4E's hit point philosophy

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by tbone

I understand and appreciate the historical examples; thanks. But I remain curious: What's the GURPS equivalent that leaves you unsatisfied, in terms of specific numbers? What's the damage stat for the equivalent cannons, and the DR and HP of a representative ship?

Well, the smallest gun carried by a ship of the line in Napoleonic times was a 12 lbr. A 12 lbr gun does about 24-30d pi++ (HT p. 140, LT p. 88). HMS Victory displaces 3500 tons (Wikipedia). Call that 3000 tons unloaded and we get 726 HP (the actual HP figure would be less since it is calculated from unloaded weight and all those cannon and shot and crew and cables and sails and water and biscuits are heavy). Give her DR 30, and ignore wounding modifiers, and each shot does 54-75 points of wounding. So after 20-26 hits from a light gun she is in danger of sinking. Halve that if damage is doubled for pi++. In the real world it took hundreds of hits to endanger such a warship, barring bad luck such as a fire or a powder explosion.

This is just a back-of-an-envelope calculation, but it shows the problems.