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Post by enioch on Jul 16, 2020 8:12:05 GMT -6
Catching up to this baby, and staring wide-eyed at all this statistical magnificence.
Very late to the party, but I have a suggestion for your gel effects, if you're still using them: place the gel as you are doing now, with a toothpick, in a 'wake' shape. Let it dry for a bit, and keep a blob of it separate for testing consistency. Meanwhile, grab a dense-'grain' sponge (or sponge brush) and go to town on it with scissors and a small flame - you want to rip it randomly, creating a variable bubbly texture.
Then, dab it on the gel, sort of like a mould, imprinting the texture on the surface of the gel. Be VERY gentle.
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Post by akosjaccik on Jul 16, 2020 13:50:11 GMT -6
Very late to the party, but I have a suggestion for your gel effects, if you're still using them(...) I'll try that, thank you! I do not yet know when will I get around to build another diorama, but I certainly don't want these products going to waste for nothing.
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Post by akosjaccik on Jul 16, 2020 14:01:16 GMT -6
March, 1907
Ah, yes, we had some guests coming over once again.
If the idea was to keep trying to force the K.u.K. battleline to react, they were successful - much to their surprise. Witnessing each and every austro-hungarian battleship division sailing towards them in formation, the italian ammiraglio turned his ships around. Perhaps he was genuinely not aware of this or - much more likely - just took it as an empty propaganda-statement, but in effect from the 1st of March, the entire fleet was openly informed by the order of the day that the former restrictions on the forces authorized to respond to the italian maneuvers on the Adriatic were lifted.
In essence this means that the Kriegsmarine is free to engage the enemy at will, and any amount of force it deems necessary. The reasons for this change compared to the end of last year are: - France finally committed significant forces to the Mediterranean area, spearheaded by an entire BATDIV consisting of five battleships. In fact, ~70% of the Marine Nationale's ships are involved in the conflict now. This means that our forces are free to be redistributed to a limited extent.
- The public demands action, simple as that. We are not in any immediate danger of outright losing the support of our heartland, but two years of warfare left it's mark on the spirit of the people. More pressingly, the inaction of the capital ships while the rest of the fleet is taking everyday losses in the war is slowly causing a rift in the Navy. This is unacceptable.
- Hunyadi is five, Kaiser is seven months away from being fully complete, and depending on the workup-period we can calculate going into 1908 with two battleships which are better than anything Italy can, or will field in the foreseeable future.
So, now the RM gained certainty that the crewmen of the battleships did not cheer for a simple, crude ruse. The silly little coastal defense ships of Austria-Hungary are ready and willing to accept the battle.
The public announcement about the deployment of the battleships (Historical photograph: Pola, the 23rd of May, 1915 - the fleet immediately responds to the italian declaration of war with a series of strikes)
Now it's up to their staff do come up with something. They don't exactly have years to decide, if the foreign intelligence reports are to be believed...
Even more so since our trade protection vessels once again punched way above their weight class. Perhaps it's also worthwhile to note that despite the warship-constructions, the expansion of the docks and the procurement of the necessary auxiliary equipments are going smoothly.All of this won't help us a great deal however if the large vessels we'll be able to construct will ultimately represent a technological level three years behind the curve. We should see more clearly nexth month, once we have the report dealing with the R&D at hand.
April, 1907
As expected, the report was finished on time. This immediately necessitates a correction as well: we are three and a half years behind on average. In fact, this sheds some light on the first issue we are dealing with: lack of information. To place the capabilities of our industry into context requires that we have a good idea about the "context" to begin with, which we do not have - so all of these assumptions are vague guesswork at best. Naturally, this is not without a cause.
The graph shows the nominal years of development for each of our most advanced technologies per field in game-terms. This means that for example if a field has a technological milestone in 1903 and the next in 1909, a tech of 1903 isn't necessarily outdated in 1907. However, the trend is still rather apparent.
Research and development was anything but overlooked, especially underfunded. Issue is, due to various reasons we are lawfully obliged to only divert no more than 12% of our funding towards research, no matter the financial surplus in the budget. To put it simply, we can roughly assume that the financing of various research projects are looking similar to the overall financial situations of the naval forces of the world. In that case, a look at said budgets explains a lot:
The good news is that we can see how Italy was forced to divert funds to deal with the ever more degrading social situation. The bad news are... well, everything else. Technological transfer helped in earlier years, but two years of war all but eliminated this possibility as well. Not a single deal was struck since September of 1904.
Foreign procurement would be an easy answer, however it is a risky and short-term solution at best due to the unstable and shifting nature of diplomatic relationships, and the fact that if our dockyards won't receive orders then the livelihood of thousands of our workers' might get compromised. For what relatively little we can do to deal with the situation we've incorporated into the "Prometheus plan".
- Internally, the given amount of resources will be redistributed amongst the various research projects. As a rule of thumb, the institutes, companies and research groups will be able to access these funds generally more equally. Some projects will gain higher priorities than before - these include the ones related to the implementation of turbine propulsion, advancement in hull construction, ship design and light forces and torpedo warfare.
- Unlike R&D, industrial spying was, out of fear of unnecessary provocation, virtually overlooked. This will change, and will change drastically. Beginning from May, a sum of 540.000 Crowns will be set aside in each month for intelligence operations. Reactivated sleeper agents, foreign engineers on austrian payroll, blackmailed technical inspectors, fine estabilishments marked with red lights on short leashes, anything goes. Counter-intelligence warned us time and time again that foreign agents operate in the country - it's time we embark on the offensive ourselves as well.
The last item on the agenda of the month was the replacement of the lost submersibles. Their role and accomplishments are polarizing - well, the lack of accomplishments to be more precise. This is understandable however given the blockade and the untested technology - which is why the Navy opted for the middle ground and continues gaining experience with their operation, but at the same time is cautiously avoiding over-investing into them.
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Post by thefleetofoceans on Jul 16, 2020 15:30:43 GMT -6
Private Journal of Captain A. Blackadder officer commanding 2nd Class Protected Cruiser HMS Vindictive So it looks like the K.U.K decided that they couldn't stand the inaction any longer. I will admit it was quite a sight striding out onto the wing of the Bridge of Vindictive to watch the battleships of 1st and 2nd Battle Divisions sail out of Pola to confront the Italian fleet. It appears as though 2 years of war and the loss of some heavy Italians fleet units have put the fear of god into the Regia Marina, for as I sat down for dinner the evening after the fleet sortie who should come striding over but Wilhelm Klink. Followed of course by his (I'm pretty sure) permanent shadow Captain Hogan, as the two gentlemen sat down and ordered they filled me in on the odd sight that they had seen that day. As the ships of the K.U.K had sailed out for battle, with flags flying and men closed up round their action stations. It appears as though someone within the Italian fleet balked at the idea of fighting 'So magnificent a force' as Klink put it. The battleships of the Regia Marina turned and ran for home, essentially reaffirming Austro-french dominance of the Mediterranean without the Austrian's having to fire a shot. Hogan gave a more realistic and practical reason as for why the Italians might have turned and ran. He stated that with the french having committed heavy units of their own to the region the Italians cannot afford to fight the fleet battles that they could earlier in the conflict. He reasoned that the Italians would not commit to a action unless they outnumbered the opposing forces in ships, I am inclined to agree with him. Of course Klink ignored him and went on about how, he was itching for his ship (the name of which I have forgotten (OOC: Garrison help me out here)) to get stuck into the Italians if he would only be given a chance. Myself and hogan shared a mirthful glance at this but continued to humour the OberCommandant, and the conversation quickly moved on to other more sociable topics. On a more sombre note, I am intrigued by these new Kaiser class battleships currently fitting out near where the Vindictive is moored. It might be worth sending someone to take a closer look at them, see if any details can be obtained. I may even send seaman Baldrick to do it, get some use out of the wretch. Until my next entry. Albert Blackadder
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Post by akosjaccik on Jul 17, 2020 13:36:13 GMT -6
Well...! This will take a while.
May, 1907 It almost felt like this month will be once again one to be offered to the gods of bookkeeping and paper-pushing unfortunately, when on the 12th, well into the afternoon a telegram arrived from the Zenta addressed to the callsign of Cattaro: 6 C(apital)SH(hips) w E(scort)SH(ips) LEAV(ing) BR(indisi), H(eading)0 14kts. Although their course made little immediate sense, it was expected to be changed in the darkness for them to keep our reconnaissance in uncertainty, even more so because they did not bother to detach a ship to scare away the snooping Kleiner Kreuzer. Whatever the case, letting the Zenta do her magic was a massive mistake.
In response Cattaro ordered every ship to raise steam and prepare for a night battle. It was certainly a strange prospect - the Regia Marina still had five battleships at their disposal (indicating the sixth reported vessel likely to be an armored cruiser), all well-built and frightening beasts easily capable to fight the combined might of seven austro-hungarian battleships with a good chance of success. ...at daylight, when their firepower and survivability can fully come into play. What were they thinking now?
Shortly after forming up into a double column, the men were ordered to general quarters - "Alle Mann auf Gefechtsstation!" As the darkness descended, the crew got more and more nervous, staring through the night, trying to tell wave from wake apart. They were fully aware that contrary to the earlier engagements, the Kriegsmarine was now out for blood - and that can go both ways. Taking into consideration that the destroyers may not be able to see the signals, destroyer captains were encouraged to fire their torpedoes at their own discretion on the final briefing before departure. There wasn't going to be any reason to conserve ammunition. At roughly 18:20 GMT the nearby french large protected cruiser Amiral Cécille - responding to our call - also joined up with our armored cruisers without us blowing her out of the water right upon contact out of a nervous mistake, which was certainly a plus and, if not much else, a bit of a morale boost.
The tense silence shattered at 19:40 GMT (local time GMT+1), when contact was reported on starboard side, and the helm of Habsburg was ordered to steer to port.
The unidentified leading ship was reported to be an armored cruiser initially, but it was unlikely - Italy was not in the habit of pressing armored cruisers into the main battleline, let alone as a flagship. These here, in perfect formation, these were battleships. They were all here.
This quick thinking made it possible that the very first minute of the engagement was marked by our battleline crossing their T. For the big picture though, this wasn't much more of importance than handing over our business card as a greeting. The italian commander quickly "corrected" with a turn ...but instead of letting his ships slip through behind our line leading them to starboard, he opted to order a simultaneous turn to port, although late enough so that a Regina Elena-class ship broke through between Monarch and Budapest.
...and then the one thing happened noone thought we are going to be the ones pulling it off. Battleship Monarch fired his starboard-side torpedo tube in the second minute of the engagement, followed by a muffled detonation and a massive water column indicating that the Whitehead MkII. torpedo found its target.
This was received with an extatic cheer on the decks, and the men started to shout and hassle each other to load faster. The unfortunate vessel, identified as a Napoli-class battleship, quickly disengaged and got lost in the darkness, and there was no way for us to assess the extent of her damage. Still, in less than five minutes after the first shock, Monarch harpooned a leviathan, and the italian formation managed to break itself up.
The hard part was still ahead of us - tracking down the wounded prey, or at least something while the entire water surface decided to house the chaos of Hell itself tonight. As there was virtually no means for the commanders to oversee, let alone influence the battle at large in the darkness, the squadrons were individually fending for themselves, or at least trying to retain cohesion. Some where not able to - they've fought still, such as the S.M.S. Csikós.
She rushed to close the distance with an unidentified large enemy ship, but could not build up a proper position due to the intensity of incoming fire and was forced to launch in a disadvantageous situation, missing with her torpedo. Her crew did not lack resolve though, and that costed the ship three direct hits on her. Subsequently Csikós and the similarly damaged Boa were ordered to cease pursuing and head to port.
There were plenty to stay behind and continue the fight - a fight that did not get more organized by the time whatsoever. The main task remained the same still: isolate and destroy what we can, while we can, while preferably avoiding a similar fate ourselves. It was still thought that the most plausible way of success would be the proper positioning of the destroyers followed by a clean torpedo salvo, but the destroyers were struggling to get close to any sort of launching position, let alone "proper".
The basic tactical goal was luckily achieved by about ~21:30 GMT however, and with the destroyers being for all intents and purposes unavailable, the battleship formation consisting mostly of Wien-class ships took matters into it's own hand: the division proceeded to hound a lone and seemingly confused italian capital ship.
Onboard the S.M.S. Budapest. In front: Monarch shells the Italia with her aft main guns.
Despite the Benedetto Brin-class being a fearsome opponent, her batteries just didn't seem to do much - the ship's firing was sporadic, not systematic and even then it caused superifical damage at most, damage even our coastal defense ships were able to shrug off.
Although the italian ship tried it's best to get rid of the wolves around her - little did we know at the time, but even launched two torpedoes -, the Kriegsmarine was now finally focused on the task and the Benedetto Brin did not get any help from her companions. Just before midnight an armour-piercing shell fired by Budapest finally damaged her machinery enough to almost force her to a complete halt.
Her fate was not directly linked to torpedoes however, unlike of the Napoli. Virtually the same time Budapest crippled the Benedetto Brin, one of Wien's 24cm AP grenades ignited a fire. Under ordinary circumstances perhaps the crew would've easily dealt with the hazard, but now their battleship was dead in the water, severely damaged, under concentrated fire and burning in the darkness. The italian capitano made the only sensible choice, and ordered the crew to abandon ship at 00:43. The weapon which we originally thought to be the great equalizer, only put the full stop to the end of the sentence as Habsburg's torpedo (ironically once again a battleships' and not a destroyers') detonated on her hull at 00:44. The ship, later identified as Italia, finally went down at 01:17.
...but she was not the Napoli who got torpedoed right at the beginning of the battle by Monarch. She was nowhere to be found, and we got to learn about her fate only much later: Napoli foundered at 20:11. In just one night the Regia Marina lost two out of their five battleships, for no austro-hungarian losses in return.
Except for one.
All while this happened, Csikós and Boa were clawing their way back home, struggling with their wounds. At around ~22:30 however, the wind picked up so much so, that the situation became critical. Boa pushed through it - Csikós could not. The survivors were tossed around by the waves for almost three hours, but as Sun began to rise, the fleet appeared on the horizon, and eventually a couple of frenchmen came to their aid.
In the end, the results of the engagement are nothing short of miraculous. Besides the two italian battleships, Dahlerup sank the destroyer Ascaro in short order at 21:46, and Wien's defensive fire damaged destroyer Impavido at 21:39 with a single 15cm shell in such a way that meant the end for her at 00:30.
This absolutely does not equal to the destruction of Italy's naval forces, not even crippling them to a point of incapability; but this night undoubtedly marked the most shocking event Italy had to endure in the entire war so far. Our side's confidential analysis calculated with the very plausible loss of at least one of our battleships in a similar situation, but a ~15.000-ton ship was deemed to be a fair trade for a ~10.000-ton one in this particular case. And yet, almost everyone was able to come back home, whereas Italy lost just about two thousand servicemen.
Two years of semi-skillful positioning, cautious planning, long-term maneuvering on one side, versus a single night on the other when Fortuna favored us for no apparent reason, and the two results are comparable. This will either be a war-ending victory, or an insult that will serve as a basis for fighting until the bitter end, or perhaps even beyond that. Once the smoke of the gunpowder settles over the battlefield, we'll see.
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Post by ieshima on Jul 17, 2020 18:33:50 GMT -6
Well done on putting those italian B's on the bottom. Glad to see that your having better luck than I am in sinking enemy ships.
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Post by garrisonchisholm on Jul 17, 2020 22:03:27 GMT -6
Bravo! You took a gamble but a bold one that paid off, night time battles I always avoid in this age.
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Post by garrisonchisholm on Jul 17, 2020 22:26:27 GMT -6
Private Journal of Captain A. Blackadder officer commanding 2nd Class Protected Cruiser HMS Vindictive "Of course Klink ignored him and went on about how, he was itching for his ship (the name of which I have forgotten (OOC: Garrison help me out here)) " Albert Blackadder The ship has never been named, though in keeping with Klink lore it would be either a simple mail sloop or (if honored with an Actual ship) it should be the KUK ship with the *least* distinguished record, perhaps one that has never actually shown up in a battle for some reason, or a support ship that went the wrong way and never actually helped anyone. Klink isn't a *bad* person of course, just one who always thinks his first idea is the best and always will be.
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Post by thefleetofoceans on Jul 18, 2020 14:55:18 GMT -6
I like to think that I&I and The Dragon Roars take place in the same canon.
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Post by rs2excelsior on Jul 18, 2020 15:14:59 GMT -6
Bravo! You took a gamble but a bold one that paid off, night time battles I always avoid in this age. I sorta like night battles early in the gun age ('00s to '10s). Sometimes it seems like they're the only way to get a decisive battleship fleet action. The anxiety is real with ships popping up well within torpedo range of your battleline, but I'll still go for it unless I'm outclassed in light units. Some excellent developments in the war with Italy, and great presentation of the models and data!
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Post by thefleetofoceans on Jul 25, 2020 9:14:02 GMT -6
Private Journal of Captain A. Blackadder officer commanding 2nd Class Protected Cruiser HMS Vindictive They did it! The mad Austrians actually did it! They sortied out and caught the Italian fleet in a night action at close range, and sank not one but two of the Regia Marina's battleships for the loss of two of the K.u.K's destroyers. This is a decisive battle in every sense of the word and upon hearing of the victory I have ordered the Austrian Naval ensign Flown alongside the White ensign for two days as a sign of respect for what the Austrian navy has achieved. Whether it is a knockout blow or will just force the Italians to double down remains to be seen, but the war is perhaps entering it's final days. Now it's off the officers club and dinner, fine wine and music. I suppose I shall have to let Klink bang on about his glories he has achieved in this battle (Whether there's any truth to them however is a matter for the future)and laugh away the night with that american Captain Hogan. Until my next entry. Albert Blackadder
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Post by pastur on Jul 30, 2020 3:16:35 GMT -6
Glad to see this project still going strong, and the newest triumph over the Erzfeind posted on my birthday, as well. It's a joy to read your updates, and to see the careful modeling and visual presentation along with them-- It's a rare treat to have models like this relating to such a visually spare game!
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Post by akosjaccik on Jul 30, 2020 17:53:05 GMT -6
ieshima : Thank you! Although I had an easier time forcing an engagement than Mr. Zhenbing, given that the italians had about as much reasons to throw their assets into the fray and take the risk as the Ostasiengeschwader to not do that. Regardless, things don't look too bad at Tsingtao! Regarding the situation, to not come empty-handed, I modified the Zenta a bit to show some respect to your writing. Not exactly the pinnacle of historical accuray, but I hope you'll find it fun! ...also to fuel @thefleetofocean 's notion.
Although I guess the idea of an originally A-H ship repurposed for the part actually isn't even that far-fetched from reality, Huszár-class destroyer S.M.S. Warasdiner (1913) was built by the STT for China to serve as Lung Tuan originally, but then the Great War thought otherwise.
garrisonchisholm : With full transparency I can openly state that up to this point most of what happened was largely on me. This battle was entirely up to the gods of RtW. The same exact score could've happened but favoring the italian flag, easily. I went into this engagement thinking that due to the alliance and the constructions I am finally sitting in a situation where the loss of a capital ship might not forebode the loss of the entire war, so might as well go for the aggression for once. I was not expecting this, quite frankly. Even until the very end I thought I luckily sheared off one battleship, and the other took the torpedo damage to home.
rs2excelsior : I could have not asked for more, I agree! I also got lucky with the night engagements during the war, the very first fleet engagement back in January of 1905 seemed to indicate that I should be really, really careful to take up a classic line battle in good visibility and normal conditions. Fighting "with honor" seemed to bring more consistent results ...for Italy. And no wonder, really.
pastur : I am really pleased that you find my project entertaining - more importantly, I wish you well for your birthday! Mine will come in about ~9 days or so, here's hoping I'll be able to deliver something that warrants further celebration.
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Post by ieshima on Jul 30, 2020 17:57:15 GMT -6
ieshima : Thank you! Although I had an easier time forcing an engagement than Mr. Zhenbing, given that the italians had about as much reasons to throw their assets into the fray and take the risk as the Ostasiengeschwader to not do that. Regardless, things don't look too bad at Tsingtao! Regarding the situation, to not come empty-handed, I modified the Zenta a bit to show some respect to your writing. Not exactly the pinnacle of historical accuray, but I hope you'll find it fun! ...also to fuel @thefleetofocean 's notion.
Although I guess the idea of an originally A-H ship repurposed for the part actually isn't even that far-fetched from reality, Huszár-class destroyer S.M.S. Warasdiner (1913) was built by the STT for China to serve as Lung Tuan originally, but then the Great War thought otherwise.
garrisonchisholm : With full transparency I can openly state that up to this point most of what happened was largely on me. This battle was entirely up to the gods of RtW. The same exact score could've happened but favoring the italian flag, easily. I went into this engagement thinking that due to the alliance and the constructions I am finally sitting in a situation where the loss of a capital ship might not forebode the loss of the entire war, so might as well go for the aggression for once. I was not expecting this, quite frankly. Even until the very end I thought I luckily sheared off one battleship, and the other took the torpedo damage to home.
rs2excelsior : I could have not asked for more, I agree! I also got lucky with the night engagements during the war, the very first fleet engagement back in January of 1905 seemed to indicate that I should be really, really careful to take up a classic line battle in good visibility and normal conditions. Fighting "with honor" seemed to bring more consistent results ...for Italy. And no wonder, really.
pastur : I am really pleased that you find my project entertaining - more importantly, I wish you well for your birthday! Mine will come in about ~9 days or so, here's hoping I'll be able to deliver something that warrants further celebration.
That is an absolutely gorgeous ship. When I can get to my computer, I'll express my gratitude properly. Edit: I am frankly astonished that you took the time to do something like this. I have followed your work from the day that you posted your first attempts on the RtW1 forum, and have always marveled at how detailed your miniatures are. I am eagerly awaiting your first attempt at a dreadnought or carrier. Once again, best of luck in your game, since the German's appear to have escaped me this time. Since Vienna's a bit closer, could you swing by Kiel and smack Tirpitz for me?
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Post by akosjaccik on Jul 31, 2020 3:34:23 GMT -6
Given the alliance with France, that's about the level of communication I can initiate with Germany anyways I presume.
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