Gentlemen,
We are victorious in our war with Germany! They have decided to end the war on reasonably favorable terms due to their inability to challenge the Allied blockade. Unfortunately, we didn't have the leverage to extract major concessions, but the war indemnity will be nice. Fortunately, the budget cuts will be compensated for nicely by ships commissioning over the coming months, so we won't even have to halt our building programs. We should even be able to lay down some new construction late in the year.
The question, as usual, is what form that construction should take. We have two CVLs and a CV finishing this year, and another CV might work quite well to boost the fleet's striking power, potentially allowing us to replace Duquesne with something more compatible with our other carriers. Another option would be CAs or BBs to counter the German BC fleet.
Our current fleet
Ships under construction
November 1930
CLs Destrees and Pascal finish their reconstructions, 6 corvettes commission. Breakthroughs: Inclined belt, Minelaying submarine, Improved airship diesel engines. The Potez 121 enters operational service. Our subs get 2 merchants, theirs 9, both losing a single boat. Trade disruptions cause hardship and food shortages in Germany. Design work begins on DD Chasseur and CL Amiral Cecille.
Raid on enemy coastal shipping in the German Bight. 1 BC, 3 BBs, 2 CVs and a CVL with escorts. Fortunately, bad weather means the German planes are unable to attack. Unfortunately, the Germans manage to get behind us, and we're forced to try to get around them. Despite some scary moments, we're reasonably successful at this, and on the way out, discover a German CVL within gun range. Unfortunately, dusk shrouds it, but not us from their battleships. The result is a long, running battle before full darkness falls. Several of our ships get rather beaten up, but we end up only losing three destroyers, while sinking a German battleship. The Battle of the German Bight is a minor victory for us, 7,565 VP vs 5,083 VP, +1 prestige.
December 1930
New docks completed, 2 KE commission. Breakthrough: 350 psi steam plant. An improved Loire 115 is developed and accepted for service. German subs sink 5 merchants for no losses, while we sink 1 for 1 loss. CL Amiral Cecille laid down. Germany lays down 1 AMC, 9 KE. Italy lays down an AV. US commissions 2 DD. 210 VP for blockade.
The Germans decline to face our fleet off the Dutch coast, netting us 9630 VP. Instead, we find ourselves in a cruiser action off Mozambique. There's no contact between the fleets, although we somehow get 90 VP out of it anyway.
January 1930
CL Coetlogon commissions, along with 2 KE. We select the Levasseur PL 128 as our new medium bomber. Our subs get 5 merchies, theirs get 4. Germany lays down an AMC, AH a CL, Japan a BB, US a CL. Germany and AH commission BCs, Italy a CL. 230 VP for blockade. We expand our airbase at Tunis and build a new one at Caligari. CL Linois laid down, along with DDs Chasseur and Hussard.
Convoy defense in the Med. 2 CL and 5 DD find themselves facing down a German BC. This goes about as well as you'd expect, particularly because their torpedo crews appear to be asleep. One CL is sunk, the other badly damaged, and six merchant ships are also on the bottom. 3,277 VP for Germany, 870 VP for us, -1 prestige from the Battle of Cape Tuelada.
February 1930
A peace deal is concluded, with some minor border adjustments in our favor (but no new territories in-game). Breakthrough: Improved watertight hatches. An improved version of the Potez 121 is developed. AH lays down a CL, Italy a CVL, US a CL. AH commissions a CL, Italy a CA, US a CL.
Comments
This is a more of a tell-me-why-this-wouldn't-work suggestion than an I-think-this-will-work suggestion, but how about a new generation of battlecruisers capable of chasing down enemy carrier groups?
The big issue I have with that as a strategy is that there's no guarantee we'll get that chance. Unless we know where the carriers are (and the game is often cagey about such things) we can't be sure we can chase them down, even assuming they aren't too far away for that.
It might be worth giving an extra knot or two of speed to any future CAs we build, as while we probably won't get the chance, a Dupleix would make a mess of any carriers it could catch. The speed wouldn't hurt when running down raiders either.
My suggestions:
Aviation - Retire the D-Ts, send Duquesne to the Med, and build some more CVLs. We'd be cutting down from 6 (joint top with the US) to 3 (ahead of only Austria and Italy) and while ours are excellent ships, having both quality and quantity would be nice.
BBs and BCs - Retire the Devastations, and send Lille and the Rouens to the Med. I think we can wait a year or so before laying down more, but would be interested in seeing a 17" design.
Cruisers - I wouldn't say no to another pair of (fast?) Dupleix CAs, but the priority would be more CLs for colonial work. Refit the Cassards, but lay down some more too.
Destroyers - Retire the Sabretaches, Arbalettes and Poignard. Send the Carabiniers out to replace them. We'll want more DDs in a few years time, but I'm hoping that by waiting we might have 5" DPs to arm them with.
Definitely with you on the D-Ts. Their squadrons will go to the new CVLs. And I checked, and we should be able to get a level 3 TDS on a new CVL design if we go back up to 16,000 tons. Probably a good choice.
On BBs, if we do another dock expansion, that will get us enough tonnage that I think we can do 8 17".
Cruiser and destroyer plans also make sense.
We might also want to squeeze in a major upgrade of Ocean and Redoutable, including a DP secondary battery. If you think that 5" DP will be an option soon though we could wait a year or so. Was there any RTW2 discussion on the chat yesterday?
No discussion in the chat. I think 5" DP won't be around for another 5 years or so. Probably makes sense to go with 4" DP for those ships.
Sounds good to me Ü With a bit of luck we'll have it around the time all our 1,100 ton destroyers need replacing.