New RJW AAR after a long hiatus.

[Deleted]

a glorious battle admiral! with limited resources and an intense crew training schedule, superior tactics and a bit of luck was used to overcome the enemy!!

...shore guns, interesting, perhaps i'll take a whirl with RJW after all....

as for the blizzard, it's all over the news from the US, gives me an itch to build snowmen:p

[neospapa]

Skwabie, RJW plays out far better than you might think with the ancient ships that quite frankly, are not the most accurate without the fire control systems of WW1. They are also far more at risk to fire/flooding than WW1. I have had a B sink from a few hits that caused massive flooding/fires or just one mine hit can  be enough to sink a B as well. Overall, as the Russians the commerce raiding is interesting too. It seems desolate out there just as it should and not every patrol is successful. Here is a list of the shore guns at PA. Vladivostock  has some too.

There are some seriously nasty shore guns at PA.

Wei Yuen Battery
4-3 inch

Chi Kwan Shan Battery
2-6 inch

Chang To Shan Battery
5-6 inch

White Wolf Hill Battery
5-6 inch

Shauting Wei  Battery
5-6 inch

Manchuchiao Battery
4-9inch

Electric Cliff Battery
4-3 inch and
5-10 inch

[neospapa]

May-26-1904

Admiral Grand Duke Pytor Sokolov has had to make tough choices during this war. His fleets are mightly on paper but are spread around the globe from French Indochina to the Black Sea, in need of constant refit in very limited drydock space, and coping with a serious lack of fuel/supplies. He knows that he outnumbers the enemy by a great number but will he ever be able to sortie the fleet in any serious numbers?

Over a month ago, he was presented with the option of moving the fleet in French Indochina to PA as a reinforcement. It was the B Oslabya, an ancient and slow CA, a slow but powerful CL, and a DD division. With his stretched resources, he accepts the B and the CL only. They made the long journey to PA and have been safely docked for a month. He knows that his anchorage is over crowded. Some ships do not even have a proper mooring, dock. or pier and the supplies are being used faster now than ever.

He was just presented with the option to move the Black Sea fleet to Valdivostock.He knows that Vice Admiral Roman Kozlov would  be thankful to have these ships at his disposal but can we afford the upkeep? He decides to send only the most modern ships. He does not accept   the 3rd battleship division as  they are old, slow, and low freeboard ships. He also declines the second cruiser division as they are old and slow. The DD's lack the range and we are swimming in them already.

In the cable to the Vice Admiral, he states

Reinforcements coming from the Black Sea Fleet.
Expected arrival 330 days.
8 B's
2 Cl's

Even though his day has been busy so far, there is still more to do for the elderly admiral. He was ordered to do a merchant shipping raid offf the west coast of Fusan. The Askold is fully repaired and being quite fast and powerful, she should be able to get in and out. She deploys at night. Steaming at 18 kts nothing is observed in nearly 24 hours. Ivan is taking a rare break from duties. His war has went swimmingly and he feels she is a lucky ship. Just then, a ship is spotted. A small merchant. She heaves to before long and we take possession of 51 POW's. The Hokkai Maru is sent to the bottom. The Askold is safely back at anchor before long. Another successful mission. Ivan was  not the only one in the fleet who now this she is a lucky ship.

[neospapa]

A bit of an update with regard to the progress of the war.

We are now in June 1904. The war has raged on for nearly 5 months. Strangely, I have yet to encounter a single IJN Batttleship. I know they sortied back in May. The only way I know this is one of their escorting DD's ran into a mine near PA and sank. It was the HIJMS Asashiwo and it showed up on the intelligence report. I wonder why they are so reserved in deploying? If they only knew how weak the Russians are at this point. At best, I can sortie my battleline with limited escorts once every 2 months. While I think this is balanced and very historically accurate, they could problably send some good ships near my coast and eventually they would get lucky.

Russia has not lost a single ship in this war! Mircaulous considereing the training, deployment, intelligence, and quality advantage the IJN has. The IJN has lost several major units.  2 very good CA's 2 very good Cl's 1 old Cl, 1 minelayer, 1 good DD, 1 old DD, 1 AMC. I thnk the IJN did not realize the danger that is PA under a player who uses mines and the shore guns to his advantage.  I would not sail even close to it if I were the IJN. The forces in Vladivostock have been largely ineffective. I suppose until the fleet arrives  there is no hope at taking on the 6 very good  IJN CA's they have in the Inland Sea. they would tear my ships apart.

Now let's get to another turn.

June-2-1904

Admiral Grand Duke Pytor Sokolov paced worriedly around his spacious office at Port Arthur.

They have done what, he asks the messenger?

Cut the railroad lines to the base, Sir.

Very well, dismissed.

He immediately calls for Captain 1st Rank Kuznetsov and he arrives quickly.

Sortie the fleet!

The fleet, we have fuel and provisions?

Yes, barely, and besides  they cut the rail lines. Had you heard?

Yes, I had, grave news Admiral.

The admiral wonders if every admiral in every navy is always the last to know everyting. You best get prepared Captain. Dismissed.

Captain Kuznetsov is surprised that a flag officer was not assigned to this fleet sortieing out. He thought that the the Grand Duke may have or one of the other flag rank staff officers.  This is worrying. Why he wonders? Is he a fall guy if something happens? Resolutely he acts to prevent a failure of this fleet

B's
Petropavlosk, flag
Poltava
Tsesarevich
Retvizan
Peresviet

Cl's
Askold
Pallada
Diana

DD's 1/1 destroyer flotilla

He leaves at first light in calm seas and winds. Steaming south. It is not too long before ships are sighted. The Captain is made aware that there are 2 goups of ships one on to port and the other dead ahead.  The captain calls for the Cl's to steam after the 2 aparrently faster ships to port and he will chase the  4  ships in front. The cruisers start to hit a Takasago Class Cl. She begis to burn and slow. The Pallada hits her with a TT and she is abandoned buring and sinking. During this firing, Ivan show prowess and impresses an offficer with his skills in battle. He remain calm even when shells are hitting the Askold and she herself catches fire. He volunteers to help fight it and it is soon out.   From the survivors Ivan learns that they sank the HIJMS Yoshino. A worthy adversary. The other ship with her fled as soon as she was in the fight for her life. Disgraceful thought the young seaman.

Several miles away, the battleline are rapidly approaching a target that is unknown. It is the very  old HIJMS Fuso. The captain knows she is a ship from another time, war even and has no business on front line duty. Port protection maybe. Getting hit with 6, 10, 12 inchers, she is soon sunk outright. Just then, the other ships turn on the battleships. They are both Matshushima Class old light cruisers of french design. One large slow firing  gun and little else. Only the captain knew of their design origin and rough specifics from his time abroad.  They are charging in for an apparent TT attack? The DD's accompanying the B's charge in turn though far smaller they disrupt the charge and soon enough the barrels of the already ready gus start firing. They seem to lightly armored though the captain as the shells seem to devastate with each hit. Once they are both stopped the captain received word of 5 BB's and 2 CA's near Dalny and with his reduced fuel, ammo, and a dispursed fleet decides to disengage. They return safely at dusk.

Sunk HIJMS Yoshino, HIJMS Fuso, HIJMS Itsukushima.
Severly damaged, HIJMS Matsushima

[neospapa]

OT a bit.

How is this story format working? Are you able to follow along with the war well enough? Would you rather non narrative facts and figures.

Thanks for reading everyone. It is appreciated!

[Deleted]

neospapa, I think the story is the main thing. Right there is immersion. Plus, somewhat realized myself that AARs more about the writing than the actual gameplay.

[neospapa]

Thanks skwabie for your thoughts and readership!

[mariandavid]

So glad you are doing this - is of great help as I start my first RJW campaign.

[neospapa]

Thanks, mariandavid! Best of luck to you in your campaign.

There has been a hiatus in play due to me studying to take the CPA exam. I need to pass this to secure a promotion at work so it took  precedence.

I will resume the war tomorrow as it will be a snow day due to the second blizzard hitting Boston this year. I have had just about enough of snow this year!

[vonfriedman]

Aspiring admirals Vitgeft can use this tactic to win the battle of the Yellow sea.
Bring the Russian ships under the coast dominated by the forts of Port Arthur as soon as possible. Sail up and down there, while exchanging broadsides with the Japanese.
At nightfall sail towards the west, taking their own DDs behind.
In the ensuing night action the Japanese may suffer some losses, while the Russian battleships sail away undetected.

[phoenix]

It's great neospapa. Will you continue? And can we have some action pictures from in the game, please?

And in terms of strategy, can I ask - in real life the desire of the Russians (once the Japanese started along the isthmus and PA was cut off) was to 'break the blockade' and get the fleet to Vlad, no? But in the game I hardly ever see myself trying this. Are you to try this - to try getting your fleet to the safety of Vlad before PA comes under real pressure? It seems to me it would be easy enough to break the blockade if you've trained up a bit beforehand. And why not move the Oslabya etc from Indochina direct to Vlad? Does anyone ever do that? As I said, historically, the Russians were most intent on trying to break the blockade, and the Japanese (knowing they would eventually take PA) were most intent (through blockship attempts etc) to bottle the Russian fleet into PA.

Peter

[vonfriedman]

In the Ulsan scenario, played as Russian, my ships were seemingly determined to run aground the island of Tsushima. I was unable to alter their course and so they continued to sail on a straight course, without anything happening. I stopped the game while the Russian cruisers were continuing to sail undeterred very near to the coast of the Japanese island.
I wonder if this defect of realism has been previously reported by other players. It would be sufficient to eliminate the constraint that compels the Russian ships to navigate on a straight course until some other ship is sighted.

[vonfriedman]

After a long campaign, where the Russian ships mainly avoided combat and concentrated on mine warfare - with very good results - and on raids with CLs and DDs against Japanese transport ships, the howitzers of the Japanese army began to fire on the forts and entrenchments of Port Arthur.
Being unaware of the time remaining, before those howitzers would begin to hit the warships, on March 8th 1905 the Russian Admiral decided to sail at nightfall towards Vladivostok with his three available battleships, five CLs, the minelayers and some DDs.
The Japanese were unable to catch the Russian division, which also laid a minefield along its course, where later the Mikasa sank.
On the following night the Russians crossed the strait of Korea, without seeing any enemy ship. At dawn they were joined by CAs from Vladivostok, where they all arrived safely.
Now the Russians are looking forward for the arrival of the Second Pacific Fleet. Then they will face together the Japanese in the Tsushima strait.
In the meantime at Port Arthur every effort is made to made ready some of the damaged battleships which remained there.

Some comments. I enjoyed this game very much, but I am feeling that some "operational" features should be modified. It seems to me that the subordinate divisions should be made free from AI control, when they are relatively far from their flagships. In the case of the Russian escape to Vladivostok, their minelayers loose contact and then remained trapped into Fusan Bay.
For some uncanny reason they were both safe in Port Arthur when the scenario ended.
As I put forward elsewhere, the ships - mainly destroyers - should also be able to detach and to try to reach a friendly port when they are low on fuel.

[vonfriedman]

Following of the previous AAR.
After having sailed in the dark towards Japanese waters, the Russian Second Pacific Fleet successfully reunited with the Vladivostok squadron, reinforced by the three Bs and the CLs previously escaped from Port Arthur. After sailing up and down undisturbed and having created great havoc among the enemy transport ships, finally, late in the afternoon, Japanese warships were sighted. An indecisive action followed, with the superior Russian force giving chase until nightfall.
The Russian Admiral decided then to set a course to Vladivostok: some cruisers were low on fuel but still capable to safely reach the naval base.
Suddenly the scenario ended and, since the 2nd Pacific Fleet was to a greater distance than 100 miles from a friendly base, it was completely wiped out from the game.
Tne Czar was not amused, nor myself.
There is something wrong in those bloody rules.