Okay, my bad. Independence-class indeed has no VLS (though, what are those hatches between cannon and superstructure then?). But it still has Sea RAM CIWS, which is, as you said, rockets.
And my point about the design of modern ships (which Independence-class is) being made around combat conducted via airstrikes/missile strikes still stands. Take missiles out of equation, and these ships will stand no chance against WWII armored cruisers/battleships.
At some point you just have to invoke the mst3k mantra and remember it's only a show, because there would never have been a Graf Spee pocket battleship if there hadn't been a WWI and a subsequent Versailles Treaty forbidding Germany from launching military ships > a certain tonnage that these pocket battleshispw ere carefully designed to make maximum use of (and even then the Kriegsmarine allegedly cheated with the stats).
More generally, if this world is supposedly so peaceful, why are all those warships still around? Why this mixture of WWII era ships as well as modern ships that clearly show the influence of the lessons learned in our timeline about ship combat in an age of planes?
It was because Mike was running the engine ragged. Long story short, forcing the double steam turbines of a destroyer to run the ship above cruising speed = higher chance of catastrophic failure due to the steam pressure messing up the turbine blades, pipes blowing etc. There's also the very real danger of members of the engineering crew might get hurt too, either during an engine explosion or in trying to fix the aftermath.
And when something happens to the engine, who's forced to fix it? Yep, them.
In Japanese Destroyer Captain, it's revealed that its something Real Life destroyer skippers never did this on a prolonged period, and such a command was dreaded by a ship's engineering compliment.
edited 17th Apr '16 7:05:45 PM by MyssaRei
[More generally, if this world is supposedly so peaceful, why are all those warships still around? Why this mixture of WWII era ships as well as modern ships that clearly show the influence of the lessons learned in our timeline about ship combat in an age of planes?]
Not sure which part of EP 1 or EP 2 was mention this, but the military ships was converted for civilian used aka Marine patrol etc.
Nevertheless the use of live ammo seems off.
Currently waiting for the character page, it seems this will be bigger than Girls un Panzer cuz 1 ship = 30 cute girls
Ok let's discussed about the crew, I think they mentioned that around 30 girls are crewed in a ship... Which is kinda hard for larger vessels like the Musashi... Heckle it is harder for Harekaze as there around 20 girls (where the heck are the other 10?)
I just got some discussion elsewhere and some said it could be some automated equipment that allow the girls to do their task without much difficulty.
Uh, no, there are exactly 31 girls on the ''Harekaze''
◊, 32 now with Wilhemina aboard.
I also figure that the production opted for an arbitrary number for the crew size as a "one size fits all" because its easier as far as throwaway details go. Just something to make the worldbuilding easier for the casual viewer.
It does stick in the craw of a military hardware geek though. Think of this: the historical Kagerou class had a crew of about 240 people. A good-sized cruiser like the Agano-class had to be run by a crew of about 730~. The Musashi? By the time she went down during the opening phases of the Battle of Leyte Gulf had 2700.
Now compare these to a real-world modern ship like the Zumwalt (which is the size of an old WW 2-era cruiser), which according to released specs was ridiculously automated, and yet still has a crew of 130.
So what does this tell us? That either the automation systems in Hai Furi's universe are so advanced (and practical enough they could be placed in antique training ships) that they can cut down crew usage down to a mere percentage... Or somewhere along the way, you have to stop thinking too hard about it, and just let Bellisario's Maxim take over.
@Myssa: So how did you find out that the German exchange student's name is Wilhemina (or should that be Wilhelmina)? Source?
Also, I'll be laughing my ass off if she gets the nickname "Minna" later on.
"Learn as if you will live forever, live as if you will die tomorrow."
I don't actually, I was only going by a really old cast list that was released pre-air, so I'm not even sure if its accurate anymore. Just think of Wilhelmina as a placeholder for now, of if you want, you can just edit the page to make it more identity-neutral. We'll know her name by this Saturday anyhoo.
Will do.
Oh, and apparently according to this, the staff watched The Hunt For Red October as a reference. Let that sink in.
>吉田 鈴木さんから参考資料を貸していただいたり、映画はいくつか観ました。『レッドオクトーバーを追え』などですね。船内の生活の参考にしています。
Found the cast list
◊. It's part of the freebies you'd get if you pre-ordered the first BR. You can see Wilhelmina named on the lower left.
Take note, this was BEFORE we knew anything about the curveball at the end of episode 01.
edited 21st Apr '16 1:46:45 AM by MyssaRei
It was specifically mentioned in Episode One that the ships are mostly automated. See also, the modern radar.
With that in mind, the crew numbers probably stay consistent across ships of most sizes, so long as they have a similar number of functions that need doing - the crews of bigger ships just have more automated help.
What's precedent ever done for us?By the way, just to show that the studio understands that the jig is up, not only did they change the advertisement at Akihabara from the one showing Mike and Moka, to the one showing Mike pointing to the horizon with the bridge crew (and Moka nowhere to be seen), they also changed the Volume 1 BR image as well.
Bait and Switch successful, time to get on with business. XD

That one I'd like to definitely hear the input of the designers. Is it intentional, or is it an oversight of the renderers for example? Little stuff like that really trip the OCD of people, ESPECIALLY military hardware geeks.
I remember once upon a time with Girls Und Panzer the little bit of the mislabeling of the weapon used by Darjeeling's Churchill VII caused a bit of an issue. Eventually it was revealed to have been an honest mistake by the production.
In any case, if you have doubts, bring it up via WMG or Fridge Logic. There's been a serious lack of speculah on this series for some reason.
edited 17th Apr '16 7:29:00 AM by MyssaRei