Those high tensions with Austria are my immediate concern. At first I seriously considered some sort of tabula rasa approach, but it seems that a more roleplay oriented approach is more appropriate.
Especially from the AAR succession background.
And with those high tensions, I would not be allowed to scrap so much in a situation with someone above me and the public opinion in consideration.
I ll have to find a compromise.
Yeah, 8 aircraft is not much in terms of battle capability. I consider it more of a research vessel.
Thank you for your input! With the Austria situation and the roleplay approach in mind, I ll formulate a rough plan based on your analysis and suggestions. And also take a look at possible refits.
Imho my main issue is the total lack of operational initiative due to the speed disadvantage of our entire fleet.
Enemy BCs can dictate any engagement with impunity. Might not be that bad in game, but from a roleplay perspective, this is a serious issue.
And although Austria only fields 11'' guns on their BCs at the moment, the sea is effectively theirs (in game we can still blockade them due to the point system).
Even if Austria decides to engage, we are uncertain about the outcome at the moment due to two of our more modern ships being very vulnerable to secondary flash fires (Austerlitz class).
And the other ones having either thinner belt or narrow belt, with not much better turret armor (although the turret tops of the Austerlitz and Napoleon classes are great).
BBs, BCs and Bs
Hence I do not think that scrapping any of my 5 BBs is viable at the moment, vs the Austrian 5 existing and 2 building BBs and BCs.
However the two Austerlitz class ships give me a serious headache with their 4'' armored 10'' secondary guns. Thus even though their cramped accomodations disqualify them from prolonged service, tackling this issue with a 4 month refit is imho the quickest way to improve the survivability of our fleet. Imho that is even worth the loss of crew quality.
To at least somewhat cover for that refit period, I would also like to keep the Duquesne around. If the time required for adding deck armor was a bit more realistic, I d even consider a refit to help against old foreign ships. Or the CVL conversion limit was something more than 17k tons...
I m also seriously doubting the value of finishing the Napoleon. 18 months at 3.5mio/month is a serious investment for an outdated design with narrow belt, 3'' deck armor and 12'' turret armor. It would take another lengthy and costly refit to make her fit for the future. And in that time I could build a new ship from scratch, incorporating the latest technology.
=> Keep all BB/BC and the B Duquesne for now.
Scrap every other pre Dreadnought.
Immediately refit the two BC Austerlitz class ships to remove the secondary battery magazine risk.
Discard the currently building BB Napoleon.
This would be the Austerlitz 4 month emergency refit. Attention: Something is bugging up the rebuild. Scrolling down the "Build at yard in" list removes the torpedo protection!
I would refit her in the US, since they have better 5'' guns available and our relations are great.
Director firing with 2 instead of 3 FC positions, 8x10'' secondaries replaced with 10x5'' secondaries. I do not want to invest a lot in a full secondary battery, just enough to somewhat discourage the superior austrian DDs. A seaplane hangar with 2 floatplanes is added, to make some use of the spare tonnage. The rest of the deck space is filled up with 42 light AA guns.
CAs and CLs
The Amiral Charner can hunt down old cruisers or be stationed in East Asia. Also for political reasons I can not scrap a ship which was just commissioned. However I can cancel the second one, which is not so suitable for cheap conversion.
Imho the 2 Gueydon classes and the 2 Lalande classes can be converted into CVL. Since we already have a torpedo bomber design, that hail mary thought would not be out of the realm of possibilities.
It is after all the fastest way to get something afloat that may strike down and kill enemy BCs aside from a lucky 14/15'' shell or a nighttime DD torp. At it would not even cost that much.
Every light cruiser not from the Chasseloup Laubat class has to go. They are just too slow and the Cosmao class is not suitable for conversion.
=> Keep CA Amiral Cherner and the entire Chasseloup Laubat class for foreign station and fleet scout requirements.
Convert the 2 Gueydon classes into CVLs with 15 planes each
Convert the 2 Lalande classes into CVLs with 8 planes each
Discard the currently building Amiral Cherner class CA Bruix.
That would be a Gueydon converison into a CVL, not shown are 20 light AA guns:
DDs and KEs
Everyone seems to agree that the destroyers are cheap enough to be kept around for various reasons. I dislike the cramped accomodations as a source of unrest but otherwise agree with that assessment.
The 700ton Horizon class might even get lucky in a nighttime engagement with their 5 centerline torpedo tubes. As long as they are not shredded by the Austrian DDs before that.
I ll probably scrap half the minesweepers. It would be political suicide to have all minesweepers scrapped without replacement and then one of the capital ships is lost to a mine.
=> Keep all DDs for now. Keep half the KEs for now.
Scrap the other half of the KEs.
=> Question: Not sure what to do in the trade protection/mine sweeping area. Imho it is nice to have minesweepers around. But I somewhat lack experience in the new game mechanics in that area.
Cheap coal firing 24knot, 600 ton KEs as replacement for ~1500, fully equipped oil firing 600 ton KEs with belt armor and 4x3'' secondaries for ~2000?
Or even some 600 ton DDs with mine sweeping equipment, and mines and 4x3'' secondaries, a torpedo and 29 knots for 2200? Will that get drawn into battle when on trade protection duty? Why does that look so much better than the 600 ton KE?
Beyond refits and conversions
After the 4 months emergency BC Austerlitz class refit, our fleet should be in a position to largely survive an imminent war with Austria and even have 2x2 float planes aboard the Austerlitz class ships.
After the 12 months CA conversion, we should have a CVL fleet capable of carrying 2x15 + 3x8 = 54 aircraft. We already have a torpedo bomber design as shown in the second post. However that has short range and probably poor reliability.
I guess it then makes sense to ask for a new torpedo bomber proposal.
=> Any recommendations with respect to the priorities for that? Range and reliability?
=> A new DD Pertusiane class takes 13 months to build. However the very friendly US can build 1500 ton DDs with triple torpedo launchers and 5/+1 guns in 14 months after finalizing the design...
In a longer war, a few 33+ knot DDs with 6-9 centerline torpedos on a suicide run could seriously hurt any foreign BB/BC fleet in a night action...
Imho we have to have at least 2 competitive BCs in the near future as a priority to combat the BC heavy foreign navies.
We can build 43kton, 16/0 gun BCs with increased elevation and torpedo protection 2. The US can build 43.5kton, 15/0 gun BCs with AoN armor scheme and torpedo protection 1. The US also has 4/+1 and 5/+1 guns while we only have 4/0 and 5/0 secondaries.
I ll set espionage with everyone to none (I believe we even have a tech agreement with the US). Except Britain, they are one of the tech leaders and tensions are not high enough to worry. Maybe we can get something from them.
Should we build some subs or air bases in the med?
And what about research? When we go the destroyer stop gap route, we would need better torps than the paltry 3800@30/8000@25.
I would also like to have the american AoN armor as well as better fire control and the rumoured dual purpose mounts...