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we are returning your thread back to life, Lecter.
It sounds like the answer to my question was "Yes."
Er... to educate the uneducated masses...
Ramming, as a tactic, is only viable if no other options of ship-to-ship offense (short of boarding, and otherwise impairing the crew) are available, and then you have to have specially reinforced bows (employing a device called a ramming spur).
Once (accurate) artillery was introduced to naval warfare, ramming became less of a useful method, because you would be rushing headlong into the enemy's broadside, him raking you all the while (and judging from O'Brian's and Forester's novels, a stem-to-stern raking fire is pretty much the most devastating, to hull and crew, that can happen, short of masts going overboard or springing a butt... but I digress).
More modern naval warfare, with artillery turrets that can be rotated, did little to change that.
And lastly, ancient and napoleonic era naval warfare has next to no bearing on the combat seen in VO. Currently, tactics from the first and second world war would probably be most suitable, but I wouldn't know without having tried.
Regardless of that wildly off-topic post of mine, I want lances. Please?
Ramming, as a tactic, is only viable if no other options of ship-to-ship offense (short of boarding, and otherwise impairing the crew) are available, and then you have to have specially reinforced bows (employing a device called a ramming spur).
Once (accurate) artillery was introduced to naval warfare, ramming became less of a useful method, because you would be rushing headlong into the enemy's broadside, him raking you all the while (and judging from O'Brian's and Forester's novels, a stem-to-stern raking fire is pretty much the most devastating, to hull and crew, that can happen, short of masts going overboard or springing a butt... but I digress).
More modern naval warfare, with artillery turrets that can be rotated, did little to change that.
And lastly, ancient and napoleonic era naval warfare has next to no bearing on the combat seen in VO. Currently, tactics from the first and second world war would probably be most suitable, but I wouldn't know without having tried.
Regardless of that wildly off-topic post of mine, I want lances. Please?
As I'm sure you are aware, tosh: epic analogy relevance fail. Just because we call them "ships" doesn't mean that 18th-21st century naval tactics have any relevance to combat as practiced in VO.
A far more relevant analogy would be to an armored warrior facing an opponent that will bring to bear ranged weapons that are not so fast, accurate, or powerful as to preclude his successfully closing distance and decapitating the opponent with a sword-stroke before they can shoot him to death.
A far more relevant analogy would be to an armored warrior facing an opponent that will bring to bear ranged weapons that are not so fast, accurate, or powerful as to preclude his successfully closing distance and decapitating the opponent with a sword-stroke before they can shoot him to death.