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

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Cruiser battle off france
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    • Nice. Getting new stuff is always nice.



    ONE VP. ONE. Wow, such importance.



    Nice job submariners, my confidence in you is SO HIGH right now.

    Also, France gives me a token VP gift of not much at all.





    What the crap, Intel. The brits only have ONE BB, and it's still building. This information is clearly wrong. As it's a cruiser battle, I don't really need to worry about the ridiculous battleship spam, so I think I'll take this, as Britain (according to intel) doesn't have many CAs parked here.



    Looks like 3 of my 7 CAs came into this battle for me, so I think I should be pretty good in firepower.



    Woah that's starting closer than I'd like.



    In responding to the enemies appearing, I order my CAs turn into the enemy force, hoping to close to effective gun range and ideally identify the enemy ships, wo I have some idea what I'm dealing with.



    Huh, 2 CLs, of the 2 newest classes in the British navy, and a still unidentified CA. I think I can win this well, as I have 3 CAs.



    Nice job. Prize for worst reliability goes to the SMS Prinz Adalbert!

    Also, the Hertha manages to draw first blood on the Persian class, but I didn't get a screenshot in time, so sad.



    And the CA is identified! Good armament in general, but bad armor for its armament.



    I have every ship go after one enemy ship, to minimize the negative effects of having 2 ships aiming at the same target.



    Hertha and the enemy CA are really slugging it out, at point blank range.



    Looks like the Hogue class is sinking, considering that speed value. I'm going to have Hertha pound it a bit more though, just to be sure.



    Huh, I've lost sight of the Psyche class, so I'm going to have Freya beat on the Hogue, and have Hertha aid Prinz Adalbert with the Persian class



    Well, the enemy CL has started running, so I end up in a bit of a stern chase with them.

    This continued for a while, until the CL managed to get away thanks to managing a hit to my CA's engine room, but the battle somehow still counted as major
     
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    • Start of the battle of dogger bank
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    • Sorry about the missing update yesterday, as I was on an airplane. I am now in California.

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    First things first, the army wants money.



    Considering the still 40-odd million I'm sitting on, I can afford it. Accept.



    Darn. Submarines aren't having a good time this turn, I guess it comes with how early in the game I am using them.



    The British do worse though, as they have a markedly smaller submarine force than me, so they can't afford sub losses as much.



    I'm going to refuse, because while I know the BB and BC are still building, I know that 15 battleships isn't wrong, and I don't feel like messing with that sort of battleship spam.



    I'm going to accept this one though, despite the battle size 1, because it is a cruiser battle so hopefully I won't have to deal with the British battleship spam in this battle.



    Huh, so I have 4 of my 7 CAs in this battle, which is going to be pretty ridiculous one way or another. The problem though, is that I have literally no idea where the bombardment target is to bombard. I think there's supposed to be some sort of marker, but my game just won't show it. So, what I'm going to do: travel up and down England's coasts, and wreck every hostile ship I can find, to make up for the point loss from the objective. Yay.



    Also, it's apparently already night. YAY, EVEN MORE DIFFICULTY FINDING THINGS!

    HUNTING FOR BRITS, WHILE BEING UNABLE TO SEE A BLOODY THING, NEXT TIME ON THIS. (short update thanks to having to sleep).
     
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    • Battle of not-really-dogger-bank-anymore
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    • Alright, time to hunt for brits.

    First thing I do is order my ships head towards the British coast, to be more likely to find British fishing ships, which rarely go far from the coast.



    I turn my forces northward, including another CA I did not know I had until now. I do this because I started off on a northward course and it is reasonable to believe that I was headed that way for a reason. I will elaborate further once I find something to shoot.



    Not long afterwards, one of my ships sights a hostile. WOO.



    And of course it's found by the ship way out in back (bottom right of image). I'm going to bring around the fleet to wreck some crap, but I'm not even going to bother accelerating to full speed. It's probably a freighter.



    Actually, never mind. That's a minesweeper or a PT boat. Too small for anything else.



    I briefly lose contact with the target, due to the cruiser who found it, the gazelle, just sailing off away from Britain for no reason, with a perfectly screwed MS or DD or something right there to be filled with HE. My main cruiser force recovers contact of the target though, and start shelling it with their cannons.



    Well THAT was fast. Drive by shootings, anyone? Must have been hit by a 10" shell or something. Or just had a tiny enough hull that a few 5" shells could sink it. Eh, whatever. I'm going to stay on my southerly new course though, because why the heck not.



    Oh hello, brits. Care for a nice cup of tea? We're kind of in a hurry though, so we'll have to deliver it VIA CANNON.*maniacal laughter*



    Huh, apparently, the northern enemy is a minesweeper. I think actually a DD at least, but eh.



    The other ship is identified also as an MS, (they both now have more Minesweeper-y size) and a third enemy is sighted. Nice.



    The lower of the two original enemies is a Sommeina class minesweeper, so at least one of the minesweepers is definitely in fact, a minesweeper. Also, that third enemy is apparently a light cruiser, which I believe because it makes quite a lot of sense, considering its actions.



    And the CL is revealed to be: A Cherwell class! Bigger than the MSes, but still not very big. Actually smaller than 500 tons, which seems silly. Also, I think I was hitting it with AP shells, which explains why it took so little damage.



    Huh, I wonder how well Freidrich Carl can see that dastardly brit right now…



    Huh, the top minesweeper was also actually a DD. Fascinating. But also at the bottom of the sea.



    You tried at least, Britain, at least, but ONE DOES NOT SIMPLY ATTACK A FORCE OF 5 ARMORED CRUISERS AND 2 LIGHT CRUSERS, WHO HAPPEN TO HAVE GOOD DESTROYER SCREENS, WITH 2 DESTROYERS. I feel sorry for you, Britain.

    -Some straggler MS walloping later-



    Huh, the brits have a pretty big costal emplacement here, I feel like fixing that though. I dispatch 4 of my 5 CAs to bombard the thing until it no longer fires.



    The first of the CAs arrives on scene, just as I have the Gefion retire from the engagement.



    During the fu(umlaut)rst bismarck's retreat after taking some hits to the engine room, this happens: yeah, she's bugged, and trying to sail onto land, and failing miserably. The main force has arrived though, so all is OK.

    I can't right-click the coastal battery anymore, so I think I destroyed it. And I'm done for today, with writing out this silly battle at least, so woo.
     
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    • joebob73 said:
    As long as you approach from the side they can't shoot at you very effectively. I took one out with a single DD due to the battery's unrealistic turret traverse limitations.
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    also, the only difference in gun size between the shore battery and my ships' guns was 1 inch. besides, it seems that coastal batteries can't shoot for crap, considering they got like 5 hits total on my cruisers, there my cruisers averaged like a hit every minute each.
     
    TortugaGreen said:
    also, the only difference in gun size between the shore battery and my ships' guns was 1 inch. besides, it seems that coastal batteries can't shoot for crap, considering they got like 5 hits total on my cruisers, there my cruisers averaged like a hit every minute each.
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    Yeah, I'm perfectly confident to engage one of those with 6" gun cruisers late-game
    HE splinters can knock the guns out super easily.
     
    Battle of the Thames estuary 1
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    • Alright. In the aftermath of the battle of having no idea what's going on, I have decided to halt construction on the Braunshweig.



    It is old for the current situation, and while its armor is frankly ridiculous, it has no torpedo protection, and as Jutland showed, torpedo protection is critical for capital ships. Besides, I could use the money currently spent on it for other ships that I need more at the moment. I can't decide what those might be at the moment, but I want the extra money.

    Not much more I want to do this turn, so moving on.



    First thing I get is stronger engines, so my future ships (especially battlecruisers and the like) will be faster.



    I know for a fact that BC doesn't exist, but I can't fight the enemies there at the moment with 1 DD, so I refuse. It'll just end in a sunk DD.



    I'll accept, as it's not a size zero, but a 1, so I won't have to deal with every battleship of Britain's massive battleship spam, and I now have the B-class in addition to the A-class, and I don't think Britain has QUITE that many battleships.



    Naturally, they want me to destroy a nonexistent bombardment target, even though I was told this was a coastal merchant abuse attack, not a bombardment mission. Yay. I'll just have to sink enough to counterbalance that.

    Alright, my fleet composition: for the main battleship force, battle-division 1 with the ships Baker, Budget, Boarder, and Assault. Pretty good, mostly B-class, but there is an A-class present. Wonderful.

    Screening the battleships are DesDivs 2, 5 and 9, each composed of 2 destroyers.

    Additionally, light cruiser division 8 is providing further screening, with the Niobe, Gazelle, and Nymphe.

    Ahead are the Medusa and Gefion, composing light cruiser division 3, and cruiser division 6, with the ships Prinz Heinrich, Hertha, and Hansa. Screening CruDiv 6 is Destroyer Division 7, with 3 destroyers.

    Overall, not bad.



    On the other hand, look at Britain's battleship count. 20. How are they doing that? HOW? Somewhat worrying.



    I think my plan will be to head southwest to Harwich, to blow stuff up there (probably merchants around there), until something shows up that I can't take down, at which point I will promptly scoot the heck out of there.



    After a bit, Niobe sights an enemy ship, and I decide to try to surround it to maximize how many ships have a clear line of fire. Also, it has become night-time, so I need my ships close to the enemy to be able to fire.



    Oh, hi, enemy battlefleet.

    Windows just decided to force update in a moment, so I can't write any more in this post. I will try to put up the rest of the battle once my computer has updated.
     
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    • Wait, what did Jutland have to do with the importance of torpedo protection on capital ships? (Or is it a dog-in-the-nighttime thing, that the significant point is that no capital ship was sunk by torpedoes...didn't Lützow take one, but she'd already been shot to hell and back?)

    Edit: Looked it up, her own escorts sank her with torpedoes because she wasn't going to make it home, so that's even more "the torpedoes did nothing in the nighttime."
     
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    In my let's play, there was a battle at Jutland too, and the British fleet utterly wrecked my Battle fleet with submerged torpedoes. I lost at least a quarter if not more of my battleships to torpedoes in that battle, and they were the only weapons that had a significant affect on my ships.
    Also, I've finished with posting let's play chunks for today.
     
    TortugaGreen said:
    In my let's play, there was a battle at Jutland too, and the British fleet utterly wrecked my Battle fleet with submerged torpedoes. I lost at least a quarter if not more of my battleships to torpedoes in that battle, and they were the only weapons that had a significant affect on my ships.
    Also, I've finished with posting let's play chunks for today.
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    Ohh, okay, you meant in-game Jutland, not IRL Jutland!
     
    Battle of the Thames estuary 2
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    • Crap. I have literally nothing that can penetrate that armor, and really the secondaries are almost tanky enough to shrug off my 11" shells AT POINT BLANK RANGE. This shows one thing: the AI, if nothing else, is great at pre-dreadnought design. I can't run without ditching the Assault, so I will have to fight here. The British look to have fewer ships than me, which is nice, but on the other hand, the Revenge class. So that's a thing.

    I try to keep my battleships behind the enemy ships, as that will limit their ability to fire on me (turns out there were actually 3 revenge class and a Royal Sovereign class) and their belt extended and deck extended are likely much thinner than their belt and deck. Due to this, in the enemy ships' efforts to get into a broadside, they fail, and end up sort of herding themselves around with their maneuvers. One of them eats a torpedo, and we get to this point:




    Wait… I sunk one?



    And 2 are running?

    Heck yeah!



    Well, I'm going to continue trying to chase off the enemy ships, to see if I can at least heavily damage another enemy battleship. One of my cruisers sank a while ago, and another is about *this* far from sinking, but I would asy it was made up for by the sinking of a revenge class.



    While the enemies are fleeing, it looks like the other ship of the enemy battleship division with the sunken revenge has looped around to with the rest of the enemy battleships, and the Boarder got several good hits on it. I think that one is one of the 2 remaining revenge class in this battle.



    The third battleship breaks off south, as the other 2 head north, allowing my battleships to focus on the larger section of the enemy ships more thouroughly.



    As the enemy ships continue to flee, I send in a destroyer division to scout what ships these ones are, for my battleships, and to hopefully put some torpedoes into the enemy.



    Alright, looks like I'm fighting the Royal Sovereign, which is nice, but the CL remains a unidentified CL, and the other 2 enemy battleships go off on their own somewhere without a trace.



    …what.



    Thanks to the Royal Sovereign kindly putting itself into my ships' broadside, they start hosing it down at close range, to a degree where I doubt they'll do very well in this situation, despite armor.

    According to the hover-over text which I can't show due to how my computer works, the Royal Sovereign is now at ~5 knots, and heavily damaged. Nice.



    One of the enemy Revenge class ships appears, so I have BatDiv 4 target it, while BatDiv 1 remains hammering the Royal Sovereign.



    The Assault gets hit by a torpedo, which is just wonderful, so I break her off and let the Revenge go, while I prepare to leave, hopefully getting the Royal Sovereign to sink first.



    It looks like the Royal Sovereign is on fire and pretty crippled now, so I order my battleships to break off, as having them sit around to pour more hits into an already sinking enemy ship is kind of silly, and besides, the Royal Sovereign is also on fire it appears, so it'll get more damaged anyway.



    On the return trip, Hansa sights an enemy ship, likely the Royal Sovereign, considering its low speed and behavior. Also, it's on fire.



    Finally, after tons of hits to it, the enemy ship just… stops. I think it's sinking, but I'll have Hansa continue on with a few more shots just to be sure.



    And it has been confirmed to be the Royal Sovereign. Well, technically, Hansa just sunk a battleship.



    Well that's just sad. Probably the greatest achievement of her career, and it's followed shortly with a hostile torpedo and sinking.



    Wait, what? Apparently that was counted as a victory for Britain, even though I sunk 2 battleships to their technically one. I call BS, not that it'll do much.
     
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    • Yep. You lost a lot more capital ships. Better get to building more CA's, and remember to not throw them up against Predreds unless they're Super Armored Cruisers.
     
    Good points, but
    AtlanticShipping said:
    Yep. You lost a lot more capital ships. Better get to building more CA's, and remember to not throw them up against Predreds unless they're Super Armored Cruisers.
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    Is kind of wrong, in that only one of my cruisers went personally up against an enemy battleship, and it was almost dead already. 2 sunk to torpedoes (Hansa and Prinz Heinrich I think), and Hertha might have also gone down via torpedo, not sure.
    Still, I can see how you could consider the heavy cruiser losses in with my battleship losses, so I agree with your numbers assesment, though in tonnage lost the British battleships and my ships are roughly equal, which ended up being reflected in the VP gotten from the battle of ~5K for me and ~5.5K to Britain.
     
    TortugaGreen said:
    Good points, but

    Is kind of wrong, in that only one of my cruisers went personally up against an enemy battleship, and it was almost dead already. 2 sunk to torpedoes (Hansa and Prinz Heinrich I think), and Hertha might have also gone down via torpedo, not sure.
    Still, I can see how you could consider the heavy cruiser losses in with my battleship losses, so I agree with your numbers assesment, though in tonnage lost the British battleships and my ships are roughly equal, which ended up being reflected in the VP gotten from the battle of ~5K for me and ~5.5K to Britain.
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    Well the other thing you need to consider is that the Poms have pre-dreads coming out of their pores and you ... uh, well, are a little more constrained.
     
    OneirosTheWriter said:
    Well the other thing you need to consider is that the Poms have pre-dreads coming out of their pores and you ... uh, well, are a little more constrained.
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    Things to ponder: during WW1, the king Edward VII class battleships were used as forward elements of the Grand Fleet because they would be able to spot mines for the dreadnoughts following on and, if they didn't spot them, at least they'd hit them.
    Britain had so many capital ships they could use an entire class as accidental minesweepers.
     
    HMS Sophia said:
    Things to ponder: during WW1, the king Edward VII class battleships were used as forward elements of the Grand Fleet because they would be able to spot mines for the dreadnoughts following on and, if they didn't spot them, at least they'd hit them.
    Britain had so many capital ships they could use an entire class as accidental minesweepers.
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    This is my ambition!
     
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