12-inch guns: Doomsday?

Awesome power and great damage, coupled with good range, makes the Goliath one of Patton's choice weapons for his units. See some of 'his' TO&E in my listings.

I think not, as the Overseer requires 3 critical hits on it damage table to take out. I'd say the Goliath could score 1 at a time, so its going take 3 Goliaths all hitting at once or 3 fire phases for a single Goliath to do the job. Hmmm, wonder if you add an ammo carrier for a 2nd shot per phase...

Ok here's a rule question for everyone - can an ammo carrier 'support' an Ironclad for a 2nd shot on all its guns. I think not, due to the number of guns - but, perhaps you could rule that one type of gun on it could be supported with a 2nd shot. What you all think??

The Rule states "If a tank or vehicle unit armed with any kind of cannon or
artillery piece, for example a howitzer or tank gun, begins its
combat phase within 6" of a munitions carrier, it can take 1
extra shot when it fires or – in the case of howitzers – adds
1 to its barrage value. Note this is +1 extra shot/barrage for
the entire unit and not for each element in the unit; if the
unit carries weapons of different caliber or type, the player
can choose which gets the extra shot"

So IF you were to allow the it to support an Ironclad, it would only get a second shot with one of its guns.

But I dont think it works with the ironclad.
The key is the statement "If a tank or vehicle unit" ... That would be Unit Type Tank or Unit Type Vehicle.
Since the Ironclad is of type "Machine" it wouldnt work.

So probably the biggest gun you can get an extra shot with is the 7" gun from the Mark IV Monitor.

i think it should be limited to the Goliath. The thought of that monster mortar on the British IC is a balance killer.

Spot on! Navies spent a lot of money and effort to design and build ammo supply systems to permit high rate of fire without keeping exposed ammunition in the turret. There should be some possibility of a catastrophic magazine explosion if double shot is permitted. 

The flash fire in the turret of the USS Iowa (April 1989) shows what can happen. And that was only a single propellant charge. The shell had been rammed into the breech and did not detonate. Forty-seven crewmen were killed, but the protective measures prevented the fire from propagating down to the magazine itself.

Here is a photo of a British 12-inch gun turret.  It is evident that there is not much space to spare, so more people would not help in working the guns.  They might even be in the way and slow things down.






To some extent, this calls into question whether more rounds could even be stowed in there.  Don't forget that the complete "round" is the shell plus the propellant charge.  That propellant charge is often as large as the shell being fired or larger.  Admittedly, the photo below is a 16 incher, but other calibers will probably scale similarly.



And let us remember that the powder charge is in bags, not metal casings.  Exposed in the turret, it is just looking for an excuse to ignite.

Enlarging the turret is probably not a really good idea because its weight will go up rapidly with larger dimensions.  They are sized for the weapons and crew needed and not much else.

All that said, it IS a game after all.  So some latitude can be tolerated.  Real-life safety concerns are not fully relevant.

FWIW:  12 inch shells would be a 3/4 size version of the 16 inchers.  The weight would scale as the cube of the scale, so 0.75x0.75x0.75=0.42.  The 12 inch shell would weigh about 1150 poinds and the propelling charge about 275 pounds.