsides as before, but this time they’ve closed and are 12” apart.  


Main Battery Firing
Renown is the only one that get’s any modifiers and that’s -1 for the fire control. Therefore, the Renown will hit the Littorio on a 6+. The Littorio hits the Renown on a 7+. Renown rolls their 6 die and get 5 hits. Littorio rolls their 9 die and get 6 hits. This won’t be pretty.

Renown’s main battery shells now have a penetration value of 14 because of the short range modifier of +2. They roll 5 die to test for penetration and get 2 criticals, knocking out a secondary battery turret plus 10 points of hull damage, and a torpedo mount...wait, Littorio doesn’t have those. So, no special damage on that one, but still 10 points of hull damage. The rest of their penetration rolls don’t score enough and just cause half damage for a total of 15. The main batteries for Renown inflict 35 points of hull damage on Littorio.


The Littorio’s main battery shells have a penetration value of 16 after the short range modifier. Basically, you don’t even need to roll to penetrate because the number is 2 over the AV of the Renown. Therefore, all you need to roll is what the critical damage will be. Result: 2 main turrets, 3 secondary turrets, and minor flooding for an additional 2 points of damage. Therefore, the main batteries, in addition to all that critical damage, inflicts a total of 62 points of damage!


Secondary Battery
Renown’s secondary turrets hit the Littorio on a 5+. This is after a medium range +1 modifier is cancelled out by a -1 fire control modifier then a -2 rate of fire modifier. Renown comes with 5 turrets, 2 guns a piece on each starboard and port side. Remember that in the previous turn, 2 secondary batteries were taken out.  Therefore, it now only as 3 turrets, for a total of 6 guns firing. 
 Six d10 are rolled and scores 4 hits.


Unfortunately, the penetration value of these guns is only 1. With the medium range modifier of +1 it bumps up to a 2. With the Littorio’s AV of 18, there’s no way, even with a 10 that the shells will penetrate. However, there is a chance, given any natural 10’s that there could be a superstructure critical...alas, no 10’s. Let’s look at the Littorio’s secondary batteries.

They have two sizes of guns, 6” and 3.5”. When rolling you can roll all guns of the same size together to save time. However, because the gun size affect range and penetration modifiers, you need to roll the different guns at separate times. (I suppose you could use differently colored dice...)


The “To Hit” number is also reduced to a 5+ because of the rate of fire modifier. Littorio also rolls 6 die and continues with the good rolling, getting 5 hits. The penetration number is a base 4 and modifies up to 6 because of a +2 Short Range modifier. The Renown’s AV is 14. With a 9 or 10, the shells could penetrate. Unfortunately, none are rolled and the shells only cause half damage. The 6” guns inflict a total of 25 point s of the hull damage. Better than 50, if they had rolled all 9’s and 10’s.


Now it’s time for the 3.5” guns.  The “To Hit” number is 6+ because the gun suffers a +1 Medium range modifier, and benefits from a -2 Rate of Fire modifier. Littorio rolls 6 d10 and gets 2 hits.


The base penetration number for these shells is 0. Fortunately, they benefit from a +1 Medium Range modifier for a total penetration number of 1. With Renown’s AV of 14 there’s no way, even with a 10 that they will penetrate. But the Littorio captain rolls with the hope of a 10. First roll is a fail. Second roll, success, and a 10. The superstructure is rolled and it’s another secondary turret lost for Renown. No points of hull damage lost, so that’s a good thing.


In the End Phase you make damage control checks for things like fires and flooding. Remember, Renown had flooding damage. The Renowns crews go to work. However, the problem moves from minor flooding to major flooding,  causing 4 more points of damage and losing -1” of speed for the rest of the game. The flooding can still be stopped in future damage control checks.


Total Damage
For the two turns, here are the final tally of damage taken by each ship:
Renown
111 hull points lost
27 points remaining
2 Main Batteries lost
9 Secondary Batteries lost
Major Flooding
-1 Speed


Littorio
40 hull points lost
110 hull points remaining
1 Secondary Battery lost


Conclusion - Finally!
To me, the gun size and their range, with modifiers makes a huge difference. In addition, the very strong AV of the Littorio protected it from the lighter guns of the Renown. The Renown would obviously want to avoid the broadsides of the Littorio and take advantage of their ability to move after Littorio to put themselves in harder shots for Littorio’s guns. The Renown would need to join this fight with another ship or get out of range of Littorio and stay to Littorio’s aft to take less chances of hits.


A couple of notes. I chose these two ships because I liked the look of them and thought they looked somewhat equivalent. (WRONG) And, I actually rolled d10 for the shooting examples.


Trust me, it doesn’t take this long to play through this much shooting.  Let me know what you thought of this. It took me way longer to get it done that I thought it would and I hope it is of some value to those interested in playing or buying this game.