Rule The Waves 3 - A Graphical Experiment - Complete

Select one of the above designs to move forwards with: Design 4 - Super Modern
How should we build our new Protected Cruisers? Small and fast, for raiding.

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One would think that after an ugly little war with the British that had led to so many dead, the bulldog would be sated and sleeping, and yet July saw yet another crisis over foreign French territories and the hunger of that ravenous beast across the channel. We stave them off for now and guarantee additional funding for the Marine Nationale, but one would have expected better of them. This is, we suppose, the price of Imperial ambition.

In the same month, our Arsenals make a new announcement - The 305mm/45 Model 1896 will henceforth be replaced by the 300mm/50 Model 1904, an enhanced model that is far superior to those older, less advanced guns. It is entirely probable that when we finally come to build new ironclads they will be so far advanced compared to the ships we currently maintain that wee will need a new name for them entirely.
The Kleber-class is finalised in August of 1904 as a 17,500 ton ship carrying twelve 240mm guns, heavy armour and be capable of 24 knots. 46 Niclausse boilers will feed four steam engines which, in turn, power a pair of propellers. This set-up will produce some forty-four-thousand horsepower, the most ever seen in the fleet. These will be remarkable ships when they are complete in late 1906.

Intelligence reports indicate that the British have laid down a new massive ship, their largest battleship yet at 17,900 tons displacement. While details are sparse, we are curious to see what this 'Hood-class' will carry given that the previous Superbs already fitted 330mm rifles. At the same time, as the laying down of the first Kleber is delayed repeatedly with the Assemblee Nationale wishing to review the design, we begin refitting our older cruisers for better guns and fire control. The Leon Gambetta-class will be the first pair to receive their new guns. Of course, we are further supressed by the Secretary of the Navy who insists that our focus on cruisers is to our detriment and that we will need at least 20 new destroyers laid down to maintain suitability of our forces.

The 29-knot Yatagan and her sisters will be the largest Torpedo Boats built by the Navy thus far at 600-tons displaced, and they will use that tonnage to fit a battery of four guns and a pair of torpedo tubes. They will also be the first ships to use the newly demonstrated Turbines.

Of course, in the 5 months it took for the plans for the Kleber to pass the review process of the government, technology has advanced so far that to not rework them would be to build inadequate ships. Thus we return to the plans and make several changes:
- New, lighter turret designs will improve the ships gun laying.
- Better quality control of armour production will ensure the belt is as light as possible.
- Better hull refinements which will reduce the displacement of the hull for the same capabilities.
All of this means that the Kleber (now being laid down in April of 1905 rather than late 1904) will be just 17,100 tons displaced and capable of 25 knots design speed - a considerable enhancement to the design.

However, this raises a new question:
Should we refit older ships with the new Turbines?
[ ] Yes, all cruisers
[ ] Yes, just the Armoured Cruisers
[ ] Yes, Just the Protected Cruisers
[ ] No
[ ] Write-in


Just what are the British up to?
[ ] They have clearly seen the Kleber designs and are attempting to mimic us.
[ ] These are just large Ironclads and will be defeated by torpedoes.
[ ] These are as new paradigm in battleship design
[ ] Write-in

Should we refit older ships with the new Turbines? No
Just what are the British up to? They have clearly seen the Kleber designs and are attempting to mimic us.
Also, I considered doing an April Fools post today, but Arms Trade Tycoon isn't really out of alpha yet and Sprocket doesn't have the LP ability. So you get sincerity!

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April sees the Amiral Aube-class going into refit for new guns (both 203mm and 127mm) and new gunnery control centres, but not new engines. This six month refit sees the large cruisers returning from their overseas station in South East Asia, replaced there by the two Condes and an assortment of light corvettes. The Aubes, once the pride of the fleet, are now dwarfed by the gigantic Kleber-class that are being built alongside them.

Of note for our oncoming construction of new protected cruisers is an intelligence report from Germany. Their own newest class, the Thetis and her sisters, will be 8,000 ton ships capable of 26 knots but shipping just 100mm guns in a variety of turret styles. Their armour is also remarkable thing at just 30mm at the widest points. A brief overview of other nations reveals the British 8,000 ton Calypso-class (no details), the Italian Marsala-class (22 knots, 125mm guns), the American Chattanooga and the Russian Admiral Nakhimov (22 knots, 150mm guns). It seems that whatever else, we will need to exceed 26 knots to maintain superiority.

We lay down two new submarines in June, the Sirene-class, in order to maintain a constant flow of knowledge and experience in constructing such vessels. We also begin bringing in protected cruisers for brief, mid-life overhauls in order to ensure the fleet is capable in the next war. For most of them this simply involves the conversion of an internal space into a fire control room, though the Infernet-class also recieves new 127mm guns fore and aft.

Our response to the other nations protected cruisers will be the 4,000 ton 27-knot Chasseloup-Laubat-class, which ships eight 127mm guns and four submerged torpedo tubes. Small, fast, and able to effectively engage merchants, they will be an excellent addition to the fleet. They are, of course, almost entirely unarmoured in order to achieve the speeds they have, but given they are essentially large torpedo boats...

A second pair of Kleber-class ships are laid down in October of 1905 as well as the first of the new Protected Cruisers. The latter pair of large Armoured Cruisers will be the Algerie and the Tourville, named for the ships stolen from us by British perfidy. A fifth, the Phillipe Auguste will make the slips under an agreement to expand ship-building in the South and thus this last ship will be built in Toulon rather than on the Atlantic Coast.

However we are struck by remarkable news. Many nations have assembled in the Hague with the intention of discussing an arms limitation treaty that would encompass all naval powers in the world. While it would be preferable to us to maintain the Kleber fleet we are currently building, other nations are imitating us and some of them have far bigger purses than we do. Thus, we choose to be a moderate at the conference, accepting limitations so long as they are applied fairly.

The initial draft suggests a limit of 15,000 tons and a calibre limit on all ships of 10 inches or 250mm. We will be forced to scrap the Kleber-class under these rules, but we can build something excellent under these limitations, a thing we doubt our opponents are prepared for. We are also offered the second highest tonnage limit at 510,000 tons, equal to the German Republic and second only to Britain and her Empire. This will allow us to maintain a very strong position compared to, say, the Kingdom of Italy (450,000 tons), or the Empire of Japan (300,000 tons).

While not ideal for us and our building program, we must consider the impacts otherwise. For the next 17 years, until 1922, nobody will be building massive ships that might be a serious threat to our cruiser forces. We have scrapped five massive Armoured Cruisers on their slips, but Britain has been forced to scrap nine, Japan five and the USA and Russia four. We (and many other nations) are also far over our total tonnage limitations, and so we must send additional ships to the scrap yards. It is agreed in the Marine Nationale that we must maintain our current Ironclad force unless we choose to replace them, so it comes down to the cruisers;

What should be the criteria for scrapping an Armoured Cruiser:
[ ] Less than 20 knots of seagoing speed - fifteen ships scrapped
[ ] Less than 18 knots of seagoing speed - six ships scrapped
[ ] Guns smaller than 203mm - six ships scrapped
[ ] Write-in
What should be the criteria for scrapping a Protected Cruiser:
[ ] Less than 22 knots of seagoing speed - twenty-five ships scrapped
[ ] Less than 20 knots of seagoing speed - eight ships scrapped
[ ] Write-in