Torpedo Dreadnought strategy?

[ewaldvonkleist]

Did anyone ever try a strategy with maximum torpedoes on heavily armoured ships, be it in RtW, RtW2 or RtW3?

The idea is to heavily protect Dreadnoughts while giving them decent speed and good secondaries to fend off protecting light forces, and then closely approach the enemy battle line.


I had considerable success with this strategy in the 1890s start where guns are useless against Bs but torpedos are most certainly not. So I built fast Bs that could safely approach enemy Bs to successfully torp them. 

[oldpop2000]

Well let's see, the 12 inch Mark X of the Dreadnought, Invincible etc. had a range from about 10,000 yards to 24,075 yards depending on the elevation of the gun.

At the same time, an 18 inch Mark VII torpedo, pre-WW1 had a range of about 5000-7000 yards. The WW1 battleships and battlecruisers used the 21 inch Mark II,, and its range was about 4500 yards at 45 knots or 10,750 yards at 31 knots.

These are British weapons.

So, why, on earth, would I put torpedoes with that limited range on a battleship or battlecruiser and have to close to 10,000 yards to launch the slow torpedo when I can sit back at 24,000 yards and just pound away on the enemy. BTW, if I take a hit in the bow, with bow submerged torpedoes, I might lose my ship or at least my bow.

Thank you, but I eliminate torpedoes from dreadnoughts and such, save the weight and possibly save the ship.

From "The Grand Fleet" by David K. Brown

Submerged torpedo tubes were another potentially hazardous feature of battleships of most navies. The introduction of the heater torpedo had greatly increased the speed or range of torpedoes whilst the earlier introduction of gyros had much improved their accuracy. It was thought, wrongly, that these improvements had overcome the problems which had made torpedoes so ineffective in the Russo-Japanese War.14 The British 21in Mk II*** had the following characteristics: The British 21in Mk II*** torpedo Speed (kts) Range (yds) Running time (mins) 45 4200 3 29 10,750 11 Propagandists for torpedoes would often quote maximum speed combined with the range at the lower speed setting. Belief in the threat of torpedoes was a major factor in pushing the likely range for a gun battle out to 10,000yds, then outside the range of torpedoes. This in turn, led to the heavier and longer-range anti-torpedo boat battery. However, at 10,000yds the running time of a torpedo was 11mins during which the enemy would move an average of 6000yds in an unpredictable direction. The chance of a hit from one or two torpedoes fired from the submerged tubes of a battleship under these conditions was remote, a conclusion fully supported by the results at Jutland.
Torpedoes Submerged torpedo tubes were another potentially hazardous feature of battleships of most navies. The introduction of the heater torpedo had greatly increased the speed or range of torpedoes whilst the earlier introduction of gyros had much improved their accuracy. It was thought, wrongly, that these improvements had overcome the problems which had made torpedoes so ineffective in the Russo-Japanese War.

Propagandists for torpedoes would often quote maximum speed combined with the range at the lower speed setting. Belief in the threat of torpedoes was a major factor in pushing the likely range for a gun battle out to 10,000yds, then outside the range of torpedoes. This in turn, led to the heavier and longer-range anti-torpedo boat battery. However, at 10,000yds the running time of a torpedo was 11mins during which the enemy would move an average of 6000yds in an unpredictable direction. The chance of a hit from one or two torpedoes fired from the submerged tubes of a battleship under these conditions was remote, a conclusion fully supported by the results at Jutland.

The hazards of a torpedo armament were of two kinds, the first being the carriage of some 2–3 tons of high explosive, a risk increased in some wartime battle-cruisers with above-water tubes.15 The second and more serious risk was of flooding in the large spaces needed to operate torpedoes. In Dreadnought the torpedo room was the full width of the hold and 24ft long with a door, low down, into the warhead room which was itself again 24ft long. Later ships had even larger spaces, at both ends of the ship. The flooding of Lutzow was due in considerable part to the big torpedo flat and leakage from it through a ‘watertight’ door. As with the 6in secondary battery, the torpedo armament of capital ships was expensive, ineffective and a potential hazard.

[ewaldvonkleist]

Hi, for 1890 B torpedos are a legitimate strategy. I defeated the far superior RN battleline as GER with Battleship launched torpedos.

My question/suggestion here is intended as a challenge run. Some players also had success with a light torpedo cruiser swarm strategy so I wondered if someone tried the same with BBs.

[ludovic]

I sometimes put them on my B's and they do okay. Where they really do great for me is on my CAs which are actually more expensive than my 1900's-era Bs, having 2*10" and 6" armour and 22 or 21 kn. But if I have some Bs as well, the enemy Bs will shoot their big guns at my Bs from far away ineffectively and often allow my CAs to approach closely, where my CAs can not only shoot off torpedoes but also get some close range 10 inch shots in, and are fairly invulnerable to enemy secondary guns. Whereas if I tried the same thing with CLs, they would get the torpedoes off, but would not have the big guns and will usually come out of their attack pretty damaged. So oddly enough the ships I like attacking with torpedoes with the most in the early game are DDs which are cheap enough to lose, followed by CAs, followed by CLs, followed by Bs.

I would experiment more with putting them on my BCs and BBs but when I do I always forget that they are there so never take advantage of them.