Rule the Waves, consistently making too few ships, with the germans!

[bdun140]

All those torpedo hits!

Yes I know it's army and not navy, shut up.

 

[TortugaGreen]

One hit, and...



They're not doing so well. In fact, Yashima's sinking, and the Katori-class is certainly not doing well.



Where did that come from? The only destroyer in that direction and close enough is japanese! Maybe V82 was over there when the torps were launched but moved since then?



Pointless since she was already sinking, but more holes in them is always better. Also, I appreciate that this game says "was hit by torpedo" instead of "was hit by our/their torpedo", as friendly fire is a thing.



Huh? At least it's Excellence, which has the better torpedo defense. But then, it IS two torpedos.



So that's the bugger that hit me, turning to engage with all forces, as that is the only japanese ship in sight that isn't cheese.



Another! Turning the destroyers that way.



Fuck! Pulling back to the bay.



While I'm doing that, I might as well shotgun the Yashima, I should be protected from torpedos for fear of friendly fire.



I had problems with getting the ship to fire on the (somehow) mobile Yashima, but I've got it now and I am approaching a safe distance.



I'm just going to wait out the timer here.



Good win for me. Sinking two of their battleships, including their only non-cruddy one, is going to hurt, and all those DDs I trashed are no longer my problem.



HELL YEAH. I got suprise attacked by the japanese AND SUNK THEIR BATTLESHIPS.

 

[DezoPenguin]

It is definitely a sign that things are not going according to keikaku when you surprise-attack and lose more ships than the victims of the attack had at the start of the battle. Also when they sink more of your battleships than you manage to sink of their merchantmen. The IJN is going to be doing a lot of groveling and finger-pointing back home about this. (Probably they'll find some way to blame the army.)

 

[HolyDragoon]

Not if the Army shanks them first...

 

[TortugaGreen]

It is definitely a sign that things are not going according to keikaku when you surprise-attack and lose more ships than the victims of the attack had at the start of the battle. Also when they sink more of your battleships than you manage to sink of their merchantmen. The IJN is going to be doing a lot of groveling and finger-pointing back home about this. (Probably they'll find some way to blame the army.)

Click to shrink...

Yeah that attack will probably result in a few less Japanese admirals.

 

[TortugaGreen]

And After that wonderful battle, I have enough money to build another V-class, the SMS Vulgar. Unless someone else can come up with a better name for it.



More DDs!



And the japanese subs sinking my merchants.



Probably hit a merchant or something.



How the heck did they come to the conclusion that that was a good idea? Why not.



Hello! ACCELERATING TO FULL SPEED.



Ok, it looks like their battlecruiser and a destroyer escort. I can take that. Even though the battlecruisers I have on hand are still some of my older ones.



Especially when the enemy battlecruiser is this PoS. Still, SMS Arcona, my CL, will have to break off.



Looks like the japanese got first blood.



Stop running and face me!



Ow.



Finally, you turn! It appears that the Ikoma does not have cross-deck firing, as much as the turret and superstructure arrangement suggests it.



Finally a hit, but at the cost of 2 13" guns.



And another hit apparently, and oh good it destroyed the port wing turret on Ikoma.



Turning away again, are you? I'm not OK with that, I'm going to try to close on them.



IF anything they're certainly good gunners. I think I'm going to close the distance so I can fire back more effectively.



T crossing time.

 

[TortugaGreen]

Oooor they could just turn away, though I did manage to land another few hits on them and reducing them to 10 knots or thereabouts.



Oh wow, my battlecruisers are really starting to tear into it now, keep it up, Xenon and Zeppelin. Amusingly, the Ikoma is now limited to it's forward (A) turret, all the others have been disabled. I'm reminded of the last battlecruiser Zeppelin hammered down, back in the first or second anglo-germanic war (of the 20th century).



Good hits, Zeppelin. While old, she's still pretty darn good in a fight.



You know, I think she's earned a refit at this point.



Welp, Ikoma's sinking. Well done, Battlecruiser Division 1. It looks like your secondaries and the guns of the screening destroyers have trashed the enemy DDs in the process.



While I like the hits, I'm going to start steaming back south towards port, as these destroyers are going to have a bad time anyway, I don't need to get bloodthirsty.



Hooray, that went well.



Nice. Also, definitely getting Zeppelin that refit.



Here's Zeppelin's refit version. Which I can't do yet, but eh.

 

[TortugaGreen]

New turn...



SMS Pillau is now in service, and will spend a few months working up to crew competency.



Oh?



Cool.



Kind of underwhelming, but then, I only have one non-coastal submarine.



That sucks.



Also underwhelming.



Dang it japan.



I bet they're going to refuse battle.



Yup.

Nothing more to do this turn (though I am accelerating the V-class's construction) so next.



More ships are always welcome.



Oh geez. On one hand, I could get more victory points. On the other though, I would lose money to that. Since I'm not really hurting for points, I'm going to say no.



Cool, electrical drive fun.



Meh.



Huh, looks like some of them got a bit too close to a destroyer or other ASW-capable ship.



I should probalby spend some of the money I have on minesweepers.



Screw it, sure. Japanese capital ships ARE that bad.

 

[TortugaGreen]

And I get two destroyers. That's not ideal.

But after a bit of sailing around...



FULL SPEED AHEAD, target sighted.



Oh boy, it's two ARMED targets. hooray. I'm going to let the mission fail and flee, because according to the game one of those is a light cruiser, and one of my DDs has already been damaged.



Yup, hooray. I'm going to have S64 put out some torpedoes to cover the other DD's retreat.



Have to get a bit closer though.



I hope those hit, because I'm out of here.



Shit. Fire the last torpedo and start on evasive manuevers to hopefully get them away from V67.



Looks like S64 isn't leaving this battle, but I think I can get V67 to safety.



I think I succeeded.



Yeah that happened a while ago.



Not great.



I'm not very happy with that.

 

[TortugaGreen]

More cash is always nice.



HECK YEAH. Top-end 16" guns will penetrate anything made so far in game (at least, by the AI), as far as I can tell.



Meh.



Also meh, that amount of points is inconsequential. Though I do intend to work on that source of points too, with the raiders I'm sending there and should really check on.



No, I don't really need the points and I don't have enough cruiser forces in the area to be comfortable with pulling medium-small battles.

As I have enough (I think) money, I'm going to make a new battlecruiser,



The U-class. A fairly nippy ship at 30 knots, just as fast as the super-heavy cruisers I've been making recently, with a good set of 10 16" guns and not terrible armor (looking at you, Fisher), it should prove to be a good ship or ships, depending on how long this war lasts and how much money I manage to hold on to. Sadly, to fit it in it's hull, the turret face lost armor protection, but at the ranges this ship should be fighting at the hit chance will be miniscule and closer in armor will quickly stop mattering.
A few changes I made since this image: I deceased the ship's size to 51900 tons and tweaked the aft superstructure.

Sadly, building SMS Unbreakable will tank my income, so I'll have to flicker work on it on and off.

Next turn.

----

\Bit short, but imgur started failing to load, so I cut it short at the most reasonable spot.

 

[TortugaGreen]

Nice.



Top option. I'm solidly in the lead and I'm going to start smashing their shipping soon.



Of course I get it just as I start building a capital ship.



Subs pulled through this turn.



And the japanese subs didn't do too greatly.



Of course the japanese got their raiders going first.



Nice.



No for the same reason. I'm sending a cruiser there right now.



Alright then, let's go.

 

[HolyDragoon]

Eh, it's not that bad. you could get it just after your cap ship was built. As it is, you only need to spend one extra month for it to come with the advanced director.

 

[TortugaGreen]

ENEMY SIGHTED, ACCELERATE TO FULL SPEED. SMS Warner is to close to investigate, while CL division 3 follows her in and CL division 6 moves to screen SMS Excellence with CL division 9.



Looks like our target is a CL.



And a second ship, which is likely a capital ship from the size of those splashes around Munchen.



CL division 3 is going to pull itself together then move to follow Warner actually.



It looks like the bigger target is a battlecruiser. Annoyingly, the japanese have only one battlecruiser, the Tsukuba, which is far more modern than Warner, but Warner can hopefully at least provide another few guns if needed.



The enemy BC has put a good hit into Warner's engines, putting her down to 12 knots, which is annoying.



Tsukuba seems to be having difficulty figuring out which direction to go.



Yeah, Warner is pretty outclassed here. I think I may be able to bait the japanese battlecruiser towards Excellence.



Almost to gun range.



I'm going to have CL Division 3 hound that Izumi-class.

 

[DezoPenguin]

*evil cliffhanger tension intensifies*

 

[TortugaGreen]

The citizens of Germany send their regards!



That's a lucky hit.



Why isn't Excellence firing?



There we go. We're still at long range, though, so the shots aren't all that accurate.



Finally a hit!



And for whatever reason, two of their turrets are out of commision.



Meanwhile, CL Div. 3 is having moderate success with hunting Izumi.



Boom.



And Excellence's first hit of the battle.

 

[TortugaGreen]

3 hits on Tsukuba in a row. Nice. I hope one of my hits gets their engines because Excellence can JUST keep up as-is.



I would care if that had penetrated, but it didn't, so I'm fine with it.



OH boy, there's their battleship line, probably. I'm going to keep chasing Tsukuba, then break off for the battleships when I'm close.



There they are, as I thought. Sticking to the plan.



Konigsberg is doing a good job harassing the enemy cruiser.



Berlin is going to fire torpedoes at the Izumi, as it will at least force them to turn.



Also, I don't think the japanese BBs want this engagement.



More torpedoes are always better.

 

[TortugaGreen]

Let's see how the first 3 do.



Darn. At least I got more hits in. Turning to pursue.



I think the battleships are covering for their battlecruiser. Might as well switch targets.



15" armor belt, yo.



BROADSIDE TIME!



And more innefectual flailing, it appears.



But now, a bunch of successful hits on the japanese.



More hits.



Even more, though I'd like it if whatever DD that was was more cautious.



This is developing into quite the brawl.



Well then.

 

[DezoPenguin]

The Japanese have been buying their cruisers from the British, I see...

 

[TortugaGreen]

That isn't good.



Well, since Excellence's rudder is jammed, I'm going to have to break off the enemy. In the meantime, Excellence can still pump that Katori-class full of holes with the remaining 3 turrets.



Excellence can turn again, but I'm going to let the distance increase while I send my CLs in for a torpedo run.



Excellence will have to handle the two more intact Katoris in the meantime, though.



Ready...



Fire!



And hit! Since Katori is pretty old, that's got to have been catastrophic, as it's probably old enough not to have torpedo defense. Yup, sinking.



Once we clear the DDs' torps, I'm going to send the CLs to harass the other two Katoris, using the remaining torpedoes.



ALL THE CLs.



Meanwhile, I'm going to do a similar tactic with the escort DDs of Warner.



Wait for it...



Leipzig is firing torpedoes.



Then turning to use the other side's shots.



Torpedoes!



BOOM.



Ready!



Come on!

I go on to miss every torpedo shot of the several I took, and it gets kind of repetitive, so I don't include it, but I end up just sailing to port.

The results:


I killed 2/3 of their battleships and temporarily hurt the other two capital ships in the area, which is pretty damn good, but the damage Excellence took shows that she's not invincible, but at least is a good bit better than the japanese's stuff. I lost a CL, but it's a relatively minor loss.



And even more points for me!

 

[DezoPenguin]

Torpedoes are their own reward.

 

[TortugaGreen]

Sorry about the lack of updates yesterday, I was dragged off for a family event.

 

[TortugaGreen]

Dang, that sucks. At least it hasn't given the enemy any points, not that it would help them.



Better armor is always nice.



Not bad.



Significant, but I've seen far worse.



No, my cruiser is still working on getting there and my BC in the area is in repair.



Really? why did they send one of their few capital ships THERE? Probably passing through to fail at striking at Germany itself.



I have set all the CLs I have in that area to raiding duty to hopefully screw with the Japanese's supplies.



Speaking of which, I'm going to send much of my southeast asian forces to hopefully get to being able to blockade them.

next turn.



More money is always appreciated.



The war is still on my side and I'd like to eke some more money out of parliament through this war for my capital ship projects, so I refuse.



Meh, that's not much.



Mediocre showing there.



Also not much.



That's much more impressive, however.



Know what? might as well, my BC is functional now.



Ooooor not, apparently.



Let's try that again.



With only 3 DDs this time.

 

[TortugaGreen]

DD time.



And target aquired. FULL SPEED AHEAD.



More targets!



Sadly, these are the DD escort. Luckily, these destroyers suck. Unluckily, they're good shots and there are more of them.



Oh hey, new targets. Hopefully, these ones are actually the ones I'm here to kill not these annoying japanese destroyers.



Yep, there's my main target.



And a lot of other targets too. If I can get close, I think a torpedo spread or two has GOT to hit something in that mishmash of ships.



Torpedoes out, and... Oh dear. Well, she's going down, and the other ships are leaving now.



One... that's underwhelming.



Considering the pursuit S58 has aquired, she's probably also doomed, but I think I can get a kill on a second merchant with my last DD's guns.

(As it turns out, S58 lives, but I didn't know that.)



The japanese appear to have rather poor shepherds, considering the actions of these TRs. I intend to exploit that for all I can.



Boom, one. Let's see how many I can do that to.



Boom, once again.



OK, time to escape with the damage done.



Nice.

 

[TortugaGreen]

Another updateless day, because for whatever reason Imgur has stopped working properly.

 

[TortugaGreen]

Better shells are always very welcome.



As are other technological advances, though I can't use them as much.



Eh?



I don't feel like dealing with hostility from two nations at the same time, even if both are rather weak, so I'll let it go for now.



It's not much, but I suppose another few points is still another few points.



See above for my opinions.



Well that sucks.



Annoying, but that's only one merchant. I have more.



See the submarine messages, I don't need to repeat myself.



Screw it, sure. This'll be fun.



And everyone was able to show up, too!