Post by kriegsmeister on Dec 8, 2019 23:43:21 GMT -6
So I got the new Pokemon Sword game when it came out, mixed feelings about it, but it got me into another big Pokemon kick. So bored with sword, I decided to go back to Rule the Waves and start my first AAR, with a twist. Playing as the Empire of Japan (1900, VL Fleet, Game Resources, 70% research, AI advantage, Manual Build) with the typical goal of conquering all of the Pacific, Asia, and maybe get a bit crazy and venture into the Indian ocean and/or the Caribbean if things go well. The twist is that all of my ships will be named after Pokemon with a secondary goal of building at least 1 ship named for each of the 890 Pokemon currently in existence (Battleships - Legendaries, Starters; Armored/Battlecruisers - 3rd stage Evolutions, other significantly strong 2nd or single stage; Heavy/Light Cruisers - Less significant 2nd and single stage; Destroyers/Corvettes 1st stage and Pre-evolutions; Carriers - TBD). Overall this AAR will be less roleplay but more goofs about how Battleship Charizard knocked out an enemy Legendary, our Destroyer Rattata was poisoned while away from our home area, at the end of the war we captured the Russian Celebi with a master ball. Just silly nonsense.
As to the actual game I'm going to follow a familiar Japanese fleet structure centered on an 8-8 Battlefleet of Battleships-Armored Cruisers (later Dreadnoughts-Battlecruisers) with design philosophies as a weird blend of Japanese-American-German design construction with an emphasis of firepower and armor sans speed for Battleships more in line with American standards speed but Japanese Turret numbers, and Armored/Battlecruisers following more German designs of sacrificing Firepower while retaining armor to achieve the higher speeds. Protected/Light (and later Heavy) Cruisers will be built to be superior than all other cruisers while maintaining a 2/1 to 3/2 ratio of small cruisers to the main fleet (24-32ish at start). With all remaining money funneled into a constant stream of Destroyer/Corvette/submarine production. The one additional quirk that I tend to do is just give all of the ammo to my ships, over the few months that I have played this game I generally have noticed that it takes 10-20 heavy gun hits to sink a comparable capital ship or cripple it enough to be easily finished off with torpedoes (which every ship except corvettes will have). In the early years accuracy results in roughly 1-2% hits, therefore if I want my ships to be able to sink a comparable enemy in a 1v1 fight I need around a 1000 total shells. Then I also have to factor in that as Japan, I will generally be fighting at a number inferiority when I want to start kicking the European powers out of SEA so will need my ships to be capable of going 2 v 3 or even 1 v 2, and thus needing 1500-2000 shells.
As to the actual game I'm going to follow a familiar Japanese fleet structure centered on an 8-8 Battlefleet of Battleships-Armored Cruisers (later Dreadnoughts-Battlecruisers) with design philosophies as a weird blend of Japanese-American-German design construction with an emphasis of firepower and armor sans speed for Battleships more in line with American standards speed but Japanese Turret numbers, and Armored/Battlecruisers following more German designs of sacrificing Firepower while retaining armor to achieve the higher speeds. Protected/Light (and later Heavy) Cruisers will be built to be superior than all other cruisers while maintaining a 2/1 to 3/2 ratio of small cruisers to the main fleet (24-32ish at start). With all remaining money funneled into a constant stream of Destroyer/Corvette/submarine production. The one additional quirk that I tend to do is just give all of the ammo to my ships, over the few months that I have played this game I generally have noticed that it takes 10-20 heavy gun hits to sink a comparable capital ship or cripple it enough to be easily finished off with torpedoes (which every ship except corvettes will have). In the early years accuracy results in roughly 1-2% hits, therefore if I want my ships to be able to sink a comparable enemy in a 1v1 fight I need around a 1000 total shells. Then I also have to factor in that as Japan, I will generally be fighting at a number inferiority when I want to start kicking the European powers out of SEA so will need my ships to be capable of going 2 v 3 or even 1 v 2, and thus needing 1500-2000 shells.
Now, onto the actual game, first we will review our initial fleet on 1st January 1900 and our first construction programs to achieve our current fleet goals. My second post will be on how we stand against the world and the formation of our initial expansionist goals, spoiler alert, we gonna f*** Russia up.
At the start we have we are a little under half way to our 8-8 Fleet, with 3x Battleships, 4x Armored Cruisers, 8x Light Cruisers, and 18 Destroyers in active service with a new class of 3x Battleships under construction to be completed in about a year and another 12x destroyers within the next half year. Going Bottom to top, we'll start with the Rattata-class Destroyers
A less than typical early coastal torpedoboat destroyer, with a pair of 4in guns and a whopping 4x single torpedo tubes, 2x on either side. That's a lot to pack into a 500T vessel and it comes at a cost, with short range, cramped accommodations, and low freeboard. These are coastal ships in every sense of the word and would not fair well on the open seas. which would leave some to believe our Battlefleet would lack torpedo support when operating away from home waters however as we'll see in a moment that's not really the case. For now these ships will be the primary defense of Japan and will most likely be refitted later in life as more dedicated submarine hunters and minesweepers, but for now they'll do till we get larger destroyer tech. Oh and they are all named after first stage Pokemon other than the starters.
Next we have the Raichu-class Protected Cruisers, all named after the various 2-stage elemental stone evolutions. These are our early workhorses, operating as fleet scouts, commerce raiders, and first colonial ships that will rotate deployments to Formosa and any future holdings, they have a decently strong armament of 8x 6in, 8x 4in guns, and 6 submerged torpedo tubes and average armor and speed this is a pretty typical turn of the century large protected cruiser with nothing to peculiar other than my decision to place the entire armament in casemates in a fashion more akin to the old broadside cruisers, although it is somewhat fitting as these are the largest locally produced ships so using slightly outdated construction methods isn't too out of character.
Next we have the beginnings of our 8-8 Fleet, the 3x Venasuar-class Battleships and her 4x half-sister Eevee-class Protected Armored Cruisers who are almost identical in design with the exception of 5 kts (16 vs 21kts) in speed and 3in (12 vs 9in) in primary weapon caliber. They share the same secondary battery of 10x 7in guns (excellent British Q0) and a tertiary battery of 16x 4in guns, as well as packing 6x submerged torpedeos (see, who needs destroyers). The main appeal of these ships is their very low tonnage significantly reducing their cost, but it comes with some drawbacks. Their armor while adequate for now to protect their citadel from lethal hits, they are more vulnerable to structural damage to the upper decks and could face a more slow fiery death. They also have a low freeboard which will reduce their capabilities in heavy seas but with their reliable engines, medium range, and good crew accommodations, they are still decent sea going vessels and can operate in the Asiatic and pacific regions. These ships are meant to operate in tandem in a hammer and anvil fashion, the Venasaur's are on the slower side but thats alright as the Eevee's will use their speed to coral the enemy towards them with little fear of tangling with ships that could harm them or her half-sisters.
Finally we have the 3x Articuno-class battleships currently under construction of England, they retain the same armament and speed of the Venasuar's so as to maintain commonality and be able to operate together, but are significantly larger (~40%) and this weight is put to correcting the problems of the earlier ships with full free board and proper vertical armor of increased thickness, other than that there is nothing more to the design that wasn't already covered in the Venasuar's and Eevee's.
We have our fledgling begginings and we have much to go before we achieve our desired fleet size, we need an additional 2x Battleships, 4x Armored cruisers, need to at minimum triple our light cruisers and whatever money that's left over each year will be put into various destroyers and corvettes. When the last Rattata's finish up, I plan on laying down a new class of light cruisers of a probably more conservative size and armament but try to push them to 24-25 kts to better chase down destroyers and run from larger stronger ships, these will be called the Arbok-class. Concurrently I will have paid to expand our docks to 13k tons (and hope i get some free upgrades) so that when the the Articuno's finish I can lay down the first domestically produced capital ships, a new class of 4x (proper) Armored cruisers based on the Eevee's but given an armor scheme improvement and maybe 10in guns if I can fit them, tentatively named Alakazam, Machamp, Golem, and Gengar. Next on the list will be a larger light cruiser of 7-8k tons with similar armament to the Rattata's with the speed of the Arbok's and possibly increased armor. Once the Alakazam's leave the slipways and after upgrading the dockyards hopefully twice for at least 19k tons, I will lay down a pair of new battleships to be named Mew and Mewtwo , Larger and more powerful than the previous battleships to serve as flagships for the battlefleet. Hopefully I will have unlocked bigger guns and they will likely have semi-dreadnought battery if the tech unlocks go well, or if despite my lowered research rate (70%) they may even be my first dreadnoughts, we'll see what happens around 1903-1904. Lastly, for the small boats, I'll probably lay down a batch of 600t minesweeping corvettes until I unlock 600t destroyers where I will make a more capable Rattata with similar armament but made ocean going and hopefully a few knots faster, and will build a bunch of these until later destroyer techs.
So this is the rough 5ish year plan to flesh out my fleet, the only thing that I might not be able to complete is my wanted numbers of light cruisers as the limited budget will be focused on getting the 8-8 up and running. As well hopefully that 8-8 fleet will be able to operate for a few years before the Dreadnought race kicks in, I've played with various research rate settings and 70% seems to be good at postponing the first dreadnoughts to 1908-1910 rather than the the typical 1905-1907 which should give the fleet a few years to be top dogs in the pacific and let me further build up the cruiser fleet to better control my imperial expansions.
Stay tuned for my next post where I will go over the fleets of the world and begin developing strategies to defeat them.
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