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Post by mycophobia on Jan 26, 2020 3:56:32 GMT -6
It took me a few days to get to this new update, as I took the opportunity to re-read the entire AAR from the start (on my laptop, where I can admire the Canadian Navy in all its glory, not on my phone screen ). I was very happy to see this updated, and I'm glad to hear more will be coming--perhaps another decisive battle which will force Great Britain to the negotiating table? It's would suck after all of this for GB to agree to a peace deal... for less than the value of Newfoundland. Hopefully you can thrash the Royal Navy thoroughly enough that that's not a concern. Or take it in an invasion before that happens. Regardless, great work on the ships, I'm thoroughly enjoying the read and looking forward to the next installment! Thank you very much . Indeed this is another major battle coming and while I've done the note taking its still gonna be a bit of effort to get the "photoshoot" done in FtD. It would indeed suck if the GB keeps Newfoundland but at this point I did took over the entire Caribbean. Unfortunately invasion is not an option as the distance between Halifax and Saint John is outside of invasion range.... But I guess non-amphibious invasion is not my business. If I do end up not getting newfoundland you can expect wrecked army tank model from bothside as I vent my displeasure
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Post by mycophobia on Jan 31, 2020 3:25:09 GMT -6
The Battle of Nymphe Bank - Feburary 15th, 1926 (Opening) Background: Force Disposition Following the failed attempt to breakthrough British lines in Newfoundland, the navy believed the most expeditious way to end the war is a decisive victory against the British Royal Navy. In fact, after Cornwall Banks, the Royal Navy will likely be under even greater public pressure to act, this could lead them to make hasty sorties and other mistakes that will help tip the balance in the Allied favor.
While the British army successfully defended Newfoundland for now, the colony is all but doomed if the navy cannot breakthrough the blockade of the British Home Island any time soon.
On paper, the RN still have the force to match the allies, with 6 battleships, 7 Battlecruisers against 9 Battleships ( 4 Canadian, 5 French) and 8 BCs (2 Canadian, 6 French) in northern Europe as of January, 1926. (France have devoted quite a bit of its remaining heavy vessels to Mediterranean)
Of the 6 French BCs in Northern Europe, 4 are extremely outdated Duquesne class from 1907, which are not fit for service against any modern dreadnoughts.
The RN on the otherhand, have an extremely powerful battleship that just completed her fitting out.
Armed with 10 16" guns, an impressive speed of 25 knots and adequate armor, the 38,100 ton Benbow is without question the most powerful warship in the world. The dreadnought was still undergoing fitting out when the battle of Cornwall bank occurred, and her crew are eager to avenge the indignity of that battle.
Photo of Benbow in Scapa Flow taken by an Canadian agent, she had mostly completed her fitting out and is combat ready.
RN believes that if it must fight to break the blockade, the best time to do so is before French battleship and battlecruisers from the Mediterranean can return and tip the relatively balanced force in Northern Europe. To ensure the French stay where they are, Canadian Navy's old friend Anson was transferred to Gibraltar on returning from Newfoundland.
Thus it was decided for the RN to sally forth in an effort to break the blockade and bring the allied force to battle. Upon hearing RN warships sorting from Scapa Flow, the Allied force immediately mobilized their ships in preparation of the long-awaited decisive battle.
Allied Force
While the RN counted on the usual lack of coordination between Canadian and French forces, the Marine Nationale had shown complete support of the operation after Cape Cornwall, and contributed 4 of its 5 battleships to this operation. The Canadian navy likewise contributed everything it had in northern europe. Notably forming a carrier group for the first time with the new arrival of Lynx and Thunderbird, as well as the new battlecruiser Cree.
French battleship present on Feb 15th, 15" guns from St.Louis and Ocean in particular distinguished themselves in this battle.
However, the Royal Navy also made every effort to tie up allied forces. Raiding battlecrusiers forced French to delegate its battlecruisers to hunt down unknown numbers of enemy ships, and more importantly British submarine torpedoed Cree mere days before the operation in a daring port attack in Brest. Thus the final allied OOB on the morning of Feburary 15th is as follows .
6:30 - Opening Search
Believing the RN fleet must plan to break the blockade near the western approaches, the Allied fleet prepared a search in the morning of February 15th to cover the southern half of the Celtic Sea, while staying out of British aircraft range from airbases in Dublin and London.
Scout flyby the main battlegroup in the morning, all ships in the main force is visible here except the 6 large French destroyer further behind the French battleships.
8:21 The first sighting report came in, when scout from the Calgary located three battlecruisers escorted by an single destroyer heading due south. The main fleet immediately plotted a course to intercept, with Huron scouting ahead with a force of light cruisers and destroyers. Further, for the first time the Canadian navy is able to have enough carrier plane on hand for a large scale opening airstrike against their target.
24 aircrafts, (10 from Thunderbird/Lynx, 4 from Calgary) were readied and launched at the estimated course of the incoming RN battlecruisers. In order to get on target as soon as possible, no escorts were sent and each airgroup is to depart for target as soon as they are ready without waiting for aircrafts from the other carriers.
This photo taken from the deck of destroyer Osoyoos marks the first major Canadian carrier airstrike of the war. The planes from Calgary left first, while those from Thunderbird and Lynxs took a moment to group up near the carriers before leaving.
8:50 By now all aircrafts from the first wave had took off, but as the weather became more cloudy near launch, the airgroup from Lynx and Thunderbird were instructed to spread out slightly from the planned coordinate to increase the chance of locating the enemy in poor visibility. A second attack wave consisted of 18 aircrafts were also being armed.
10:30 The fleet waited anxiously for further spotting report or news of success from the airgroups, but as the cloud got lower and heavier, it became extremely difficult to spot anything from air. The second attack wave was put on hold, though still armed. By around 10:15 most of their airgroups had given up their search and ditched their torpedo.
Little did Canadian airmen knew that the RN battlecruisers were able to slip just between the airgroup of Lynx and Thunderbird, and encountered Huron's scouting force by 10;30. Returning aircraft are just now flying over the opening shot of the battle, but without torpedo to use, they had no choice but to return empty handed.
Baiting the Lion
The British battlecruiser force consisted of three fairly modern battlecruiser, which is certainly more than what the Huron can take on by herself. So she quickly turned to retreat towards friendly battle line in hopes of leading the RN force into a trap.
10:43 - Perhaps due to poor visibility or fear of an impending airstrike due to Canadian bombers flying over them (but without bombs or torpedo), the RN battlecruisers did not start firing on the Huron until 11 minutes after they've been fired upon, by which time Huron already scored an hit on the Australia.
Seeing the enemy is hot on pursuit, Huron dispatched the new Sept-Iles class large destroyer to launch an attack on the RN battlecruisers.
10:59 - The main Canadian battleline finally appeared on scene and the two Indomitable class battlecruisers immediately turned and fled North. The Australia, strangely, did not follow this turn and continued straight towards the Allied battleline, where it faced the combined firepower of 68 14" guns and 20 15" guns of the main allied force.
Photo taken from Prince Edward Island, the Australia can be seen burning in the distance. It was not clear to this day why Australia acted the way it did. The few survivors picked up by Sept-Iles cannot provide a concrete explanation either. Perhaps her bridge or steering were damaged by a lucky hit, that Austrlia was attempting to avoid the rapidly closing destroyers, or it was a unfortunate case of misunderstood signaling. Though one will have to wonder what kind of miscommunication will make the Captain charge toward the entire allied fleet.
11:02 Regardless of her reasons, Australia were quickly pounded by heavy caliber fire as Sept-Iles closed her distance together with the older Chambly class destroyer Sidney. While the destroyers scored 2 hits in the attack, secondary gunners on the Australia proved defiant till the end.
11:12, Sidney was hit 9 times within a single minute as it passed by the disabled and listing Australia. With listing preventing her guns from firing at higher angles, British gunner waited until the Canadian destroyer closed to under 1000 yards before firing. Sidney sunk with all hands in 3 minutes, but the larger Sept-Iles that followed were able to absorb 4 6" hits and stay afloat. This last resistance was quickly silenced by several more high caliber hits form the Canadian battleline
Sept Iles, too damaged to fight, was left to pick up survivors from the Austrlia, who would not actually go down until 2 hours later at 13:20
11:30 The Main Fleet Meets
While the two indomitable class was able to escape relatively unscathed, they had alerted the main RN battlefleet of the allied fleet's position, and at 11:30 spotters of Huron sighted 4 battleships, lead by Benbow coming towards them. Clearly they found the main RN battleships, and to the allied force's pleasant surprise, they seem to outnumber the British two to one.
While the Requin were slowed significantly by engine trouble, the Allied forces are more than happy to press their advantage against the seemingly smaller RN force. Furthermore, while the RN fleet could've turned back to regroup with the battlecruisers, the burning Australia seems to give them the impression that the ship may still be saved, and thus they made a dash towards her, while exchanging fire with the leading Canadian ships of the allied fleet.
Indeed, despite their blunders earlier in the battle, the Royal Navy's gunnery is something that have been proven time and time again. Minutes into the engagement they have been scoring hits upon the Canadian force. Will superior number actually prevail over one of the most powerful battleship in the world?
So this took longer than expected to write up, but here is part one of the next major battle (they just kept coming ) of the AAR. I hope it is worth the wait .
While the airstrike was kinda of a bommer(no pun intended) to me, I cant complaint much about the opening of this battle. But going against 10 16" is going to be a scary experience indeed. Thankfully, against all odds, my French ally really are pulling their weight this war, lets hope they continue to do so.
(Also lets hope my CPU can handle the rendering needed for part 2 of this)
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Post by akosjaccik on Jan 31, 2020 10:57:33 GMT -6
It's nice of the Calgary to participate in this. There is also some dark humor in that we talked about the Cree not being finished before the end of the war, then being able to participate still, and THEN getting a fish into the ribs just before the big show. Ouch. Also Huron could've used the helping hand. Anyway, regardless of how inexplicable Australia's maneuver is, the sight of her guns blazing at 11:02 is something to witness. Glory to DESDIV 5 for putting up with that, at least the namesake ship got her "big sister's luck" on her side. I can't help but notice that in your game the french ARE willing to wander into the Mediterranean when the important action is on the north ("France have devoted quite a bit of its remaining heavy vessels to Mediterranean"), meanwhile I am hitting the table for MORE THAN A YEAR to send at least a single semi-decent ship here, and the answer is "uuh... no."
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Post by mycophobia on Jan 31, 2020 15:25:21 GMT -6
It's nice of the Calgary to participate in this. There is also some dark humor in that we talked about the Cree not being finished before the end of the war, then being able to participate still, and THEN getting a fish into the ribs just before the big show. Ouch. Also Huron could've used the helping hand. Anyway, regardless of how inexplicable Australia's maneuver is, the sight of her guns blazing at 11:02 is something to witness. Glory to DESDIV 5 for putting up with that, at least the namesake ship got her "big sister's luck" on her side. I can't help but notice that in your game the french ARE willing to wander into the Mediterranean when the important action is on the north ("France have devoted quite a bit of its remaining heavy vessels to Mediterranean"), meanwhile I am hitting the table for MORE THAN A YEAR to send at least a single semi-decent ship here, and the answer is "uuh... no." The French seems to be willing to go pretty much anywhere in this war(they constantly maintained healthy presence in both north Europe and Mediterranean) including into my battles, which is geninuely nice of them. I’m sure i could’ve expected their support in the carribean if I didn’t already took over all their colonies there XD. I do hope they beginning to liven up for your game as well for they truly have been great help so far when they can be bothered to show up....
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Post by mycophobia on Feb 4, 2020 2:36:53 GMT -6
The Battle of Nymphe Bank - Feburary 15th, 1926 (The Fleet Battle)
The RN Battleships
At 11:50, the RN battleship, then steaming to rescue the doomed Australia finally realized that Australia is beyond saving. The fleet turned from heading SSW to due north, sailing along the Allied fleet and exchanging fire. By now, identification of the four RN battleships are done, and the following ships, together with one escorting destroyer, stands before the Allied battlefleet. Besides the old Implacable, all RN ships present had proven themselves fearsome adversaries. Centurion sunk the Haida with an single 14" shell years earlier, Camperdown had recently survived the bloody battle of Cape Cornwall, and Bendow had been a cause for serious concern since its presence was known to the allied fleet. However, the Allied fleet had a significant advantage in numbers, and ship for ship, they are a more than match for all RN vessels except the Benbow. The thicker belt armor of the Canadian warships also encouraged them to close the range, where their previous acknowledged deficiency in long range accuracy can be some what mediated. Benbow exchanging fire with the seemingly endless line of Allied battleships. With only four ships present, the RN cannot put any pressure on the French ships, who were able to put their 15" gun to good use in the early phase of the battle. 12:10 - By now, maneuvering was over and both fleet settled in for a steady course due north, and engaging at about 10,000 yards. Despite outnumbering their opponents two to one, there is several matter that is cause for concern. First of all, the remaining two Indomitable Class battlecrusiers are unaccounted for, and could return to flank the allied fleet. Thus Huron and her light cruiser scouting group was dispatched to cover the eastern flank. Secondly, the due north course will take the fleet into Royal Airforce operation range by about 13:00, if the engagement don't end soon by then, the fleet could come under risk of air attack (But at least the current low cloud makes aerial operation and spotting almost impossible). Lastly, the French battleship Requin is having engine troubles and is temporarily detached from the line. Photo taken from French Battleship Ocean, her sister ship St.Louis firing ahead at Benbow. French 15" guns on the St.Louis were instrumental in dealing damage to the well protected RN flagship.
12:18 While the French are able to bring their firepower to bear without worry of retaliation, Canadian ship at the front of the line are taking the brunt of impressive British gunnery. While having some of the thickest armor of all ships present, Canadian battleships are almost a decade old by now, and struggles against even 14" shells at 10,000 range. By now, the PEI, the ship hit by worst of the RN fire so far, had received 7 hits with 3 penetration, including a 16" shell that easily defeated her 13.5" belt armor. 12:20 Some initial confusion in targeting had been sorted out, and the allied fleet begin to engage designated enemy vessels to minimize confusion in spotting. The cooperative training with the French fleet after Cape Cornwall had paid dividend. The leadship of the Canadian fleet and the French fleet, New Brunswick and St.Louis engaged Benbow, the second ship of the allied fleet PEI and Ocean likewise engaged the second RN vessel, the Camperdown, and so on. This arrangement, while not perfect, did lead to marked improvement of gunnery accuracy during this period, with the allied force matching the RN fleet almost hit for hit. 12:50 about 40 minutes after the fleet begin steaming side by side and exchange fire, damages begin to rack up. New Brunswick was hit 11 times, mostly by Benbow's 16" shells, which knocked out two of her turrets. Fortunately, strict safety procedure implemented after the loss of Haida and Athabaskan meant that the ship was not threatened by potentially deadly flash fire. PEI was engaged by her old adversary Camperdown, paying her back for the wound received in the night after the battle of Cape Cornwall together with French 15" shells. However, bot PEI and New Brunswick had lost about 15" of their reserved buoyancy, not enough to quite threaten the ship, but enough to cause concern. Quebec, seen here from her sister ship Nova Scotia, is listing from a particularly damaging 14" hit that penetrated her 12.5" belt and destroyed part of her machineries at 12:40. She is only able to make 7 knots and is taking in significant amount of water. The RN vessel are no better off however, Centurion is slowing down noticeably and Camperdown, seen hit by a 15" from Ocean, is also showing signs of moderate damage. Benbow however, despite being hit no less than 8 times with 14" and 3 times from 15" shells, shows no significant sign of damage.
12:50 Realizing that their previous confidence in their armor maybe misplaced at this range, the Canadian navy begin to turn east to put some additional distance and allowing the French ships to take some heat off the damaged Canadian vessels, but the RN ships made a similar turn to maintain the close range. The Battlecruiser Returns - 12:50
At 12:50 Huron detects a lone Indomitable class incoming from the north east. The cloud had gotten thicker and visibility worsened, not sure if there is another battlecruiser out there, Huron decided to signal the main fleet, and retreated towards the main force for support. Huron was correct that there is more than one enemy vessel, but it was not another battlecruiser that she should be watching out for. 13:00 - Lieutenant Dawson Allan, Huron's Spotting Mast - Walter grabs my shoulder from behind and shouts "Periscope!". I turn to look where he pointed and my heart froze, there is a faint white wake to our port side, which was quickly joined by four more white wakes fanning out in front it...
Royal Navy Submarine E-73 had been stalking the scene of battle for an hour by now, she avoided firing into the main allied battle fleet since missed shots risking hitting her own. However, with Huron passing no more than several hundred yards from her, focused on her engagement with the Indomitable class, the opportunity to strike is too good to pass up.
Two torpedo hit Huron just fore of her turrets, fortunately missing the magazine, with a third hit to her main belt soon after, and the fourth narrowly dodged. She immediately took on thousands of tons of water and is developing a significant list.
Photo of Huron taken soon after the 13:00 torpedo hits from cruiser St.John. The damage suffered forced her to retire from battle, she would not have made back to port had not been for the valiant effort of her crews. French battleship Requin intercepted the Indomitable class battlecruiser, and engaged her briefly before the RN battlecruiser decided to retreat.
Endgame?- 13:02
Around the same time Huron was hit, Nova Scotia, until now the least damaged Canadian vessel would also be hit by a single torpedo midship, done by a 21" torpedo launched by the Benbow. The large warhead defeated her somewhat aged torpedo defense system, and Nova Scotia quickly lost about half her reserve buoyancy within 10minutes. Not sure weather the torpedo came from another submarine, the Canadian fleet turned away to put more distance between them and the British fleet, the heavily damaged Quebec and Nova Scotia fell to the back of the line for the time being. The RN did not miss this opportunity to disengage from what is beginning to look like a lost battle, and made a turn North West to head for Irish coast. However, the Allied fleet are not willing to let their hard caught prey escape, 6 large French destroyer, then held in reserve, is unleashed upon the retreating British force.
So here is part 2 of the update, it might just be me but almost all my playthroughs ends up having a submarine barging into a major battle and making some rather significant contributions , though they are never my own(probably because I build no more than single digit of them). I was hoping to write a bit more in this update, but decided to save enough to have an analysis and post battle situation update all together for the next. In anycase, hope you enjoy and see you all next time
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Post by mycophobia on Mar 2, 2020 1:11:06 GMT -6
The Battle of Nymphe Bank - Feburary 15th, 1926 (Endgame)
After about 3 hours of fierce fighting, the battle is turning in allied favor. Sheer number of ships and guns meant that the allied fleet are simply able to put more hits on their British opponents. The 14 and 15" guns of the allied fleet are also generally more effective when they hit, where as the RN struggled to land crippling hits despite better accuracy of their guns. Sensing that they are at a clear disadvantage, and their battlecruiser reinforcement driven back by Huron and Requin, the RN decides to break the engagement before its too late.
12:48 - French Destroyer AttacksSeeing the Royal Navy making a turn north to retreat, the French admiral ordered an all out destroyer attack with 6 large French destroyers then held in reserve. These large vessels are even more fearsome than their Canadian counterparts, with 3x3 torpedo tube and high speed of 33 knots. Even as Benbow and the RN submarine E-73 landed two successive torpedo hit on Canadian capital ships around 13:00 , the French are now in position to carry out their own attack. Seen from the Benbow's foremast, lines of French destroyers raced ahead of the RN battleline and begin to launch their attack, thundering of Canadian guns visible in the distance. Collingwood(Center right) would become the focus of the attack together with Benbow.
13:02 - The first French Torpedo found their mark in Benbow, but the attack were briefly driven back when the lone RN destroyer escort charged out to put itself between the French and RN battleship. The heroic destroyer got three torpedo to the bow for her trouble, but that did buy some precious time for the rest of the RN fleet to retreat a bit further. 13:30 - Wrap Up While the RN was able to survive the first wave of a destroyer attack mostly unharmed, they cannot escape the constant pounding of Canadian shells. One by one the escaping RN vessel slowed down and the French Destroyer were able to close their distance again. The second wave of attack is much more deadly, with Collingwood being hit by 4 torpedo's and sinking at 13:55, Bendow took 6 torpedo hits, but remained able to move and fire for the time being. Implacable was hit by a 15" shell from St.Louis and stopped dead in the water. Centurion however was lost to the Allied fleet through all the smokes and fighting. 14:35 - By now it seems the battle is all but decided, and with the weather improving, the Canadian aircraft begin to prepare a second wave of aircrafts to hunt down the Centurion, which was able to successfully disengage. Benbow was able to remain barely afloat, but after 7 torpedos and over 40 high caliber hit she is definitely nothing more than a glorified burning wreck. 14:45 As seen from Prince Edward Island, A huge plume of smoke and fire rose out of Benbow's burning wreck as the French Destroyer begin to make a fourth or fifth pass on the remaing RN vessels. Implacable(middle) is also seen listing heavily and would sink 10minutes later from a final wave of torpedo attacks. By now, all RN battleships besides the Centurion had been sunk. The carrier airgroups failed to locate either the Centurion and the RN battlecruisers. At the same time, pursuing the RN fleet north had lead the allied fleet into British land-based aircraft range (from airbase in Dublin) 15:00 Homecoming
Given heavily damage state of New Brunswick and Huron, the fleet decided to return to Brest rather than hunting the remaining RN vessel. The royal navy had suffered a total defeat, one from which there will be no recover from in this war. There is no need to take further risks. But for such an extraordinary battle, even the return home are not quite so uneventful. 15:40, French Destroyer Arequebus sighted a periscope to her port side, and moved to deploy depth charges. Moments later, pieces of a submarine begin to raise to the surface. This was infact, the RN submarine E-73, the same vessel that had torpedoed the Huron and is now preparing to make another attack. Given most allied vessel were at least moderately damaged after the battle, E-73 could've easily inflicted devastating damage had she be allowed to slip past. Crew of Arequebus received personal commendation from Canadian commander and Prime Minister Borden following this battle.
16:04
A brief dogfight saw a lone British torpedo bomber shot down by patrolling fighters from Lynx, this is just half an hour before the fleet retreated beyond RN base range. RN aircrafts would be spotted two more times, but made no attempt to attack. However, it is clear that the airbase in Dublin is alert and mobilizing an airstrike, so it is rather e that the allied navy decided to retreat before that happened. Conclusion
The Battle of Nymphe Bank is the decisive battle the allied force had been waiting for. The Allied force were finally able to coordinate their numerically superior force and defeat the now outnumbered RN battle fleet. However, it is worth noting that the RN deficiency in destroyers contributed significantly to their defeat. RN destroyer force had been wittled down over the previous year over various skirmish with Canadian destroyers near Newfoundland and Northern Europe, and the RN high command foolishly dispatched most of its remaining destroyers to Mediterranean prior to the battle. Granted, Canadian destroyer attack in the earlier Battle of Cornwall bank against unescorted RN battleships were not particularly successful, but that was partly due to insufficient number. When two whole squadron of French destroyers made their run against an unscreened and damaged RN battle line in Nymphe Bank, the result was absolutely devastating. While the RN still have a sizable fleet remaining after the battle, its battleline is almost entirely crippled. Its most powerful remaining ship is Canadian Navy's old enemy, Anson with her 8 15" guns. The two remaining battleship, Centurion and Illustrious are more than a decade old and no match for any modern warships. The RN battlecruiser force remains powerful, but they alone cannot hope to break the blockade, especially when France have them checked with their own powerful battlecruiser designs. With this battle, the 6 year long war can hopefully finally come to an end. But given the Nation's hard stance over Newfoundland, its difficult to imagine any peace deal without that being passed without causing significant discontent within the military and the people. If Britain doesn't want to relinquish the last of its major North American holdings, it may yet to choose to fight on for a more favorable position at the negotiation table, though it could just as well be digging itself into a deeper hole.
Hi all, apologies for the long overdue update. I had broken my ankle earlier and is still dealing with recoveries and real life stuff that piled up in the meantime. I thought I should at least wrap up this battle however and not leave any readers hanging In anycase, I am still doing various kinds of catch ups (This AAR included), so I cant promise very frequent updates, but hopefully I will be able to resume soon. In anycase, this long and bloody war is finally looking like it might end, so I sure am gonna see it through. (And possibly be very salty with the peace deal, then again, at least it would be fun to write about it) As always, I hope you enjoyed this update, and until next time~
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Post by captainloggy on Mar 2, 2020 1:48:11 GMT -6
Certainly a nice wrapup of the battle. Hope your ankle is getting better.
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Post by rs2excelsior on Mar 2, 2020 20:21:05 GMT -6
A very satisfying victory over the RN! Glad to see you back to posting updates, been missing this series.
Now, to see if I can get a similar victory over the RN in my own game as France... so far things haven't gone that well.
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Post by akosjaccik on Mar 6, 2020 7:31:23 GMT -6
I'm actually fairly impressed that daylight torpedo runs granted such results, then again the battle damage prior probably helped to a noticeable degree. Nicely done! The war dragging on is just borderline insane at this point, so hopefully a conclusion will be found soon enough, although not at all an unfavourable one after this victory right at their doorstep. Even the E-73 did not get away with it's antics.
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Post by mycophobia on Mar 8, 2020 4:13:21 GMT -6
I'm actually fairly impressed that daylight torpedo runs granted such results, then again the battle damage prior probably helped to a noticeable degree. Nicely done! The war dragging on is just borderline insane at this point, so hopefully a conclusion will be found soon enough, although not at all an unfavourable one after this victory right at their doorstep. Even the E-73 did not get away with it's antics. The speed loss from combat damage definitely helped, and I think the AI DD were more willing to be aggressive when less shells went their way. This actually turned out better than some manually ordered destroyer attacks. (That or the French DD crews know something we don't about torpedo attacks....) All and all things turned out well. Next update hopefully will be up soon-ish TM as well, still doing some test games with updates to decide if I should update to 1.17/1.18 or stay on 1.16 for now.
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Post by greydragon on Mar 8, 2020 10:54:53 GMT -6
Damn this AAR got me hooked from the very beginning, and as someone that loves seeing things made in other games I really enjoy seeing how your ship designs have developed over the AAR, as well as being compared side by side.
Though I have to wonder when we may see more Heavy Cruisers in the Canadian Navy, though maybe I daresay pocket Battleship designs could be potentially useful as long or extreme range raiders, considering that most opponents seem to be well overseas.
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Post by mycophobia on Mar 8, 2020 20:16:05 GMT -6
Damn this AAR got me hooked from the very beginning, and as someone that loves seeing things made in other games I really enjoy seeing how your ship designs have developed over the AAR, as well as being compared side by side. Though I have to wonder when we may see more Heavy Cruisers in the Canadian Navy, though maybe I daresay pocket Battleship designs could be potentially useful as long or extreme range raiders, considering that most opponents seem to be well overseas. Pair of 8" gunned heavy cruiser are 12 months from completion so you can look forward to that (Now that you mention it I may just get them done before the next update), made to combat similar ships of the RN(since building full BC will take too long). Kinda of an experimental foray into CAs since my budget is a bit tight, dedicated raiding vessel (at least heavy ones) wouldn't really fit into the budget. Still I do want to build some heavy cruisers in FtD so I thought I'd at least give it a try with this upcoming class.
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Post by greydragon on Mar 9, 2020 1:14:15 GMT -6
Damn this AAR got me hooked from the very beginning, and as someone that loves seeing things made in other games I really enjoy seeing how your ship designs have developed over the AAR, as well as being compared side by side. Though I have to wonder when we may see more Heavy Cruisers in the Canadian Navy, though maybe I daresay pocket Battleship designs could be potentially useful as long or extreme range raiders, considering that most opponents seem to be well overseas. Pair of 8" gunned heavy cruiser are 12 months from completion so you can look forward to that (Now that you mention it I may just get them done before the next update), made to combat similar ships of the RN(since building full BC will take too long). Kinda of an experimental foray into CAs since my budget is a bit tight, dedicated raiding vessel (at least heavy ones) wouldn't really fit into the budget. Still I do want to build some heavy cruisers in FtD so I thought I'd at least give it a try with this upcoming class. In all fairness, who know's could always end up with the Japanese's approach of going for quality over quantity but ya never know. Still I suppose the upcoming heavy cruisers performance will be a key deciding factor on if there are to be more in the future!
And thank you for this AAR.
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Post by mycophobia on Mar 9, 2020 23:58:09 GMT -6
The March Revolution - 1926
February 21st, The Mutiny
The Battle of Nymphe Bank had destroyed British fleet and British Morale, the unthinkable blockade against the Home Island is set. Not only will British oversea colonies be deprived of reinforcements, but now the Home Island itself lies helpless. Degradation in living condition and the cost of the long war hade lead to series of strikes since the late 1924. The government had long relied on the promise of the royal navy's ability deliver victory to appease the angry crowd. Following Cape Cornwall and Nymphe Bank, the crews of the royal navy itself became disillusioned with the government that insisted they fight on. In February 21st, the RN battlecruiser force received an order to attack a large convoy inbound for France. The convoy is guarded by Canadian cruiser St.John, Hamilton and three French battleships. The desperate last effort had some military merit, most Canadian battleships were still in yards for repairs, 3-5 British battlecruisers need only to engage the three French battleships and a small force of escorts. However, from the British perspective, there are also 7 French battlecruisers in the north sea. To the discontent average crew, the sortie seems suicidal at best. Two hours following the sortie, crews of the Indomitable stormed the bridge and seized control, forcing the entire fleet to return to port. The Allied fleet had been on alert against British sortie, and was merely relieved that it never came. In reality, the event of February 21st will have truly far-reaching effects. March 1926 - The Revolution
The Mutiny of the Indomitable had been harshly suppressed following the fleet's returning to port, but the word and the truth about the state of the war is already out. The population was furious. The long hardship of the war already fed into the communist movement within the working class, in particular the coal mines of Great Britain. Following the Indomitable Mutiny, the Communist Party of Great Britain immediately calls for a massive general strike for peace in early March of 1926. Faced with the threat of full on armed revolution, the government had no choice but to step down and allowed a communist majority government to take power. The new government immediately sued for peace, given the internal turmoil of Great Britain, the allies were able to push relatively harsh terms. Spoils of War
As part of the peace settlement, the last two British holdings in North America, Bermuda and Newfoundland were transferred to Canada. The shame of Newfoundland Crisis in 1902 was finally cleared, and Canada now controls a significant portion of the Caribbean. Furthermore, to consolidate Canadian interest in the South Pacific following the seizing of Bougainville, Canada requested Britain to hand over the protectorate of Solomon Islands. Thus the newly formed Canadian Solomon Islands gave Canada a solid footholds in southern pacific and access to fisheries in the region. Canadian Tanks entering Saint John in April following the conclusion of peace deal, finally realizing the costly ambition of an unified Canada. Not wishing to over extend, no further territories were seized, but both Canada and France demanded considerable war reparation. In Canada's case, the Tiger-Class Battlecruiser Princess Royal were transferred to the Canadian navy to make up for its battlecruiser losses in the war. Princess Royal, now renamed Cayuga, steams towards New Brunswick. The 34000 ton ship, armed with 6 15" guns makes a welcomed addition to the navy. However it had not received wartime upgrades in fire control or AA, and is in rather poor condition when received, leading to it being mothballed for the time being. (The ship will get a write up soon)
Lastly, Canadian naval engineers and theorists are able to use wartime experience to make multiple breakthrough in areas of ship design, AP and HE shells, fire control and engine systems. All areas in which Canada had been lacking in the past. Which hopefully will reduce the technical gap between Canadian ship yards and world leaders such as America, Germany or Great Britain.
April - August 1926, The Aftermath of War
Despite a widely celebrated Canadian victory, the long war had taken its toll on the Canadian economy. The need to integrate newly acquired territory also further worsened the financial situation. As a result, the navy was hit with a massive budget cut that put it in the red by a staggering 12,500,000$/month. As always, drastic measure was taken to cut cost. First of all, both Erie class battleship were put on halt until fund an be freed to resume them. The planned 20000 ton carrier project was also put on hold. The war was still won by a traditional decisive fleet battle, and Canadian carrier consistently underperformed due to weather or simple bad luck. The plan was still being explored, but for the time being the navy had no resources to continue. The last of the Sept-Illes class large destroyer, some more ASW corvettes, and the two Mississauga class heavy cruiser near completion are allowed to finish on schedule. In terms of existing ship, the old and outdated dreadnought British Columbia, whose very name had raised controversy during the war, was scrapped. The two Yukon class and Calgary was also mothballed given their advanced age, as is the newly received Cayuga. These measures allowed the repair on the damaged warships from Battle of Nymphe Bank to finish in France. Between April and August, the Canadian Fleet in Europe returned one by one as their repair completed, and all but the Huron was placed in reserve to cut expenses. Quebec returning from Europe in August, being the last Canadian warship to return from Europe. Finally concluding oversea deployment of Canadian force.
Unlike the earlier wars, there is no grand parade or celebration from the navy. Despite the victory, the cost had and loss of lives had been high. The focus now, is to repair and rebuild, and prepare the nation for its new, and arguably perilous position on the international stage.
Situation Update as of 1926, August.
Hi all, and finally it was all over. What a ride it has been, and I have to say I enjoyed the war a lot. Now getting back to the peace time build ups. Kinda wished I can do a better job wrapping up, but I suppose this will do for now Expect couple more ship posts as I work on the new heavy cruiser(which may take a bit as I am a bit rusty ). Again thanks all for the support, and see you all next time.
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Post by greydragon on Mar 10, 2020 21:50:34 GMT -6
What a war that was, and it looks like things are actually looking up in a way despite the budget cuts, to go with that it seems Canada is now on par with the weaker of the great powers now, such as Russia and Japan. Though they've definitely got some advantages not having their fleets weakened from wars. And who knows maybe the Tiger with it's long range may be useful if a war against Japan or Russia were to occur. Though maybe it's a bit too large to be used as a raider... or is it?
Anyway, good showing in that war! I wonder who'll become the next foe, and if it'll be just as difficult a war, though I doubt any one else can be as much of a foe as the Old Lion.
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