TeaCup Battleships

[theexecuter]

Inspired by a tiny battleship in the best designs thread...

I have decided to play a RtW game with a ludicrous design restriction.

No predreadnoughts greater than 8000 tons.
No dreadnoughts greater than 16000 tons.
No armored cruisers greater than 8000 tons - until battlecruisers unlock, in which case no armored or battlecruisers greater than 16000 tons.

Very Large Fleets
No varied technology
No historical resources

Can Italy survive with such tiny ships?

We shall see.

Here are the legacy designs:









The low costs of these ships enables Italy to have the second most battleships in the world...

[theexecuter]

Great Britain is appalled that Italy of all nations has more battleships. They commence an incredible dozen battleships at once build. By Jingo!

Tensions rise with Great Britain, France, Russia, and the United States...too many ships, they cry. Italy must be humbled.

Italy's prestige rises (though oddly not the naval minister, whose ships are widely mocked by naval theorists)...and when Angola falls to disorder, it is the Italian navy that arrives first and secures the colony.

By 1902, the following upgrades to the small ships have been laid down:


The battleship's only improvement is an increase in casemate armor.


The Umbria class sacrifices a knot of speed for more armor on the belt and turrets. (Just realized that it has tertiary guns...which I forgot to remove. Must have been the Amaretto.)


The new Brescia light cruisers have an additional two 8" guns.



The new Indomito class torpedo boats add an additional torpedo tube with the extra 100 ton displacement.

Italy once again sends forces to the African coast to contain another outbreak of native uprising. The Tsar decides it's finally time to put Italy in her place and declares war.

The state of the world navies at that moment...



The Italian battleship fleet is short ranged, with cramped accommodations. It has no capability to blockade the Russian ports. Russia knows she cannot blockade Italy without bases in the Mediterranean. The war stretches out with the only action isolated cruiser warfare on the trade routes.

Italy's light cruisers do not acquit themselves well.



However, a pair of Russian armored cruisers make the mistake of attacking an escorted convoy south of Sicily. In an all day action, the two cruisers are defeated by the superior speed and gunnery of our Carlo Alberto class armored cruisers.



Truly a great day for Italian prestige!

[davedave]

Superb stuff, mate.

[boomboomf22]

It burns ussss! But funny 😀

[Noname117]

I feel like cruiser actions and blockades are going to be the norm here. I bet you're going to try avoiding fleet actions at all costs unless you have a massive destroyer advantage...

Now I wonder if you should maybe focus on building torpedo armed ships and trying to intermix you fleet with the enemy's

[Airy W]

Dec 8, 2016 22:24:01 GMT -6 theexecuter said:

Inspired by a tiny battleship in the best designs thread...

I have decided to play a RtW game with a ludicrous design restriction.

You are coming pretty close but I feel that you need smaller main guns to really get into the spirit of the thing!

[axe99]

Haha, cutest navy ever, and fun approach . Good luck!

[garrisonchisholm]

i think the key to winning a fleet action will be being too small to be hit...

[theexecuter]

Cruiser actions do seem to be the course of the war against Russia. Long-term, torpedo armed craft are going to be important. Right now, they are crap...as shall be seen shortly. I will not turn down any engagement which Italian naval officers would have deemed fine. The point of this is to see how these ships perform in combat...not to game the system to 'win.'

As for gun size, I think as the armor requirements for adequate protection increase, we will see Italian ship designers move to smaller main guns to compensate for the armor tonnage.

My hope with the idea to 'win' a fleet action will be to provide too many targets and allow my destroyers a free reign.

However...

[theexecuter]

Our easy win against a pair of Russian armored cruisers is quickly dashed by a bit of revenge by the Russian navy. South of Sicily, two Russian armored cruisers engage the Vettor Pisani and San Marco (both Carlo Alberto cruisers) and an escort of three torpedo boats. The Italian cruisers give chase, and tell the torpedo boats to engage. The torpedo boats promptly run directly for the harbor at Syracuse.

The Vettor Pisani takes a penetrating hit early and begins to flood, causing her to shear out of line and slow down. The San Marco draws the other cruisers away, but in a 2 on one battle, is eventually set on fire and sicks while vainly signalling for her cowardly torpedo boats to at least distract the Russian cruisers. The Vettor Pisani ends up beaching herself and is completely destroyed by the returning Russian cruisers.

All three torpedo boats made harbor unscratched.



I've never had ships behave in such a manner. Usually they might hang about out of range and not do anything...but to immediately disengage and run for harbor...quite irritating.

Anyway, the cruiser war continues...with every instance of my ships intercepting Russian ships resulting in an Italian cruiser sinking.



The war is going poorly. Italy has been turning down peace offers...should we accept one?

A new light cruiser class is laid down to try to keep our cruiser numbers up.



She sacrifices two six inch guns for an extra knot of speed. Perhaps this class can run from the enemy?

[ccip]

I love this idea - good luck to you Might be a tough game, which it already looks like it is. You may want to invest in submarines as well, if you plan on winning, in order to strategically tilt things a bit in your favour as well.