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Post by akosjaccik on Jul 10, 2021 15:14:16 GMT -6
My formal apologies for being absent so long, and depriving the world of more Klink-isms. It is good to be able to catch up on the always masterful presentation. So the last "state of the fleet" presentation I can see is the post-war summary from June '07. Is that still largely accurate?
Once again no worries, I certainly took my time with this answer as well. The three differences since the End-of-the-war '07 tally are: - In January 1909 the new 900t Leopard-class destroyers replaced the old 4-500t Lussin-, and Tiger-class torpedoboat-destroyers as frontline units, the remaining latter ships were merged into the 4th DesDIV as fleet reserve.
- With the end of the Leopard-class construction-, and the Budapest-class' "modernization" (April, 1909) programs the freed up funds were funneled into the SK30kt program resulting in the Lissa-class ships
- Six additional MT.600 minesweepers were built partially in response to the losses occured due to enemy mines in the war
- +1 the pending experimental cruiser program, for which the readers and guests of the forum gave a greenlight with a small margin after some debate
Oh, also, RL is getting more and more problematic (then again, I wouldn't expect anything less for anyone else by default unfortunately, given 2020 and the current year... :\ ), but update(s) are in the works. It's mostly just that the STT needs to slap a coat of anti-fouling paint on the Schlachtkreuzers finally:
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Post by liam556 on Jul 10, 2021 20:23:46 GMT -6
I am legitimately impressed that this is even a thing in the first place, let alone still seems to be going. Well done mate, I hope you actually get to finish this one day.
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Post by garrisonchisholm on Aug 4, 2021 17:07:13 GMT -6
I know the KuK no-doubt put a lot of thought into the design of the Lissa's, but I've always found 3x3 main battery layouts very unsatisfying (which may be something of a shock coming from a nation that made the 3x3 Holy Writ). Is there no concern that, after inevitable damage, 6 guns would be insufficient for the ship to "carry its own weight" in the line of battle?
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Post by akosjaccik on Aug 8, 2021 11:12:56 GMT -6
liam556 : Thank you! I cannot guarantee anything given how the last year alone showed how volatile life (and in turn, free time) can be, but I'm more or less content with the AAR aside from some of the technical issues. garrisonchisholm : While this is a very real danger indeed, I had to make sacrifices regardless and I felt that I can't postpone capital ship construction anymore. Primarily I had to think about opting for either a BB or a BC class - it appeared to me that I do not have the resources to go for both at the same time, and - as at the time it seemed like - certainly not before the next conflict. - Through the entirety of the war (although I enjoyed numerical superiority in the later stage mostly due to the french allies finally showing up additionally to some RM losses) I never truly managed to gain initiative. Fortunately, the AI never really managed to capitalize on their massive armored cruisers, but they had the means to do so. Now with the RM being fairly decently erased, they have the financial tabula rasa to start building (...and they started building) battlecruisers. This means that if I opt for battleships I don't quite solve my core issue and remain on the defense until the enemy screws up.
- The war "canonically" showed that the importance of the proper battleline may be overstated, if not outright to a dangerous extent. If I recall correctly, the very first fleet battle almost had catastrophic repercussions and Italy came relatively close to win the war right from the get-go. I could now of course build a couple better battleships, but the moment this balance shifts once again, I once again find myself on the backfoot, with ships designed for a line engagement that they can't necessarily take anymore with good self-confidence.
- ...but would they be powerful battleships? While I am generally trying really hard to go with the "semi-historical" flavour (whatever this actually means in this context) and decide upon stuff based on what I've wrote prior in the AAR, and not based on the hindsight of multiple dozen games, in this case I couldn't help myself but think that a 13", 27kts battlecruiser is somewhat more future-proof investment than say, a 13" 23kts dreadnought.
...so, BC it is, and now I am at the question of turrets. What finally pushed me through this door is my mad luck with being able to acquire the superimposed B from the US. Had I not do so, there is a chance that I'd have opted for a battleship design similar to janxol's Imperatritsa Elizaveta Petrovna. As I am calculating more with pouncing on targets of opportunity and in general a very maneuver-rich skirmish-style warfare, being able to bear six guns on target in a wide angle right ahead seemed like a must pick, aided by the X turret whenever possible. But as for the midships turret... This would cost me about ~2000-3000 tons and 8-14% more money, and under "normal" circumstances (for the battlecruiser) I might not be able to take full advantage of it due to the firing arcs, as such the redundancy would not be fully realized. It would still be good to have, no doubt, then again, the magazine spaces would require more volume too, adding to one risk while reducing another. Ultimately, in a tl;dr way - If I had no access to superfiring or had access to both B and Y, I would have probably built a 4x3 layout battleship.
- I had only B superfiring (I think I still only have as of '12 dec), hence going for the BC, in which case I thought the additional "broadside turret" is of less importance.
This, of course, could prove to be a mistake, but this was more or less my train of thought. It is no secret that I'd love to build a "proper" battleship rather sooner than later, in which case I'd like to go for more rifles and a more competitive caliber.
May, 1911 Fearing the social ramifications of heightened tensions with the communist state, the government requested an opinion on taking a softer stance regarding Italy. The Marinesektion's answer can be summarized with the laconic "Absolutely not." The chances of us being able to tone down their government's hawkish voices are nearing to zero due to reasons of their unstable social, economical and ideological status alike. Taking a step back simply won't result in a safer and more reasonable political atmosphere, as Rome badly needs the mirages of an external threat to retain a reasonable level of control over the country. Besides, although the Navy isn't exactly ready to fight (when are we ever?), but is willing if it comes down to that. The men did not die barely a few years prior for us to now let the Red Government dictate the terms, and this is not a time for leniency. We were lenient enough during the peace talks, and should this gesture not be answered in kind, we ought to reconsider the value of moderation for the future. June, 1911 ...and so, the day has finally come: our security agreement with France has expired, and the french opted against it's renewal. In all fairness, the feelings were more or less mutual. The respect remained, but the trust - less so. The armored cruiser Dupetit-Thouars (bearer of the Signum Praefecti Auxiliorum award due to her leading the incursion into the Gulf of Taranto in March 1906) arrived for a visit, dressed overall, to celebrate the commonly achieved victory one last time. After her departure, we found ourselves alone once again. The prospects are, however, somewhat brighter now. Just ten years ago the industrial sector was incapable of building a single vessel with any semblance of a proper, first class warship, and even then only the STT was somewhat close, the Ganz-Danubius and the Pola Naval Arsenal struggled with pretty much any sort of capital vessel. Now two of the largest conglomerates are able to build and service if not the most advanced (for example the US began advertising 15" guns this month), but certainly useful large ships while the Cantiere Navale Triestino is catching up to this level rapidly. Although we shouldn't fall into the trap of believing that any real or perceived advantage of today will be automatically retained securely in the far future as well, but the main takeaway is that soon enough we may have a very reasonable fighting chance on our own against Italy.
July, 1911 Broadening the external relationships of the Navy's research institutes appears to have been a good idea. We are ready to produce a new type of semi-armor piercing shell equipped with base fuzes, should we opt to do so, and there are some promising reports coming from Fiume as well, detailing the possible rearmament of the Leopard-class destroyers. Besides that, both the Royal Navy and the Marine Nationale commissioned a battlecruiser, namely Inflexible and Tourville, however no further data is available as of now.
August, 1911 It appears that the battlecruiser-craze continues: France continues with the Dunkerque and Russia made their debut with Izmail. More importantly, our highly esteemed, somewhat socialist and and fairly malignant neighbour commissioned the dreadnought Leonardo da Vinci, a ship that inherited the name of the Regina Elena-class pre-dreadnought that met it's fate in 1905. At this point it is crystal clear that ordering the construction of the new type of capital ships, in this case the Lissa-class, was quite simply not a matter of choice.
Regardless, change takes time (and money, endless, endless rivers of money), and the old guard still finds ample amount of work. For example, the Aspern had the misfortune of running onto a sand bank near enough to the coast which the ottoman cruiser Hamidiye argued for being located on their "territorial waters" and thus expressed their wishes to board the ship at the bare minimum.
Battleships 'Budapest' and 'Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand' asking the ottoman partners for a bit more discretion
Although the captain of the Aspern wished for no diplomatic complications without any higher orders at hand, the arriving two battleships immediately began preparations for towing and the Budapest somewhat rudely pointed out to the turkish gentlemen by aiming their main armament at the ottoman cruiser that whichever ship they choose to stay on, they will require only one vessel for the trip back home. The turkish gentlemen then wisely chose the Hamidiye, and sure enough, this friendly encounter was soon enough followed by various diplomatic notes. Not to be particulary disturbed by that, Aspern arrived home with relatively minor deformation on the prow, followed by her sister ship Zenta a few days later, finishing her long voyage around the Globe.
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Post by garrisonchisholm on Aug 8, 2021 13:59:17 GMT -6
The Vagabonds. :]
(I love your adherence to your developing canon - and cannon.)
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Post by pastur on Sept 6, 2021 15:26:07 GMT -6
Looking forward to the next update with baited breath
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Post by akosjaccik on Sept 7, 2021 6:56:41 GMT -6
Unfortunately I am still missing a single month until I am ready to publish and finish off 1911 and carry on to a more... troubled year, but until I get to that, some photos of the semi-finished battlecruiser model. The two major things missing still are bronze paint for the screws and of course the Kriegsflagge, plus some fixing up the of paintjob. Still, these won't be major differences, plus SPOILER: at least one of the ships will be thrown into battle in a similarly not-quite-finished manner, so publishing these images may fit the narrative better than I'd like it to.
LISSA CLASS BATTLECRUISER
1912
The paintjob is probably one of the worst I've managed to do unfortunately. I am still sorta' operating under Covid-economy, so couldn't quite choose my colors freely, thus had to open up a very special grey hue, which - as it turned out - I practically could not thin it despite trying it with three different kind of thinners. Regardless, the pattern is similar enough to the AH Kriegsmarine's late schemes (see for example the Tegetthoff-class), which followed the original Adriatic Green pattern as in RL as it can be observed on earlier I&I models as well. As such, the new "camo" scheme is also representing the shifting challenges and aspirations of the navy. As for the model, building the lattice structure for the searchlight deck and the tripod masts was a fair bit of challange (and looking back at the images, I am once again rather unhappy with how the paintjob came out), but ultimately I think the ship itself is passable and "believable" for a 1912 battlecruiser. Okay, I was a bit too generous with the torpedo booms, but we'll get rid of those soon enough anyways.
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Post by thefleetofoceans on Sept 7, 2021 7:23:00 GMT -6
You've got a ship their that will dominate the med for a good long while to come.
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Post by pastur on Sept 7, 2021 13:49:40 GMT -6
Exciting times ahead from the sounds of things! The grey may look a bit gunky but she's still a handsome vessel and I relish the chance to hear of her exploits
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Post by garrisonchisholm on Sept 7, 2021 16:46:52 GMT -6
...how on Earth did your printer manage the tiny guns on top of B turret, or are they little things you tacked on after? Still, gorgeous- I wish I had the complete set.
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hamjo
New Member
Posts: 24
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Post by hamjo on Sept 11, 2021 1:27:07 GMT -6
Beautiful piece of storytelling, thoroughly enjoying it
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Post by akosjaccik on Sept 19, 2021 3:09:45 GMT -6
Once again I am asking for your financial sup would like to thank all of your responses, gents! garrisonchisholm : It could not. They were made with joining 0.22mm fishing lines at a right angle with superglie. When I did the same trick on the Kaiser-class semi-dreads, I vowed to never to this again. ...of course I did it again.
September, 1911
A relatively unremarkable month. Russia began constructing a new battlecruiser, and apparently the italian leadership shows some signs of putting somewhat more effort into submarines - additionally to their capital ship program which is already well underway.
October, 1911
Our cooperation with the german naval industrial sector is at full swing. We've succesfully struck a deal by selling them the new model AP cap, which is especially notable given that the technology sharing agreement would've made it possible for them to acquire the blueprints for free in exchange for just a bit more time and paperwork. After all, this is how we got the full documentation detailing their new armor scheme:
Certain initiatives have also been launched in response to the italian submersible-programs, but so far these are still largely in their infancy.
November, 1911
During the last budget debate the Marinesektion took an unusually restrained position - despite the capital ship construction program burning funds like nothing beforehand to a comparable degree, and despite the threat of war looming on the horizon once again. The reason for this is twofold: pro primo, the popularity of the naval rearmament isn't exactly soaring high among the citizens and pro secundo, said rearmament could do with the infrastructural development that the funds will be diverted towards anyways. For example, the base at Cattaro has to rely on a single, relatively exposed railway line for supplying (see the dark blue line down south), but the connection between inland factories and the shipyards of Istria is also a critical issue.
December, 1911
After a few months of expensive testing on the grounds provided by the k.u.k. Artillerie-Schießschule, we have a good grasp now on the main principles of shell design that will provide the bursting charge a good chance of passing through a given Krupp-cemented armor plate under general conditions in working order. Earlier types had an issue where even if the shell managed to penetrate armor and remain in more or less good shape, the detonator was prone to failure still.
Unfortunately, it appears that the improved Pz.gr. shells will have both the opportunity and the targets available to prove themselves on soon enough. Although almost immediately after the war the situation with our former allies, France turned for the worse - to the point where detailed situation assesments and some operational plans were devised to immediately aid the fleet in case of a direct conflict -, now a war with Italy seems to be more and more inevitable by the day. While the Committe of Foreign Security of the People's Republic of Italy has a whole lot more offence to repay when it comes to France (after all, losing Sardinia to the french is something surely hard to stomach), there is an important difference between our Monarchy and France.
We are the easier target.
The italian economy was able to regain its vitality and if the news are trustworthy, the Grande Ammiraglio has a greater amount of funding at his disposal than the victorious k.u.k. Kriegsmarine by now. Taranto harbors three battleships, while the Lissa-class is nowhere to be found (although the CNT is tooling up to begin construction on the third unit of the class, however that ship may be years away from completion). Additionally, our populace is war-weary still, and the sole existence of our fleet is meeting a not necessarily concerning, but noticeable civilian pushback. Italy might see an opportunity here - and they may not be entirely wrong.
No doubt completely unrelated to that, on the 15th of December and on the initiative of two corvette captains the destroyer S.M.S. Meteor departed Pola in the evening hours, towing the submersible S.M. U-8 behind her. Strangely enough, U-8 seemed to carry a rather odd structure on its deck, which was completely veiled by canvas however. About three days prior one of the ordnance warehouses of the Coastal Defense District (Küsten Verteidigungsbezirk) issued out eight naval mines - it is unknown to where exactly and what kind of mines, as these lines were censored in most reports. On the 19th of December, just around midnight and somewhere near Tripoli, a submarine detached the towing cable of H.M.S. Meteor, after the crew took away some sort of tarp which previously covered something that appeared to be a rudimentary mine rack. Interestingly, despite the White Ensign, the mines were all manufactured by the San Giorgio Workshop. Even more interestingly, the order to dive the boat was given in german.
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Post by garrisonchisholm on Sept 19, 2021 8:18:31 GMT -6
What a beautiful map of Austria! Good find! - where do the Von Trapps live? Georg would just about be entering the service now I bet...
And at this stage that Event really does make sense, potentially cutting their dreadnought force by 1/3.
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Post by Adseria on Sept 27, 2021 14:54:06 GMT -6
You know, given my preference to leave you to run this in the background and then come back and binge-read several posts at once, I've realised that I should really post after I finish so I can remember where I'm up to. So, uh, keep up the good work, and I'll see you all in a few months!
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Post by prophetinreverse on Sept 27, 2021 23:29:31 GMT -6
It would seem Congress opened up the purse strings for the US Navy a few years ahead of time. How many battleships do they have now relative to everyone else?
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