The Glade 4.0

Well, DE, that's because not many people are enthralled by space sims in which they don't get to see what they're shooting at because it's so far away.

Just like I don't think there are a lot of ballistic missile sims out there.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Battleship was a very popular game for a long time though.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

Bah.. cretins!

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Think about a game called "Sink the Bismark", you and your fleet try to take down the Bismark, you start out on the Mighty Hood, and go from there.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

It only goes down from there.

Technically, though not likely, the Hood could have sunk the Bismark. But yeah, the Hood wasn't going to get close enough and the odds of going to the big Chase the Bismark scenario are extremely high.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

Hood was in range of Bismark when it was sunk. The problem wasn't really getting close to sink the Bismark so much as not being able to get into her fairly narrow zone of immunity before the fatal hit occured.

It illustrates perfectly why battlecruisers were not meant to fight battleships. Hood simply didn't have the zone of immunity it needed. Ironically, it was almost identical to Bismark in a lot of other repsects such as speed, length, and main battery number of guns and caliber. Kirishima was later torn apart at almost point-blank range by USS Washington illustrating the same thing; despite upgrades to make her into a battleship, Kirishima was originally a battlecruiser and an old one at that and had no business fighting a new battleship like Washington.

Let's not forget that Prince of Wales was there with Hood, and Prinz Eugen was there with Bismark. Prince of Wales hit Bismark several times and most likely caused the fuel leak that contributed to her being sunk.

Overall, Bismark was not a bad ship, being a very stable gun platform with excellent guns that had a fairly high rate of fire. However she suffered in other ways; the guns were smaller and/or in fewer quantity than other new battleships and her armor protection was poorly distributed due to the loss of design experience between the wars that the Versailles treaty imposed on Germany. Part of the reason Bismark survived as long as she did was that 2 of the battleships she faces had only 14" guns, although they had 10 guns apiece to her 8 (Prince of Wales and King George V), the oft-unmentioned Rodney that participated in her sinking had 9x16".

Had Bismark gone up against an Iowa, barring a lucky hit on her part, she's have had a very short career, being outgunned, outmassed, outarmored, and slower, not to mention American radar fire control at least equal to German, plus the 2700 lb super heavy AP shells that made an Iowa have almost the penetration of a Yamato - which would equally have made a mess of the German ship in short order.

Another problem was lack of destroyer protection; German ships, destroyers included, had a common problem of inadequate range. One does wonder, however, if things might have been different if Prinz Eugan were an aircraft carrier.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Is there a 'stay in my group' / follow kind of mechanic in the game? Or are the space 'zones' small enough to be not too far wherever you are? I have hit a few "stay in the area" walls in some of the prologue missions.

Not a clue, Ranelagh. I hit some of those, too, but not often, and usually on the instanced missions rather than open sectors.

Also, for anybody else playing, it sounds like Rane and I are planning on playing late Thursday night to try out some grouping. I think others are welcome.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

The more the merrier!

If anyone is around I am logged on as Ranelagh, surprising name huh?

US release date: July 13. Wow, that was short notice.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades