AA50 naval AA guns rules

first i heard about AA guns on ships,sounds good though.i read in another thread that AA guns dont fire on flyovers anymore, i like the idea of AA guns on warships,might use that, i think germany’s production is about the same presuming your using standard set up,i tried to find the world at war expansion, the website said it was out of print.those sub pens sound cool,

Some house rules for AA guns at sea:

• Battleships can provide one prefight AA gun cover ( maximum of 1 AA shot independantly of # of BB ). They still fight normally once combat begins.

I really think you should make this for cruisers which i have in my house rules. BB had large gun platforms, while cruisers were protectors of other ships vulnerable to air attacks ( carriers) Many nations had anti aircraft cruisers. also the BB is too expensive, while a cruiser would make it easier for Germany to plug that hole in Baltic.

• Have the option of mounting a purchased AA gun on a warship ( maximum one firing at a time as per AA rules; not on subs)
• Use sub pens from World at War unofficial expansion, thoses were great and represented the fortified naval bases. 2hits sea block house and work as a AA gun for 8ipc. Needs be adgencent to an IC

Yes good also, they should take two hits and you can use the block house unit for d-day. YOu should be able to build only U-boats at them

Change to starting pieces:

• Having a battleship in the baltic sea to start with instead of a cruiser would make it more flexible to defend round 1 instead of being forced to buy a CV while still needing an investment. Would give UK one BB too if they don’t have one.

UK has a BB, but perhaps for Germany another cruiser? I think a BB would make it an offensive weapon, but i like the idea of Bismarck so yea perhaps.

Honestly, IL, I don’t think cruisers would be the correct unit.

In World War II, America and Japan were actively researching Anti-Aircraft defenses (and Anti-Submarine defenses) for their Aircraft Carriers, not their cruisers.

If you consider a carrier representing a carrier group, this becomes even more logical a choice for AA Guns.

Here’s how I see it going down:

Aircraft Carriers can be outfitted with technology to have AA Guns that fire just like ground based AA Guns.  Only one per sea zone may fire, but it may fire at each attacking enemy aircraft.

Basically, the AARe rule, but instead of Battleships it’s on carriers.

I’d also like to see a technology to increase Battleship effectiveness to 5 on attack (like Super Submarines increase submarines to 3 on attack.)

But allowing BB to do this is totally unrealistic. Their is not such thing as a BB offering protection or escorting vulnerable  ships. The BB was a ship that was sent out to fight other front line units…it didnt need to waste its deck space for AA guns, but rather huge long range guns that blew small ships out of the water because they themselves were out of range of its guns. Of course they did have AA guns, but the warship that allocated the most space for this was cruisers and destroyers, with cruisers as the primary escort because they were suited for lots of smaller weapons including AA, while destroyers had to maximize the decks for torpedo attacks and ASW warfare because they were smaller and more maneuver. This is why the cruiser became and had this role. If you look at the AA guns of all the ships you will find the cruisers having the most.

http://www.rtcol.com/~oakland/aachistory2.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_anti-aircraft_cruiser_Niobe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruiser

http://www.uboat.net/allies/warships/types.html?navy=USS&type=Anti-aircraft+cruiser

you wont find any reference to the battleship as a prominent Anti-Aircraft ship. The only ships that had good AA protection were Iowa and Dakota class BB, but these were exceptions. The average cruiser has more AA guns when compared.

Aircraft Carriers can be outfitted with technology to have AA Guns that fire just like ground based AA Guns.  Only one per sea zone may fire, but it may fire at each attacking enemy aircraft.

CV was a poor defender for anti-aircraft. They relied on CAP to intercept incoming planes at lower altitude to intercept these and drive them away from the fleet. The Carrier created an umbrella of air cover to protect in this manner. It could not stand up to much of a fight and was the weakest in terms of AA capabilities in WW2.

IN modern times this changed but not in ww2. At midway 3 Japanese carriers were sitting ducks because the air cover was lost fighting off waves of incoming torpedo-bombers, and the carriers had the best Japanese equipment money could buy and it didn’t mean a thing because they were unescorted by cruisers and enough supporting ships.

A BB was a slower moving ship and was meant not to engage fighters but to engage surface ships and having the slower speed could only hope to surprise the enemy from nowhere or fight on equal terms against other battleships. Cruisers were some of the fastest ships and much better suited to fight airplanes by escorting fast carriers that were vulnerable.

The only thing the BB should have is a first strike attack against other surface warships.

Cruisers should move 3 with carriers and have a AA gun at planes hitting at 1 on the first round.