Tales from the Sea

[cleveland]

A thread to post your favorite and least favorite moments from your time as head of your countries navy.

I was playing Italy in my last game and had a pretty good war against France, their only two Dreadnoughts were knocked out in one battle (one was torpedoed by its own destroyer and the other one had a critical hit on its turret, immediately sinking the ship) so I was feeling confident that the Gods of War were looking out for Italy.  I concluded a peace treaty, decided to build a couple BC's and try my luck against Great Britain.  One of the BC's was still working up when I went to war but I wasn't really worried as the Volcano-class Mt. Etna had a three knot advantage over the fastest British BC, so I could just run away if things got hairy.

My first mission in the war is a cruiser battle: Mt. Etna vs two British BC's.  It's her maiden voyage.  I get 5 quick hits on the lead British BC and things are looking up.  Having a three knot advantage, I decide to "cross the T" and really put the hammer down.  As I make my turn Mt. Etna receives her first ever hit in battle, it's a critical hit that knocks out all power.  She is then sunk after about 30 14" shells reduce her to ashes.

It was sad how heartbroken I was - I was really looking forward to using those two Battle cruisers together.

I voluntarily resign after that and a destroyer is named after me. 

[doubledeuce]

Playing as the Russians. I beat up on the Japanese early forcing them to give up territory. So far so good. Go all the way till 1907, no other wars and advancing tech pretty quick. Working up state of the art new ship designs and putting them into production including 2 Battleships being built in England, top of the line stuff. Then war with Austria and banging on them pretty good and looking forward to my 2 new Battleships being delivered in 3 months. Then the British seize them both after me having payed close to $100 million. If it wasn't for the size of their fleet I start a war with them too. :-(

[phoenix]

Nice, Cleveland. Lol.

[gornik]

My Belle France became 2-nd power over the seas, defeating Japan, Russia and USA. But I want to become first, so war with Great Britain was only question of time and Grand Politic. Finally it happen in 1921. I expected easy victory, as British BC were all thin-skinned, and all CA were obsolete ships from early 1900, only one new was under construction "What can they build, comparable to my new Jeanne d'Ark type? " I thought, and didn't check it.

Some months after I got "raid at coastal shipping" mission. At start I checked my force - both Jeannes are here. "Well, another good day to kill merchants. Hope their fleet try to save them, giving me some prestige ". Near Portsmooth we saw an enemy force with CA leading it. "Ha, that's new British Niobe! Glad to see you before I sink you! "  Suddenly something went wrong. Jeanne d'Ark got 12 heavy hits in 2 minutes, her engines were damaged and waterline was perforated in several places. Than second ship, Pothuau got salvo, which destroyed half of her turrets. "What the hell!?!?... " I thought, and checked their opponent. I saw the BEAST :

Luckily, I had also some new destroyers with 12 torpedo mounts, they saved that day for me. Two of their torpedoes sink one of British CLs, another one hit destroyer, Niobe also got one and both sides crippled home 

Fortunately, British BC didn't surprised me in such manner and were as vulnerable as expected. Battle where I couldn't sink at least 2 of them didn't count as full victory. Two years after French fleet became largest in the world and Britain became socialistic republic  

[ccip]

Haha, yes, I noticed that the AI is very good at finding out when you build those modern CAs and copies them almost immediately. I had the same thing going on with Russia vs. Japan copying that particular fast modern CA configuration as soon as they see you building it. My solution so far is to just build more of them than the enemy!

[dessard]

I start up a new game, my first as Italy, and design my own legacy fleet. Among other things, I strip the torpedoes off of my Bs - sure gunnery isn't very effective early, but if those guys are in so close to the target that one of us is going to get slaughtered by destroyers.  Then I go to war with France, a war that starts off in my favor, and soon I have a bombardment mission.  And... I get my entire battle line, 8 good Bs, so I'm expecting a lot of resistance. 

I go to the target, kill a couple of TRs and destroyers, and blow it up in a single pass.  Night falls during the attack, though, so I start heading back to base without looking for an engagement - and as my line is still reforming from the sharp turn, several cruiser divisions rush straight up into my fleet and start causing panic - apparently my Bs are too scared of some CAs to actually follow orders, so it turns into a giant mess.

At some point in there, I realise the enemy battle line and a bunch of destroyers have also arrived.  So I order a flotilla attack while I try to get the battleships out.

This, of course, sends what of the line there is careening straight into the enemy force.

A long, running engagement ensues, the superior design of my ships carrying me through.  But I still can't rally the battleships, and my destroyer screen disintegrates much faster than the enemy's.  So I eventually just pull out the flagship in the hopes that the rest of the fleet will follow.  And it does - except for the damaged B Italia, locked in a close engagement with an enemy battleship.  It's winning - but then is torpedoed, by the enemy battleship, and sinks in 20 minutes.

The rest of my fleet is running away, gradually forming up, when we come across another enemy battleship, crippled.  Great!  I take my flag division in close and shoot it up - 12 inch guns at 1000 yards do pretty well.

It torpedoes my flagship, the B Bennedeto Brin.

The flag then switches to a far-away ship, leaving the Brin under AI control and flooding heavily.  They eventually manage to get flooding under control, though... at which point they decide to go help out the mass of signal-errored cruisers milling about over the Italia's grave, 40 km to the south through the enemy fleet's last known location.

Luckily the enemy went home and my ships make hit home safe, but that was fairly stressful for a bit.

The moral of this story is... always put torpedoes on your Bs.

[charonjr]

Or use Captain mode and manually put a DD/CL screen around capital ships at night

[cleveland]

I play in Admirals mode - "always put torpedoes on your ships" is the saying around the Admiralty's office. There is always a night engagement or two where it all goes to hell, better be prepared.

Another tip: Never get in a simultaneous war with Britain & France when playing as historical Italy (my current game). 

[gornik]

The story about war fortune.

War between my Russia and Germany happen too early-in 1901, so many battles were fought with no clear victory-many shots, few hits, nearly no damage. Only cruiser actions sometimes came to result-as my ships had larger guns and double ammo in magazines, battles ended up in shooting practice at slowed enemy with no shells. In that time this story happen.

Russian protected cruiser Diana (Aurora-class, Aurora-like large cruiser with 12x6" guns and 23-knot speed) lurked for merchants near German Blight. Weather was average-overcast with fresh breeze from WSW. Suddenly her captain saw two smokes at N and NE. "Let's see, what is there - we may escape, if there are armoured cruisers, and all less is our prey!". Soon it became clear, that Diana met German three-funneled light cruisers - one Irene-class(8x5", 20 knots) and one Arcona-class (12x4", 22 knots) "Well, let's cripple Irene first, then sink Arcona, then return to end our work, if needed!" Suddenly another smoke appeared at NNE. "That's armoured Victora Luise, luckiest ship of Kaizer's navy. She survived three meetings with our armoured battlecruisers! Well, she is 20-knot slow, so she would be lucky to fire couple of shells from maximum distance". German cruisers made problem simpler - they form battleline with Irene ahead and tried to "cut off" Russian cruiser, moving south. "Those Ganses are really mad - they think we'll be stupid enough to flee from them to Luise's 9" and 7" guns! Heh, now we'll see, WHO will flee FIRST". Battle started as Diana steamed to SSE with enemies at starboard, Victoria Luise disappeared in rain astern. After dosen of hits Russian ship lost one of her guns, but Irene suffer much more. "St. George's cross and cup of wine for gunners who stop her!" And soon this happen-starboard forward gun hit her in the middle, ship stopped in clouds of steam. Crew cried "Hooray!!!", Diana made couple rack shots from minimal distance with countless hits. Irene looked completely powerless, all her guns were destroyed or disabled and her deck is on fire. "Good work, now to Arcona, before she escaped!" Second cruiser had no chances at all - her guns couldn't hit Diana from large distance, and she got one salvo after one. Ten minutes later her speed was reduced to nearly 10 knots, half of guns were disabled and fire showed in several places on her deck, but brave ship still refused to surrender. "Captain, land ahead, we should be near Emden now" said navigating officer. "Damn, they want to escape to port, let's finish her at point blank, she had only one gun able to fire at us in one time". Broadside from only 4 cabeltov (nearly 750 m) wreak havoc at Arcona's superstructures, her bridge disappeared. Suddenly her aft gun shot Diana in the middle and everybody hear the roar of steam escaping from the broken pipelines, ship has slowed down and finally stopped.
"What happen?" captain asked.
"Bad news, Vashe Blagorodie" said chief mechanic, run to the bridge, "power is completely disabled, half of stockers died or seriously burned, other machinery crew also suffer heavy loses"
"I'll do for your men everything I can. Does our engine still repairable?"
"Maybe, maybe. I'll see what we can do"
Captain stayed on bridge, looking at crippled burning Arcona, until she disappeared in squall. After rain ended, He saw two small ships, approached from Emden.
"They sent destroyers to finish us. It would be not as easy as they expected, we still have four hours before sunset, and half of ammo to our guns. I wonder if they had success before this time or these shells ended. So man battle stations and prepare to fight. Shoot only from close distance to save ammo. Also ask chief, what he can say about machinery".
Chief mechanic said, that engines may be repaired after "some" hours of work. He asked pair of biggest hammers and pail of vodka "to, you know, polish some machinery parts". He got all, every free sailor was sent to help him while others carefully aimed guns, forcing destroyers to keep distance. One of them finally managed to run close and launched torpedo. It run some meters astern, and destroyer got 6" shell in another torpedo mount which blown up, cutting ship in two. Before she sunk Diana's crew may see large white "V-27" at her forcastle. Second became more careful and stayed out of gun range.
So passed two hours. Chief returned to bridge and asked for "no more than one hour and no less than another pail" to finish his work. Everybody waited for minute when Diana again may run through the sea, German destroyer stayed out of range, waiting night... or something else. Suddenly smoke appeared at N. Ten minutes after every sailor may see that it is Viktoria Luise, approaching for coup de grace to moveless Russian ship. "Damn cruiser, I forgot about her. Everybody has some time to prepare for our final battle. Our friends will take revenge for us" captain said to crew. Sailors put on the best clothes while ship's priest bless guns and pray God to forgive men's sins. German cruiser opened fire from max distance, first shells fall undershoot. "This reservists still didn't teach how to aim! Really bad luck to die from incompetent enemy" Soon Luise's 7" secondaries started to shoot as well, but most shells fall at safe range. Diana's guns opened fire too, trying to hit enemy before dead, though there were no chance to break Luise's 6" main belt. But her captain decided reduce risk to minimum and run out of their range. Soon Diana got her first hit - into coal bunker, then second - to superstructure, third - to forecastle, forth... fifth...
Suddenly Diana's machinery return to life! Ship moved forward, faster and faster. Chief mechanic came to bridge, wavering a bit, and reported, that ship may have 20-knot speed. Victoria Luise and destroyer, seeing that their prey may escape, tried to pursuit her, but new squall covered Diana with rain. Survived ship steam to safety at maximum speed, her captain even decided not to stop German merchant, met near Helgoland. After returning home all Diana's crew got St. Georges Crosses and medals for "for unprecedented bravery and composure in the face of superior enemy", and her captain had hard times explaining to intendants, how German shell may destroy ALL STOCKS in the wine cellar without damaging its room

EDIT: Ah yes I forgot to say, V-27 was the ONLY ship sunk in this battle, both German protected cruisers survived with heavy damage.
 
Diana survived this war, as well as others, and became museum ship in St. Petersburg at Neva river. Victoria Luise became the only German CA survived all wars with Russia and became museum too.

Happy end

[ccip]

Great story

Funny what a pail of vodka and some St. George's crosses can do!

[cwemyss]

Excellent write-up!

[gornik]

Glory and death of HMS Indomitable.

 In stormy snowy day of 5.01.1925 battleship HMS Indomitable covered cruisers in their raid to Finish Gulf. This place had bad reputation and named "Graveyard of British Glory" - last six months Royal Navy tried to destroy Russian shipping and bases, but find only Russian torpedoes and shells. In one battle  six battleships and battlecruisers were lost for single old Russian and that was "nearly success"! Mightiest battleships, fastest cruisers, destroyers full of torpedoes... Now all them were under grey waters between Swedish coast and Ezel island. HMS Indomitable was just-launched war-time built warship, her crew was completely green but she was the only one ready, and admiralty sent her to "change situation at theatre". She should operate with remains of Royal Navy - BB Hood, BC Australia, some old Bs and CAs, new CLs and DDs. Her arrival at forward base at Borholm was sad - HMS Australia blown up in battle with BC Gavriil a week before and everybody may see bottom of capsized HMS Hood near Borholm's shore - she was torpedoed by SS Zabavnaya (Funny) in night. Fortunately, crew of HMS Indomitable didn't have much time to speak with other sailors, as there were rumours about mutinies at some ships of Baltic Squadron - they only ended refuelling, when captain received message from flagship - Victorian-era old B Benbow. "You should cover HMS Amphitrite (old CA), which will bombard Russian fortress Sveaborg in the evening 5.01. Assumed presence of at least 4 enemy dreadnoughts. I hope the name of your ship will give you guide for action". Not very inspiring order, but her captain decided to do his best. Some minutes before departure Hood's captain, survived three battles near Ezel and thus became the most experienced alive officer, visited him, drunken a bit. "Damn submarine, I should be with you tomorrow. My crew at least got some practice last months, they sometimes hit our targets and even stop smoking near cordite storage. For Baltic Squadron this means nearly elite level... What's your order?"
"Cover Amphitrite, which will bombard Sveaborg next evening"
"Strange order and strange choice, as everything here. I heard our admiral was contused somewhere nearby during previous war with Russia... Sveaborg is target, which may be bombarded at day or night with(out) same result or even may be not bombarded at all, at least by fleet. It's work for those funny RAF planes or for those German-style flying sausages... When should you reach Russian coast?"
"Just before sunset"
"That's bad. This means you should pass Ezel in midday, and Russians always meet us there. Battleships, destroyers, maybe submarines. Fortunately weather seem become worse"
"I don't think it's a fortune, Baltic is shallow there and I don't want to run aground in enemy waters"
"That would be better than meet Russian battleline. Anything you may imagine would be better than this. Their torpedoes may be launched from horison, their shells easily pass our decks and your green crew couldn't do anything remarkable during hour you stay afloat under fire. But now you have a chance... Small chance... maybe not survive, just do something. If you meet Russians in snow storm which seems coming, you'll fire at them from shortest distance, where armour doesn't count, and maybe even YOUR gunners hit enemy before your glorious death from their torpedoes... Or maybe you'll blow up - impressive picture, which I saw too often, and better than sink in cold water. But my advice to you - if you meet more than one battleship, turn around and run out, though obviously you'll not receive post-mortem Victoria Cross for such action, hehe"
"Thanks for your advice, but I prefer to perform my duty"

Now Indomitable approached point which Hood's captain marked as "place where you meet those bloody Russians if they wouldn't prefer to stay at home, preparing for their weird Orthodox Christmas". Visibility was reduced to 5000 yards, but after some minutes lookout post reported about light cruiser forward. Russians were here. Captain remember the worlds of Hood' commander... "Open fire from all our guns immidiately!"
"Main calibre? At light cruiser?" asked gunnery officer.
"Yes, it would be good practice for your men, and we have enough shells for fight"
Monstrous 16 in guns opened fire, and second broadside made hit! Russian cruiser turned out and rapidly escaped in snow. Crew cried "Hooray!" but Captain understood that it was only scout, so soon they meet something different... after five minutes another Russian cruiser appeared, now both sides open fire at once. cruiser got hit in deck, but one of his shells penetrated Indomitable's forcastle. And than things became serious, lookout post reported: "single battleship NE, 5000 yards"
"Oh, bloody hell, that's Gavriil!"
(Gavriil or Gabriel in English transcription was named after God's messenger, but in Royal Navy she was better known as Abaddon, as nearly 5 BC and some other ships met their death from her shells)
Main battery aimed grey silhouette and both ships opened fire to each other. First enemy shell passed hull without burst, second hit superstructure. Than gunnery officer counted "two clear hits at Gabriel, between funnels, 11.21 GMT", and Russian ship disappeared in snow squall. Destroyers turn away, but they obviously have time to aim British ship, so captain decided to change course. Two minutes after turn lookout reported about numerous torpedoes, crossed line of old course. "Well, we did everything right, at least now" thought Captain. Pair minutes after he received message from Amphitrite, steaming with some scouts and destroyers somewhere at SW: "Several unknown ships spotted, disappeared at NE, need support".
"Well, let's try to find them before Russians do so. Hope they'll try to catch us at our old course now".
Hour later, everybody hear guns somewhere forward. "Damn, seem Russians find them first! Well lets see, may we do anything for them." Minute later numerous ships appeared from storm only two miles from Indomitable, firing at sinking British light cruiser. "Oh, ****! It's their Baltic fleet!! All guns, fire at will!!!" cried gunnery officer, looking at yellow fire, appeared from Russian turrets. Time was 12.30 GMT.

Captain didn't count hits in his ship as from first seconds all was clear. "Hood's commander was damn right, it is no chance to survive Russians" he thought  melancholically. First hits destroyed or disabled forward turrets, wreak havoc at secondary battery, torn thin armour of superstructures to shreds, and water pillars near board shows that some shells hit below waterline. "Hour? He was wrong. We'll live 10 minutes, maybe 15..." He commanded to turn away, though understood that it was impossible to survive. But this gave aft guns chance to take part in battle which was lost many months ago, when engineers decided to save weight by reducing armour thickness of turrets. He looked at Russian ships which now were no more than 1000 yards from him. "He was wrong again, we couldn't do anything with them, they look unharmed, and, we lost two, well now three turrets from four" Suddenly he saw water tower astern of flagship dreadnought. "Heh, seem one of their destroyers decided to help us, unfortunately too late". Last turret of Indomitable fired, and one shell hit this dreadnought at hull. "I think that is what he meant when said "do something", one hit!" Turret fired again, now shells missed Russian flagship and one of them hit forward turret of another dreadnought. "Well, I was wrong, two hits". And than happened something unexpected: dim burst with brown smoke covered forward part of battleship, than another flash appeared in the middle and even through the noise of battle all heard a muffled explosion. Less than minute after entire battleship disappeared in smoke. "We did it! Oh, God, we did it!" thought captain, "We sunk one of their bloody battleships! Now our death will not be pointless".
Minute after gunnery officer reported that ship lost her last turret, chief mechanic reported that turbines should be stopped due to heavy flooding in machinery space, than wounded boy seaman run from battery deck and reported that all guns destroyed: "I am the only survivor, sir", and lookout post reported about approaching torpedoes.
"We performed our best" said Captain, "but now we have no opportunity to harm enemy. Thank you for your service, now crew may survive. I stay here"
"Sir, let me stay with you" asked boy seamen.
"No, you should survive. This is my last order" Than Captain went to open bridge to see last minutes of battle. Time was 12.36 GMT

Russian battleships didn't recognised that Indomitable is powerless. They fire again and again, trying to destroy burning hulk completely in revenge for BB Pobeda (from her crew of ). Four minutes later Russian 15 in shell burst on bridge, killing Captain, others kill people on decks. After half an hour their admiral decided to go away, four destroyers stayed to sink burning graveyard and seek for survivors. Unfortunately in the same time commander of Amphitrite decided to send HIS destroyers to find survivors from HMS Arethusa, shot by Russians a minute before Indomitable arrival. Soon close action between light forces started near sinking leviathan. Snow, storm, cold water, wounds and DD manoeuvres killed many sailors. Only after two hours Russians chased enemies away, but now there was nobody to survive. Only DD Lovets (Catcher) find one man alive. It was young boy seaman, carried out the final order of Captain.

Ah, yes, forgot to say, I played on Russian side.

[gornik]

Jul 27, 2015 16:22:27 GMT -6 ccip said:

Great story

Funny what a pail of vodka and some St. George's crosses can do!

Thanks

TWO pails Also note big hammers! And i think Victoria Luise's arrival helped a bit too. Though officially love to "Faith, Tsar and Motherland" helped them much more

[gornik]

PS for story of Indomitable - Russian admiral commented this battle after reading newspapers about "Glorious Victory which raised prestige of our Navy"
(To make his comments clearer I translated names of ships he mentioned in [])

Victory!.. They call this "full victory"!! Yes, it's really full... Full ******!!! It's ****** ***** * ***!!!! (for short I cut some Russian specific "naval terminology", which can't be translated properly )

Well, let's see what's happen... Our Shtandart [Monarch's banner] got some holes!  Drezhava [Orb] was beaten and rolled away! Gavriil [Gabriel], God's Messenger, slowed down, and Lev s Sablei [Lion with Sword] was torpedoed in ass by Sorvanets [Madcap], one of my own destroyers!!! And don't forget, Pobeda [Victory] itself blown up!!! All this by one ship!!!! Does this all look like victory?!?! So don't remind me about that weird battle!!!

(Shtandart and Drezhava were light cruisers, met with Indomitable first)

Also I missed pictures:
Indomitable:

And Pobeda:

[cwemyss]

I finally fought my first big fleet battle this afternoon, on what I thought would be another hum-drum convoy escort. I'm the RN playing against the Germans... I lost a CA to a turret explosion pretty quickly, chasing the German battlecruiser. I had two CA and a CL trying to draw the BC toward my main line (3 B, a few cruisers, and a bunch of DDs). At no point until they appeared out of the mist did I think "hey, a BC might mean the German fleet is here too." I didn't realize until it was way too late to break contact that I was horribly outnumbered.

So the final total: Three British pre-dreadnoughts out of ammo, three British cruisers and four DDs on the bottom of the Celtic Sea. Keeping them company: two BB, two B, one BC, two cruisers, and three destroyers.

I think the damage was mostly done by my DDs making near suicidal torpedo runs. But I managed to keep my battle wagons together and the cruisers/destroyers broke up the German formation. I was able to pick them off in a series of three on one fights.

This game is GREAT. Incredibly immersive and addictive.