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Post by lordstrange on Jul 8, 2019 4:36:48 GMT -6
What advantages/disadvantages are there to diesels once you get them? Should I be transitioning from Oil to Diesel completely at any point?
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Post by stevethecat on Jul 8, 2019 4:48:20 GMT -6
I have found them to be only useful for extreme range light raiders like CLs or AMCs.
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krawa
Junior Member
Posts: 96 
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Post by krawa on Jul 8, 2019 6:42:30 GMT -6
What advantages/disadvantages are there to diesels once you get them? Should I be transitioning from Oil to Diesel completely at any point? Advantage is better fuel economy, so you need less additional tonnage for long ranged ship. Disadvantage is that for a given power rating Diesel engines are heavier than Turbines. For fast ships like any type of cruiser the weight penalty is usually more severe than any savings on fuel economy.
I guess it might be useful for either long range Battleships or for pocket-battleship type raiders (long-ranged but only moderately fast ships). AMCs should be cheap and have plenty of surplus tonnage, no need to ever use anything else but coal on an AMC.
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Post by wknehring on Jul 8, 2019 8:50:45 GMT -6
Diesels are heavier, but accelarate faster. The weight penalty for long or extreme range is lower, than with steam turbines. But only noticable at higher tech levels (20+).
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Post by tbr on Jul 8, 2019 11:52:14 GMT -6
At very high tech levels diesels are lighter for a given horsepower than oil fired steam, even with medium range. I think (but need to check) that at very high tech levels oil fired steam is only competitive anymore for smaller fast DD's.
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Post by aeson on Jul 8, 2019 13:41:03 GMT -6
At very high tech levels diesels are lighter for a given horsepower than oil fired steam, even with medium range. I think (but need to check) that at very high tech levels oil fired steam is only competitive anymore for smaller fast DD's. I would say that oil-fired steam turbines are least competitive against diesels for fleet DDs - which are the class of ships which most need acceleration - and most competitive against diesels for capital ships - which are the class of ships which least need acceleration. With max Machinery Development tech, a 28kn 45,000t medium-range battleship might save 150 tons for using diesels instead of oil-fired steam turbines, but it'll also cost about 2.5M more. ~150 tons and ~2.5M are both basically nothing on a 45,000t battleship, and the additional acceleration isn't really useful in the battle line when the ships that have it are the ships most likely to lead the battle line rather than the ships most likely to be conforming to the leader's maneuvers. DDs, on the other hand, are constantly maneuvering, whether to remain in proper supporting/screening positions relative to the heavier ships, to engage the enemy's light forces, or to launch torpedo attacks against the enemy's heavy units, and the ability to rapidly get back up to speed after a major course change - say, when they turn out of line to launch a flotilla attack, or when they turn away from the enemy's line after launching torpedoes - is very valuable for them.
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