Gentlemen, We are pleased to announce the laying down of our first class of the new Irresistible-type battleships, the Devastations. Two ships, Devastation and Charles Martel, have been laid down in anticipation of the commissioning of the Duquesne and Tourville next month. The war against Austria also continues to go well. Raider activity has been cut dramatically by the deployment of our Sfax-class cruisers on trade protection duty, while we have continued to win victories when our forces clash. Even better, there are reports of unrest among their citizens.
Note that we have a bunch of ships commissioning next month, and the deficit will go away then.
At this point, significant decisions have to be made about the shape of the postwar fleet. The recent development of the steam turbine has greatly aided us in these efforts, allowing most of our fast designs an extra knot on the same tonnage. We could lay down more Devastations, design a new battlecruiser, or rebuild our light cruiser force. It's also worth pointing out that we'll complete a dock expansion to 24,000 tons in 6 more months.1
The submarine force
The current fleet
Ships under construction
April
Design work begins on BB Devastation, a 15" battleship with three twin turrets. Dock expansion begins again. Breakthrough: Steam Turbines. Raider CA Minerva interned due to lack of fuel. 10 merchants sunk by raiders. 210 VP for blockade of the enemy. AH lays down a CA, US a B. Italy commissions a CA.
Cruiser action off western France. Austrian navy declines, 300 VP. Convoy Defense in the Med. We have only a few destroyers, but end up with no contact. Because all the ships in the convoy survive, we gain 708 VP.
May
The Sfax-class cruisers are set to trade protection. Austria attempts to negotiate again, but we advise the government not to give in, and the negotiations founder. Breakthrough: Diving planes. New research area: ASW. Reports of privations from the blockade are coming out of Austria. B Richelieu is torpedoed and will be in dock for 5 months. 7 merchant ships sunk by raiders. Germany lays down 2 DD, AH 1 CA. Germany commissions B, US a CA. 210 VP from blockade.
Coastal raid on Austro-Hungarian coast. A pair of light cruisers prowl the Adriatic, sinking three merchant ships and a pair of corvettes. They face no opposition. Major victory, +1 prestige, 1363 VP, while they get only 100.
June
AH attack on convoy in Caribbean, we have no forces to face them. 477 VP for AH.
July
CL Lalande dispatched to Caribbean. 4 minesweeper and 2 patrol KE laid down. CA Latouche-Treville finishes reconstruction with improved FC, 2 destroyers commission. 12 merchant ships sunk by raiders. Germany lays down 2 DD, AH a B, UK a BB, Italy a BC. Germany commissions CA, B, AH commissions 2 CA, US commissions 1 KE. 260 VP from blockade, reports of protests in Austria-Hungary.
Destroyer action in the Adriatic. 3 of our DDs and 3 UK DDs run into 9 AH DDs, although we have significantly more gunpower than they do. We do more damage, but a poorly-timed rudder hit on our flagship results in our ships circling. The fleets circle, trading shells and torpedoes, but without notable success. Eventually, we begin to run low on ammo and withdraw. Ultimately, none of the ships are killed. Marginal victory, 95 VP for us, 40 VP for them.
August
Commissioned 1 SSC. BCs Tourville and Duquesne are to be fitted with new FC, adding 1 month to construction time. 1 merchant sunk by raider. Germany lays down 1 BC, 3 DD. AH and Italy each lay down 1 B. UK commissions CA, US KE. Germany is building larger docks. 220 VP for blockade. BB Devastation is delayed to allow incorporation of turbines, extra tonnage used for better secondary guns.
Destroyer action in southern Adriatic (again). This time we have 4 French and 3 UK DDs vs 10 Austrian DDs. This time, a handling error results in a close melee. We're hit several times, but seem to do more damage than is done to us. DD Obusier takes a torpedo and immediately begins sinking. Our commander pauses only to rescue her survivors, then withdraws. Apparently, enough damage was done to sink one of their DDs, leaving the result a draw. 142 VP each.
September
Commissioned 1 SSC. No merchants sunk by raiders. BBs Devastation and Charles Martel laid down. Germany lays down 3 DD, 1 B. UK lays down 1 CL, Japan 1 BB. Germany commissions 2 DD, UK 1 B. 240 VP for blockade of enemy.
Cruiser battle near Sicily. 2 of our CAs and 2 British CAs encounter 2 CA, and chase them to the north. Another pair of CAs appears during the chase, and the odds even up. But then they sheer off, and we proceed to pound the first two CAs into scrap, eventually torpedoing one of them. The other is sunk when a hit on one of her turrets blows her up. We then turn and head for home. The Battle of Syracuse is a major victory, +1 prestige. 1555 VP for us, 251 VP for them.
1905 CL designs
The first three designs are based on the Isly/Friant, with long range.
This design is loosely based on the earlier Coetlogon, so it's shorter-ranged, but has similar firepower and more speed.
This is another long-range design, based on CL-05-III, but capable of 24 kts.
April 1906
Gentlemen,
Congratulations. Your policies have lead us to a crushing victory over Austria, with Norway liberated from their rule and given protectorate status under the French Republic. We defeated a major navy at a minor cost, sinking 3 battleships, 7 armored cruisers, and a number of lighter ships, totaling 116,200 tons, at a cost of only 2 light cruisers and 2 destroyers, a total of 7,500 tons. We have also just developed an improved 15" gun, which we have ordered refitted to the three Devastation-class battleships under construction. The 2-month delay is well worth it, given the extra firepower it will bring.
The new map of Europe
The postwar world leaves us faced with some hard choices, as we will have to deal with budget cuts. For some reason, tensions with Germany has collapsed in the wake of the war, and we find ourselves far short of our budget.2 Fortunately, the same is true of everyone else, but the delays to our building program are still going to hurt.3
Our current fleet
The ships under construction
The submarine fleet
October
Private shipbuilding expands maximum dock size by 1000 tons. 6 corvettes commission into the navy. Research breakthrough: control tops. 1 submarine lost, 3 merchant ships sunk by raiders. Germany lays down 2 DD, UK 1 CA, US 1 BB. Germany commissions 1 DD, UK 1 B. 250 VP for blockade, and there are reports of mutinies within the Austrian fleet.
One of our patrolling CLs intercepts an Austrian raider. Unfortunately, it's badly outgunned, and is eventually pounded until the engines are disabled. Fortunately, darkness falls, the engines are repaired, and it lives to fight another day. AH minor victory, 224 VP for them, 82 VP for us.
November
Design work on new Forbin-class CL begun. 2 new SSC laid down. BC Duquesne commissioned. Tourville delayed by equipment delivery problems. On trials, they are found to easily surpass their design speed. Plans for Austrian CL Aurora stolen. Breakthrough: DD of up to 700 tons displacement. 1 Friendly sub lost, 3 merchant ships sunk by raiders. AH has laid down a CA, UK a BC, Italy a B. Italy and Germany are building coastal batteries. Germany commissions DD, US and UK CAs. 230 VP from blockade, increasing protests in Austria.
Convoy defense mission in central Med, with 2 B and 2 CA. It's almost dusk when the scenario starts, and initially it looks like nothing will happen. But then some of our destroyers blunder into them, and the heavy ships go to help. They find the enemy ships, lead by two B, and a close-range melee ensues, with us quickly getting the upper hand. The enemy battleships separate, and we proceed to pound one of them until she's disabled. The torpedoes follow after an interval long enough to make the admiral check the torpedo crews upon return to port, but she goes down quickly enough. No other ships are in sight, and the action ends. The Third Battle of Sirte is a major victory. +1 Prestige, 2190 VP for us, 197 VP for them.
December
BC Tourville commissions, along with 1 SSC. We buy Mechanical shell handling from the British. Breakthroughs: Improved hoists, cross-deck fire. SSC torpedoes an Austrian AMC. 1 merchant sunk by enemy subs, 6 by raiders. CL Forbin laid down. UK lays down CL, Italy a BB. 210 VP from blockade, rumors of mutiny in the Austrian fleet.
They attempt to attack another convoy near Sirte, but decline battle. 5830 VP for us. We then attack coastal shipping in the Adriatic. Two CLs and some destroyers patrol, sinking a couple of merchant ships and narrowly escaping from an 11" coastal battery before withdrawing. Major victory, +1 prestige, 1206 VP for us, 278 VP for them.
January
More strikes in Austria-Hungary. We commission 3 SSC. We get an offer for a third unit of the Devastation class, in 27 months and at a 10% discount, and decide to take it. One of our KEs is sunk by a mine in the Med. 1 merchant sunk by subs, 5 by raiders. AH lays down a B, UK a CL, Japan 2 DD. Germany commissions a B. 210 VP for blockade.
Cruiser action in the southern Adriatic. One of our CLs and two British ships encounter an Austrian CL, but lose it in bad visibility. Battle ends in a draw.
February
BC Dunkerque commissions. Plans for German BC Von Der Tann stolen. Blockade is causing privations in Austria-Hungary. 1 enemy merchant sunk by submarines, 3 merchants sunk by raiders. Germany lays down BB, AH a CA. Germany commissions 2 DD. 220 VP for blockade.
Cruiser battle near Greece. 3 CAs and 2 CLs encounter 3 enemy CAs and 1 CL. This is a new class of enemy CAs, and it appears to have a major design flaw. During a broadside-to-broadside action, two of the CAs blow up as a result of turret hits. The third escapes, but the CL blunders into range and is finished off, too. Major victory at the Battle of Zakynthos, +1 Prestige, 2884 VP for us, 276 VP for them.
March
BC Duquesne ordered to Med. 2 SSC ordered. New docks completed. CL Friant commissions. Austria attempts to get a peace without border changes or reparations. The Foreign Ministry reports that their diplomats smell strongly of beer while making this proposal, but somehow manage to talk them into handing over Norway and ending the war. The UK ends up with Dalmatia. Breakthrough: Testing tank for hull form. Better 15" gun (Quality 0).
Germany laid down a BB, UK a CL, Japan 2 DD. Germany commissions 3 DD, US a B. Large-scale scrappage of war emergency ships by both us and Austria.
1 Sorry, no editorials this time. The last week has been very busy. That's also why I don't have sketches prepared for you. I'll put some up on request. ⇑
2 I tried to fix this by editing the save file, but it didn't work. I could raise the tension, but it didn't raise the budget automatically. ⇑
3 Sorry, no editorials again. I remain very busy. ⇑
Comments
The Nation data doesn't seem to show information on BBs or BCs, despite those being the most important types of warship. Also, looking past the current war, it might be worth while moving the focus of our naval intelligence service to Germany. I'm assuming that the Devastation class is similar to BB-05-II?
Devastation is just BB-05-II with a slightly better engineering plant and a few more 3" guns.
The almanac doesn't show a type until someone has actually commissioned one. BCs should show up next turn.
Good thought on moving Intel focus.
As for the actual BB and BC numbers, we currently have two BBs and four BCs under construction, while the British have IIRC 3 BBs, Japan has one BB and Italy has 1 BC.
What kind of peace deals are we lobbying the government to reject? Have the constant victories caused the Austrians to become a bit more reasonable? Not sure if there's much else we can do on the war front other than hope for a more decisive fleet battle.
Since the fleet seems more or less adequate for current purposes, I'd probably support saving resources (aside from maybe a couple of Cruisers) until the dock upgrades are complete, and then look at 24k ton designs.
The game doesn't give details on the peace deal being offered. You get either a "status quo" or a "some change" deal, and options for "end the war now", "we can fight on if needed" or "crush them". At one point, they offered "some change", I gave the medium answer, and we ended up with a status quo peace, with them holding Norway. I was so irritated that I reset the game. Since then, I've been doing "crush them". Which doesn't mean there won't be a peace, but it will probably be on favorable terms. I might moderate next time, as we have a lot bigger VP margin now.
Agreed with Gareth that our next capital ship design should wait for the dock expansion.
How about some CLs in the meantime? We're actually not doing too badly on tonnage in that category, but all but three of them are legacy designs.
The problem with "CLs in the meantime" is that if we go with a 24,000 ton capital ship, we can lay it down in 10 months. (6 months of dock expansion + 4 months of design, which the game won't let run in parallel.) A CL takes about 20 months to build, so for half the time it's on the ways, it's going to be competing with the capital ships for resources. We could build destroyers or corvettes inside that cycle, though.
Hmm... So the question becomes, are we okay waiting 20 months to lay down next round of capital ships? (I'd suggest we deficit-spend to do the study while the CLs are still building)
Part of me is worried by the sheer numbers on the German battle line, but on the other hand I'd quite like to have another ship design tech or two in our next BB. So as long as we actually like the CLs we can build, I favor laying down a round now.
My intuition is that CLs will scale better a few years down the line, either in the many cruiser/convoy battles or to protect our own commerce, than soon-to-be obsolete BBs. 20 months isn't that long to wait, and we'll hopefully pick up a few tech upgrades in the meantime.
Would it be very resource intensive to at least design the 24k ton BBs while we finish up the CLs, so we can start construction immediately when the cruisers finish?
There's no problem doing the battleship design study while the cruisers are still building, or even laying them down with a few months overlap. I'll draw up some cruiser designs and get them up later today.
The new CL designs are up for your perusal.
If we're only buying one I think we'd be better off with a few more destroyers. I've not got strong opinions about the designs, though IV is nice and cheap, if we can cope without long range.
I think we can probably lay down two next turn and one more three turns after that. Might be able to get 4, particularly if we accept some deficit before the CL currently under construction commissions. That said, the war will probably end before they commission, so we want to leave some margin.
I like IV--the use case I'm envisioning is 'fleet duty in Northern Europe against Germany', which doesn't really benefit from long range.
I like IV as well, with the cheap speed and extra torpedo tubes. V is nice but probably better to save the $
So the current plan, once play resumes tomorrow, is to lay down 2 CL-05-IV in 2 months (when the design finishes) and then another one when the budget supports it, probably 2 months later.
How bad is it if Germany joins the war? I mean, our supposed ally Great Britain has as many battleships as Germany and AH put together, but they've been mysteriously ineffective so far; could we count on them to increase their effort if the Germans get involved, or should we be trying to ensure that there's a peace before the Germans get around to sticking their noses in?
The way the game handles allies is weird. Basically, if they have ships in an area, some of them show up during battles. We've consistently gotten a couple of their CAs during cruiser battles. If we go to war with Germany, we'll see a lot more of them. But it's usually only one division (4-5 ships) in my past experience. But they'll be good ships, and it will go a ways to even the odds.
And the war is over in April 1906. We got Norway, and the British got Dalmatia (Croatia), leaving Austria only its core territory. Unfortunately, tensions in the postwar world are low, so our budget is in shocking shape.
Total losses for the war:
Austria-Hungary: 3 B, 7 CA, 4 CL, 1 AMC, 14 DD.
France: 2 CL, 2 DD, 1 KE.
An impressive victory! By low tensions, do you mean relations with Germany (and Japan?) have improved?
Yes. The game crashes tension postwar in a way that I find unrealistic. Right now, we're dark green tension with everyone, and about 6100/month short. I'll try to bring the tension back up and start the money spigot flowing again, but it's going to take time.
On the upside, we got 15" quality 0 guns, which I'm going to edit the save files to refit to the Devastation class, which are only 20% complete. Might cost a month or two in completion, but it'll be worth it.
What exactly are Norway and Croatia worth?
Norway was 8 points, Croatia 4. We had 8 points worth of stuff at the end, which is about as high as I've ever seen.
April 1906 is up now.
I don't suppose Austria is looking to purchase some slightly used warships? We could spare the Friedlands, maybe more, if we don't see any fleet battles on the horizon, and I doubt there will be a market for resistable battleships for much longer. That Von Der Tann looks like death to cruisers, though probably not able to go up against old battleships.
The Von der Tann looks to be from the same conceptual mold as the Duquesne, only with 11" guns instead of 14" and an extra 2 kts of speed. The difference is that they have one under construction, and we have three in service. The extra speed will be annoying, but I'd still bet on us to win the fight. In firepower terms, she's probably a match for a typical B, particularly if the 11" guns are good.
Unfortunately, we can't sell warships to Austria, and I'd rather they didn't get even our oldest/worst battleships right now. We can and should look at placing those in reserve to free up funds for more construction. We can also look at improved DDs now that the cap is up to 700 tons.
Well, if we can't sell them, I suppose it's not worth worrying about, but it tensions have dropped so dramatically I hoped we won't be needing them. The Austrians, meanwhile, are short a few, and should have an appreciation for our designs Ü
What's the cost/benefit on SSCs? I assume that if we're making so many of them despite our budget concerns they must be cheap and/or high value?
Also is there a research summary for 1906?
Forgot the research summary, and don't know when I can get a copy up, as my power is out.
SSCs (coastal submarines, for those confused) are 100/month to build (taking 14 months) and 20/month to maintain. We're usually building 4 or so, which costs less than 2 destroyers to build, although maintenance is a lot more. They can be pretty useful in war, although they haven't done all that much recently.
How long does crew quality generally take to recover from reserve or mothballing? With tension so low I'd hope to use those options pretty aggressively so that we can minimize construction delays. (It'll hurt to let all our elite crews go, but I think that's a bullet we're going to have to bite).
We should also consider if any cancellation/scrapping is in order. I'd say to cancel the subs in progress--we can build higher-tech ones later. Not sure I want to part with anything else--even the Sfax seemed to find its role.
SSCs (coastal submarines, for those confused)
I was trying to work out how to search for this. But thanks to Bean I won't have to.
@ADA
Elite quality is only reached by combat experience. Fair (status at reserve) turns to Good in 6 months or so, maybe less. Not sure how long it takes Poor (mothballing) to turn to Fair. Note that any refits turn the ship to Fair, and most of our battleships and CAs are due for a fire-control refit. Provided we can free budget for it (and FC refits aren't that expensive because the ship isn't soaking up its normal maintenance budget) then we can just reserve everyone who needs the refit and send them through one after another.
Sub quality is based on the tech level at completion, not laying-down, so we could suspend the current ones and provided the price for that isn't too high (can't remember offhand), it might make sense to do that and wait.
Thanks for the info. Reserving the ships in need of refit works quite nicely.
Ah, didn't realize sub tech worked that way.
Per the wiki, halted construction costs ~13%, so 7-8 months suspended per month of completed construction is the break-even point. The two subs laid down last month will probably exceed that, but the other two have five months of construction done, so as long as we resume them within three years or so it's better to just suspend them.
Lastly, it looks to me that we will have to suspend some ships (though I'll be pleasantly surprised if we don't). Even putting the whole fleet in reserve (which I know you can't do) would leave us with a 2000-per-month deficit. An exact plan is probably too complex to work out in a comments thread, but I propose we make delaying the Devastations the last resort.
I'm not sure that suspending submarines works the same way that suspending ships does. IIRC, it's pretty close to 100% suspension cost. I'll check it out when the power is back on. (Yes, it's been off for 36 hours now, and I'm hoping for no more than another 12 or so.) But if it is the same as ships, we'll cancel the two we just laid down, and resume the other two when we have the cash.
I'm definitely with you on keeping the Devastations going. Those will be probably the most powerful ships afloat when they complete, particularly with the new guns. I'm not sure we can get away without suspending at least one of them, but tension should come back up pretty fast.
Proposed mothballing/suspension plan - SWAG version: The first thing I'm going to do is lay up the Sfax class. They're annoying, but could be useful in the future. After that, we'll also lay up both Friedlands and two of the Richileus. Another two of the later will begin refits for better fire control. When they finish, I'll send 2 more in, lasting until everyone is refitted and 4 of the ships are still in reserve. I'll immediately suspend Marseilles and Forbin, along with the submarines. If needed, Brennus will be suspended, too, although her reactivation will be at the top of the priority list. The D-T class CAs will also be cycled, with two of the refitted ships going to SEA (assuming I can't replace one with a CL), and some of them being reserved after refit. The Brux class CAs are probably headed for reserve, too, as their design is obsolescent and they aren't nearly as useful as the bigger CAs.
Does that private dock expansion mean we could build 25k ton ships if we had the funds? Either way, I assume there's no point considering the next BB class until we there's a war on and the politicians are again willing to spend on the fleet.
Sadly, no. The public expansion turned out to only give us 2000 tons instead of 3000. We're still capped at 24k. But yeah, because we have three 21k ships about 15% done, we should probably hold off talking about more battleships, at least until we have budget to actually lay one down.