Rule The Waves 3 - A Graphical Experiment - Complete

We should: Stop building submarines in order to lay down additional cruisers.

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Cruiser Concepts
If we are to build new cruisers - and we must - we should incorporate the lessons we have learned. For instance, armouring our cruisers has proven relatively ineffective compared to the weapons they are hit by, so we will remove the majority of the armour other than splinter protection wrapped around the conning tower. Second, the main weapon for sinking other surface ships is clearly SSM's; thus the new class will carry two launchers each with four tubes, replacing one of the Montcalm's turrets with the second launcher. It will retain the twin-arm SAM launcher, despite the relative reliability of the single-arm design, and reduce the helicopter complement to one. This new ship, the Cosmao, is a cheaper, smaller cruiser that retains and even builds upon the capabilities of the ships that came before it.

Intelligence and reconnaissance reports an under-escorted carrier moving through the Sea of Crete, and a cruiser squadron moves to intercept it. The first report of a location comes from the submarine Cigogne, which again reports location, fires missiles and crash dives. Shortly afterwards, the squadron detects the enemy on radar - a vessel ID'ed as an Armoured Cruiser. Then, from the East, a barrage of missiles from previously undetected ships. Suchet turns to launch her missiles, while Forbin launches an array of countermeasures into the air around the division. It soon becomes clear that intelligence has failed us again, with greater enemy numbers than previously thought in the area and no sign of a carrier.

Isly is the first cruiser to take a missile hit, struck just forwards of her A turret and set aflame. She's ordered to return to Heraklion if she can. Our cruisers begin ripple firing their SAM launchers at surface targets, missile after missile streaking into the air in an attempt to turn the enemy forces back. In the end, no carrier is seen but another Italian cruiser ends the engagement below the waves. At least the British have some luck, as the new year sees them catch and sink an Italian carrier in the western Mediterranean.

Intelligence?
Our cryptography efforts finally begin to pay off, allowing us to refuse a series of engagements where we would have been clearly outnumbered. We finally choose to engage a force apparently containing a pair of Armoured Cruisers and little else, which are apparently moving to bombard coastal positions in the fighting on Crete. It will be the first intentional combat action of the Montcalm-class, with Montcalm and Dupetit-Thouars joining the battle-hardened crews of Suchet and Forbin to prosecute the action.

A quartet of flying boats out of Heraklion are the first to sight the enemy, reporting missiles fired against a battleship for the loss of a member of their unit. Attackers follow them in, flying low and popping up at the last moment to launch their missiles at the distant enemy formation. These apparently detect a Super Cruiser operating in the area. Action is joined minutes later, enemy surface ships detected on radar at 30 kilometres and engaged with a flurry of SSM's. Multiple hits are recorded against what ident signals as a CV and a pair of battleships. We finally get better looks at the enemy once they close to twenty kilometres; a pair of armoured cruisers leading their formation and receiving a hammering from missiles.

As the CA's continue a frankly suicidal charge, Contre-Amiral Campion gives an order that hasn't been issued in several decades - a flotilla attack by his attendant destroyers. Hova, Capitane Mehl, Tonkinois and Kabyle - all almost cruisers in their own right - assemble a formation and begin a torpedo attack to drive the large enemy ships away. Dupetit-Thouars is hit by a 250mm shell directly in her SAM launcher, starting a fire, demonstrating the urgency of the destroyer action.

The Italians (and the Germans, as they had a cruiser in the enemy squadron) were operating four CA's, not two. Nonetheless, the brave commanders of the French group sank one and heavily damaged another with no cruiser lost. It's a victory, even if a not particularly pretty one.

Army Warfighting
Now, twelve months into a war with some of our oldest and most natural enemies, the Army is finally ready to make an actual push against the enemy. They, of course, require a large chunk of our budget to do it. We provide with some good natured grumbling and an understanding that should they fail we will demonstrate why the Navy is the most important service.
The corvette Quebec, a Parfaite-class ship of just 1,500 tons, engages the Italian Armoured Cruiser Palestro in South East Asia and, somehow, comes away better off although neither ship sinks. Palestro seeks internment in a neutral port a week later after failing to find shelter anywhere else.
We have had the first suggestions of a peace from the enemy, and it's worth establishing what we would accept:
[ ] No peace but a crushing victory - we have the strength, we should use it to enact regime change.
[ ] We will take a peace with concessions, if offered.
[ ] White peace would be fine, to save our people the hardships of war.
[ ] Something else - write in

We have had the first suggestions of a peace from the enemy, and it's worth establishing what we would accept: No peace but a crushing victory - we have the strength, we should use it to enact regime change.

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Regime Change
We have our goal - with the power we have assembled in Europe, along the fronts and in the North Sea and the Mediterranean, we will crush autocracy from existence once and for all. Now we can only hope the politicians listen to us.

Another small clash comes North of Crete, as cruisers and destroyers sortie to protect an incoming relief convoy. Missiles come from nowhere, the first sign of the enemy radar locks, and Captaine Mehl is hit almost before she can reply. A second hit follows shortly afterwards, and then a third. The ill-fated Poignard-class destroyer begins to sink, her crewing leaping into the water to escape blazing fires that sweep across the upper decks. Jean Bart and Isly level their guns for the first time in several years, firing for effect against unsighted targets.

Everything seems to be going well until a second enemy formation appears, unleashing a fresh barrage of missiles that swarm in on the formation. One hits the Hova in the bow, starting a fire, while a second strike the Isly directly in the conning tower, killing her command staff including Captain Tourville. In the course of the battle that follows, Jean Bart empties not only her missile magazines, but also her guns as well.

Army Dreamers
The French and British armies on the front make a series of breakthroughs, punching into the Eastern slopes of the Alps and into the Rhineland in Germany. This is a huge success both for the nations, and for the Navy - success in this offensive means we get our budget back. Demonstrations in Germany seem committed to carrying on until the war ends, and the Italians are reportedly running out of fuel oil.
The Italians move more forces into the area around Crete, running into a trio of French cruisers (Suchet, Montcalm, Forbin) and two British ships of significantly greater size (HMS Aeolus, HMS Astraea). The first enemies are detected at forty kilometres, and all ships fire off salvoes of SSMs. Five hits are reported amongst the enemy forces, though radar confirmations have always been unreliable, and then Aeolus is the first allied ship to take a hit, two SSM's slamming into her broadside. The battle quickly turns into a slaughter, the British spurred on by the loss of their fellow ship, and the French matching their ferocity. Three Italian protected cruisers and three destroyers are sunk in an action that lasts all of two hours.

Campania is sunk a month later by a combined British and French force in the Ionian Sea before they retreat back under coastal air cover. The news apparently sparks a strike in both Taranto and Bari, workers and sailors taking to the streets to protest the war. Similar stories are going on across the North coast of Germany, with protests in Wilhelmshaven, Kiel and Lübeck, which will presumably worsen as the British report that they have caught and sunk the Super Cruiser Passau.

Attritional Warfare
The latter months of 1977 are quiet, seeing little in the way of direct engagements but with the continued blockade of Germany and the continued submarine warfare in the Med and the North Sea. It's not until December that the Italian Navy attempts another push into Greek waters - presumably it has taken them this long to quell the resistance to the war. Missiles fly back and forth, and Forbin has her upper works toppled by a hit. She is detached to return home and shortly afterwards the entire force returns home, making for Patra at cruise speed.

The British Prime Minister broadcasts a speech decrying the villainy of autocracy and the necessity of this 'Moral War'. In response, the government authorises an additional war loan, expanding our free budget to six million francs.

What should we do with this budget?
[ ] Britain is seeing success with large protected cruisers, we should build some
[ ] We are burning through modern advanced destroyers - we need to rebuild that force
[ ] Small missile cruisers are clearly capable of going toe-to-toe with much larger enemies - keep building the Cosmao
[ ] Write in