Post by goodman on May 27, 2019 8:57:52 GMT -6
The year listed is the year the ship was commissioned, not the year it was sunk. I lost 13 battleships and 8 heavy cruisers, including a 81,500ton battleship with 20inch armor belt and 20inch guns. So I had my fair share of lost battles, and some would even say one or two or three or maybe four complete naval disasters.
The MyaaNee class battleship of 1910 was the defining ship design of this game. It set the speed of 28knots as the new stardand speed for my battleship line, and it set the 24x4inch guns as the standard secondaries for almost all my ships. Because of GB's very high fleet maintenance costs (having to keep ~30 cruisers on foreign station just to meet the requirement + having an active fleet in northern Europe + another one in the mediterranean, it doesn't really go any lower than 15,000 at the lowest and shoots up to ~35,000 in a war), it's actually quite difficult to find the budget to build new ships as GB.
The entire MyaaNeeMk3 class was sunk during the 1930s war with USA. In short, USA had a lot of carriers while I spent all of my naval budget on battleships, with only 2 CVLs with a couple of fighter squadrons each designed for CAP and scouting. This war was the turning point when I decided to start building airbases everywhere and start building a carrier fleet, with the class name appropriately chosen as "Avenger".
The sinking of MyaaNeeMk4 class battleship Renown (81,500tons) was a national disaster. I was sailing ~50nm east of Boston with 2BB+2BC+multiple CAs, when I encountered an enemy fleet of 4BC. I charged straight into them, I thought my AB turret 6x20inch guns would end the battle in less than 20 salvos and we'd be home in Canada in time for tea. But when I closed to 5,000yards an Enemy Battleship fleet appeared to my east. Lo and behold! The entire US fleet with 10+ BBs! omg! I immediately gave the order to my fleet to turn 180 degrees and bravely advance in the other direction, towards Canada. Just at this moment, enemy bombers appeared out of the clouds and started attacking me with torpedoes and bombs. My fleet scattered to avoid the air attacks while the enemy main force closed the distance. For the next 2 hours it was a slaughter in the water. I lost 2BC + all of my lighter ships, and both of my BBs were heavily damaged (50+ heavy hits, multiple torpedo and bomb hits, on fire and flooding, max speed 14knots and 20knots). I thought I would lose both BBs for sure... ... but just at this moment a miracle came! DD Rother who ran aground in Maine hours ago finally caught up with my fleet, and she charged straight into the enemy battleship line that was chasing me. Launched 4 torpedos and sunk the lead enemy BB. Launched another 4 torpedos and stopped the next enemy BB dead in the water. Then continued to charge with her tubes empty and made the entire enemy line of ~15 Battleships turn around. DD Rother was THE hero we needed. The best of the Royal Navy. I shall build a museum in her honor for sure. As a result of DD Rother's heroic actions, MyaaNeeMk4 the lead BB of her class managed to sail back to Canada with her complement of 1,300+men. Although they did unfortunately manage to catch up to BB Renown and sink her in the end.
The LoliKiller class Mk1 Mk2 and Mk3 all had the design concept of a fast CA/BC with large calibre guns to outgun any enemy CL/CA, 6inch armor to protect against 6inch CL guns, and fast speed (22Knots Reliable in 1904 and 28Knots later designs). Also 6inch secondaries instead of my standard 4inch secondaries, for maximum killing power against CL/DD. This class was very successful in their intended role, and killed many loli ships CL/DD. However they often ended up in my battle lines against enemy battleships, where 6inches of armor was not enough at all. Maybe if I kept them back and didn't put them in the line with my battleships they could have survived and done more, but during a battle you want to get all of your guns firing, it's difficult to justify keeping 4x13inch guns back when you need all of the firepower you can get your hands on in your line right at this moment.
The Rin class of 1926 (12,000tons) was both a replacement of the Lolikiller class and inteded as an anti-air cruiser that can stay behind my battleship line and provide flak. They were both sunk in the same battle as when BB Renown was sunk. They died bravely trying to save BB Renown and the Royal Navy from complete destruction. It's worth noting that at this moment most of my MyaaNeeMk3 BBs have already been sunk by the US fleet, so this BB Renown fleet was pretty much the last substantial fleet of the Royal Navy. This was my last hope. I ended up losing this war, and lost Jamaica + some other islands.
The Colonial Mk1 and Mk2, and later Mk2.5 and Mk3 class was the bread and butter of the Royal Navy. I built ~80 of these during the game, and had ~30 on Foreign Station at all times. Lost a lot of them in combat, Scrapped ~20 in the 1920s, and scrapped another ~20 in the 1940s. Spending half of your budget on building and maintaining colonial cruisers is just what the Royal Navy actually is, right?
The Pineapple Mk1 never left the drawing board because there was no money to build it after the design study, but the PineappleMk2 class and the subsquent PineappleM, PineappleMMk2, PineappleMMk3, and PineappleAA classes were the light cruiser of choice, and the best RN CL designed for combat. What the sunk list shown above doesn't show is that scrolling down there are a lot more sunk CLs. The entire Mk2 class and most of the M class were sunk during the war against USA in the 1930s. They just lived in a very bad time for the RN. I don't think it should reflect badly on their desing. They actually did they role reasonably well, which was scout, screen, support. I'm still undecided on whether or not it's a good idea to install float planes on combat CLs. It's only useful when they get into small engagements so they can run away if they launch a plane and see a bigger ship. For larger battles I have CVLs dedicated to scouting.
Yes, PineappleM is a much later class than PineappleMk3. The M stands for mines. Also, there was no MyaaNeeMk2 because there was no budget to build it. And yes, most of the Lolikillers were reclassified into BBs, but they were CA/BC when they were built.