Anchors aweigh! - USA AAR

[sabratha]

"The turn of the century found the US navy the second most powerfull blue water force in the world. The predecessor of Admiral Sims left him with a capabale force.

Given Britain's commitments around the world, the US admirals with their battle line of 5 pre-dreadnaughts hoped to achieve a somewhat sketchy parity against the Royal navy if it came to a showdown in the home waters.



The three ships of the Delaware class, limited only by the 14 000 shipyards capacity, were the american answer to the very similar 6 ships of the British Rodney and Howe classes.




The two "Island class" coastal battleships were certianly the weakest link in the Aerican navy. Small and rather slow, these were the result of financial constrains which came about as a result of building the modern and expensive ships of the Delaware and Paul Revere class. In the end, the US admirality saw the Island class as little more than a necessary stopgap measure.




The Paul Revere Armoured Crusier was designed with one sole purpose in mind - to act as an oceanic commerce raider in case of a war with one of the European powers, notably Britain. The first ship of the class was completed in late 1899, the second USS Paul Jones" was due in 1901, with the third yet unnamed ship planned to be laid down in early 1900.

These ships, while lightly armoured, proved a direct challenge all other powers. As of 1900 the 26 knots speed of the Paul Revere made it the fastest crusier in the world, with the British Diadem class comind second with only 23 knots. Certain RN naval circles already started mentioning a "Crusier gap" developping in the Atlantic.




The twin ships of the Boise class, the USS Boise and USS Akron were hardly revolutionary designs. Sometimes jokingly referred to as an oversized colonial aviso, the ships nevertheless provided valuable service in the US Asiatiuc squadron based in Manila.




The Dale DD class was 1 knot slower than most destroyers of other navies, but features twise the amount of torpedo launchers.



NOTE:
Thius is a historical budget playthrough. Palying as France proved to be pretty tough, so I decided to choose what seems to be a much easier nation to play as this time around.

[krawa]

Out of curiosity, what's the reasoning behind the 3" Deck armour on the Delaware class?

What range/ engine and accomodation do the respective ship classes have?

[sabratha]

January 1900 - the third ship of the "Paul Revere" CA class was laid down, named "Patrick Henry".



In February, France occupied the Virgin islands, which was seen in Washington as a diretc threat to Puerto Rico. Suddenly, the French were seen as a more direct and immidieate threat than Britain.





August 1900, a disarmament conference was called to relieve tension, but fialed to achieve anything.


March 1900
- the USS "Paul Jones", the second commerce raider "Paul Revere" class ship is comissioned.

July 1901
- USA starts building 4 coastal submarines, desitned for caraibbean operations.

Jan 1902
- the USS "Patrick Henry", the third commerce raider "Paul Revere" class ship is comissioned.


June 1902. Two North Dakota battleships are laid down, which are an incremental uprade of the previous Delaware class. Faster, better armoured and with 20 secondary 6 inch guns. Tertiary 3 inch guns were dropped alltogeather, as the US shifts to a long range gunnery training doctrine.



Another ship laid down is a CL of a new class, designed withg medium range raider operations, as well as hunting down slower CL raiders of other nations. It retains the 26 knots speed of the infamous Paul Revere class.

Tensions with Japan and France remain high.

[sabratha]

Sept 10, 2015 8:06:54 GMT -6 krawa said:

Out of curiosity, what's the reasoning behind the 3" Deck armour on the Delaware class?

What range/ engine and accomodation do the respective ship classes have?

3 inch deck armour is made with long term use in mind, possibly with upgrading engines and exchanging turrents to single mounts of a larger caliber down the line. Plus I'm going for increased gunnery training and hope to conduct BB battles at long ranges.


Cruising range is short, accomodation normal. Range doesn't really need to be medium, as these are designed to mostly protect home waters from the likes of John Bull.


AAR continues
September 1902, the 4 subs are comissioned.


6 small fast vessels of the Kingfisher class are ordered, with minesweeping and coastal patrol duties in mind.


Spies reveal the new Russian CA design, but nobody in the US admirality is impressed.


Dec 1902 - Madness in Java continues.



Jan 1904 - Mozambique is now under US influence, while a government in the Dominican republic wwas installed by Germany.



May 1904 - chicago CL comissioned, turns out she can pull 27 knots after all. A Battleship the USS Delaware is sent to Manila, just in case the japanese or French get some delusions of grandeur.

January 1905 - the two North Dakota Battleships are comissioned, bringing the US battle line to 7 ships (including the two coastal battleships). Britain already has 7 battleships, but is building two more. Everyone esle is far behind, with Germany and Russia coming 3rd with 4 battleships each.

[sabratha]

March 1906 - Updated version of the "Paul Revere" design, the "Samuel Adams" class, one ship laid down. Britain has recently launeched 27 knot fast CAs,thus the US felt it needed to top that again. "The Crusier gap in the north Atlantic must continue!"

The world is still waiting to see its first dreadnaught style ship, although spies hint that something big is coming from German yards.


Feb 1907, as an experiment the Paul Jones is upgraded to something resembilng the Sam Adams standard. Speed will go up to 29 knots with new engines, the ship will get torpedo bulkges and improved 9inch main rifles.

May 1907:
Britain is reported to lay down a new type of ship, some sort of enlarged crusier they call a "Battlecrusier". Seems the crusier race in the north Atlantic will continue yet!


December 1908, at long last teh US lays down its first pair of Dreadnaught Battleships. This is a truy modern design, with integrated torpedo protection, oil fueled and posessing triple turrets of 13 inch guns. The design of these two ships causes panic around the world, with Britain, Russia and Japan increasing naval spending as a result.


So far, the only existing BB in the world was a single German battleship - Worth:






March 1910: Desperate to avoid a further Crusier race in the Atlantic (mostly due to budget strains resulting from the building of the california class), the US signed an agreement with Britain, officially described as a "mutual understanding". While not strictly an alliance, the admiralities and army staffs of both nations now coorrdinate their plans in case of an eventual war against the Russo-French bloc. Tensions remain high with Italy as well. Some begin to wonder if a "Great War" will occur in the future should the interlocking series of alliances come into action as a result of "some utter madness, probably in the balkans".

June 1911:
The USS California and USS Arizona comissioned to the US navy.


However the Californias are far from being the most powerfull ships afloat, as the UK has comissioned the "Royal Oak"last month.

US moves its two coastal battleships to reserve and ponders its building options.


August 1911. An unknown submarine torpedoes an old US destroyer off Puerto Rico. Some say it was not a torpedo, but rather the ship struck an old spanish mine dating back to the Spanish-American war. Others yet say that it was a freak magazine explosion caused by improperly stored shells.

But it doesn't matter. France is blamed and the next day the US newspapers are all clamoring for war.

Then the war came.

The Admiral offers a few short comments about the situation, later repeated by the New York Times: "France will share the fate of Spain. We will move against the French forces located in the caraibbean and in southeast Asia and we will anihilate them. Our Navy will win the war."

In London the mood is far less optimistic. The British press universally proclaim the "End of the Pax Britannica". One more time in its long history, th British empire decalres war on the French. The Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey grimly remarks that "Lights are going out all over Europe."

Still, the crowds gathered in Trafalgar square sing "God save the King" and wave signs saying "Onwards to Paris!". At teh same time, the bands on the strets of New York, Boston, Chicago and amny american cities continue to play one tune over and over.

"Anchors aweigh" is the tune in question.

[sabratha]

US moves 2 Delaware class battleships and two North Dakota class battleships, as well as numerous crusiers and destroyers to the caraibbean. The freshly launched california class ships remain in home waters for the crews to get used to the ships.

Both coastal battleships are moved from reserve and sent to the caraibbean as well.

In a wartime flurry of building, the US orders 8 new oceanic submarines. As well as its first true battlecrusier:

The Thomas Paine was laid down mostly to respond to a smaller BC design recently laid down in Italy. There are fears that Italy will join the war on the side of France and Russia.


Feb 1912 France has been mainly avoiding naval engagements, USA lost 1 DD to a mine. The british are blockading France, while the US army invaded and occupied Annam.

May 1912 - French Antilles posessions invaded.


Spies have cauted plans of an enemy BB nearing completion. We are not impressed by the antiquated turret layout, although the speed and armour seem decent enough.





June 1912 - Laid down the USS Oklahoma, an enlarged and better armoured California using 14 inch main guns.





Well, the Samuel Adams was designed as a raider but that itself means its a good ship to hunt down raiders as well. In the first major naval battle of the war, the two crusiers duke it out in the waters off Africa. The French unit tries to flee but teh chase is cut short by a sudden explosion. Superior US gunnery mad ethe difference, with far more hits scored until finally a turret flashg fire destroyes the French vessel.

The following month the Paul Revere attacks a ship of the same Gueydon class, but this time nightfall saves the French ship from disaster. French gunnery efficiency was estimated to be only 3% against the 7.8% of the US crew.

In other news, given a favourable offer by a patriotic shipyard, we lay down another Thomas Pain class BC, the "James Monroe".


November 1912 - another Gueydon class crusier meets the Paul Revere and this time it goes down. France has lost two heavy crusiers in this war to one destroyer lost by the USA.


December 1912. The French send an old 19th centruy protected cruiser to the Caraibbean, only to be intercepted by the USS Patrick Henry, commerce raider turned "commerce raider killer". The fight is short and one sided, with the Tage dissapearing under the waves.

The commander of the Patrick Henry offered a brief comment to the press, a quote from the Civil war general A.P. Hill - "Not war, but murder."

Back in the US dockyards, the James Monroe is put on hold due to financial reasons.


Meanwhile there's much more war and much less murder going on the land in the Antilles. A part of the garrison of Martinique is Henri Barbusse, who will later go on to become famous for his depiction of the conflict in the bestselling book Les cocos et les tranchées".


At the same time Barbusse's comerades from teh communist party are launching protests and strikes in France, aiming to topple the government. All the while French troops have landed in Mozambique.


January 1913. The war has been going for 1.5 years now, and it snot goign well for the French. Their offensive of Monzambique has ended in a debacle.





Big month for teh submarines. The investment in the silent service has finally paid off.




May 1913. The public, including infamously schoolchilodren, has collected quite some funds for a new battleship. Having no larger docks, the admirality has settled for a second Oklahoma class BB, the USS Kansas.


June 1913. Sic transit gloria mundi.
After almost 100 years of uninterruped French rule, the islands of Martinique and Guadalupe have fallen to the enemies of France. The last French soldiers, including Barbusse, have surrendered and are being shipped to Florida as POWs.



July 1913. The war has been going on for 2 years now. In teh indian ocean the USS Samual Adams had sunk a french armed auxilary crusier the "Ville de Strasbourg".

September 1913 - Russian and French ships in asia search for the US raiders in vain. A white peace with Russia occurs the next month.





February 1914 -  over 2 years into the war the French finally collapsed on the home front.
USA establishes a protectorate over the Virgin Islands, Djibouti, Madagascar and Chochin-China. Cohcinchina is to be united with Annam into the "Empire of Viet Nam" and to be ruled by a puppet monarch residing in the ancient capital of Hue.
Britain in turn takes over the French pacific posessions in Polynesia. As a result the French have been removed from the Indian ocean and the caraibbean, with their colony in Tonkin and their treaty ports in south China becoming very isolated.

In the aftermath of the war, the naval budget is reduced and the navy founds itself bankrupt.
Hard choices have to be made. The coast battleships are being mothballed, as are most minesweepers. The fate of the incompleted James Monroe BC hangs in the balance. For now its construction is put on hold, but it will possibly be scrapped in the following months.

April 1914. The remaining 3 coastal submarines that survived the war are being scrapped.




June 1914. Spies obtain the plans for the new German BB being built. While significantly less armored, it is better equiped with 12x14 inch guns as opposed to the 9x14 inch of the Kansas class. Its also 2 knoits faster than the Kansas class.

Members of congress express their concern, but the Navy budget is in no shape to buld new battleships. The antiquated DD force needs to be replaced first and the USS Kansas and USS Oklahoma being completed in the shipyards are taking away all funds. However the growing number of 14 inch armed ships seals the fate oif the uncompleted USS James Monroe. With its 11 inch guns, the battlecrusier (which was on hold for months) is declared obsolete and is scrapped.

The plans to rebuild the venerable Rhode Island class coastal battleships have been proven too expensive. "We don't need a 10 000 ton gunboat capable of making oly 17 knots"



January 1915. At long last, the USS Rhode Island and USS Long Island are decomissioned and towed to Norfolk to be scrapped. Admiral Sims was reported to have commented on the issue: "These battleships were built by my predecessor. They were tough little ships, but its an end of a certain era. We are currently building ships 3 times their size and tenfold better armed. The Rhode Island class ships are thoroughly obsolote, but nevertheless it is sad to see them go."

In Norfolk crowds have gathered to give their final respects to the twin ships. The band was playing "Anchors Aweigh".

February 1915. The USS Oklahoma is comissioned. The USS Kansas has more than a year to go, given the post-war crisis and spending months on hold due to a lack of funds. However the comissioning of the Battleship means more funds are available for other projects.


March 1915. Two new Wickes class DDs laid down. The plans call for building more of these as times goes by and gradulally replacing the antiquated 1899 DDs in service currently.

[sabratha]

November 1915 - Britain cancelled our security arrangement, which caused quite a stir in Washington. Given the recent financial issues, nobody wants a return to the "North Atlantic Crusier race" of the early 1900s.


Early this year the British have comissioned their first Anson class BB, which dwarfs everything the US Navy has with its 10x15 inch main battery.



May 1916 - The Delawares are being rebuilt. They get improved 12 inch rifles, new fire control, and torpedo bulges. Most importantly however is that they receive new oil engines that raise their speed to 21 knots, so they can now keep up with the rest of the battle line. To offset the weight differences, they lose their 3 inch abttery and two 6 inch guns.

June 1916 - more budget cuts, but at least that lower sthe tensions with John Bull.


Instead a larger and more modern version of the Wickes class is developped. This one has 9 torpedo tubes and 5 inch main guns instead of the 4 inch guns on the Wickes.

August 1917.

Now the North Dakota and North Carolina get the same upgrades. Oil engines, better guns. As tehy don't need to have a speed increase, the weight is used on 10 additional 3 inch guns.


Jan 1918
France scrapped its pre-dreadnaught fleet alltogeather and seems to have decisively decided in favor of commerce raiding. Here's thier new battlecrusier that our spies have obtained the plans of. It slower than out Thomas Paine, but ut is better armed and much better armed.

Perhaps we need to ponder a counter-measure, especially since this ship is more powerfull than our Battleships.

Jan 1919. The new docks are now completed, we can build 39 000 ton ships. Here is the american response to the Duquesne threat:

Benjamin Franklin "Fast Battleship". Faster and better armed than the Duquesne, she nevertheless is cramped and has a smaller secondary battery. The Duquesne is a fine ship and the USN designers had to work hard to top her within the constraints of the 39 000 dock limit. The US naval staff hopes that the larger guns, better fire control systems and superior gunnery training will bring her victory should she encounter the Duquesne in combat. The US ordered two such ships.


However, the British meanwhile comissioned the HMS Centurion. A slow and insufficiently armored, but well armed ship.

April 1920. After intense dimplomatic negotiations, the tensions between the US and Britain have been somewhat relieved. At the same time, the relations with the German empire have grown sour. Most nations seem to have stalled construction of capital ships for the moment.


November 1920. Whiel waiting for the Franklin class, the US designed and ordered two colonial CL ships bound for southeast asia. These will replace the infamous "oversized colonial avisos" of the Boise class.
Meanwhile the French have started work on yet another battlecruiser. Given the quality of their previous design, many poeple in Washington are worried about the possibilities.

August 1921, the two Franklin class ships, the USS Benjamin Franklin and the USS John Adams are comissioned.

July 1922. The relations with Germany are reaching a boiling point. Our dock expansion is progressing, we shoudl eb able to lay down our new designs next month.




August 1922. Krieg!

The bands in New York are again playing "Anchors awaigh". Though the last time around, it took two whole years for the war to end and UK has been an ally. Now USA stands alone and faces a lot of internal unrest.

Germany has 2 BBs, 2 BCs all from 1907-1913 and 3 vintage predreadnaughts. The fleet of 13 U-boots is what really worries the people in Washington.

Many small vessels and submarines are ordered at once in the US.

August just seems to be a bad month as far as international relations go.




September 1922. With grim resolve, two new battleships are laid down.The powerful Colorado class.

November 1924 - Japan enters the war on the side of Germany.

December 1925 - War ends with a minor victory on the US side. It was a long and relatively uneventfull war, one German raiding CL was sunk, as was one German pre-dreadnaught that ran into some US destroyers. Other than that, the war was fought almost exclusively by the submarines and armed merchants of both sides. Certainly feels like the end of the big gun warship era.





And that would be all folks!

The last war was dissapointing not just as far as war-victories go, but in general as other than the single german pre-dreadnaught raid went, it was all faught by the AI as a commerce war.

I was unable to blockade Germany because I had no bases In Europe and somehow my army faield to invade the german asian, pacific or caraibbean posessions, even though my navy ruled supreme there. I ended up with 30 prestige, which was on the low side caused mainly by some of my own submarine *exploits*.

[fredsanford]

The way to pull off a blockade is to send 1/3 to 1/2 of your battle fleet at a time. Obviously that requires lots of ships. When a ship's status is AF*, send it home, and replace with similar unit- basically a constant rotating deployment. BTW, the "*" appearing on a ship's status means it needs some refit time. If a ship breaks down or gets damaged in battle without a local port, it will get interned.

Better yet as the US, get into a war with Russia, and if you can manage a "revolution" outcome, you can grab Finland or the Baltic States to build into a major fleet base, and then all of Europe will tremble at your feet. East Prussia used to be a good candidate for that play as well, but got changed a patch or two ago.

One game as the US, the UK had an uprising in Ireland. Ireland won, and declared independence. A year or two later, I get the "turmoil in Ireland, do you want to intervene?" event. I say yes, and annex Ireland. I get into a war with Germany, but since I have a gigantic fleet base right there, I can do an immediate and crushing blockade. I win the war, and very next turn, Ireland rebels against my rule, and declares independence from me! Can't keep the Irish down!

[sabratha]

I wasn't able to blockade the Germans mostly because I had no bases in the region. That's understandable, I was more concerned over my army failing to invade the german holkdings in southeast asia and the caraibbean. I had most of my battleships there and nothing happened.

[gornik]

Sept 11, 2015 2:43:45 GMT -6 sabratha said:

I wasn't able to blockade the Germans mostly because I had no bases in the region. That's understandable, I was more concerned over my army failing to invade the german holkdings in southeast asia and the caraibbean. I had most of my battleships there and nothing happened.

And were there any German ships? There should be 4:1 proportion in battle strength of ships in region. Note that computer look at your fleet and try to counter your force concentrations, sending additional ships and declining battles. Also coastal batteries now reduce risk of invasion. I usually see invasions after year of domination in region or so, but it's hard to keep it without allies which blockade enemy homeland.

PS: AAR is great! And thanks for music! Never hear this march before.

[cwemyss]

Yes, awesome AAR!

I'm playing as USA right now, got into a war in ~1914 with Italy. As tension was growing, I found the only Italian overseas possession on the map. I loaded SE Asia and W. Africa (I own Cameroon) with the makings of a pretty decent expeditionary fleet, and on the first month of the war I moved them all into the IO. I waited 8 freakin months for the Army to invade, with me having anywhere between 8:1 and 50:1 (yes, 50:1!) estimated strength advantage in the water. There were months where I had 4 B/BB, 2-3 CA, 2-3 CL, 4-6 DD, to the Italians' 1 CL... and the Army still didn't get off their butt.

And the invasion took another 6 months to resolve, with me maintaining similar strength ratios. It dipped as low as a 4:1 advantage at one point, but that was as low as it got for 14 straight months!

Anyway, Eritrea is mine, I turned off the computer and went to bed. :-)

[sabratha]

Sept 11, 2015 6:09:34 GMT -6 gornik said:

Sept 11, 2015 2:43:45 GMT -6 sabratha said:

I wasn't able to blockade the Germans mostly because I had no bases in the region. That's understandable, I was more concerned over my army failing to invade the german holkdings in southeast asia and the caraibbean. I had most of my battleships there and nothing happened.

And were there any German ships? There should be 4:1 proportion in battle strength of ships in region. Note that computer look at your fleet and try to counter your force concentrations, sending additional ships and declining battles. Also coastal batteries now reduce risk of invasion. I usually see invasions after year of domination in region or so, but it's hard to keep it without allies which blockade enemy homeland.

PS: AAR is great! And thanks for music! Never hear this march before.

Other than some armed merchantmen and a single German CL in some months, both the caraibbean and SE asia were devoid of any real german surfance combatants for the vast majority of the war. At the same time I had several battleships in each zone and many other ships.

Later on when Japan entered the war it sent some crusiers into SE asia, but these kept avoiding all battles and didn't even make any serious raiding attempts. I'm still puzzled why the lone German holding in the caraibbean was not invaded :/

Frankly, Japan's entry into the war only weakened Germany. Alone, Germany was smart enough to keep its fleet in home waters and was doign a good job hitting me with its impressive submarine force. When Japan came into the war,  I was able to inflict significant commerce damage on the japanese which turned the tide of the whole war in my favor.

Thanks for the kind comments on the AAR as a whole.

I may make another ARR later on, perhaps with large fleets and historicla budgets. My experience so far is taht with medium sized fleets and historical budgets, pretty much all nations are unable to build their fleets to near the size oif the RL fleets of the time.

[ccip]

Nicely done! Not too eventful as far as battles (I think you'll see that change if you play "very large" games next), but lots of careful consideration for politics and construction

[sabratha]

Sept 13, 2015 5:59:03 GMT -6 ccip said:

Nicely done! Not too eventful as far as battles (I think you'll see that change if you play "very large" games next), but lots of careful consideration for politics and construction

Well, one thing I noticed is that in comparison with my earlier France games, the tensions were dropping by themselves much faster. I think this migth have had something to do with my fleet size - everyone was eager to go to war agianst my French navy (struggling for funds and to keep up with the other naval powers).

Here I had a commanding superiority in surface warships over everyone save the RN, so it seems the AI was not too eager to go to war against me and when war came, it wasn't eager to send his surface fleets against me. Plus it was the added element of not having a home region in the same place wher eother powers had their own home regions.