Turrent Farms...

[Desertfox]

But when you look at the German hit rates during the first two battles the hit rates does stand out. During them the Germans got more hits with less torpedoes either I was unlucky or the Germans where lucky.

[Korpen]

But when you look at the German hit rates during the first two battles the hit rates does stand out. During them the Germans got more hits with less torpedoes either I was unlucky or the Germans where lucky.

I would say thelater, but then it might be so simple as the germans were in better positions to fire, and the much better hit % is more due to a tactics then statistis.

[Ithekro]

Torpedoes, in most systems I've encountered, to be put bluntly, suck.  They are either nearly impossible to hit with on dice, or require you to guess where your enemy will be in another turn or three.  If you get a hit, most of the time it will be a spectacular thing (not always mind you) but actually getting a hit is few and far between in most battles.  Torpedo boats and destroyers usually have a better chance of getting hits due to numbers than to there actuall torpedoes.  However, they also tend to die very quickly in engagements with cruisers and battleships.  Cruiser torpedoes (if above water) hit about as well as the destroyers, and can survive longer.  However in this time period, people used submerged tubes in general, and in small numbers, so hits are even less common.  Battleships torpedoes...Ha!  They tend to get extra penalties for their tubes.  When the the best chance you have of getting a torpedo to hit is 40% for a stationary target with a destroyer with 4 tubes and 5% with a battleship with one or two tubes on any moving target (using a D20) and 5-10% on most anything that is moving for everything else at normal torpedo engagement ranges, you are going to have a hard time hitting a target.  Add to this a 5+% chance of a dud (depending on the age of the torpedo I suppose) this lowers the chances of a hit a lot. (These are Fire When Ready rules).  I will also note that I personally suck at rolling well for torpedo attacks, but tend to roll well for scoring critical hits on gunnery.

You can view the Sea of War rules for torpedo hit rates at various ranges and duds.  Typical chance to hit at normal torpedo ranges is about 29% or less.  Taking into account night and evasions, this probably brings it down to 6% or less.  If you are planning to fire at greater ranges, the chances to hit are low even for stationary targets (especially at night).  Practise might help a little, but given the technological and realistic problems, the chances are still low.

[Desertfox]

It probably doesn't have to do with rules since both cases I mentioned used the same rule set but gave different results to the parties.

I would say luck played a part because NS had the better torpedoes and tactics, the situation for the DDs was the same on either side, and the Swiss ships where more maneuverable. So taking everything into account even an equivalent hit rate there should have been more Swiss torpedo hits than German while the results showed the oposite.

[P3D]

IIRC the Germans were getting very god low rolls on d100 (low - better), which hit even if individual hit chance is small. OTOH, Ithekro told me that you got a similarly lucky series when you sunk the second German BB.

[Desertfox]

So the Germans have had the best luck so far, but they've also taken the worst losses so far. Maybe luck isn't everything...