Ah, yes, forgot about that, thank you!
With very large fleet sizes, I m more inclined to roleplay a few such losses.
1921-02 4 new Javeline class DDs are delivered from the US.
1921-02 BB Louis Napoleon was torpedoed by an enemy submarine, she will be repaired for 4 months
1921-02 Battle Report! CA Amiral Charner avoids contact with unknown enemy forces near Syracuse.
1921-03 While 4 new 600ton minesweepers are ordered to the Med, 4 old 1000ton minesweepers are scrapped to reduce costs.
1921-03 Shipboard aircraft operation research breakthrough - Purpose built aircraft carrier Well, that was much faster than anticipated, time to set that area to low priority.
1921-03 Battle Report! Our two remaining 1100ton DDs encountered a lone DD near Albania and engaged in the overcast dusk.
When 5 more unidentified silhouettes appeared near the enemy DD, our two DDs changed their mind and course.
We slipped away during the night.
Intelligence reports an operational loss of an enemy fighter sent to find us.
1921-03 While the Austrian submarines hardly claim any of our merchants anymore, their 2 AMCs claimed 5 merchants last month.
Perhaps a modern cruiser with float planes would be nice.
1921-04 Seven new minesweepers are operational and the remaining old 1000ton minesweepers are retired. 1921-04 A new torpedo bomber design was chosen, it is faster and has more range
1921-04 Battle Report! Austrian navy declines battle in the Strait of Otranto - 2420 VP for us1921-05 Fire control research breakthrough - Secondary director1921-05 Battle Report! Once more our two 1100ton Pertusiane class DDs escape into the night while fleeing from 7 enemy DDs
1921-06 Lighter than air research breakthrough - Improved airship engines
1921-06 Naval gun research - better 17inch guns (17/0)1921-06 Battle Report! For the third time in 4 months, Austrian destroyers were sighted north of Corcyra.
But this time the 1100ton DDs were ordered to South East Asia and 3 modern 1300ton DDs with 4x5'' guns each were responding.
The enemy 4 DDs fled, but DD Javeline, lead ship of her class, had engine problems and slowed to 30 knots.
A lucky hit slowed down the trailing enemy DD and our forces sunk her, while the other enemy DDs were observing from a safe distance.
Two observations: 1) Speed focused oil firing engines are less reliable than we thought. BC Tourville will have speed focused oil firing engines.
2) Our 3 DDs sustained quite some damage as well. We need more of those modern DDs, capable of fighting enemy DDs in gun duels.
1921-07 BB Napoleon finally completed!1921-07 Armour development research breakthrough - Inclined belt
1921-07 Ship design research breakthrough - AoN armour1921-07 New fighter type selected
1921-07 New torpedo bomber ready for service
1921-07 DD Sabre, one of the newly commissioned 1300ton DDs, sunk by a mine
1921-07 Battle Report! Dalmatian coastal raid Our two battlecruisers Austerlitz and Eckmuhl, supported by CVL Dupetit-Thouars and 7 Javeline class DDs ventured to find the Austrian navy.
Heading northwest along the Dalmatian coast, Austerlitz and Eckmuhl launched their 4 floatplanes in a narrow frontal search arc.
While CVL Dupetit-Thouars readied her 12 operational torpedo bombers.
The floatplanes reported two battlecruisers and a number of supporting destroyers ahead and our battlecruisers soon made contact.
Our 12 torpedo bombers were given the strike order while the battlecruisers opened fire on each other.
Unfortunately the enemy battlecruisers fled north even before the torpedo bombers took off.
And even while our flagship has unbroken contact with the enemy,
there seemed to be no way to communicate to our torpedo bombers, none of them had taken off yet, the new vector of the enemy fleet.
So all of our torpedo bombers launched to the wrong coordinates and circled there forever, while their own CVL passed beneath them pursuing the enemy fleet...
Our two BCs made the very risky decision to pass an 11'' Austrian coastal battery at less than 3000 yards just to cut off the enemy BCs from reaching Spalato.
And sustained several hits in the process.
The Austrians attempted to reach their minefield and thus closed to a few thousand yards, sandwiching our forces between them and their coastal battery.
A hastily recalled but insinuated flotilla attack turned them away to the northwest.
They then returned the favor and conducted a flotilla attack as well, leading us to perform a lap of honor between them and the enemy minefield.
Had they continued along the coast to their next port of Zara, we would have hardly catched them and the battle would have ended in a draw.
But then one of their DDs scored a torpedo hit on our BC Eckmuhl which lead to massive flooding.
BC Eckmuhl fell out of formation and the two enemy BCs turned around and reengaged.
Our own flotilla counterattack just resulted in one of our DDs being shot up before it had to be canceled.
BC Eckmuhl tried to reattach to the turning BC Austerlitz before steering off to the southwest, with worse flooding than before.
BC Austerlitz now stood alone against the two damaged Austrian BCs and their still potent destroyer screen.
At this point, the 3 destroyers screening our CVL were ordered to Austerlitz at flank speed.
One damaged destroyer was each ordered to screen our CVL in the rear and BC Eckmuhl, while she retired from the fight, still fighting the heavy flooding.
1 vs 2, fight or flee, not an easy decision for the Austerlitz.
But the Austrians were faster, and if Austerlitz would run, Eckmuhl would be doomed. Either increasing speed and flooding or being caught be the Austrians.
The choice was clear, Austerlitz had to stay and fight until Eckmuhl was out of sight range.
Our CVL had just picked up our torpedo bombers after they finally decided to stop circling an area now very far away from the enemy.
So far away, that our CVL had to catch up to be in striking range of the enemy again. No help there.
Luckily the enemy helmsmen got stuck circling in a bay which reduced their accuracy.
Seeing this and noticing the far reduced enemy accuracy due to their constant turns, the captain of Austerlitz shot them up at close range.
After some time the then pretty damaged Austrian BC Kärnten managed to confine her drunk helmsman to quarters and broke free from the bay.
But after receiving a hit to the engine room she came to a stop. Convenient for our torpedo bombers which arrived minutes later.
Instead of going after the still threatening BC Slavonien, the lazy torpedo bombers put a bunch of torps into the Kärnten.
The Kärnten sunk and the Slavonien followed her a bit later, after the 3 destroyers previously screening our CVL caught up and launched their torpedoes.
The heavily damaged BC Eckmuhl eventually got her flooding under control, she will spend a month in port.
BC Austerlitz sustained only light damage but needs 2 months for repairs.
One of our DDs sustained heavy damage, 3 more sustained light damage.
Austria lost 2 battlecruisers and 2 DDs, 3 more limped home, only one was reportedly undamaged.
7186 vs 1242 VP, +2 prestige
Observations:
1) BC Austerlitz fired 1004 shells from her 6 guns. Our BC Tourville under construction will only carry 105 shells per gun.
2) A single torpedo hit nearly ruined the day, since BC Eckmuhl only had torpedo protection 1. BC Tourville will also just have torpedo protection 1.
With the experience from our battles during this war, there are some considerations for the future:
1) The simple fact that Austerlitz and Eckmuhl were
designated as battlecruisers made them show up in many decisive battles.
The equal speed but much more capable Louis Napoleon had much fewer chances to show her value and influence this war. Simply because she is designated as a BB, not a BC.
=> BCs have absolute priority for winning battles. And the AI loves them too.
3) In two battlecruiser engagements, 150-170 shells were used per gun, with the aft turret having shells to spare and the front turret running dry.
=>
Frontal turrets have a much greater impact on the battle and should be emphasized in the design, even at significant tonnage costs.
=> While 180 shells per gun are still considered to be excessive, Tourville's 105 shells seem to be too few (although she has 3 more frontal guns).
4) Turrets were out of action for quite some time.
=> Turret frontal armor needs to be considerably stronger than the belt armor of the capital ship using them.
5)
A single torpedo hit (especially hard to avoid at night) poses a much higher risk than a number of hits to the belt armor.
=>
Anything below torpedo protection 2 is unacceptable. Even if the belt armor is less advanced/weaker.
6) Torpedo bomber pilots seem to refuse to change their strike mission based on direct observations from the flagship.
They only want coordinates or vectors relayed to them by scout planes.
But scout planes do not report coordinates anymore, once our fleet has visual contact with that enemy.
By the time the bombers are at the target coordinates, the enemy is nearly certainly somewhere else, except when the enemy helmsman is druck and circles in a bay.
=> Torpedo bombers are useless for anything but finishing off stuck or stopped enemies. => For a cost of more than 1000 per month (ships and airwings), they are pretty disappointing.
Not because of their stats, but because they do not seem to have radios and refuse to just bomb the enemy, which is directly spotted by their own flagship!
StatusOnly BC Tourville is under construction (18 months left) after BB Napoleon started working up.
The US shipyards can still build more tonnage efficient ships and now have torpedo protection 3 available. 15/0 guns and 43500ton displacement is still the best they can offer.
We now have AoN armor scheme and 5/+1 guns as well, inclined belt, dual purpose 3/4 guns, secondary directors, and 15/0, 16/0 and 17/0 with improved quadruple turrets.
We could even build a fast new CVL to replace the two CA to CVL conversions.
Monthly balance of now
+13000 and 80000 reserves.But with
Austrias fleet in shambles (2 BCs still afloat, 1x30kt BB expected this year, a 36kt BC next year), a
peace time budget could wreck those numbers in an instant.
On the other hand, the money has to be spent now, or someone could get the idea that the navy gets too much.
Germany has 4 BBs / 1 building and 5 BCs / 1 building, two of the existing BCs go 29knots. In a war with them,
we would instantly be blockaded.All but one of their 16DDs has 5'' guns.
The US is the only nation still having a CA from 1903. Only the British have more than 6 CLs. Germany has 4 going 29 knots.
Two BCs built at home would be my first impulse. I would really like a fast CVL to accompany them, but with current mechanics it seems like a waste vs fast BC heavy enemy fleets.
Not sure what to do about the blockade numbers/CLs/DDs to prepare for a potential German enemy in the future.
Suggestions?