WesWorld

Quoted

Of course the light cruisers guns can penetrate Tylor's and Oyama's armour. Just think of those unprotected ends and the abovedecks superstructure. A cruiser would get mangled by multiple shells hits and is effectively killed before finishing her off with torpedoes.

And how is that different than the same numbers of light cruisers verses heavy cruisers or pocket battleships? The only thing the armored cruisers (of these types) have over the heavy cruisers is the size and/or number of guns, and it should be able to engage more than one light cruiser at a time, and perhaps a slightly greater chance of surviving the long range fire of the light cruisers and (probably) the hits to the main belt.

This of course means that I should revisit the Oyama design....make her either better armored, or faster (she is armed well enough). Originally there was going to be a step between Tylor and Oyama, but that is being filled by the proposed Atlantean built heavy cruisers. Perhaps their construction will give the Chileans new ideas for Oyama, plus experiance with operating Tylor once she is finished. Or I build a slightly lesser version of it earlier (Libertad), and then when the technology is slight better in the mid-30s, build the Oyama's faster, but just as well armed....so they can keep up with the heavy cruisers/light cruiers.

(The original mess of words this was, is what happens when you are constantly being interrupted while typing.)

I would be entirely in favor of downsizing cruisers, some of my favorite designs have been around 10,000 tons. I would however want a clause that would allow the building of at least 2 cruisers at the current tonnage allowance or possibly a more deverse partition of Cruiser classes.

Yes Tylor or Oyama has a greater chance of surviving, but are still probably going to be sunk. What is the difference between a ship sunk in 5 mins and a ship sunk in 10 mins?

5 more minutes of the captains scorn.....

5 more minutes to take more of your enemy with you when you go down.....what every ship needs. There is no unsinkable ships, but if one can take more of their enemies out with them as they get swarmed by smaller, faster ships, then it is a good ship.