Emperors squadroned are silly good... I havent had luck with gun battleships but then the only time I have taken multiples were Retributions and theyre only just better than a cruiser pair by themselves.
I imagine that Sig could probably give more accurate estimates but its something like 13 hits to cripple a BB when braced and 14 to destroy a cruiser.
When you look at a crippled Retribution compared to a Lunar theyre pretty close to the same, 2 shields 6vs8 hits (advantage Lunar) 6weapons batteries(ret gets the nod for range) 2 lances (toss up, Lunar has more but Ret has better arc and range) 5vs6 torpedoes (Lunar) 2 turrets Retribution is 5cm slower. They sound pretty close when taken like this, but you pay more points for 2 Lunars than a Ret (15) and the Lunars are easier to wear down over time (6 hits for example on a Retribution is only 2 damage while a Lunar would be crippled. So the real advantage is in the amount of damage they can take over time as theyre weapons are slightly weaker for about the same cost. An Emperor is even worse as it boils down to a longer ranged Dictator when crippled -2 hits and torps but +1 leadership still and its 75 points cheaper than the cruiser pair plus the initial durability difference. So ya they can be worth it but I have found that they tend to draw alot of fire with my group (usually all of the fire
) and dont last very long where as with cruisers theres more of a tendancy to spread the love around for some reason.... Psycological I imagine, but it means I usually dont field a lot of BB's in 1.5k games.