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Rule The Waves 3 - A Graphical Experiment - Complete

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[X] Prioritise LJF and our fastest strike aircraft on carriers

With our capital ship inferiority we need some way of landing major hits without being wholly reliant on gunnery duels.
 
Also, just as a note: We are 22 years late on night operations for aircraft. None of our planes can fly at night.
 
7th Hex said:
Wait, didn't we have prop night CAP back when the vote was on how many planes should be at each air base?
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Ah, so, I offered that because I assumed we had it, like some sort of idiot. Forgot how exactly it unlocked and was like "yeah, we must do by now". I mean, we certainly should have...
 

Techs we can get and when they should unlock

Techs we have from the game at current date.

Y'know, before this LP, I always worried that divergent tech wasn't...
 
4WheelSword said:

Techs we can get and when they should unlock

Techs we have from the game at current date.

Y'know, before this LP, I always worried that divergent tech wasn't...
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There is only a 10% chance of the tech being picked when an air tech is researched. So with 13 techs researched, that means we had a 75% chance of having it be researched by now. I guess we are just unlucky
 
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Well... that's better.
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    • Adhoc vote count started by 4WheelSword on May 30, 2024 at 6:04 AM, finished with 15 posts and 8 votes.
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    We need a new doctrine with which to equip them: Prioritise LJF and our fastest strike aircraft on carriers


    Hard Lessons
    We begin the work of at least re-equipping our carrier fighter squadrons with light jet fighters, while torpedo bomber units are replaced wholesale with dive bombers. Faster and hopefully more survivable, this should lead to a less horrific loss ratio than we suffered during the Battle of Bordighera. The Bois Bellau, our older operational Large Carriers in the Mediterranean, are reissued a new standard complement of 24 light jets and 39 dive bombers, while small carriers transition to 12 light jets and 14 dive bombers. This massive surge in jets will put pressure on manufacturing, but that's a small price to pay for survivable air wings.

    We continue our vicious merchant war, sinking another ten Italian submarines for the price of just four of our own. We also, as our carriers are busy outfitting themselves with new aircraft, order four of our Super Cruisers to sea to sink Italian shipping. We must refuse them as much as we can, up to and including sinking vital supplies. In January, however, off the coast of Sicily and Tunisia, we are offered another major engagement.

    Majesteux and Furieux, aging Super Cruisers of two types, are engaged by an Italian task force of three Super Cruisers. Each of the Italian ships out masses and outguns our own, and thus the division, commanded by Contra-Amiral Godfroy, is forced to pull back closer to the Tunisian shore. The Italians disengage rather than close with the French coast and Godfroy is force to push back out to maintain contact. As night falls, the task force returns to Tunis, short one destroyer that struck a mine.


    Nothing Decisive
    It's always hoped that a war will end quickly, decisively, with a quick battle that clearly signals to the enemy that they cannot hope to compete. Apparently that will not be the case here, as the Italians have shunned any further major engagements since the first of the war. So we go back to the slow grind we are so used to from the past, accepting a new Jet Attacker into service and waiting for destroyers to complete their construction so we can lay down more submarines.

    The Bearn-class of carrier, our first large purpose built carriers, heads to the yards for an eight month refit to enable her to handle jets and improve her ready times. More ships arrive with the fleet. More are lost, mostly submarines, but we almost have parity of force and certainly a parity of modernity.

    And then, just as we are thinking the Italians will no longer engage with us, we are offered the chance to sortie the fleet again, this time with re-equipped carriers. It opens with a group of four destroyers (Baliste, Catapulte, Obusier and Pierrer) closing to engage a group of radar contacts fifty kilometres from Nice. Several torpedo hits are reported, the flashes of explosions clearly visible in the pre-dawn gloom. Then, at 0730 as the sun is still struggling to rise above the horizon, the main cruiser force makes contact. Our carriers desperately hope for a break in the weather to launch their strikes as the Lion d'Or reports major damage suffered. A 16,000 ton Italian Armoured Cruiser, the Genova explodes as her magazines are penetrated.

    Genova in port months before her sinking​

    Balliste moves to assist the survivors of the Genova and suffers several shell hits for her mercy. The Italian Battleship Vipsanio Agrippa suffers a mauling under French guns. The day continues with little jabs and cuts, punches thrown and taken, and both sides praying for a break in the weather. No such luck, however, and the Super Cruiser squadron finishes her day ruining the airfield at Imperia again.

    The total cost of this engagement to the French fleet is, in order:
    - One destroyer sunk, five damaged.
    - Heavy damage to the Lion d'Or, with three of her four turrets disabled or knocked out, and Moderate damage to the Furieux including both forward turrets burned out by fire.
    ​
    The Italian fleet was not so lucky. In the course of an afternoon and without air cover, the French fleet delivered:
    - 22 aircraft destroyed on the ground at Imperia, including ten jets.
    - Two Destroyers and two corvettes sunk.
    - One Armoured Cruiser destroyed by magazine penetration, another badly damaged by gunfire.
    - Two capital ships heavily damaged, to the point where it is remarkable the crew of the Vipsanio Agrippa was able to return her to port above the water.
    - One capital ship sunk - the Attilio Regolo was torpedoed in the first pre-dawn torpedo attack and began limping back to port where she was torpedoed again by the crew of the submarine Morse, sinking her.

    Attilio Regolo from an intelligence flyover of an Italian port​


    Back on Track
    We were concerned about the lack of a decisive engagement in this war - perhaps we shouldn't have been. We have the advantage, and we will press it once we have completed repairs to our damaged warships. Of course, that doesn't stop us from making effective deployments outside of the Mediterranean, and thus we begin planning a land invasion of Eritrea. We have even, temporarily, closed a blockade around the major Italian ports.

    We do, tragically, lose a pair of protected cruisers during a raid on an Italian convoy. We begin the invasion of Eritrea without much in the way of naval resistance. We even manage to restart work on one of our new Neptune-class carriers for the first time in the ten months since this war started. We also begin transferring some of our Medium Bomber squadrons over to our new Farman F.262 Jet Attacker - it has significantly lower range but is faster and carries a heavier bomb load at their shortest range. We will not replace the bomber entirely, but this is a new capability we have not had before.
    ​

    We have not yet received an offer of peace from the enemy, but what if we do?
    [ ] We should take an offer of white peace if it comes.
    [ ] We should hold out for a peace with concessions.
    [ ] Crush them. No quarter. Take everything.
     
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    • [X] We should hold out for a peace with concessions.

    This seems to be going decently for our forces.
     
    [X] We should hold out for a peace with concessions.

    Things are going reasonably well for now; at the moment we should try and put the screws to them.
     
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