Legacy Fleet: Kaiserliche Marine as per January 1900

[hschuster44]

Spend a few days to build a saved game (Game4, see below), that represents the status of the Kaiserliche Marine as per January 1900 as accurate as possible (better than in my deleted former attempts), including ships in construction and at overseas stations. It’s an own legacy fleet with various additional ship classes on the basis of SAI, RJW and own designs (including prototypical ship graphics). This means that you will find not only a contemporary fleet status with contemporary and outdated designs in service (e.g. SMS Irene 1886) but also the most important German ship designs of the following years until 1918 - except those of DDs. Via www.german-navy.de/hochseeflotte/ships/index.html or similar sources you could therefore try to rebuild the HSF with historic designs more or less in accordance with historic ship lists - but to try alternate solutions and roads not taken with historic and/ or own designs as well. Cheating (e.g. building SMS Seydlitz in 1901) should not be possible with regard to the relevant dock size.

 
Next to the class name you will find the historic year in which a ship or the first ship of the relevant class was laid down (e.g. 86 stands for 1886, 14 for 1914). Just wait for the historic year and then use the historic design for building if you like. In order to implement and to save all German designs independent of the starting year 1900 I had to edit the relevant ship files manually. The result is that you will often receivce some error messages when trying to save (unchanged) ship files within the design option in RTW since the new ship designs aren’t always in total accordance with the design rules of RTW. Either you ignore this and build on the basis of the files as they are, starting with their historic building year (which according to my experience works within the game without dramatic consequences) or you load, test, modify and save the design before giving a final building order.

Of course you could also delete all those new files if you prefer using your own designs - in this case you still have the advantage to start with a fleet that represents the most important historic ships and ship classes in January 1900.

If you try to keep up with the historic German building speed you probably have to accept or even provoke tensions to a certain degree in order to raise your budget, but that’s in accordance with the historic reality too. And it is not a surprise that you won’t be able to have a large battle fleet and a very large amount of cruisers for overseas stations at the same time.

A few final words:

It would be nice to see perhaps something similar for other fleets (e.g. RN) too …?

Don’t forget to make a backup of your current Game4 folder first of all. No test on other devices was made before. Use this at your own risk.

Don’t forget to send SMY Hohenzollern together with SMS Sleipner and your newest CL to the Mediterranian every year in spring. Otherwise your prestige might suffer ;-) (no, of course not, I’m only joking).

For repeated gaming (restarting the game in January 1900 again with the original game4 Folder see above) first of all delete your game4 folder completely and replace it again with the originally downloaded Game4 folder, otherwise you will get your colonies from the former game.

Attachment Deleted

For players who prefer the use of historic HSF ship designs within the Game 4 folder above might also like the assistance of the attached document: The document shows the laid down dates of HSF capital ships including CLs and offers a few relevant fictional names if the historic number of ships within a ship class is exceeded. Print it, open your downloaded Game4 folder and have fun by walking in von Tirpitz' footsteps!

Laid down dates.pdf (202.47 KB)

 

[fogofwar]

Aug 5, 2015 11:46:39 GMT -6 hschuster44 said:

 

" Don’t forget to send SMY Hohenzollern together with SMS Sleipner and your newest CL to the Mediterranian every year in spring. Otherwise your prestige might suffer ;-) (no, of course not, I’m only joking). "

Actually that`s a nice event for the German Game side

Thanks for the designs too.

 

 

[hschuster44]

Inspired by the new ship pic option I’m currently looking for some further goodies which might contribute to a realistic early 20th century flavour in combination with the KM legacy fleet above. One of them is an early Imperial war ensign version. Please find attached version of the years 1892-1903 and make a 1904-backup-copy of your current Ge flag file before using it. –

Ge.bmp (7.17 KB)

Historic background: Before 1904 the black crossed stripes on the German Imperial war ensign had the nice slim-line-design of the posted version. While wasting time during the evening of 24th July 1903 during a Norwegian summer cruise on board of SMY Hohenzollern the Kaiser and his entourage were annoyed by the fact, that this early flag design of the German Imperial Navy (War Ensign) could be confused with the White Ensign from a distance. So – instead of looking for allies or putting more emphasis on political relevant topics, however being supported by painter and tailor - they drafted and tested the „modern“ flag Version with broader stripes, that comes with RTW (the funny little story is described in Fürst Philipp zu Eulenburg, Mit dem Kaiser als Staatsmann und Freund auf Nordlandsreisen, Vol. 2, 351-352: "Dann zogen wir die Flagge auf und fuhren mit einer Pinasse aufs Meer, um die Wirkung zu beobachten, die vortrefflich war"). This later flag version flew on HSF ships from 1903/04 onwards. 

For further inspiration concerning historic HSF ships see e.g. milguerres.unblog.fr/la-hochseeflotte-2/

[decourcy2]

I am starting to work on the Royal Navy for 1900; it is a slog and will take some time and some of the ships in service in 1900 were so far out of date as to be laughable and will probably be skipped. Kinda wish we had a gunboat class in game.

[hschuster44]

Oct 23, 2015 10:05:13 GMT -6 decourcy2 said:

I am starting to work on the Royal Navy for 1900; it is a slog and will take some time and some of the ships in service in 1900 were so far out of date as to be laughable and will probably be skipped. Kinda wish we had a gunboat class in game.

... Brilliant plan & brilliant picture (Turner rules!). I use MS for gunboats.

[tbr]

But MS have some drawbacks, chief among them that they do not count for fleet strength and cannot lay mines. A PG class with 1 fleet strength (max 6inch guns, max 4x centerline main, secondaries allowed but no tertiaries, 800 to 2800 tons, max 20kn, must have "colonial" module, at least medium range and reliable engines, that covers roughly Bramble over Iltis (Panther) to Erie class) and a ML class with minelaying capability (max 4inch guns, max 4 guns, max 16kn, no secondaries and tertiaries, no armor, max 4000tons, 4mines per 100tons, and no ASW/coastal patrol capability) would be nice.

[tbr]

Personally I find the 2100 ton cruiser a better fit for the gunboat role if it is built slow. But the problem here is that it is drawn for the "cruiser" role in all battles and I do not want to see them in any screen or support division.

[hschuster44]

... Simplified version of 1900 Naval Law, including the 1912 Amendment, to use with the historic legacy fleet above - just in case you like building your fleet more in accordance with historic circumstances. Have fun. 

Attachments:

Flottengesetz 1900.docx (21.66 KB)

[greycat]

Just what I have been looking for, thank you for sharing!

[bcoopactual]

That's great work hschuster44.  

I made something similar for the legacy fleet for the USN once.  I wish I had kept it so I could share it but I erased it because I found that "historical" legacy fleets are almost always significantly outmatched by the standard legacy fleets created for the AI.  You rarely see AI CA's and CL's built slower than 20 knots so in cruiser battles, your historical ships which frequently weren't as fast are at a serious disadvantage.  For example most of the 1890-1899 US protected cruisers with the notable exception of the famous USS Olympia had maximum speeds of 18-19 knots.  That will get you killed in-game.

I don't know how to fix that other than modifying the legacy ship templates for the AI and I'm reluctant to screw with them because they need to be able to adjust for non-historical manual builds as well.

Not trying to take anything away from what you put together, it really is very good and thank you for sharing.