[X] Naval matters. Getting you up to speed on the Royal Navy, the IJN and their differences in general doctrine and design philosophy. Britain is, after all, the leading nation in naval design, by virtue of sheer volume of ships put out, if nothing else.
[X] Aviation matters. Naval Aviation, Army Aviation, and the newly created Imperial Japanese Air Service. What important things can be learned from the British, and what is to be made of attached units, like the seaplanes belonging to the seaplane tender Wakamiya, or the floatplanes on the Haruna?
[X] Naval matters. Getting you up to speed on the Royal Navy, the IJN and their differences in general doctrine and design philosophy. Britain is, after all, the leading nation in naval design, by virtue of sheer volume of ships put out, if nothing else.
[X] Aviation matters. Naval Aviation, Army Aviation, and the newly created Imperial Japanese Air Service. What important things can be learned from the British, and what is to be made of attached units, like the seaplanes belonging to the seaplane tender Wakamiya, or the floatplanes on the Haruna?
[X] Naval matters. Getting you up to speed on the Royal Navy, the IJN and their differences in general doctrine and design philosophy. Britain is, after all, the leading nation in naval design, by virtue of sheer volume of ships put out, if nothing else.
[X] Amphibious matters. Forces under your command performed semi-amphibious landings in Dairen, and Inoue was part of both the fleet escorting the Imperial Guard and the fleet that supported them with shore bombardment. It's time someone took a proper look at the Kaigun Tokubetsu Rikusentai (Special Naval Landing Forces), and see what lessons could be learned from the Royal Marines - perhaps a formal Marine Corps, rather infantry-trained sailors?
[X] Amphibious matters. Forces under your command performed semi-amphibious landings in Dairen, and Inoue was part of both the fleet escorting the Imperial Guard and the fleet that supported them with shore bombardment. It's time someone took a proper look at the Kaigun Tokubetsu Rikusentai (Special Naval Landing Forces), and see what lessons could be learned from the Royal Marines - perhaps a formal Marine Corps, rather infantry-trained sailors?
[X] Aviation matters. Naval Aviation, Army Aviation, and the newly created Imperial Japanese Air Service. What important things can be learned from the British, and what is to be made of attached units, like the seaplanes belonging to the seaplane tender Wakamiya, or the floatplanes on the Haruna?
[X] Naval matters. Getting you up to speed on the Royal Navy, the IJN and their differences in general doctrine and design philosophy. Britain is, after all, the leading nation in naval design, by virtue of sheer volume of ships put out, if nothing else.
[X] Aviation matters. Naval Aviation, Army Aviation, and the newly created Imperial Japanese Air Service. What important things can be learned from the British, and what is to be made of attached units, like the seaplanes belonging to the seaplane tender Wakamiya, or the floatplanes on the Haruna?
[x] Amphibious matters. Forces under your command performed semi-amphibious landings in Dairen, and Inoue was part of both the fleet escorting the Imperial Guard and the fleet that supported them with shore bombardment. It's time someone took a proper look at the Kaigun Tokubetsu Rikusentai (Special Naval Landing Forces), and see what lessons could be learned from the Royal Marines - perhaps a formal Marine Corps, rather infantry-trained sailors?
[x] Aviation matters. Naval Aviation, Army Aviation, and the newly created Imperial Japanese Air Service. What important things can be learned from the British, and what is to be made of attached units, like the seaplanes belonging to the seaplane tender Wakamiya, or the floatplanes on the Haruna?
[X] Naval matters. Getting you up to speed on the Royal Navy, the IJN and their differences in general doctrine and design philosophy. Britain is, after all, the leading nation in naval design, by virtue of sheer volume of ships put out, if nothing else.
[X] Aviation matters. Naval Aviation, Army Aviation, and the newly created Imperial Japanese Air Service. What important things can be learned from the British, and what is to be made of attached units, like the seaplanes belonging to the seaplane tender Wakamiya, or the floatplanes on the Haruna?
[X] Amphibious matters. Forces under your command performed semi-amphibious landings in Dairen, and Inoue was part of both the fleet escorting the Imperial Guard and the fleet that supported them with shore bombardment. It's time someone took a proper look at the Kaigun Tokubetsu Rikusentai (Special Naval Landing Forces), and see what lessons could be learned from the Royal Marines - perhaps a formal Marine Corps, rather infantry-trained sailors?
[X] Aviation matters. Naval Aviation, Army Aviation, and the newly created Imperial Japanese Air Service. What important things can be learned from the British, and what is to be made of attached units, like the seaplanes belonging to the seaplane tender Wakamiya, or the floatplanes on the Haruna?
[X] Amphibious matters. Forces under your command performed semi-amphibious landings in Dairen, and Inoue was part of both the fleet escorting the Imperial Guard and the fleet that supported them with shore bombardment. It's time someone took a proper look at the Kaigun Tokubetsu Rikusentai (Special Naval Landing Forces), and see what lessons could be learned from the Royal Marines - perhaps a formal Marine Corps, rather infantry-trained sailors?
[X] Aviation matters. Naval Aviation, Army Aviation, and the newly created Imperial Japanese Air Service. What important things can be learned from the British, and what is to be made of attached units, like the seaplanes belonging to the seaplane tender Wakamiya, or the floatplanes on the Haruna?
Aviation is a given, but it's a hard question if Naval or Amphibious is best. Naval is important to us, and it would be very valuable to learn from the British Navy. However, it seems like our Navy wouldn't be super receptive to us trying to transfer lessons from the British Navy, and they only sent a Lieutenant so I'm not sure how committed they are. So, amphibious seems pretty obvious as a choice since it's a space where we could innovate quite a bit and be ahead of our time.
[X] Aviation matters. Naval Aviation, Army Aviation, and the newly created Imperial Japanese Air Service. What important things can be learned from the British, and what is to be made of attached units, like the seaplanes belonging to the seaplane tender Wakamiya, or the floatplanes on the Haruna?
[X] Amphibious matters. Forces under your command performed semi-amphibious landings in Dairen, and Inoue was part of both the fleet escorting the Imperial Guard and the fleet that supported them with shore bombardment. It's time someone took a proper look at the Kaigun Tokubetsu Rikusentai (Special Naval Landing Forces), and see what lessons could be learned from the Royal Marines - perhaps a formal Marine Corps, rather infantry-trained sailors?
[x] Amphibious matters. Forces under your command performed semi-amphibious landings in Dairen, and Inoue was part of both the fleet escorting the Imperial Guard and the fleet that supported them with shore bombardment. It's time someone took a proper look at the Kaigun Tokubetsu Rikusentai (Special Naval Landing Forces), and see what lessons could be learned from the Royal Marines - perhaps a formal Marine Corps, rather infantry-trained sailors?
[x] Aviation matters. Naval Aviation, Army Aviation, and the newly created Imperial Japanese Air Service. What important things can be learned from the British, and what is to be made of attached units, like the seaplanes belonging to the seaplane tender Wakamiya, or the floatplanes on the Haruna?
[x] Amphibious matters. Forces under your command performed semi-amphibious landings in Dairen, and Inoue was part of both the fleet escorting the Imperial Guard and the fleet that supported them with shore bombardment. It's time someone took a proper look at the Kaigun Tokubetsu Rikusentai (Special Naval Landing Forces), and see what lessons could be learned from the Royal Marines - perhaps a formal Marine Corps, rather infantry-trained sailors?
[x] Aviation matters. Naval Aviation, Army Aviation, and the newly created Imperial Japanese Air Service. What important things can be learned from the British, and what is to be made of attached units, like the seaplanes belonging to the seaplane tender Wakamiya, or the floatplanes on the Haruna?
[X] Army matters. When all is said and done, you are ultimately the senior officer and as such, the lion's share of the scrutiny from the British will be on Army matters.
[X] Amphibious matters. Forces under your command performed semi-amphibious landings in Dairen, and Inoue was part of both the fleet escorting the Imperial Guard and the fleet that supported them with shore bombardment. It's time someone took a proper look at the Kaigun Tokubetsu Rikusentai (Special Naval Landing Forces), and see what lessons could be learned from the Royal Marines - perhaps a formal Marine Corps, rather infantry-trained sailors?
Adhoc vote count started by KlinkerKing on Jul 20, 2020 at 9:30 AM, finished with 25 posts and 23 votes.
[X] Aviation matters. Naval Aviation, Army Aviation, and the newly created Imperial Japanese Air Service. What important things can be learned from the British, and what is to be made of attached units, like the seaplanes belonging to the seaplane tender Wakamiya, or the floatplanes on the Haruna?
[X] Amphibious matters. Forces under your command performed semi-amphibious landings in Dairen, and Inoue was part of both the fleet escorting the Imperial Guard and the fleet that supported them with shore bombardment. It's time someone took a proper look at the Kaigun Tokubetsu Rikusentai (Special Naval Landing Forces), and see what lessons could be learned from the Royal Marines - perhaps a formal Marine Corps, rather infantry-trained sailors?
[X] Naval matters. Getting you up to speed on the Royal Navy, the IJN and their differences in general doctrine and design philosophy. Britain is, after all, the leading nation in naval design, by virtue of sheer volume of ships put out, if nothing else.
[X] Aviation matters. Naval Aviation, Army Aviation, and the newly created Imperial Japanese Air Service. What important things can be learned from the British, and what is to be made of attached units, like the seaplanes belonging to the seaplane tender Wakamiya, or the floatplanes on the Haruna?
[X] Army matters. When all is said and done, you are ultimately the senior officer and as such, the lion's share of the scrutiny from the British will be on Army matters.
In case anyone was curious about to rolls and rewards table:
So: this turn you have acquired RADAR, and Solenoid Synchronisation Gears (the thing that lets you mount guns behind a propeller and not shoot your prop off) from Aviation rolls.
From Amphibious rolls, you've acquired specialised landing craft (you know, those flat bottom metal boats) and specialised landing craft for vehicles, so you can land tanks and supply trucks.
Army-wise, you've got Self-propelled Anti-Air Guns, basically armoured cars or tanks with anti-air capabilities, and Armour Piercing Ballistic Capped Shells, basically improved anti-armour shells with a streamlined and aerodynamic cap, that falls off on impact, letting the shells hit at a faster speed with higher kinetic force.
And last but certainly not least, you've got the Navy. There you acquired anti-torpedo bulges, a fairly rudimentary torpedo defence that trades a bit of speed for survivability, as well as improved coincidence rangefinders, which basically makes ships more accurate.
That's a big shame about the Navy not getting radar or AoN armor. Oh well, can't get them all. Fairly happy about the air force getting the radar though.
That's a big shame about the Navy not getting radar or AoN armor. Oh well, can't get them all. Fairly happy about the air force getting the radar though.
Navy gets RADAR too, you just had double chance to invent it since Britain pioneered it (if this had been Germany, you would instead have had significant boosts to aerial doctrine and lower DCs for Solenoid Synchronisation Gears, as well as gun and armour bonuses for ships).
This is the epilogue for this quest, yes. There's an idea for a sequel floating around in my head, but we'll see how that turns out - I'm not exactly lacking ideas for quests, as the people in the discord might know
You've got another 3-4 or so turns going in, and then I'll write up how Japan develops through the 20s and early 30s based on what happens, at which point I will either leave it there, or continue it in the sequel.
The Prince of Wales, Edward of House Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
You have come to realise that Churchill is an intensely stubborn and, at times, quarrelsome man. Initially, your discussions had gone well, but when the subject changed to the matter of the IJAS, Winston was not in agreement with your thinking.
"That naval and land forces should require aerial support, particularly in the matters of reconnaissance, is not a debated point. What is questionable, is the use of a separate force. It seems to me that it is pointless to send brave men to the air to reconnoitre if you are to waste it by the inevitable bureaucratic delays involved in interservice communications, and that's before they start fighting over what scraps the budget committees hand down." The First Sea Lord punctuates this statement with a sip of his whiskey, and a puff of cigar.
"I'm sure that could be the case, Mr. Churchill, we're not unfamiliar with interservice rivalry in Japan. Nonetheless, I think you should consider the benefits of an independently operating Air Service, as to see to the needs of both the Navy and the Army it forces them both to fund the Air Service, lest they go without any. The added effect of centralising resources and administration means that innovations and accumulated experience can be better utilized without splitting between the two other branches. That's why I personally supported the Air Service's independence in Japan." You put your teacup back onto the saucer with a modest clink, and place it on the table.
Churchill puffs his cigar again, and lets the smoke billow for a moment before he says, "I don't think your arguments are without merit, merely less meritorious than my own. I think we had best move on, before we find ourselves retreading ground."
You nod appreciatively at this, as your arguments had been going in circles for about thirty minutes by this point and were showing no signs of stopping. As such, you take another sip of tea and listen to Inoue and Jellicoe's conversation at the other side of the room.
"...way to keep our dreadnoughts from being crippled by submarine or torpedo boat attacks. Of course, this technology will be applied to smaller ships when possible."
"Yes, I think it's a worthwhile trade-off, to sacrifice a knot or too of speed in for improved protection against torpedoes. It's really the only way-"
A messenger slips in through the side door, grabbing your attention as he makes a beeline for Churchill, and hands him a sealed note. Churchill accepts it quietly, and takes a good look at it, before glancing up at you, looking chuffed.
"News from Russia, it would seem. The Tsar has gotten his act together, and turned the situation around. The Reds captured him in the beginning of April, but spies and loyalists infiltrated his prison, and he himself convinced several reds to turn their coats, as I'm sure you know."
You nod in assent, because although these specifics weren't publically available, if you could read between the lines of the official news reports, it was fairly obvious.
"Now His Majesty's cousin has gotten the Finns onboard, traded the cruiser Rurik for their support against the Bolshevist menace and now 25,000 men under General Mannerheim are policing St. Petersburg."
You raise an eyebrow and mention your own experiences with the man. "I've seen his work first hand. He was advisor to the Chinese in the recent kerfuffle. Talented man, understands how to run an army and how to manage a defensive line against superior numbers and equipment."
"If the Chinese situation was as dire as the rumours that reached our shores were, I can certainly see how that particular set of skills would be needed." Churchill says, before taking advantage of a lull in the two navy men's conversation to interrupt, mentioning the need for a schedule for the coming months.
Over the next few hours, the four of you hash out a plan that consists to a large degree of touring naval stations and army research labs. Jellicoe personally promises to show off the brand new Queen Elizabeth-class and, despite Churchill's unwillingness, you managed to extract a tour of the burgeoning radio section under Robert Watson. Your personal interest was in seeing if a radio could be made mobile enough that it could fit into one of the new armoured vehicles.
Exactly a week after your initial meeting with Churchill, you are summoned to an award ceremony, where you receive the Knight's Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order. The medal had previously been reserved for the likes of Admiral Togo Heihachiro and Field Marshal Kuroki, the two men regarded as the masterminds behind the victory in the Russo-Japanese War, and you were now counted among their ilk, even in Britain.
It's a pleasant enough ceremony, and you meet-and-greet an awful lot of people, many of whom seem utterly fascinated by Japan. Their questions, while fairly benign, ("is it true that the average businessman wears a suit in Japan?") could be construed as rude if you hadn't already spent half a decade in Britain facing the same questions, albeit from less august persons (one Prince of Wales in particular, seemed intent on claiming the title "most foot-in-mouth insensitive Briton").
After the ceremony, you and Inoue prepare for tomorrow's visit, where you intend to meet Watson at the new Air Ministry building in London, hoping you can at least contribute after the crash course you and Inoue arranged for yourselves over the past week.
AN:
Regarding this quest, it will have one more update where y'all get the technology and return to Japan, after which it will officially end. This is because I have been harassed by a friend of mine to make a Naval Design quest, which I intend to publish here on SV when all preparations are finished.
This is because I have been harassed by a friend of mine to make a Naval Design quest, which I intend to publish here on SV when all preparations are finished.
