For the historically inept and ballistically challenged: 1910 Cannon Firepower?

[ColBosch]

Ideally, you want a shell to penetrate one side of a ship's armor and then explode inside, doing maximum damage to the lighter-built innards of the vessel.

[Worktroll]

When 12" guns were fired at destroyers, this was definitely an issue. OTOH, destroyers tend to be much like flieschwurst  (sp?) or continental sausages - a thin skin packed with chunky bits essential to the purpose - that even a 12" hole through a destroyer is likely to hit something it needs to work properly. OTOH, that's why ships carried batteries of smaller guns.

W.

[Istal Devalis]

I've been doing some crash course reading over the last couple weeks, ever since the forum went live.  One thing I found interesting is that in pre-dreadnought warships, rate of fire was considered of primary importance in guns.  Mostly because accuracy was so low.  This will likely end up even more important vs faster flying Leviathans.  6 inch repeaters seemed to be come the standard broadside gun of choice because of this.

Also lots of fun things like the difference between protected cruisers and armored cruisers. 

[Trenchknife]

I'm pretty much expecting the same thing regarding smaller, more rapidly firing bores being adopted by Leviathans.  At least in cases where there is little or now 'crew' to support the aiming of bigger bore weapons.  Though, from what I here, Battleships will likely have AMPLE room to plug more crew into their gun arcs so it might not be that worrisome an issue. 

It also sounds, from fluff reading, that the Lev' engineers have created devices with which to enhance the aiming capacity of gunners in the 3 dimensions of Leviathan gunnery.  Just can't remember the story name...

[Istal Devalis]

I like that they've effectively made cannon sized tracers. 

[Leaderoforcs]

So does that mean we're going to see BT style autocannons in the skies above Europe?

Is there going to be any shift, even experimentally, toward aiming better instead of shotgunning cannons?

[Istal Devalis]

If they follow the path it took in real life? Eventually.  Advances in accuracy and gunnery practices means bigger guns become the standard so you can punch through armor. In the real world, HMS Dreadnought came around in 1905.  In the game world, you have Leviathans as the new toy taking up a lot of the study and research that would have been going into ship advanced like the Dreadnought.  It'll still likely happen, but I'd add another good 10 years of game time because of it. 

[Worktroll]

I've got a truly wonderful source book - Vol 1. of "The Navy and Defence", by Chatfield. He was 1st Lord of the Admiralty (IIRC) in WW2; this book covers his experiences from joining as an ensign in the 1870s, through to just before WW2. Most famously, he was captain of HMS Lion at the battle of Jutland, and was the one Beatty made his famous comment to.

It's a superb look at the transition of the Royal Navy from wood and sail to steel and steam, and covers the evolution in gunnery indetail (he commanded Whale Island for some years). it's also a fascinating if somewhat gruesome look at the social mores and restrictions. Chatfield himself was socially blessed and led a seemingly charmed life, moving ever upwards up the chain of command.

One of these days I must find Vol 2; I found Vol 1 in a second-hand bookshop for $10 ...

W.

[Van Gogh]

Although describing a WW2 action, I found "The ship" by C.S. Forrester pretty instructive on the inner working of a gun cruiser during fleet on fleet action. Cutting out a bit the general accuracy of the gunfire (and the electromechanical gun control equipment) and therefore the range, but keeping the speed and slashing tactics, I think we can have a decent equivalent for a Leviathan on Leviathan action.
... And it's also great to learn the proper Royal Navy vocabulary