The Slownauts (Italian AAR)

[Noname117]

So, after trying to write an AAR which I gave up on after doing nothing with it, I'm going to try again. This time with a twist.


So, this Italian AAR will be built around an admiral who I have just called "Admiral Slow." If he was British he'd probably be named "Admiral May."

Here is the settings for this game:



Admiral Slow got his name because he championed for a slow battle-line. Specifically, one of 10 knots. Now, he does believe in having a fast, lightly armored component of the battle-line to intercept enemy cruisers and act to chase down and sink damaged enemies.

So this means I'm playing with some house rules this playthrough.

Rule 1: Battleships must be designed to go 10 knots. They cannot be refit to go faster.

Rule 2: The maximum thickness of belt armor I can fit to a cruiser will start out at 3 inches in January 1900 and increase by half an inch every 18 months (I'm allowing the increases to happen in July and January)

Rule 3: The maximum thickness of deck armor I can fit to a cruiser will start out at 1 inch in January 1900 and increase by half an inch every 4 years.


Alright, so there will be some clarifications I need to make to these rules: 

A: I am allowed to keep war prizes even if they're outside the rules I've set. Machinery Refits increasing their speed is something I cannot do without the ships already meeting the criteria for their class.

B: I can build a cruiser which breaks rules 2 and 3 if it meets the criteria for rule 1.

C: I can build a battleship which breaks rule 1 if it meets the criteria for rules 2 and 3.

D: I do not need to do a machinery refit on a battleship which winds up going faster than intended.

E: I can build battleships of 12 knots if I immediately refit them with anti-torpedo bulges (which slows down their top speed to 10 knots).


So those are the rules for this playthrough which I must stick to.


I'll try to have my battleship and cruiser construction be fairly regular rather than the normal chaotic schedule it frequently winds up being (say, I have a schedule for laying down each new battleship/battlecruiser/armored cruiser). Not sure if I'll pull this off or not though.

I'll also be trying to keep this playthrough more about the game and less about the world. Trying to come up with characters and how specific events played out both made the writing take too long last time, which made me quickly lose interest. As such, I plan to present less information with this AAR than my first attempt as I think I'll be able to stay motivated longer. Plus, I actually like playing Italy.

I do not intend on playing this campaign past 1940; I'll probably stop sometime in the 1930s. I've set up the rules so decent belt and deck armor should be coming around at about that time.


The rest of this post will be reserved for other features. I may post a timeline of important events here eventually, or I may post links to YouTube videos of the battles of this campaign, if I get around to recording them that is.

[Noname117]

Reserving this second post for later; I'm intending on keeping a list of all Italian ships and ship classes (destroyers and larger) built here, along with their fates. Maybe I'll have the Minesweeper classes listed as well, but definitely not all the individual ships.

The next post, which will take me a bit of time, will be the initial setup phase of the AAR, where I build my initial fleet and do the things which need to be done on the first turn of the game.

[garrisonchisholm]

Good luck Admiral No! I tried a 6-knot fleet with the Italians and found out I had only increased enemy torpedo accuracy by about a factor of 8, and quickly gave it up.

I hope you like water-spouts!

[aeson]

May 15, 2018 15:57:23 GMT -6 Noname117 said:

E: I can build battleships of 12 knots if I immediately refit them with anti-torpedo bulges (which slows down their top speed to 10 knots).

Bulging reduces a ship's speed by 10%, rounded to an integer. 25-34kn ships lose three knots while 16-24kn ships (and presumably also 15kn ships, but I don't have any available with which I could check) lose two, so the game seems to use standard rounding. I would suggest, then, that a ship with a design speed of 12 knots would still be capable of 11 knots after being bulged, though as I don't think I've ever built a ship that slow I cannot be certain that the interaction would work like that.

B: I can build a cruiser which breaks rules 2 and 3 if it meets the criteria for rule 1.

I'm not completely certain, but I don't think that the game will allow you to design a cruiser with a design speed that low outside of a rebuild. The BCs are almost certain to get reclassified as Bs or BBs if they're slower than 23-24 knots (though if the belt armor is 6" or less some might instead become CAs), CAs slower than 18 knots get reclassified as Bs if they have at least ~6" belt armor and get the 'illegal ship configuration' error otherwise, and CLs slower than 17 knots produce an error message listing the criteria which must be met for a ship to qualify as a CL, one of which is that the design speed must be at least 17 knots.

Regardless, best of luck with your slownauts.

[Noname117]

It seems as if bulges subtract 10% of speed rounded up, as I’m basically on my second attempt with the save as my first one with bulged 11 knot ships brought their speed down to 9. Thankfully this could be tested first turn with a battleship built to a refit design of another. 12 knots bulged does result in 10 knot ships.

Tomorrow I’ll get to the first proper post. It shouldn’t be hard to put together, I was just too tired this afternoon. Getting the first year or two of the save done should be fairly easy as well.

[aeson]

May 15, 2018 21:29:46 GMT -6 Noname117 said:

It seems as if bulges subtract 10% of speed rounded up, as I’m basically on my second attempt with the save as my first one with bulged 11 knot ships brought their speed down to 9. Thankfully this could be tested first turn with a battleship built to a refit design of another. 12 knots bulged does result in 10 knot ships.

Then it would seem that the rounding rule isn't isn't the same at all speeds, or perhaps isn't consistent between versions or systems. At least on my end, ships with design speeds of 21-24 knots lose two knots and ships with design speeds of 31-34 knots only lose three knots whereas a reduction of 10% rounding up before subtraction would mean that the 21-24 knot ships would lose three knots and the 31-34 knot ships would lose 4 knots.

[Noname117]

Chapter 1
Fleet setup and first turn setup


Alright, so my initial fleet looks like this, with 2 pre-dreadnought battleships, 2 fast armored cruisers, 2 fast protected cruisers, 8 destroyers, and 8 minesweepers.


Under construction we have 1 battleship in refit, 1 new battleship being assembled, 2 more protected cruisers, and 4 destroyers.




The 2 Regina Elena class battleships were built as the older battleships in the starting lineup. Adequately armed and armored, with a large number of 6 inch secondaries to better deal with close approaching ships. They do have good ammo capacity as well, along with torpedo bulges. Regina Elena has to be refit with torpedo bulges, which has sent her to the yards for 4 turns, but Roma was built to the modified design with the anti-torpedo bulges, and thus starts out with them.
Unfortunately, they're short ranged.


Conte Di Cavour and her sister currently under construction, Regina Margerita, are the newest Italian battleships. Slightly better armored than the Regina Elenas, they also come with an additional 6 6inch guns. Because these were made by modifying the design of the Regina Elenas, they automatically come with anti-torpedo bulges. Unfortunately, they are also short ranged.


The 2 Marco Polo class armored cruisers make up a fast flanking wing to the battleline. Underarmored, fast, and heavily armed, they're designed for both cruiser hunting and assisting the battleships in battle.



The 2 Brindisi class protected cruisers will act as a light form of protected cruiser. They're lightly armed but with a decent top speed. Unfortunately, funds diverted to the 5 heavier ships prevented me from getting more lighter ships, such as protected cruisers and...


destroyers. The 8 Nembo class destroyers already in service will act as basic early game destroyers. 4 more are being built, because 8 destroyers isn't enough.


The new Taranto class cruisers are basically larger versions of the Brindisi class cruisers. Larger and with 6" guns, they will be capable cruisers, and help to fill the current light cruiser gap I have once completed.

In addition to this I have 8 200 ton minesweepers in my starting fleet, to give me some CP ships early game to free up my limited number of destroyers.




I set my research up to 10% and with 2 tiers of prioritization. Damage control should help out in regards to the inevitable torpedo hits. The rest of the features I put on "high" should enhance the survivability and deadliness of battleships, although eventually I'll probably reduce both turret mountings and ship design back to medium. I had considered putting both machinery and torpedo technology to "low," but machinery comes in handy for the battlecruisers, and I wouldn't want the enemy to approach to the range where my torpedoes can't reach their ships but theirs can reach mine.

The last thing I did in the turn was to set spying on Austria Hungary to low, so that a war will more likely occur with them than any other nation.

[garrisonchisholm]

I presume they were all built in Italy?

[Noname117]

Yes. All Italian built.

[oldpop2000]

Somewhere on this forum, in one of the threads, Fredric said that putting many research items on high negates any effect. I don't remember where he said that, but I remember this question coming up before. So, I just raise four and then when the research reaches a certain level, I downgrade. Wish I could find that post.

[fredsanford]

Putting *everything* on high negates the effect, since the priorities are relative, not absolute. Having a lot of areas on high will dilute the effect, but there will still be an effect.

[Noname117]

As I said, 2 tier research basically, with half on "high" and half on "medium," which should mean there's a little bit of effect but not too much. I'll probably shift priorities over the playthrough as well.

[director]

Those battleships are a bit better than Italy usually starts with, but not a lot. I thought decreasing the speeds from 18-19 knots to 10 would give you a lot more available tonnage.

[Noname117]

Chapter 2
1900-1902

January 1900:


Seeing as it took several days for me to get started on this chapter, I had some time to think about my research choices. And I decided to change them a bit. Most of the things I had on "medium" before I decided to change to "low," with the exceptions being torpedoes and light craft. I decided that, due to weight savings from not needing a high top speed on my battleships and armor on my battlecruisers, that I likely did not need to put a lot of funding into armor development, hull construction, or machinery development. I think these research priorities are more sensible than the list I had before, but changes to this list will indeed have to be made at some point. Probably in regards to submarine related techs especially.

Because I have too many ships in the mothball fleet, I move 4 destroyers and 4 minesweepers to the active fleet. I really should've seen this coming, as this is exactly half my fleet in the mothballs.


May 1900:

Regina Elena returns from her refit, now sporting bulges with her proper 10 knot top speed. She is mothballed while Roma is put into reserve.

For cost saving measures the destroyers and minesweepers in reserve were moved to the mothball fleet.

I began construction on larger docks, as I now have the money to do so.


June 1900:



I can live with giving up a point of prestige for additional budget. I need all the budget I can get right now.



Oh come on!

3 new destroyers enter service. They will be kept on active duty for now.


July 1900
The destroyer Corazziere, the remaining ship from the set of 4 destroyers that were building at the start of the game, is commissioned. She will also be kept in active service

With the funds from building destroyers no longer tied up, I decide to lay down 2 more Taranto class protected cruisers. I do not currently have a lot of light cruisers, and I will need more by the time the first war starts. They will be named Ancona and Venezia.


I'm thinking tthat I'll try to do yearly ship building programs starting around the summer months of each year. This year will only feature those cruisers though. I'll be at a slight deficit in terms of cash for 5 months which will ease up when the first pair of Tarantos are commissioned.



October 1900:


Now seems like a good time to start provoking Austria Hungary. I'd rather guide my first war to being against them than allowing random tension increases decide my first opponent. I could've gotten the prestige from the first option, but the random tension increases across the board didn't sound particularly good to me. I didn't want to lose prestige either.

And at least my budget increases

November 1900:



Again? Seriously? I can't seem to get a budget increase worth anything here.


December 1900:


I was originally trying to decide whether the 1901 ship program would involve a new battleship or a new armored cruiser. Looks like that decision was made for me, and I'll have to start the program early. This may cost me some additional destroyers or protected cruisers though. But with the budget increase this should still be good. I'll lay them down in February.

The protected cruisers Taranto and Bari are completed. To save on money, the older CL Marsala is moved to the mothball fleet for additional cash, while the new CL Taranto is moved to the reserve fleet.



January 1901:
Tensions at this moment:


Febuary 1901:
 

Ok, look here Prime Minister, if you really want 2 additional battleships, you're going to need to do more than give me 3 quarters of a million funds before bringing funding back down to it's normal levels again. Battleships cost 40-50 million right now. 750,000 really isn't going to cut it.

Seeing as I still need to build the 2 battleships I promised the guy, and it's now February, I have to decide whether I should design a new class of battleship or build more of an older design. Technology really hasn't improved at all, and as such the Conte di Cavour class remains perfectly capable. With my current budget I can afford to build 1 of these battleships from the fund freed up by the completion of the first pair of Tarantos, but once the second Conte di Cavour class battleship Regina Margerita completes in a month I'll naturally have the funds to afford another battleship of the class.
I could up-armor the Conte di Cavour, or increase the caliber of it's secondary or tertiary battery, but as it stands it's a pretty capable battleship, and I think just building 2 more of them is the best choice for now.

The second pair of Conte di Cavour class battleships, named Leonardo da Vinci and Dante Alighieri, is laid down.



April 1901: B Regina Margerita completes.
I guess it took 2 months then.


May 1901: The new docks are completed. I decide to upgrade them once again as I currently possess the money to do so, but in later years I expect to increase my docks more gradually over time.


June 1901:


I'll take that additional prestige point. Seems like I could've delayed the new construction until May. I might try to get it closer to the summer months next time I get such an event.

Because of the need to build additional battleships, I think I'll skip the rest of this years ship building program


July 1901:



So naturally I don't want to go to war with France, but tensions are low enough that I can let them increase a little bit to get the positive effects from picking that option. Like more budget. Hopefully this time I can keep it.


August 1901:

More provoking of Austria Hungary for more positive effects to my navy.

Tensions with Austria Hungary have spiked a lot from picking that option. I've decided to increase spying on them to "medium, and start preparing for war in the coming months."

I was on the fence about building more DDs under the 1901 build program, but since it's still the summer months, I have a bit of money to spend from the previous couple events, and war with Austria Hungary looks somewhat likely within the next year, I decide that it's time to lay down a couple more destroyers under the 1901 build program.



The new Alpino class destroyers will be short-ranged vessels ditching 2 of the previous Nembo class' 3 inch guns for 2 additional torpedo tubes. They are, naturally, intended to work with the fleet in the Mediterranean and act as the main torpedo threat against enemy ships.

I'm thinking that with each type of ship I'll build some as short ranged and some as medium ranged. The short ranged ships can be cheaper to make up the bulk of my fleet in the Mediterranean while the medium range ships can serve to take or protect colonies in the case of a war. Naturally, I'll tend to cruisers being built as medium ranged ships more often, but I do think my next class of protected cruiser will be short ranged.


September 1901:



Given the past events, war with Austria Hungary now looks inevitable. As such, I order the fleet to train in gunnery practices, and begin readying my more modern units.

 B Conte di Cavour, CA Francesco Ferruccio, and CL Taranto are activated, while the Regina Elena class Bs, the CA Marco Polo, the Brindisi class CLs, 4 Nembo class destroyers, and 4 Regina Pacis minesweepers are moved from the mothball fleet to the reserve fleet.



November 1901: Improved surface condenser and Krupp armor were both researched. These weren't my first techs, as I had researched coincidence rangefinder some time in the past which I don't remember, but these 2 new technologies should allow me to build more efficient warships.



December 1901:

Some additional crew training prior to a likely inevitable war. I'll take it

CL Bari wins the shooting competition
, by the way.

I'll now be ending these chapters in December (except in the case of war), so here is the current situation of the world:



So that's that I guess. After a few days I finally played through the first 2 years of this campaign. Next time I'll probably wind up going to war with Austria Hungary, at which point it will be time to test pre-dreadnought slownoughts in battle. We'll see.
And hopefully Parliament will start staying off my back in the future.

[Noname117]

Chapter 3
On the brink of war; 1902

January 1902:
Several Russian dignitaries caused an incident onboard one of our cruisers during a cruise. I've elected to hush up the issue.

Hydraulic recoil for turrets is now researched. The new techs are finally starting to come in.

Because of tensions with Austria Hungary, the battleship Roma, armored cruiser Marco Polo, protected cruiser Marsala, and 4 of the Nembo class destroyers are activated. All remaining mothballed ships are moved to the reserve fleet.
This should give our crews time to increase in quality prior to the now likely inevitable war starting up, barring nothing happens which causes me to suddenly lose funding or need to divert funding elsewhere.



February 1902:
The heavy secondary battery technology was researched
. This will make our next class of battleship good, whenever we get around to building them that is. Right now my funds are kind of tied up by the second pair of Conte di Cavours, of which I only wanted to build 1 of that year so I could lay down a new semi-dreadnought or all-big-gun armored cruiser this year. Ah well, once I get the that second pair of Conte di Cavours done my funds will stop being tied up.



March 1902:


Can you give me a darn break! You mean you want another 2 battleships laid down in these next while the last 2 you wanted are still building and will be for another 2 years?! Those 2 are hogging a lot of my funding I wanted to use to cover my cruiser and destroyer gap, and now you expect me to bankrupt myself for 2 additional battleships when tensions with Austria Hungary are only a couple steps away from full out war?! I'm going to have to completely de-ready my fleet to afford this, and even then I'm not certain I'll be able to stay out of the red. You're absolutely insane for thinking this is a good idea!

I'll get the plans drafted up for the new battleships so construction can begin in June.


May 1902:

I do not have the money to afford this, nor will I anytime soon.

The new docks were completed. I am not going to build new ones right now, for obvious reasons.

The Taranto class protected cruisers Venezia and Ancona are completed
.


June 1902: 
Firstly, the destroyer Alpino is commissioned this month. Unfortunately, the ship winds up overweight.

Tensions with Austria Hungary increase to be 1 step away from war. At this point war between our two nations is inevitable. Austria Hungary is definitely very hungary for this war.

And at the same time, we have a new class of battleship to lay down. We can build semi-dreadnoughts now, so why don't we build these 2 as semi-dreadnoughts?

Say hello to the Giulio Cesare class. Only 400 tons heavier than it's predecessors, it winds up being better armored than it's predecessor while increasing the secondary and tertiary firepower.

2 of these new battleships are laid down, named Giulio Cesare and Andrea Doria.


And now I have to find some way to afford building 4 fourteen and a half thousand ton vessels. I'm going to have to de-ready nearly my entire fleet it seems.

This is not going to be fun, and I do not think I'll even be able to sustain this level of funding.


July 1902:


That could've gone a lot worse than it did. War is avoided, or more accurately postponed, for now.

The destroyer Fuciliere is commissioned.

600 ton destroyer tech is researched.
So our scientists were right when they said we were close, and we didn't have to buy it from the French. If I could afford new destroyers I'd most certainly consider building some 600 tonners as part of this year's building program. Which, like last year, is 2 battleships again.


August 1902:

More of my ships are put into the reserve fleet and mothball fleet to provide additional funding to afford constructing 4 battleships at once. It's not going to be enough to keep me out of the red.


September 1902:

Oh thank goodness I can halt construction on those battleships and re-activate my fleet!


The cost of having to construct 4 battleships at once has made me fall 254,610 into the red. Not to bad, and I'm glad it didn't go lower. I can get out of this.

The payoffs from gunnery training finally pay off this month. I'll actually be able to fight in this war.



Seeing as war with Austria Hungary is coming soon, and they have an advantage on us in numbers of destroyers, I decide to lay down a new class of 600 ton destroyers called the Pontiere class. These new destroyers will be designed purely for Mediterranean operations, as I was planning on building more of their Mediterranean-only predecessors of the Alpino class before the Prime Minister decided that he needs another 2 battleships. These destroyers are a knot faster than the 2 previous classes, and come with the gun armament and layout of the Nembos and the torpedo armament and layout of the Alpinos. As such, these destroyers should be able to serve as both gunboats and torpedo boats.
A squadron of 4 of these ships seems good for now.

I was originally thinking I would keep 1 of the Giulio Cesares building, but then I'd have no more funding remaining for my light ships, which is where I'm at a disadvantage when compared to Austria Hungary


October 1902:

This is good. Delays the war a bit so I can ready up my ships.

November 1902:

And let's return those tensions right back to where they were so I can have a bit more funding


December 1902:

A shipyard offers to build another Pontiere class destroyer in 9 months at a reduced cost. Knowing that I need destroyers for the upcoming war, I accept.



January 1903:


Let's start this!



And the inevitable has started. A bit later than I expected, but still pretty on-time and ideal for me.

The first battle is an attempt to raid Austrian coastal shipping using the Taranto class cruisers Taranto and Venezia and a few destroyers. The two cruisers first encountered an Austrian armored cruiser, but neither side chose to engage. The 2 ships then spotted and attacked an Austrian merchant ship, but an Austrian fleet consisting of 2 armored cruisers and 2 protected cruisers arrived on the scene. Venezia scores a few hits on the Austrian merchant and Taranto scores a non-damaging hit on one of the Austrian protected cruisers before both cruisers retreat. Both Italian cruisers suffered engine failures during the retreat, but they managed to escape the Austrians without the Austrians landing a single hit on any Italian ship.

Despite this, the fact that the Italians had not managed to sink an Austrian ship when they needed to sink 2, as well as Austria Hungary blockading Italy at the start of the war because more of their fleet had been activated, the early war points lead went to Austria Hungary. Each side only has a handful of points though, and activating the Italian navy has stopped the Austrian blockade.

One thing I will be doing is recording all of my battles as they happen. However, I intend on only uploading the interesting ones to YouTube, where I will leave them as "unlisted" and link them here. Not much happened this battle, and it would up being pretty inconclusive, so the recording of it will not be uploaded.




This is what my current force count looks like right now, as well as my budget and the current tensions. Spying on Austria Hungary was brought up to "high," as one does when they go to war with a nation.

All 8 minesweepers were put on coastal patrol, as well as 2 Nembo class destroyers. This leaves my fleet with 12 active destroyers, which is adequate.

Do note I am not actually blockaded anymore; a reload of the game makes the "Blockaded!" warning disappear.


The next post will probably be an intermission style post where I compare our current navies and talk about my strategy. Then will come the chapter(s) of war.