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

[4WheelSword]

If nothing else, wait for the dreadnoughts to slow the enemy up and then ramming speeeeeeed!

Click to shrink...

Well what else is a ram bow for?

 

[DezoPenguin]

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.

Click to shrink...

Also to be noted is that VP are awarded for damage to ships, not just sinking. Not only did they add cruisers to their sole battleship tally, but also shot the crap out of a number of your surviving vessels, requiring repair time and expense.

If nothing else, wait for the dreadnoughts to slow the enemy up and then ramming speeeeeeed!

Click to shrink...

It's amazing what new tactics can be usefully introduced into the naval doctrine once you don't have to worry about actual people crewing the ships. Kamikaze predreadnoughts!

 

[4WheelSword]

It's amazing what new tactics can be usefully introduced into the naval doctrine once you don't have to worry about actual people crewing the ships. Kamikaze predreadnoughts!

Click to shrink...

Ah yes, only in virtual reality...

At the last moment, von Petz turned into the ram, conducting a counter ram. The impact tore off Kaiser's stem and bowsprit, leaving her figurehead embedded in Re di Portogallo.

Click to shrink...

 

[DezoPenguin]

Ah yes, only in virtual reality...

Click to shrink...

There's a battle that set naval doctrine back a good twenty years or so! (Not to mention that guns <<<< good ironclad armor during that time period.)

Seriously, though, Lissa was not what one might call Italy's finest hour. The staggering level of up-screwery...makes me wonder if they were being commanded by a derpy AI.

 

[TortugaGreen]

While I'm still behind Britain in VP, I feel that battle was generally beneficial for me thanks to the British losing a revenge-class, which is pretty considerable. That battle did show one thing though. I need better armored cruisers. The current ones are OK, but they were designed in 1899 and they're a bit bad at this point, so I have to design new ones.

I eventually settle on a design that is faster than everything I've yet built and larger than the A class and only 200 tons lighter than the B-class:



Pretty big for a cruiser, but it needs to be like that to deal with battleships and that sort of thing, while still being fast enough to fight with other cruisers. I'm pretty satisfied with the design, though it would be nice if I had superimposed turrets for this, as that would markedly increase combat effectiveness. Also, the middle turret isn't pointing at the superstructure, so that's nice. It'll definitely fit with the "CA=Capital ship" philosophy, as it is effectively a rather small version of the Z-class in most traits. I'm going to order 2, as I have the money and need, so woop.

Well, might as well move on to the next turn.



Oh, nice. Some VP for my efforts. Not much but still.



I'll point out that they're blockading ME, and they're the ones with unrest issues? While I have 0 unrest? Weird, but I'll take it, because why not… also, Russian brits.

Also, nothing happens this turn, so meh. Next!



My turrets can fire faster, which is nice, and its gradual national, so even my A-class will get it.



Weren't my DDs doing that earlier in the last battle? Well, I guess not, according to the game.



My submarines continue to perform ok, but not great. And this is one of the good months.



France gives me a token bit of VP, likely from raiders and the like.



Yeah, no. I have even less battleships than before, going up against even more, and the last one turned out pretty badly too.



Well, then. I guess I'll be battling then.



And I start off with… 2 armored cruisers. That's it. Just 2 armored cruisers, nothing more. No destroyers even. Wonderful.



!!!



Well, it's pretty much right in front of my cruisers. I think this'll be pretty good actually.



The enemy ship, who appears to be a CL, tries to run, but then turns for no apparent reason? Well, ok.



Another CL turns up, and they are identified. A champion class (10 4" guns, 21 knots, decent armor) and an Amphion class (22 knots, 8 6" guns, and pretty good armor for a CL of this period).

The champion, being the same speed as my CAs, and generally pretty bad, is probably going to allow me to sink these cruisers, which is awfully nice of them.



The enemy cruisers split up, likely to prevent me from getting both of them, and it'll probably work, as I can't detach ships. Eh.



I end up going for the Champion, as I can keep up with it, which will allow me to get more hits before it escapes (if it does).

 

[TortugaGreen]

I start getting hits on the Champion just as I notice something behind me. Oh, for crap's sake. I'll put a few more shells into the Champion to make sure it's adequately damaged, then turn about to face these guys.



Alright, time to deal with these guys. Considering that I designed my cruisers to withstand 10" hits at point blank range, and the diadems have this as their armament, I'm not too worried.



Yes, they have casemated main guns. 10 of them. Seems dangerous. To them that is. As far as I can tell, these things are basically oversized versions of the US St. Louis class cruisers, with a similar gun spam. Not worried, thanks to the potential explosiveness, but interesting nonetheless.



The enemy cruisers really do give my ships a thrashing in hits, but their shells are all but useless against my cruiser's armor. Only one of their 6 main gun hits on Freidrich Carl did damage, and that was only superstructure damage.



British powder handling and magazine design (national trait. Flash fire risk massive) plus crap-tons of casemated guns equals boom. Well that's one of the two enemy cruisers, who I might add are larger than the cruisers I'm using, sunk. One more to go.



As the last diadem's shots start to hit, my cruisers have to slow to 18 knots, which is irritating, but well, the brits are a lot worse off.



With both cruisers out of ammo on the forward turret, and Freidrich Carl pretty screwed up by the enemy hits, I decide to leave battle at cruise speed.



For whatever reason, Freidrich Carl sinks, thanks to the 14 flooding she had. 14. Couldn't someone fix that much with not much more than duct tape? Well, doesn't matter anymore. Battle's over.

 

[DezoPenguin]

They...had 4 CAs, 3CLs, and 2 DDs, against your two unescorted heavy cruisers. You dodged a bullet and came out with a victory, so I'd have to say somebody is back at the Admiralty, trying desperately to explain how he derped out and let you slip the net and contemplating his future transfer to a coaling station in Borneo.

Also...is extra-explodey ships actually an in-game British trait, or was that just a Jutland joke at their expense?

 

[4WheelSword]

Also...is extra-explodey ships actually an in-game British trait, or was that just a Jutland joke at their expense?

Click to shrink...

They have a hidden flaw trait which makes them more likely to have magazine explosions.

 

[DezoPenguin]

They have a hidden flaw trait which makes them more likely to have magazine explosions.

Click to shrink...

...There really is something wrong with their bloody ships.

 

[TortugaGreen]

...There really is something wrong with their bloody ships.

Click to shrink...

And now the rule the waves let's play tag of that makes more sense. Doubly so if someone does a Britain play through.

 

[TortugaGreen]

I'm seriously considering fully scrapping the Braunschweig, as she is about as far off as the Zeppelin, and much older in design. Overall, I see no reason to hang onto her, and another Z-class would help my fleet much more.

Also, something I really should have done a while ago:



Setting my light cruisers to raider duty, to hopefully mess with some British shipping. Considering how few cruisers Britain has, they should do pretty well.



Well, fudge. That's annoying, but easy to fix. Just need to send some cruisers there and it should be fixed. Or, if things get too bad, one of my old A-class ships.



I'm going to choose the middle one, as I'm not very happy about dealing with that battleship spam of the brits, but I don't want to lose any territory.



Not that that helps, I don't own any oil.



Well, at least my guns are more accurate now. Nice.



Also nice, but will take longer to implement.



I'll say no, as these tend to take long and be ridiculously underwhelming.

Nothing more happens, so eh. Next turn.



Huh, my new destroyers are done. Cool.



I'll accept, because my unrest finally increased to 2 after the whole war being at 0, and I think it may continue on that path.



Or maybe not. Huh.



Well, now torpedo defense is even more critical. I really think I should just scrap the Braunschweig at this point, it's going to be pretty ineffectual against current enemies.

 

[TortugaGreen]

You know what, I'll take it. Their cruiser navy is bad at best, and I'll take the option to sink more british cruisers.



Well, looks like it's the standard procedure "two cruisers with crap for a screen" tactic used frequently among the German navy.



Medusa sights 2 enemy cruisers at the same time pretty much right at the start, hopefully not both armored/heavy cruisers.



Hey, it's two of these guys. The kind-of-bad tiny cruisers Britain has for whatever reason.



Medusa lands the first hit of the battle on these enemies, with the enemy ships having yet to hit my ship.



After a long time chasing the Champions, Medusa's lookouts notice another ship on the horizon, which appears to be an armored cruiser…



But it's apparently a diadem class, which will stand no chance to the Prinz Adalbert. On the other hand, it will in fact, completely destroy the medusa if allowed to. Simple solution, don't allow it to do so.

Meanwhile, Medusa trashes the nearer of the Champion class, which is now listed as sinking, and has 4 out of 10 turrets functional. I can't provide pictures, thanks to the tooltip disappearing when I try to screenshot, but still.



Medusa has a fire on board, so I try to have her retreat, only for her rudder to get jammed and the fire put out, just to add insult to injury. Meanwhile, Prinz Adalbert starts closing on the enemy cruiser.



After around 15 minutes of the diadem hitting the Prinz Adalbert many times, without Adalbert landing a single hit, this happens. Bloody hell, Britain, there is indeed something wrong with your ships.



I start chasing the last functional British ship, and eventually overtake it thanks to its desperate maneuvers. Things quickly become a barrel-fish shoot after the first hit on the enemy completely wrecks their engines, leaving them at the nonexistent mercy of my guns. They quickly sink.



A good win for me.

The turn after the battle, the last of my destroyers finish construction





And my subs continue to get more reliable. I should get around to building more at some point, my current ones are terribly unreliable.



Also, japan nicked mah stuff! I'm going to tell them that THEY BETTER NOT DO IT AGAIN. Darn it. well, I'm done for tonight.

 

[AtlanticShipping]

Not bad, you're starting to catch up.

 

[TortugaGreen]

Okay, I've decided. Braunschweig is too old now, and I should scrap her, as she is taking up space and is at the moment pretty bad for the time. Well, back to dealing with the miscellaneous difficulties of this war.



More funding for me!



Oh yeah, I forgot I needed to send something there. Probably going to go with an A-class, to force the odds to be evened.



Hmmm, Nah.



The subs continue to be more or less useless. Sad.



My raider cruisers continue to harass the Brit shipping.

Gefion: 3

Niobe: 1



France give me a bit of VP, not sure from what.



Hey, battle! Why not.



Alright, my ships: 5 battleships, battle division 1 and 3, consisting of Budget and Boarder in BatDiv 1 and Baker, Aegis, and Attacker in BatDiv 3. I I'm annoyed by how much I'm still dependent on my A-class, as bad as they are, but more guns is always nice. BatDiv 3 will be a bit slower than BatDiv 1, but eh. Not too big a problem.

3 armored cruisers, the Furst Bismark, the Freya, and the Prinz Adalbert.

1 Light Cruiser, the Medusa,

And a bunch of DDs.



I'm thinking parking around Plymouth and wait until someone tries to send me off, and sink what I can and retreat from what I can't, which is a pretty limited category, considering how well the B class seems to work.



The first target of the battle.



Looks like a picket destroyer.



Make that 2 destroyers.



After a while of bombarding them form outside the minefield, one of the DD's tries to make a break for it, but Battleship Division 3 intercepts them before they can get far.



After that event, I have my larger ships park themselves on the edges of the hostile minefield, with spacing so they will see anything that tries to escape the temporary blockade. I don't think I need to bother with trying to find the enemy, if they want their port back in the next day or so, they'll have to fight me. Yes, I am holding a city hostage. Hehe.



And it looks like it worked, because that's a British battle line. Time to warm up my boilers and go after them!



I'm guessing 3-5 battleships, a DD screen, and between 0 and 2 CAs, depends on how many battleships there are. I hope it's 3 B, 2 CA, but it might be a no-cruiser force. Well, we'll see.

 

[TortugaGreen]

Well, looks like Britain's newest pre-dreadnought is here.



What. What even is this? This is ridiculous. 14 inch guns? AUGH WHY. *Bricks have been shat*



ONE BROADSIDE. NO TROPEDOES. I'm out. No seriously. That was ONE broadside.



INITIATING PLAN GTFOAAAH.



I hope that was HMS sanity is overrated over there, because THOSE DAMN GUNS.



Larger torpedo warheads are great.



Could it have been? Sending the Boarder and Budget in to investigate, as they are fast enough to successfully get the **** out if anything goes to crap.



I think it may have been! Nice job, whomever launched that torpedo, you just sunk a battleship on your own.



I think it was the V4 here, as its tube is empty and it looks like it traveled the right distance since that attack. *TORPDO RESPECT INTENSIFIES*



No idea who this ship is, but she's got guts, I'll give her that. And hopefully isn't the Barfleur, I don't need that sort of thing running around.



Fuck. I JUST TOLD YOU NOT TO BE A THING. Why can't you be sunk like I thought you were?



I have the Budget and Boarder circle the Barfleur, hoping to get hits in on the enemy belt extended and deck extended, as they're some of the only places I can penetrate.

 

[TortugaGreen]

done for today, so you'll have to wait til' tomorrow to find out how I do.

 

[cokerpilot]

Wait it seriously erased one of your B in a single broadside?

 

[TortugaGreen]

Yup. Pretty much.
It has some pretty ridiculous firepower, considering 14" main guns and secondaries only slightly smaller than the main guns on an A - class.

 

[DezoPenguin]

That's an insane amount of firepower for a predreadnought. I mean, IRL British dreadnoughts topped out at 13.5-in. guns until the Queen Elizabeths came along. I'm guessing the R&D RNG spewed guns upgrades at them...

And the secondaries! I mean, 4x10-in. is considered a primary battery for a CA, a technical capital ship, and the Barfleur can double that on each side simultaneously.

I don't see a tertiary battery on that thing at all, though. Any chance you could get at it with DDs and torpedoes, given predread torpedo protection stinks on ice and the in-game penalty for firing large guns at small destroyers?

 

[TortugaGreen]

I think I could, as with larger torpedo warheads that are in my torps, they CAN one - shot a ship that doesn't have torpedo protection. I'll try that when I get home, having a DesDiv or two do a torpedo run, and hope I get a hit.

 

[TortugaGreen]

Alright, so how I plan on taking down the Barfleur:



I'm going to have my battleships circle it, hopefully getting hits on the belt and deck extended, while DesDiv 4 and DesDiv 2 do a torpedo run to hopefully help take down the Barfleur with the larger torpedo warheads they're armed with.



Good, good. Just as planned.



Bugger!

well, I've got 2 more chances, as I have 2 more DDs with torpedoes.



1 of 2 torpedoes launched. Likely miss.



Oh for crap's sake. That missed torpedo hit the Budget, and did quite a lot of damage.



Last chance… Maybe?



HELL YEAH. WOOP WOOP. That was an excellent job, but…



V6 got herself mauled in the attack, and is probably not going to make it very far.



Meanwhile, my Cruiser division got itself mauled trying to attack a different British battleship, and the Furst Bismark will probably be lost in this. Luckily, the remains of BatDiv 3 are coming up behind the enemy, and should at least be able to do some damage to the enemy.

-----

Toolitp:

B Barfleur class (the Barfleur, there's only one)

Heavy damage

10 knots.

Hell yeah. Torpedo warfare for the win. I should make a note to increase the torpedo armament on my destroyers, because that was such a useful weapon.

It Might have been the constant bombardment of the two remaining B-class, circling it relentlessly, but I really doubt that, considering the Barfleur's armor.



I recognize that random 3-knot top speed for no apparent reason. That means the Barfleur is sinking! HOO YEAH. Torpedoes + no torpedo protection on target + prolonged bombardment = win. That was pretty hard… actually, yeah, that was clearly this war's boss-fight. Tanky, bristling with weapons, huge, hostile, hard to take down, the biggest enemy in existence at the moment? Sounds like a boss to me.

 

[TortugaGreen]

As for the rest of the battle, the Armorer and Aegis are fighting a Royal Sovereign class and I have had BatDiv 1 go after a Revenge class crawling away at extremely slow speed (the "CA" at the bottom of the screen.



If there's anything the brits are god at, it's turret armor. I have yet to see a British battleship sink to a destroyed turret… oh wait, that's because all the ones with a destroyed turret just explode instead of sinking.



Meanwhile, the Aegis gets hit in the generators, and presumably the drive shafts going through them are jammed in the hit, as she has lost the ability to move or turn. Stupid and annoying, but not battle-losing at this point.



A NEW CHALLENGER APPROACHES.

CL? DD? Yeah, going down.



Hmm, the last one is a completely fresh battleship. I don't feel confident against a completely undamaged battleship, so I'm going to have BatDiv 1 and Armorer team up, and will hopefully be able to finish off the last enemy capital ship in the battle.



Actually, as Aegis has her drive repaired, I have nothing I have to protect keeping me here, so I can leave now.



Heh, A TR. After dealing with that battle, seems almost quaint. But eh. I'll have Aegis sink her for the free points.



…OR NOT! I swear, I didn't touch it!



Well that's sad, but it's a small bargain for how much British steel I put at the bottom of the sea.



Well, I might as well have Aegis stop by to sink this stuff.



FLEE, FOOLS! I guess I'll let them live, it's a pain to shoot stuff that is in minefields.



Did pretty darn good, I think, if only 3 of my ships were sunk, where the Brits lost 3 BATTLESHIPS.

One of which was the Barfleur. Excellent.



Huh, the Armorer had the highest hit rate of the battle. Good to know.



Prestige. It belongs to me.

 

[TortugaGreen]

Well that's a bit underwhelming compared to what just happened last turn.



Darn it, I forgot to send an A class there to even the odds.



Sure! I want to end this war now, and what better way to do so than with a revolution?



Considering the importance of destroyers in the battle of Plymouth, I'm going to order 12 more, to improve my ability to deliver high explosive underwater death to my enemies.

Nothing more happens this turn, so on to the next one.



OK, sure.



Eh, why not, I've got enough money saved up.



France continues to give a token VP aid, which doesn't mean much in the current war.



I also do something I should have done a while ago: send a few ships to SEA, to counter the British ships there.

Britain continues to fail to do anything, kind of disappointing.

Next.



MY SHIPS ARE ALREADY HEADING THERE.



Oh for crap's sake. That revolutionary MAY have been counterproductive.

Annoyingly, my ships heading to south East Asia are stopped by the blockade,



But my raiders continue to do decently.



Eh, why not. I'll have a chance to sink more enemy Bs this way.

 

[TortugaGreen]

Well that's stupid. The As and Bs are not concentrated into different divisions, so none of my battleships can go over 18 knots if they want to stick to their division.



Alright, my battlegroup has:

2 B-class 3 A-class battleships Archer, Aegis and Armored, Archer in BatDiv1 with Boarder, and Aegis and Armored in BatDiv3 with Budget.

2 Duala class CAs, the Freya and Prinz Adalbert.

1 CL, the Medusa, as usual. Also, some DDs.



Alright, my plan is as usual, to putter over to the nearest enemy city, in this case Harwich, and wait there until somebody who wants to fight comes along, then damage them as much as possible before leaving.



Oh?



A coastal battery (probably)? That's underwhelming unless I have for once found the darn bombardment target I always am supposed to take out but am never told where it is. Unlikely, but possible. Sending CruDiv 5 in to investigate.



O.O that's the bombardment target. I'm going to have the entirety of my fleet get over here to shell the crap out of this.



First hit of the battle, from Budget's main guns, hits the Bombardment Target.



Well that was easy.



…I did not notice that. WOOP WOOP WOOP FULL SPEED.



Run, Medusa, Run!



While the Brits have the element of surprise, they also have these… "Battleships" making up almost half their battleship force.

 

[TortugaGreen]

Done with updating for today, but I have a good bit ready to post tomorrow.