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Post by garrisonchisholm on Nov 11, 2017 11:42:41 GMT -6
That was in April. The very next month, as the Army began training for an amphibious assault upon Sicily, the Italian government collapsed; The army's operation proceeded with no opposition, clearly setting Italy's surrender conditions. Additionally, all of Italy's remaining capital ships were scrapped by the terms- a dreadnought battleship and 2 or 3 battle-cruisers. With her PM imprisoned and her military stripped, Italy should surely abandon expansion and focus upon her internal affairs. Now, the eagle-eyed amongst you might have noticed something; "Where oh where has the Eponymous class-ship gone? We never heard her loss discussed..." Well. On November 1st of 1914 the Olympos had wired in that she had intercepted an Italian raider and requested instructions. The Navy Ministry at that time was too preoccupied to pay attention to the matter (there was a soccer match to bake snacks for) and so simply instructed her Captain to "proceed on own recognizance". It was not until a few months later that someone finally noticed that the ship had not reported in. The Navy was quite ashamed at this loss, and did as little as possible to call attention to it. However, the 2nd Italian war had concluded, Byzantium had recovered ancient Sicily, and once again had been able to enter into alliance with England. Once the war-emergency destroyers and minesweepers completed building, it would be time to consider a new and proper battleship. Unfortunately, this was affected in December by a new Armaments treaty, which again swept the board of a generation of new construction; England had managed to build 20 dreadnoughts in the interregnum, but no other state more than 5. Europe's monarchs were appalled at the expense being paid out for capital ships and wanted this curtailed. So, Byzantium was now faced with a limitation of 18,000 tons and a 12" gun. Byzantium happened to have a very fine 12" model, but every iteration of a 12" gunned ship limited to 3 center-line turrets & 18,000 tons proved terribly lacking in the armor department and deficient in speed as well. It was thought that a new model of fleet destroyer might be the best investment during the 4 year treaty, but Byzantium's 700 ton destroyer was scarcely better than its 600 ton model. After much debate and experimentation, it was decided to build an 18,000 ton Heavy Cruiser with great speed. Their available 9 & 10" weapons were sub-par, but such a ship seemed the best use of the time and tonnage. Named after the tragically lost Athina, they would be fast enough to avoid trouble, and hopefully strong enough to engaged similar vessels. While 2 of these ships were contracted for, the fleet itself was given a general re-fit. When the new treaty lapsed, the modern battleship would again need to be addressed.
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Post by garrisonchisholm on Nov 11, 2017 12:06:15 GMT -6
As the next round of fleet-wide refits were concluding, and Mediterranean tensions had been slowly inching up over the Byzantine expansion westward, the Foreign Ministry became aware of unrest in the Baleric isles. Seeing a magnificent opportunity to add a base near Gibraltar and attempt to "anchor" their westward expansion, the Navy was instructed to dispatch a force. ...unfortunately... Twice defeated Italy it seemed was not yet done trying to thrive on the world stage. Unfortunately, the state which was most antagonized by this move was France. They immediately raised storm of protest, and the very next month their parliament demanded War. Byzantium now faced off against a first rate naval power, but in a world where natural battle-ship progression had been twice stunted. With half her destroyers still undergoing re-fit, the Navy geared up for its greatest and most unpredictable challenge yet.
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Post by garrisonchisholm on Nov 12, 2017 0:07:42 GMT -6
The swift boiling war brought on by France was presaged by some acute minds in the Army staff office. While 2 weeks was spare time to mobilize and plan for a major operation, if anyone was capable of such a feat it was the Imperial Army.
5 divisions swiftly assailed Algeria before France could redeploy her forces- forces which she could not afford to redeploy anyway due to the Grand Fleet blockading her northern shores. Still France would try to respond, and they dispatched a convoy with reinforcements escorted by all 4 of their Mediterranean based capital ships.
The French fleet was operating in 2 detachments, its battle cruiser separate, and the Byzantine fleet prepared to engage them separately. When the French concentrated their squadrons the Byzantines followed suit- but the French then separated again. Despite both of the Byzantine battle-cruisers suffering temporary disabling electrical outages, the Byzantine decision to not construct an 18,000 ton treaty dreadnought was clearly proven out. 3 of the 4 French dreadnoughts were of such a type, and their protection and speed were both severely compromised. 3 were destroyed in magazine explosions, and a 4th pummeled until she rolled.
It was an enormous victory, and the only immediate chance for France to strike back would likely be in South East Asia where Byzantium had but a single cruiser. Time would tell if they could manage such an operation.
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Post by garrisonchisholm on Nov 12, 2017 10:16:23 GMT -6
The French response to the sudden reversal in their fortunes was swift, and Byzantium's best efforts could not pro-long the now hopeful war.
Byzantium kept its African Army in place and the fine port of Algiers, adding again to its empire. England also took territory, though the alliance was then swiftly absolved.
Then followed 6 years where navies updated and upgraded their technologies, but 1926 was to be a watershed year. As the nations of the world began to build larger and larger battleships expenses again soared. In January a new disarmament treaty would be signed, limiting construction to 20,000 tons and 12" weapons. Byzantium raised quite a fuss, for they had delayed laying down new capital ships until new technologies had been introduced. Tensions with Italy had been moderate, but then a few months later they spiked when Italy and England signed a treaty to contain Byzantine expansion. The year cooled at last in August however, thanks to successful diplomacy;
Given this new era of Treaty building, where vessels like this Austrian battle-cruiser became "good" answers to the tonnage question;
it seemed likely that the age of great naval conflict was at an end. Byzantium would need to be cautious about conflict for a goodly while given the Anglo/Italian Pact, so it seemed Peace may in fact be the order of the day.
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Post by garrisonchisholm on Nov 12, 2017 11:40:43 GMT -6
I think I will end my chronicling here. A number of weird things have started happening, and there is no way to fabricate a narrative that makes sense. The below is an example; Clearly custom mods (like Byzantium, et.al.) will require custom tailoring to be compatible with the expanded map. It seems to work just fine with stock nations though, and I am still a huge fan- more territories = more variety and fun to my mind; thank you aeson !
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Post by aeson on Nov 12, 2017 12:31:17 GMT -6
That's strange. I don't think I did anything to Sicily, though I'm going to check just to be sure.
Edit: I just checked, and I have not made any changes to Sicily, Sardinia, or Italy, and all of the bases in the Balearic Islands seem to be in the right locations.
What other possessions does Italy still have?
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Post by garrisonchisholm on Nov 12, 2017 13:17:37 GMT -6
That's it aeson , just those 3, Italy Sardinia & the Balearics. They've lost everything else. Crete and Greece despite being "neutral" and open to seizure have been showing up as friendly Byzantine ports in many battle scenarios, but I anticipated this and so bent the narrative to suggest an accommodating relationship might still exist.
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Post by garrisonchisholm on Dec 11, 2017 0:09:30 GMT -6
Here's a puzzle to solve - I thought about a unique thread but I just started one and that's enough I think. So, this poor sod died before he was even identified. The question is though... ...why on EARTH would you build it??? Sheesh man, you have 39000 tons; the AI must have given this an armor fraction of less than 20%! Why would the AI build this? 0.o
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Post by boomboomf22 on Dec 12, 2017 12:53:48 GMT -6
My question is that at 39000tons where did all the weight go?
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Post by HolyDragoon on Dec 12, 2017 13:08:19 GMT -6
garrisonchisholm , there's one thing bugging me. What's the limit of colony points you can gain, and how did you take Sicily?
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Post by aeson on Dec 12, 2017 13:22:33 GMT -6
My question is that at 39000tons where did all the weight go? Maybe Italy's machinery development tech really sucks and they needed the tonnage that they're clearly not spending on the armor and armament to get the 29-knot speed, but I kind of suspect that the tonnage went to the same place it did on my war prize Tzu I/ex- Hatsuse in the Chin China game - nowhere.
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Post by boomboomf22 on Dec 12, 2017 15:37:35 GMT -6
Yepppp.
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Post by garrisonchisholm on Dec 12, 2017 16:55:34 GMT -6
garrisonchisholm , there's one thing bugging me. What's the limit of colony points you can gain, and how did you take Sicily? In my data files I change the VP's to take Sicily to 10, it doens't seem rational to me that it would be impossible to take. CP limit is still 10. And I think that is likely right about the machinery tech for Italy. That seems the most logical explanation.
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Post by HolyDragoon on Dec 12, 2017 17:22:50 GMT -6
Huh. I wonder if that it what causes everything going on the fritz? The game might assume Sicily will always be there for Italy... I dunno. That, or it's the Cosa Nostra's secret port, aiding the Italians against the Eastern Roman Empire.
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