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Post by bcoopactual on Apr 19, 2018 8:07:19 GMT -6
I suppose those could be very early models of hovercraft; that would explain why they didn't have to stop to change over from props to treads. Or it could be this... Ogre!!! I'm glad the AI doesn't have emotions or rage quits. If this had been me I'd have been... perturbed. Sep 1923, I get a surprise battle colony defense mission in the Caribbean with large fleets. I get 2 battlecruisers for my main fleet, USS Vincennes and USS Ticonderoga. * Not bad for a convoy defense mission. I'm thinking I can handle this. So my two 26,400 ton (pre-AoN) battlecruisers, both commissioned in 1911 are puttering along with an escort of 3 CLs and 7 DDs (+2 DDs for convoys) when this leviathan crests the horizon. HMS Niobe, lead ship of its class, second in tonnage only to the 42,600 ton Rodney-class. Niobe was commissioned only 13 months earlier in August 1922 and is escorted by 4 CLs and 3 DDs. Hell. Well, it's British, maybe I'll get lucky and blow it up. We turn on slowly converging, roughly parallel paths and Niobe opens fire first. In eighteen minutes Niobe has hit the lead ship Vincennes with four 16 inch shells. All penetrated the armor and two caused heavy flooding. Bad enough that within 30 minutes of the fight starting I've had to detach Vincennes so it can slow down to combat the flooding. Vincennes managed one 14 inch hit on Niobe in return. But here's the part where if the AI had feelings it would have rage quit. While Vincennes was getting pummeled, Ticonderoga was unmolested and getting hit after hit on Niobe. In the half hour before Vincennes retired Tico got eight hits with its 14 inch guns. One destroyed Niobe's port torpedo flat and then 30 minutes in, right as Vincennes was detaching, 14 inch shells disabled first Y turret and then A turret. Then two minutes later, Vincennes' one hit disabled X turret. Niobe went from four functioning turrets to one in a matter of three minutes. Thirteen minutes later, B turret was disabled by Tico and Niobe had zero functioning turrets for seven minutes. After that it was just three hour game of Wack-a-Mole on Niobe's turrets. Niobe recorded fifty-five 14 inch shell hits before it was logged as sinking. Twenty-two of them struck one of the four turrets. After that first 30 minutes, Niobe never again had all four turrets up at the same time. I did a rough count. It had three turrets for only forty-eight minutes. It had one functioning turret for almost as long at forty-five minutes and the remaining one hundred-four minutes with two turrets. And that assumes that A turret really did come back from the dead because it was reported as destroyed at one point and then fourteen minutes later reported as restored. So I don't know if A turret was working or not. Not helping was a critical hit to Niobe's fire control which occurred about fourteen minutes prior to A turret reporting being destroyed. Niobe didn't get many rounds off after that critical hit. Just to pour salt in the wound, after Niobe was officially sinking my destroyers hit it with six torpedoes. And then Ticonderoga caused a flash fire in B turret that blew up the turret's magazine so I got my flash fire after all. One of my light cruisers eventually picked up twenty-seven survivors from Niobe. LOL, I don't know if that is just super bad luck for the 41,000 ton battlecruiser or if they inadvertently installed powerful electromagnets in the turrets and drew my shells to them. Heck of a fight and ended up being one of my favorite battles. The general log and the American BC logs are in the scenario notes file. Niobe and the other lost British ships are in the scenario notes2 file. *Most of those battlestars for Ticonderoga came in the previous war with France. Both American battlecruisers had Good quality crews for this fight.
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Post by Noname117 on Apr 19, 2018 10:30:08 GMT -6
Going to be sharing a battle I livestreamed a bit ago. The screenshots are not going to be of the best quality, because they are from the Youtube video upload of the 720p Twitch livestream... So as a late 1920s Austria Hungary war broke out with both Italy and Britain. Not the greatest scenario, but I did have both Russia and Germany as allies. In this game, this was probably the closest war to WWI. Now this war did have it's fair share of large battles. Battleships and battlecruisers going toe-to-toe, and some getting sunk in the process. But today's story isn't about one of those fights. It's about a raider intercept mission, usually routine missions I just auto-resolve and get on with. Now previously I had lost a light cruiser to a smaller and less-well-armed enemy ship by auto-resolving the battle. So this time I took manual control of the mission. 9/24/1928 The Austria-Hungarian cruiser SMS Fido is the hunter. Armed with six 6 inch guns, capable of 28 knots, and commissioned in 1917, she's one of the older Austria-Hungarian cruisers still in active service. On the British side as a raider is the Rainbow class light cruiser Indefatigable. She's capable of 27 knots, and is armed with two centerline 6 inch guns and five 4 inch guns on each broadside in single mounts. Now comparing the 2 ships, Indefatigable is both larger and has an extra inch of deck armor. Fido does have an armored conning tower however. In a broadside, Fido can bring five of her 6 inch guns to bear, while Indefatigable would be using her two 6 inch guns and five of her 4 inch guns. Fido also has a 1 knot speed advantage, and had been modernized 4 years prior with additional torpedo tubes and updated fire control, although Britain's technological prowess allowed Indefatigable to have the fire control advantage (Improved director vs normal director). And she has a crew quality advantage. Now I didn't know of either of the latter things, and thought Fido was likely to have the advantage, with her 1924 modernization, her all-main-gun broadside, and her firepower advantage in a stern chase. The battle starts with Fido approaching Indefatigable from the north. Both ships start firing at each other, as Fido continues to close the range a bit. Unfortunately Fido has a bit of a bout of bad luck. Before any shot has landed true on either side 2 of Fido's turrets have jammed. Within minutes Indefatigable scores 2 hits on Fido, causing some flotation loss. Fido turns broadside to Indefatigable, but the British raider continues to land hits. Fido's starboard torpedoes are destroyed. Fido turns to the north and attempts to run away from the fight it's clearly losing, but Indefatigable chases, and the damage to Fido has slowed her down enough that the speed advantage now lies with the British ship. Fido goes broadside to the British cruiser at this point. Both ships land hits on each other, but the hits on Fido are much more crippling. 2 of Fido's turrets are destroyed, and another hit wrecks her engine room. Fido, now with her machinery crippled, slows to a stop as she one again turns northward. Indefatigable passes by close to the west to get accurate fire on the dead-in-the-water Austria-Hungarian cruiser. At this point I think Fido is doomed, as there's no running away, and this British cruiser now has a firepower advantage due to at least 3 of Fido's guns being out-of-service (at least one jammed, 2 destroyed). Or a single torpedo could do the light cruiser in. Fido gets some of her machinery repaired, and is able to start a turn to the northeast. At the same time she launches a single torpedo from her port torpedo launcher. And just like that the battle is over. Fido, nearly dead in the water, with a significant portion of her firepower out of action, against a now faster enemy light cruiser with better fire control, better crew quality and more of her systems working well, had managed to win the fight with a single torpedo. The hunter had become the hunted and then became the hunter again. I've seen AI ships do this to my ships (and the ships of other players) several times over the course of many different games. It's nice to see the shoe on the other foot. A little dose of revenge against the AI of this game. If you are interested in watching this battle, the recording of the livestream is up on YouTube. Click on the link below to watch the battle unfold. And the many more from that livestream session. youtu.be/1jaP778_HS8?t=29m46sAt some point I'll have to post the story of the USS Conner somewhere. Although that one's more courageous than humorous.
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Post by aeson on Apr 19, 2018 13:36:17 GMT -6
Who said ramming wasn't an effective tactic? Spain has now sunk more of my warships (1) by ramming than by any other means (0).
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Post by director on Apr 19, 2018 13:47:47 GMT -6
bcoopactual - I do wonder if Niobe's problems were compounded by ammunition shortages. Having a working turret is no good if you don;t have bullets to feed it. Noname117 - Well done that man! I don't have illustrations, but I'll contribute this: I'm playing as the USA in a game where the CSA is an opponent. It's 1913 and I've split my fleet, with the dreadnoughts and battlecruisers in the Caribbean (CSA home area) while my four semi-dreadnoughts and two remaining pre-dreadnoughts hold down the east coast (my home area). Sure enough, the AI gets sneaky and I find I'm in a fleet battle with my 5 'old reliables' against his 5 or 6 pre-dreadnoughts... and 5 battlecruisers. Yikes!When I see that I'd like to withdraw, but trying to run looks like a worse option than fighting it out. So I engage his pre-dreadnoughts, both of us in a line headed east out into the Atlantic. His BCs come up and take station parallel to and behind (south of) his line, so I figure their fire is screened. My semi-dreadnoughts (newly equipped with Director control but no secondary directors) drop some serious iron and his Bs crumple. So here come the BCs... Straight into a torpedo barrage. Wait a minute, I didn't order that! Good golly Miss Molly, my pointy-headed DD captains did it all on their own hook! So the BCs turn south, but in the meantime my semis are pounding the - um - rust out of them. Final score, he loses two Bs and a BC to a bunch of old B's. Then, just at the end, the AI decides my semi-dreadnought Illinois strikes a mine and sinks... So the next turn, the CSA moves its big ships back to the Caribbean and tries again. This time my small force of dreadnoughts is off Miami, and his B's and BC's are in separate 'prongs' (his only BB, CSS Louisiana, got sunk the first month of war. Something about 60 12" shells didn't agree with her.) Again I was able to concentrate on one (the BCs) and drive it off before crushing the second (the Bs). This time he only lost 2 Bs but all of his BCs were pretty battered. But midway through, USS Wyoming takes a torp and it's bad... level 550... and the crew aren't having much luck with it. Finally it's controlled, and on her last bubbles of buoyancy she sets out for home - steaming 12 knots - and, of course, runs into two Confederate DDs in the dark. So I'm screaming at the monitor. She's out of range, nothing I can do... here goes my victory down the proverbial abyssal trench... And then, bang- bang - she takes them both out and just keeps rolling on. So if it could, the AI would be weeping tears of rage. I beat his BCs with my Bs and then beat his Bs with my BBs. I feel very smug right about now LOL.
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Post by aeson on Apr 19, 2018 14:53:34 GMT -6
So I decided to look over a 10x9" CA that I just commissioned... Yep, looks al... wait, fourteen 9" guns? ... Um, where are the other four guns coming from?
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Post by gornik on Apr 19, 2018 15:29:55 GMT -6
Who said ramming wasn't an effective tactic? Spain has now sunk more of my warships (1) by ramming than by any other means (0). I had battle, where my cruisers, after sinking large enemy ships, cornered 500-ton DD, S-34. She was beaten, slowed, miss all her torpedoes... Russian flagship, Diana, aproached to shortest distance, and after next hit german destroyer... rammed her opponent! Unfortunately for Germans, 6Ktons were bit more than 0,5K, so DD sunk after a minute, but her captain deserves great glory, even from foes!
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Post by gornik on Apr 19, 2018 16:00:04 GMT -6
Russo-Japanese war started 11.12.1901. In one of longest and darkest winter nights Japanese fleet approached Russian anchorage near Port-Artur for surprise attack . Mighty battleships carelessly stand in columns, waiting their fate . It should be their last hour before sinking... Fortunately, Sun rose as usual, 10 minutes after scenario started and nearly 30 before attack should be launched. Even more, Japanese capital ships missed both Port-Artur and Dalny, coming to bay between them. And they have no destroyers to support... Only time limit saved them from complete massacre at point blanc range, but all battleships were badly damaged, and one CA sunk after torpedo hit. It was real surprise attack, yes... but from the other side! And Japanese admiral should be punished. In the Empire Of The Rising Sun, everybody should know, when Sun actually rises!!!
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Post by joebob73 on Apr 19, 2018 18:10:11 GMT -6
So I decided to look over a 10x9" CA that I just commissioned... Yep, looks al... wait, fourteen 9" guns? ... Um, where are the other four guns coming from? 2 quads and 2 triples is 14.
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Post by aeson on Apr 19, 2018 18:27:09 GMT -6
So I decided to look over a 10x9" CA that I just commissioned... Yep, looks al... wait, fourteen 9" guns? ... Um, where are the other four guns coming from? 2 quads and 2 triples is 14. Ugh. For some reason I had it in my head that I did two triples and two twins.
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Post by garrisonchisholm on Apr 19, 2018 20:39:35 GMT -6
Russo-Japanese war started 11.12.1901. In one of longest and darkest winter nights Japanese fleet approached Russian anchorage near Port-Artur for surprise attack . Mighty battleships carelessly stand in columns, waiting their fate . It should be their last hour before sinking... Fortunately, Sun rose as usual, 10 minutes after scenario started and nearly 30 before attack should be launched. Even more, Japanese capital ships missed both Port-Artur and Dalny, coming to bay between them. And they have no destroyers to support... Only time limit saved them from complete massacre at point blanc range, but all battleships were badly damaged, and one CA sunk after torpedo hit. It was real surprise attack, yes... but from the other side! And Japanese admiral should be punished. In the Empire Of The Rising Sun, everybody should know, when Sun actually rises!!! Maybe they should hire some more meteorologists.
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Post by gornik on Apr 20, 2018 18:50:44 GMT -6
This fresh sunny morning should be the last day for brave crew of old Russian raider Zhemchug, as brand new French battlecruiser Duquesne in her maiden voyage spotted them just after sunrise. 2100 tons vs 20000. 23 knots vs 25. 1 inch of protected deck vs 10 inch belt. Rookies (-1 crew) vs professionals (0 crew). French ship had 2x2 13" main guns and 14x1 6" secondaries, Russians - only "rear gun-accelerator" - single 10" with 160 shells (4x1 5" certanly shouldn't be mentioned in such battle). Quite simple story, yes? NO!!! After 5 hours of chasing, Duquesne suddenly gave up and turned away from badly damaged Zhemchug, though Russian ship was crippled to 18 knots and had flooding problems. So raider returned home, damaged but unvanquished. I should now award her with St George's ensign and keep ship called Pamyat Zhemchuga in fleet forever. How this may happen? Let's try to imagine... *Zhemchug's bridge* nearly 9:00 Russian Captain (R): - That was good life... Cruises around the world, scuttled merchants, prise money... Now it's time to pay for it. Give crew vodka, they deserve it. And one cup for me, too. *Comes to deck* - Men! We can't neither run nor defend, but we may die with honour! For Faith, Tzar and Motherland! *drinks* - Open fire! 12:28 R: - What? What I've just seen?! Our 10 inch gun HIT IT'S TARGET??? Additional cups of vodka to all it's crew! And one for me, too. *drinks* - Does our radio still work? Yes? Miracle! Send this message at any station you may connect with. to:
CA Ilya Muromets
for:
Captain
You lost the bet. Rear gun may hit. 13:40 R: - Underwater hit? Well, our luck should end, sooner or later. There is still some liquid in the bottle, this should end too. Now! *drinks* 14:00 *Captain returning on bridge from latrine* R: - I... I missed something? We... fought... with battlecruiser... five minutes ago, yes?... And lose hopelessly... Where is it all? Maybe it was just my nightmare?... No? But, what happen??? Meanwhile, at * Duquesne's bridge near 13:50 *forward guns fire every minute* Captain (C): - Aim better, men! Die, die, DIE YOU PIRATE SCUM!!! *Ship's Chief Bookkeeper (B) approaches* - Captain! C: - What?.. What hell do you do here?! B: - Sorry, but may I recall new Staff Department Instruction 13/666 "Effectiveness as key to victory"? C: - Why do you bother me with that papers in such time?!?!... B: - Let me explain. Every captain now have rating of effectiveness, depends from his activities. § 13 says, that all ammo should be use with maximum effectiveness, standard index may be seen in appendix 2, did you see it? C: - NO! And don't want to look at it before we sink THIS DAMN BLOODY CAN!!! B: - You should, as it is about your career. It says, that " effective captain should use not more than 1 heavy shell for every 20 tons of opponent ship". You now spend nearly 160. And also it says that effective captain should spend only 1 medium shell for 10 ton of opponent ship. Do you know, how many secondary ammo you spent? C: - Ahem, maybe 300 shells? B: - No, five minutes ago your ship shoot 500th shell. Do you understand, what does it mean? You are becoming less and less effective with every shell fired! And if you spend 3 times more, than allowed, your rating will lowers to completely inefficient.
... C: -...Even if we sunk them??? B: - Of course! No bonuses for sunk enemies mentioned in this document. C: - But... I has order... to defend our trade... France... expects... victory... B: - And YOU may expect dismission next day after returning to Brest. I've heard, you took credit to buy that shining Panhard-Levassor automobile?... And what should expect your team? C: - My... crew? B: - Team. You are the Leader, and we are your team, as Instruction explains. Our rating of effectiveness depends from this action as well... C: - Hey, men, cease fire! Turn away, course to Brest! Damn! DAMN!!! DAMN BUREAUCRACY!!! When we return, I'll shoot all damn saved shells at their office, to proof my effectiveness!!! B: - Sorry, captain, their main office is in Paris, out of your range. You'd better enroll in course of team building and leadership to increase your rating... C: - Nnnever!!! Course to Ireland! Hope I'll find work in their navy, without ratings and other bloody team-management inventions...
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Post by garrisonchisholm on Apr 20, 2018 19:54:57 GMT -6
This fresh sunny morning should be the last day for brave crew of old Russian raider Zhemchug, as brand new French battlecruiser Duquesne in her maiden voyage spotted them just after sunrise. 2100 tons vs 20000. 23 knots vs 25. 1 inch of protected deck vs 10 inch belt. Rookies (-1 crew) vs professionals (0 crew). French ship had 2x2 13" main guns and 14x1 6" secondaries, Russians - only "rear gun-accelerator" - single 10" with 160 shells (4x1 5" certanly shouldn't be mentioned in such battle). Quite simple story, yes? NO!!! After 5 hours of chasing, Duquesne suddenly gave up and turned away from badly damaged Zhemchug, though Russian ship was crippled to 18 knots and had flooding problems. So raider returned home, damaged but unvanquished. I should now award her with St George's ensign and keep ship called Pamyat Zhemchuga in fleet forever. How this may happen? Let's try to imagine... *Zhemchug's bridge* nearly 9:00 Russian Captain (R): - That was good life... Cruises around the world, scuttled merchants, prise money... Now it's time to pay for it. Give crew vodka, they deserve it. And one cup for me, too. *Comes to deck* - Men! We can't neither run nor defend, but we may die with honour! For Faith, Tzar and Motherland! *drinks* - Open fire! 12:28 R: - What? What I've just seen?! Our 10 inch gun HIT IT'S TARGET??? Additional cups of vodka to all it's crew! And one for me, too. *drinks* - Does our radio still work? Yes? Miracle! Send this message at any station you may connect with. to:
CA Ilya Muromets
for:
Captain
You lost the bet. Rear gun may hit. 13:40 R: - Underwater hit? Well, our luck should end, sooner or later. There is still some liquid in the bottle, this should end too. Now! *drinks* 14:00 *Captain returning on bridge from latrine* R: - I... I missed something? We... fought... with battlecruiser... five minutes ago, yes?... And lose hopelessly... Where is it all? Maybe it was just my nightmare?... No? But, what happen??? Meanwhile, at * Duquesne's bridge near 13:50 *forward guns fire every minute* Captain (C): - Aim better, men! Die, die, DIE YOU PIRATE SCUM!!! *Ship's Chief Bookkeeper (B) approaches* - Captain! C: - What?.. What hell do you do here?! B: - Sorry, but may I recall new Staff Department Instruction 13/666 "Effectiveness as key to victory"? C: - Why do you bother me with that papers in such time?!?!... B: - Let me explain. Every captain now have rating of effectiveness, depends from his activities. § 13 says, that all ammo should be use with maximum effectiveness, standard index may be seen in appendix 2, did you see it? C: - NO! And don't want to look at it before we sink THIS DAMN BLOODY CAN!!! B: - You should, as it is about your career. It says, that " effective captain should use not more than 1 heavy shell for every 20 tons of opponent ship". You now spend nearly 160. And also it says that effective captain should spend only 1 medium shell for 10 ton of opponent ship. Do you know, how many secondary ammo you spent? C: - Ahem, maybe 300 shells? B: - No, five minutes ago your ship shoot 500th shell. Do you understand, what does it mean? You are becoming less and less effective with every shell fired! And if you spend 3 times more, than allowed, your rating will lowers to completely inefficient.
... C: -...Even if we sunk them??? B: - Of course! No bonuses for sunk enemies mentioned in this document. C: - But... I has order... to defend our trade... France... expects... victory... B: - And YOU may expect dismission next day after returning to Brest. I've heard, you took credit to buy that shining Panhard-Levassor automobile?... And what should expect your team? C: - My... crew? B: - Team. You are the Leader, and we are your team, as Instruction explains. Our rating of effectiveness depends from this action as well... C: - Hey, men, cease fire! Turn away, course to Brest! Damn! DAMN!!! DAMN BUREAUCRACY!!! When we return, I'll shoot all damn saved shells at their office, to proof my effectiveness!!! B: - Sorry, captain, their main office is in Paris, out of your range. You'd better enroll in course of team building and leadership to increase your rating... C: - Nnnever!!! Course to Ireland! Hope I'll find work in their navy, without ratings and other bloody team-management inventions... *a mighty, coffee sputtering gufaw* LOL
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Post by bcoopactual on Apr 21, 2018 6:35:45 GMT -6
LOL, I wonder if staff department instruction 13/666 says anything about ramming the bastards? I would have thought for sure that the French battlecruiser ran out of ammunition. You forgot to mention the Russian captain must have given the French battlecruiser the Raspberry. Only explanation for why the French turrets got jammed so many times.
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Post by gornik on Apr 21, 2018 8:05:41 GMT -6
LOL, I wonder if staff department instruction 13/666 says anything about ramming the bastards? I would have thought for sure that the French battlecruiser ran out of ammunition. You forgot to mention the Russian captain must have given the French battlecruiser the Raspberry. Only explanation for why the French turrets got jammed so many times. § 42.2 "Ramming - morally obsolete method to sink ships. Its usage should be avoided, because scratched paint and dents on bow contaminate image of effective fleet. So any physical contact with enemy ship will be treated as navigational error, and both personal and team rating suffer, as explained in § 7 ( Effective navigation: better stay at port) French ship had 56% ammo for main guns and 74% for secondary at battle end, so IRL I may only suppose, that 2 minutes of synchronised jamming both A&Y turrets were treated by AI as "heavy damage", so it tried to "save helpless ship". *a mighty, coffee sputtering gufaw* LOL Fin ahoy!
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Post by splatterdemalion on Apr 21, 2018 10:28:10 GMT -6
LOL, I wonder if staff department instruction 13/666 says anything about ramming the bastards? I would have thought for sure that the French battlecruiser ran out of ammunition. You forgot to mention the Russian captain must have given the French battlecruiser the Raspberry. Only explanation for why the French turrets got jammed so many times. No, only Lone Star would dare give them the raspberry
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