WC-NAW Scenario: Armored Cruiser Rumble 3- Powerful v. Rurik

[RNRobert]

In the 1890s, Great Britain was greatly concerned about the Rurik class armored cruisers that Russia was building, and the possible threat to her merchant fleet. In response, England built the Powerful and Terrible, First Class Protected Cruisers that were twice the size of previous cruisers. However, the capabilities of the Russian vessels were greatly exaggerated (a few years later, the British would overreact in a similar to manner to the news of Russia building the Peresviet class ‘fast’ battleships and respond by constructing the Duncan class battleships), and the Royal Navy was stuck with two manpower-intensive fuel hogs. They spent much of their active duty time (when not in reserve) as transports, and ended their lives as accommodation ships before being sent to the breakers.



I thought it would be interesting to create a scenario pitting these adversaries. The Rurik and her half-sister Rossiya are in the game, but not the British ships, so I had to improvise. I chose the Cressy class to represent them as they are very similar in size, speed and appearance, and nearly identical in armament (the only difference is that the Powerful class has four more 3” guns and two more torpedo tubes than the Cressy class. The biggest difference is that the Cressy class is better protected, having an armored belt which the Powerful lacked (they also used the newer Krupp Cemented armor, instead of the Harvey armor).



I gave the British good crews, and the Russians average. Pointwise, the setup favors the Russians, but I've found that the game is pretty fairly balanced playwise.



ARMORED CRUISER RUMBLE 3.txt (986 B)