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Post by janxol on Oct 8, 2020 10:10:15 GMT -6
Tale of Admiral Koshkin (And others, who had questionable luck of becoming involved)
My first AAR. Before we begin, a couple notes: I'm not sure if the word "dramatised" is correct, so feel free to correct me, but what I mean is that there will be a story to this AAR, that I will build around the events of the game. There will be characters. So I guess there you go: A PLOT WARNING. There will of course still be designs, battles, politics, RTW stuff. Maybe even some humour.
Also, while I would consider myself a (developing) writer, I do not normally write in english, so apologies for any grammar or any other language mistakes, quite possibly including mixing american and british spelling. Regarding the gameplay itself: 1900 start, largest fleet setting, 90% research rate There will be several houserules in place, the most important being: stay in character. That means no hindsight of 2020 knowledge. No "metagaming" and such. If 2" guns were common in, I may strap in a 2" tertiary and there's nothing you can do to stop me.
Bayan-class Armored Cruiser
Chapter I: Rule Rossiya, Rossiya rule the waves.
9:00, January 2nd, 1900, St. Petersburg Well, that certainly wasn't the turn of events Mikhail expected. Then again, it is quite difficult to expect anything when one's bloodstream contains equal amounts of blood and alcohol. In hindsight, getting hammered at an annual navy staff party, attended not only by Russia's top ranking officers, but also by the Tsar himself, was not the most tactical of Mikhail decisions. And it landed him here, in General-Admiral's office. He kept casting glances all over the room, the expensive furniture, portraits of admirals past, famous, infamous or forgotten by most, shelves full of books, maps and model ships. An external observer, seeing Mikhail look around the office with much concern in his eyes could reach the conclusion that he's here to get some serious scolding from the admiral, maybe even about to be demoted or dismissed from the navy. That would, however, be far from the truth, which was in fact much worse for Mikhail - this was his office. And only as this thought - "his office" - fully formed in Mikhail's mind, as his brain functions slowly began to shine through the most majestic hangover he's ever had in his life, did he truly begin to comprehend the peculiar situation he was in. Here he was: Mikhail Valentinovitch Koshkin. Yesterday - a proud captain, commanding officer of protected cruiser Avrora. Today - a miserable general-admiral, commander of the Imperial Russian Navy. And while there was probably a spark of pride deep within him for having reached that position at age thirty and having skipped all the admiral ranks, that spark was unlikely to burn while flooded by alcohol, still present in vast amounts in his bloodstream. "Dang it." he murmured. 9:30, January 2nd. 1900, St. Petersburg, General-admiral's office A knock on the door startled Mikhail, causing him to make a rapid 180 degree on his heel, eyes wide open with terror, and it was only sheer accident that he didn't fall over. "Come in!", he said. And while the man was shaken, his voice was calm and steady, as if his throat realized his new authority before his brain did, and decided for itself to speak with its new-found dignity. The door opened and in came a forty-year-old man wearing admiral's uniform. Seeing Mikhail, he froze, looking at him with concern. "Mikhail? You alright?", he asked cautiously. "Kontr-admiral Dmitri Nikitovitch Vedernikov! How dare you address your superior so casually?", barked Mikhail. The two men looked at each other for about two second before Mikhail erupted into laughter and Dmitri started to smirk. "Well, I'm sorry, "Sir", but you really don't look well", said Dmitri. "Have you been standing in the middle of the room for the past half an hour? "Perhaps. I may have. Why?" "Perhaps you should take a seat, "general-admiral". "Yes, I will, in a second", said Mikhail. "Could you close the door? If I fall over, I don't want anyone else to see." Dmitri closed the door and immediately heard a rumble, followed by "I'm alright". He turned back to Mikhail only to see him hurriedly get up from the floor and rush to the chair behind his desk. The fall did seem to have somewhat of a sobering effect, as he didn't seem to stagger or lose his balance on the way. As Mikhail sat down and exhaled deeply, rubbing his temples and quietly whispering profanities under his nose, Dmitri approached and sat himself in a chair in front of the desk. "Is it that bad?", he asked. "That bad? Dmitri, I have no recollection of how I got into this office this morning. And only a very vague recollection of how I got promoted in the first place. What I do know is that getting this drunk in presence of the Tsar was the dumbest decision of my life." "I would normally agree. But getting drunk in front of the Tsar actually caused him to promote you into this position, so I guess I should congratulate you, General-Admiral." "Don't congratulate me. This will be my undoing..." "Still, I have barely had one occasion to invite you to my admiral office, and now you suddenly have one of your own, and larger than mine." laughed Dmitri. "What did you even tell the Tsar that made him promote you?" "Well the thing is... I have no idea what I told him. What I do know... Is that I really need to get rid of this headache before I can say more. Recollect my thoughts...", Mikhail paused for a second. "Batman. I should have a batman, right? An aide?" "Yes, he's waiting for you to call him". "How do I call him?" "You can either yell..." "AIDE!!!", screamed Mikhail at the top of his lungs. "...OR you can ring the bell on your desk.", finished Dmitri, pointing at said bell. "Whichever feels more elegant to you..." The door opened and in came a young looking officer. "Lieutenant Eugeni Leonidovitch Pronin, sir, at your service", he introduced himself, saluting. "A pleasure. Would you be so kind as to get me some tea. A whole kettle if you don't mind.", asked Mikhail, doing his best to appear sober. "Of course, sir. Right away". And with that, the lieutenant saluted again and left the office, closing the door on the way out. Mikhail immediately raised an eyebrow. "My God. He's got a stick up his ass", he murmured. "Was I also like this after the academy?" "No, your stick was already broken, which is probably why you were always so butt-hurt", responded Dmitri with a smirk. 15:30, January 2nd, 1900, St. Petersburg, General-admiral's office "Now what?", murmured Mikhail. Dmitri noticed that something has changed about him. His eyes were sharp, his gazed fixed somewhere in the distance, deep in thought. It was clear that the effect of alcohol are wearing off and Mikhail is returning to his sober self. Dmitri was a friend of Mikhail Koshkin for many years and he had ample chance to get to know him. He knew that despite the unplanned rapid promotion, Mikhail is actually an excellent man for the job. There was an agile and intelligent mind at work inside Mikhail's head, a spark of brilliance, sometimes bordering genius. Even as junior officer, his name was known in the admiralty and Mikhail himself was on a first name basis with several admirals. Many saw a great career before him. "Do you remember anything more from your talk with the Tsar?", asked Dmitri. "I saw ships hiding beneath the waves, holding a power to destroy nations. I heard my mother's plea for help. Nothing that would help me.", he said. "But after Tsar Nikolai declared my appointment as general-admiral and the shock of that event seemed to sober me up ever so slightly, he had me meet him in private." "I really hope you remember what he said..." "Yes... He told me he wants Russia to Rule The Waves..." "Why did you say it weirdly like that?", asked Dmitri, slightly confused. "What?" "Rule the waves. Why did you say it like it's some sort of catchphrase or book title?" "I have no idea. That's how the Tsar said it. It does worry me though. Essentially what happened is that Tsar laid his eyes upon me and said: This man will be the one to blame for all failures of the Russian navy.", said Mikhail, flinching. "You might be a bit too dramatic about it." "You do know what happened to my predecessor, correct?" "He was tried for treason." "Tried and convicted. And everyone knows there was no treason, only utter incompetence. So it would be fair of me to assume that all my failures will be very heavily scrutinized... Rule the waves... HA! I knew this would happen. Everyone knows about Tsar's ambitions of expanding Russia's influence. It was only a matter of time before he realizes over seventy percent of the world is covered by water and that he wants to rule that as well.", Mikhail chuckled. "So, what's your plan?". "I plan not to fail", responded quietly Mikhail, again deep in thought. It would be at least another minute before his mind wandered back to the present and he looked at Dmitri. "What brought you here?" "As you can imagine, nursing you back to sobriety is not one of my duties as your subordinate. I came strictly as a friend, because I was concerned for your well being. Junior officers are already telling stories about your alcohol intake at the party. Legends say there was barely any blood in your alcohol-stream.", answered Dmitri. They both chuckled, though internally Mikhail became slightly concerned about implications of such stories for his reputation. "Dmitri, I respect your knowledge and you've certainly been an admiral longer than me. I am appointing you as my advisor. There are things I need to know and people I have to meet. I need technical information, records and status of every ship of every class. I need to review everything there is to know about the navy's finances. And I need the Tri Svyatitelya to be moved to a different pier, so that I am no longer in danger of seeing her when I look out the window... There is work to be done."
Next come the legacy fleet presentation, I guess, and more.
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Post by janxol on Oct 8, 2020 14:25:55 GMT -6
Introducing: The Russian Fleet and all of its flaws - part 1
10:00, January 3rd, 1900, St. Petersburg, General-admiral's office Mikhail sat at his desk, glad that his alcoholic adventure was fully behind him, and took a sip of tea, before looking at the documents in front of him. They were segregated, courtesy of Dmitri, into different piles depending on whether they were design schematics, technical data or ship reports. Additionally there was a rather large book present, containing many magical numbers explaining why the navy doesn't have money. Mikhail took the first batch of pages into his hand. Ships. The truth was that Mikhail was well aware of characteristics of every sea-going ship class currently in service. What he wanted to know if there's anything hidden from the crew, anything that only the designer of the ship would. Anything that could by exploited, either by the enemy, or by the navy. Additionally, he wanted to become fully acquainted with ships that were currently in construction. BATTLESHIPS
Navarin-class (1892)Ships in class: 4 Navarin, Retvizan, Pervenets, Tsesarevitch Foreign navies classified these ships as coastal defense battleships, and rightfully so. At 11000 tons of displacement they were rather small, had very short range and low freeboard greatly reduced their performance in high seas. With slightly over 16 000 shp on two shafts they could reach the standard 18 knot speed of the battleline and despite their small size retained both a thick belt armor of 9.5", tapering down to 3" towards the ship's ends, and the primary armament of four 305mm (12") guns. The secondary battery of eight 152mm (6") was mounted in casemates, which in combination with low freeboard of the ship made them quite difficult to use in all but calm weather. The ships armament was completed by fourteen 76mm (3") guns - eight in open casemates on the freeboard deck and six in unarmored deck mounts - and two 15" torpedo tubes, one on each side. One quirk of this class was that the armor consisted of a flat deck on top of belt, rather than a sloped deck one would expect in most battleships. Overall Mikhail considered the ships to be good coastal defense vessels, capable of standing in the battleline to fight near friendly shores, but wouldn't call them a real battleship. All four vessels were in service with the Pacific Squadron.
Tri Svyatitelya (1894) Ships in class: 1 - and thank God The ship was built in France and because of that it was incredibly... French. Even more than most French ships dared to be. It proudly displayed its heritage by presenting one of the most atrocious tumblehome hulls the world has ever seen. The beam at freeboard deck was essentially half of the beam at waterline. Generally laughed at by the navy, though not really disliked by her crew - she was nicknamed by them "the humble-home" both in regard to the tumblehome hull and the fact that the entire ship could easily be mistaken for a floating hotel. The ship's belt was 9" thick across the entire length, but narrower than one would expect it to be, it also had a traditional sloped deck 1.5" thick. The ship was "experimental" and for that very reason it couldn't have been called a failure. The primary reason for its acquisition was to evaluate the performance of 13" guns the French were advertising at the time of her design. The evaluation was successful in determining that the guns were... Leaving a lot to be desired. Additionally, for some unholy reason, the ship was only equipped with two of them in two single turrets. Instead she had larger caliber secondary battery of fourteen 180mm (7") guns located in casemates and protected by 6.5" of armor. She also had eighteen 76mm(3") guns in deck mounts and two torpedo tubes. Originally the French insisted on also equipping her with sever 1.9" guns, 1.6" guns, 1.1" guns and a musket, but that offer was politely declined. At the very least she could reach and maintain 18 knots, which means that she was able to keep up with rest of the battleline. Currently the Tri Svyatitelya was mothballed and moored dangerously close to the building with general-admiral's office, which meant that Mikhail was in danger of seeing her from the window. He hated the ship with a passion and he considered it a floating monument to the idiocy of man - not only the one who designed it, but also one who agreed to order her. Dmitri found this incredibly funny and often joke that Mikhail's entire personal life is his vendetta against the ship. And Mikhail really wanted to order her scrapped right now, but he had to think past his issues with the ship - it was a hull in the water after all, and a hull that he might need. Rostislav (1897) Ships in class: 4 Rostislav, Evstafi, Imperator Nikolai I, Imperator Aleksandr I The only true battleship class currently in service. They were considered good vessels all-round, armed with four 305mm(12") guns, fourteen 152mm(6") in casemates and eighteen 76mm(3") guns distributed between deck mounts and fighting tops fore and aft. Additionally the ship was equipped with torpedo tubes, one on each side. The belt armor was 8" thick, tapering down to 4" and the angled deck was 1.5" thick. With a standard 18 knot speed the class was well received by both sailors and command. All four ships were in service with the Baltic Fleet. Dvenadtsat Apostolov(1899) Ships in class: 4 Dvenadtsat Apostolov, Imperator Pavel I, Imperator Petr Veliki, Imperator Aleksandr II These were the new battleships currently in construction. due to Russian shipyards being unavailable, the ships were being built in France, they would not, however posses the French "features" that plagued the Tri Svyatitelya. They were to be a direct improvement over the Rostislav class, possesing slightly thicker armor, two more secondary guns and more efficient boilers. All four ships are expected to be completed in slightly over a year.
Slowly introducing the fleet. Next up, the cruisers. One thing I don't think needs to be said, but I will say anyway is that all feedback is welcome, both regarding the style and contents.
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Post by specialist290 on Oct 8, 2020 19:54:00 GMT -6
Definitely enjoying what I'm seeing so far Appreciating the characters and the dry humor. A few rough edges with the grammar and formatting, but nothing that can't be polished with time and practice. I'm particularly liking the interplay between Mikhail and Dmitri. It certainly comes across like they've been good friends for a long time before, even despite their respective stations in the past. Now watch Tri Svyatitelya be the only legacy ship that makes it all the way to 1950.
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Post by janxol on Oct 9, 2020 8:54:29 GMT -6
Introducing: The Russian Fleet and all of its flaws - part 2
ARMORED CRUISERS
Pamyat Azova(1893) Ships in class: 2 Pamyat Azova, Rossiya
Oldest class of armored cruiser currently in service with the Russian Navy, these vessels posses fairly thick armor by cruiser standards, reaching full 7" of belt amidships and 3.5" in bow and stern sections, while the angled deck was 1.5" thick. The ships had machinery capable of producing 25 800 horsepower, driving three shafts for a top speed of 21 knots. For cruising, only the middle shaft could be used. The armament consisted of four 230mm(9") guns in two twin turrets protected by 7" of armor, as well as ten 152mm(6") guns located in casemates and ten 76mm(3") quick-firing guns in deck mounts. In addition the ship was equipped two submerged torpedo tubes, one on each side. Pamyat Azova was in service with the Baltic Fleet, while Rossiya was part of the Pacific Squadron, acting as its flagship. Gromoboi (1895) Ships in class: 1 The one-of Gromoboi class was a direct derivative of the Pamyat Azova-class and as such the ships have many external similarities. Due to similar silhouette and size, observers are likely to struggle to tell the ships apart at long range. While definitely a derivative, most would hesitate to call it an improvement. The machinery was expanded to produce a total of 30 000 horsepower, enabling the ship to reach 22 knots with the same three-shaft propeller arrangement as present on the Pamyat Azova-class. To compensate for the added weight the ship sacrifices 1" of belt armor and 0.5" of deck armor. As such the belt protection is 6" amidships and 3.5" inches in the "extended" section. The deck is left with only 1" of thickness. Additionally the main gun caliber was reduced to 203mm(8"), but instead an additional pair of 152mm(6") casemates was added, as well as a third torpedo tube located in the bow of the ship. Gromoboi was in service with the Baltic Fleet, currently in reserve status.
Side by side comparison. Pamyat Azova (left) and Gromoboi(right)
Bayan(1898) Ships in class: 1+2 Bayan, Bogatyr (under construction), Oleg (under construction) Ah, the Bayan. Pride of the Fleet. She was the largest warship of the Imperial Russian Navy and the largest cruiser in the world. Over 37 000 horsepower driving four propeller shafts enabled her to reach a speed of 23 knots, which was very respectable for ship of her size. She was protected by an armored belt 7" thick amidships and tapering down to 4". The angled deck had 1.5" of thickness. Main armament consisted of four 254mm(10") guns in two twin turrets protected by 7.5" of armor. Secondary battery consisted of fourteen 152mm(6") guns in casemates and anti torpedo boat armament consisted of twelve 76mm(3") guns - ten in deck mounts and two in casemates at the bow. Two underwater torpedo tubes were also installed. Bayan was serving in the Baltic Fleet, acting as flagship of kontr-admiral Dmitri Vedernikov, in command of the cruiser squadron. Two more ships, Bogatyr and Oleg, were under construction in St. Petersburg's shipyards. While the Bayan was liked in the navy and had a positive effect on morale in addition to being a formidable ship in her own right, but Mikhail was aware of at least one issue with the design - it was incredibly expensive in both construction and maintenance. The price of her machinery alone could buy one a protected cruiser. Or eighteen torpedo boat destroyers. For the price of Bogatyr and Oleg the navy could've afforded three sizeable battleships. While Mikhail was looking forward to completion of the two cruisers - and "stealing" one of them as his flagship, he couldn't foresee himself ordering another ship of this design. PROTECTED CRUISERS
Avrora(1892) Ships in class: 4 Avrora, Pallada, Flora, Diana Mikhail was very well acquainted with this class, as he was in command of the Avrora for the past four years, before he was mercilessly promoted. His personal experienced made him like the ship, though he had no intention of idealizing the class. Avrora-class was a three-shafted design capable of reaching 23 knots and had good sea keeping characteristics. The armored deck was 2" thick at the angled portion and 1" at the horizontal section. Her armament consisted of eight single 152mm(6") guns protected by 1" gunshields. Additionally she was equipped with eight 76mm(3") guns and three torpedo tubes - one in the bow and one each port and starboard. Avrora and Pallada were serving in the Baltic Fleet, while Flora and Diana were part of the Pacific Squadron. Svetlana(1894) Ships in class: 4 Svetlana, Vesta, Nadezhda, Novik This class of small cruisers was originally conceived as fleet scouts, then someone pitched in the idea of commerce raiding and eventually what was created was... this. Svetlanas were capable of 22 knots, with an armored deck 2" thick at angled portion and 1" thick at horizontal. They were armed with six 152mm(6") guns in unarmored deck mounts and no less than fourteen 76mm(3") guns planted wherever there was free deck space. The ships were also equipped with six torpedo tubes, one bow and stern and two per side, which meant they could inflict heavy damage at close range, despite their small size. Svetlana was in active service with the Baltic Fleet, Vesta was in reserve status, Nadezhda was in reserve status for the Pacific Squadron and Novik, formally part of the Pacific Squadron, was assigned to patrol the coast of Kamchatka.
Varyag(1896) Ships in class: 3+1 Varyag, Velikii Knyaz Konstantin, Vladimir, Boyarin (in construction) Almost twice the size of a Svetlana-class, the Varyag-class protected were designed to screen larger vessels as well as being able to deal with other protected cruisers. The ships were liked by captains and crew, as they were stable gun platforms and fared very well in harsh weather. The armored deck was 3" thick on the slopes and 1" thick on the flat portion. The main armament consisted of twelve 152mm(6") guns, eight of which were mounted in shielded deck mounts, while four were mounted in casemates below the raised forecastle. The ships were also equipped with twelve 76mm(3")guns and ten 52mm(2") guns, as well as six torpedo tubes - one bow and stern and two per side.
All three ships served in the Baltic Fleet.
Almost done with the ships.
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Post by mycophobia on Oct 9, 2020 15:04:08 GMT -6
Part of me is tempted to make a FTD model for the Tumble-Home xD
Great write ups so far, I look forward to the next update.
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Post by specialist290 on Oct 9, 2020 21:52:19 GMT -6
There is something I find incredibly amusing about the idea of a cruiser that out-masses most contemporary battleships.
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Post by janxol on Oct 10, 2020 7:22:46 GMT -6
Introducing: The Russian Fleet and all of its flaws - part 3
DESTROYERS
Buinyi(1893) Ships in class: 12 The older type of the destroyers currently in service. 500 ton Buinyi-class were built with a whaleback bow and with 5 600 horsepower and two shafts were capable of reaching 27 knots and were armed with two 76mm(3") guns fore and aft and three torpedo tubes - one centerline and two on the sides. Unfortunately being able to reach that speed required certain sacrifices. The engines are built for speed and speed alone and that means they are difficult to maintain and can often be found to be quite "temperamental". Additionally the space aboard is very limited and the crew accommodations are extremely cramped, which resulted in the crews not being particularly fond of these boats. On the other hand, the class maintained reasonable range for its size, unlike many other torpedo boat destroyers of the time. All twelve ships are part of the Pacific squadron, with four of them being in reserve status. Veseli(1897) Ships in class: 24 The next class of torpedo boat destroyers, the Veseli-class, was supposed to be an improvement upon the Buinyi class and do away with its shortcomings - that effort was of limited success. Veseli-class also had a displacement of 500 tons, a whaleback bow and two propellers, but the overall hull shape was adjusted slightly to improve seakeeping. The engineers made great efforts to resolve machinery problems that plagued the Buinyi-class boats. Unfortunately it was extremely difficult to find a configuration and components which would meet the requirements tonnage and horsepower requirements of the ship. As such, the Veseli have many of the same engine components used in the Buinyi-class and the engine's reliability didn't see much improvement, despite slightly changed layout of the engine room and several minor improvements to the components themselves. The ships' power plant would around 5 600 horsepower, which resulted in the same top speed of 27 knots as their predecessors. Due to the adjusted hull shape and machinery layout, the crew spaces weren't as cramped as on the Buinyi-class, which was met with approval of the crews. The armament consisted of a single 76mm(3") gun mounted on the bow and three 52mm(2") guns - one on the stern and one on each side of the bridge - as well as two torpedo tubes, both located on the centerline. Of the twenty four ships currently in service, four were part of the Pacific Squadron. Of the remaining twenty in service with the Baltic Fleet, eight were in reserve status and twelve in active service. AUXILIARY VESSELS
Vestnik(1892) - Seagoing Minesweeper Ships in class: 10 In 1892 the Navy ordered ten purpose-built seagoing minesweepers, which have been in service ever since. The ships displaced 600 tons and had a top speed of 18 knots. They were armed with two 76mm (3") guns bow and stern for protection, as well as two 52mm(2") guns on the sides, meant primarily for shooting mines. The ships were also (obviously) equipped with minesweeping gear. Four were in service in the Baltic Fleet, four in the Pacific Squadron and two were assigned to Petropavlovsk.
Artist's impression of Tri Svyatitelya - "The Humble-home", c.1898
16:00, January 3rd, 1900, St Petersburg, General-admiral's office Mikhail closed the book containing the navy's finances and raised an eyebrow. "To my great surprise, the navy is not as broke as I always thought it to be", he said. "And that's good news." Good news indeed, but what can he do with this budget? It's certainly not enough to afford ships, definitely not while the navy is still paying for construction of the Bayans and the battleships in France. And even if the funds were enough, there is no shipyard in Russia that could currently undertake such task. The sad truth was that domestic shipbuilding industry wasn't particularly well developed. It lacked not only capacity, but also skilled workers and technological processes. If Mikhail intends to build up the navy without relying on foreign shipbuilders, he can only hope this will change. And that was only one of the issues that could impact Mikhail's plans. Another sad truth was that most seamen, similarly to dockyard workers, were... Simple men... They lacked real education, often lacked the understandings of even basic concepts of mathematics and other sciences which would certainly help with developing other skills they require to be effective crewmen. Mikhail would not generally call them stupid, for it wasn't a matter of lacking intelligence, but simply of lacking education. As far as crew performance goes, there was quite a bit to be desired. Some crews were of course better than others. Some crews were more experienced than others. Certain captains cared more about training their crew than others. Yet in general the quality of crews in the navy was mediocre at best, and special note had to be taken of Russian naval gunnery, recognized in the whole world as being utterly terrible... Mikhail raised his eyes to look at Dmitri, who was silently sitting in the corner of the room, clearly not willing to disturb Mikhail's thoughts. Before either of them could speak a word, someone knocked on the door. "Come in!", said Koshkin. The door opened an in came Eugeni, Mikhail's aide. "General-admiral, sir. The podpolkovnik is here", he reported. "Good. Lead him in.", commanded Mikhail, correcting his posture to look more elegant in his chair. After a short moment the door opened again and a young looking man entered the room. It was slightly surprising to see that he was indeed younger than Mikhail and a face devoid of any sort of moustache, beard or other facial hair only made the guest look younger. "General-admiral, sir. Admiralty Lieutenant-Colonel Artem Ivanovitch Sapalyov, at your service. It is a pleasure to meet you." "Likewise", responded Mikhail, getting up and extending his arm towards Sapalyov. The two shook hands. "General-admiral Mikhail Valentinovitch Koshkin. This is my advisor, kontr-admiral Dmitri Nikitovitch Vedernikov." Mikhail sat back down as Dmitri and Sapalyov exchanged pleasantries, and gestured towards a chair in front of him for the podpolkovnik to take a seat. Something was striking him about this young man. Something more than just good first impression. He was beginning to suspect it's not his first impression at all and the two of them had already met. "We have met before, do I remember correctly?", he asked. "Yes, sir. Two years ago I hitched a ride aboard Avrora, which you were the captain of, to Port Arthur to inspect the harbor and plan possible expansion of facilities. If I recall correctly, we had a deep discussion about merits and drawbacks of protected cruisers." "Yes, I remember." Mikhail's memory was indeed refreshed, and further confirming his belief that he has an intelligent and skilled engineer before him. "I didn't realize you were chief of the Engineering Committee." "Back then I wasn't. While I was on the Engineering Committee for several years now it was only six months ago that I was chosen to lead it. An in that capacity I stand entirely at your disposal, General-admiral." "And so you are responsible for the technological advancements in the navy, correct?" "Among other things. The Engineering Committee is responsible for development, evaluation and introduction of new technologies, design practices and equipment models. I always emphasize that not every technology is our own development, and in fact most aren't, as we reach out to many independent manufacturers and engineering bureaus. We are also involved in ship design process, harbor expansion and fortification and many other things. In general, if Naval Mechanical Engineers Corps or Fleet Engineers Corps are involved, so is the Engineering Committee, even if it sometimes only on paper.", explained Sapalyov. Mikhail nodded. "In that case I have task for you. I want you to focus your efforts on introducing solutions to problems presented by the fairly low level of skill amongst our crews. When men may fail, I want procedures and devices to prevent this failure. In particular I mean the safety of the ships and the ability to land shots on intended target.", he said. "I understand, General-admiral. May I inquire as to what you mean by the ship's safety? Do you believe that particular vessels have a flaw in their design or inadequate protection against enemy fire?" "It's not protection that worries me. Here, let us have a thought exercise." Mikhail selected from his pile of papers a couple drawings presenting the Rostislav-class battleship. "Let us say that a... Let's say an 11" shell, like the ones used on many German battleships, hits this particular spot at an angle of fifteen degrees from the bow", he pointed with his pencil at extended section of the belt, just forward of the main belt and above the waterline. "Armor here is 4" thick and even at long range the shell will be likely to penetrate. There is 1" of armored deck behind this plate, which the round will penetrate and into the ship it goes..." Mikhail moved forward a different drawing, this one presenting a top-down view of compartments on the "penetrated" deck. "...and it hits the transverse bulkhead of the citadel. Considering the engagement ranges between battleships we've seen in the last ten years the chance of penetration of this bulkhead is high enough that for the purpose of this exercise we will say that it penetrates. Are we in agreement so far?" "Yes", responded Sapalyov, watching the schematics and waiting for Mikhail to continue. "Very well. The shell pierces the bulkhead and enters the compartment designated on this drawing as C21-1. It explodes and starts a fire. By the time the crew fetches the appropriate equipment, most of which is located in here, C42-1, the fire is likely to spread to at least those 3 compartments, adjacent to C21-1. With the limited functionality of current firefighting measures, even a skilled damage control party will have trouble getting a fire this large under control, and especially under enemy fire. So, as you can see, it is not a matter of preventing entry of the shell, because that wouldn't be feasible considering the mass of armor and the fairly low likelihood of that particularly unlucky shot happening. What is needed is procedures, equipment and design features that would enable the crew to control the spread of fire, or flooding, and keep the ship operational, or at the very least afloat, despite the damage." "I understand what you mean, general-admiral. Yes, we have of course already been looking into solutions to such incidents, and if that is your wish I will make sure we shift our focus towards this field of study, as well as the need to increase hit-rate of our guns." "Very good. You will be happy to learn I am also increasing the funding for the Engineering Committee and I hope you will put it to good use chasing solution to all our problems. With that, I believe that would be all and I don't intend to keep you any longer. It was a pleasure to meet you, again, Artem Ivanovitch.", said Mikhail, getting up once again. "The pleasure was all mine, general-admiral". They shook hands once again and Sapalyov left the office. As soon as the door closed, Mikhail turned towards Dmitri. "Advise me, advisor. Have you nothing to say?", he chuckled. "Nothing to add. Not to that discussion at least... Are you planning to do a fleet inspection?", said Dmitri, tilting his head with curiosity. "I might." "Should I message Andrei, tell him to prepare Pacific Squadron, make it nice and shiny?" "Dear God, no! Poor Andrei would get a heart attack. And also I have no intention of travelling all the way to Port Arthur.", said Mikhail, laughing. He also was well aware of the state of Pacific Squadron. Colloquially named the Rustbucket Fleet, it consisted mostly of older warships, many of which weren't in particularly good state. Admiral Andrei Maximovitch Yablokov, commander of the Pacific squadron and good acquaintance to both Dmitri and Mikhail, did what he could to keep the ships in good condition. It was only thanks to his efforts and incredible skill at managing his resources that the Squadron was still seaworthy. The focus of the Fleet was always in Europe, the front yard of the big powers. Mikhail still needed to take a look at the reports concerning the foreign fleets, estimate Russia's position in all this and decide for the course of action to correct that position - as he didn't expect it to be particularly strong. Not having to worry about the Pacific coast too much would allow him to concentrate his efforts on trying to match the big powers of Europe in naval strength. After all, it's not like the Japanese would suddenly attack Port Arthur. And yet as soon as this thought crossed his mind, he started to have a bad feeling about it.
Done with the ships, almost ready to hit next turn.
A couple notes: First, in regard to calibers listed, its not meant to be a direct conversion, but more of an approximate translation. The Russians would note the calibers in milimetres, but the game obviously works in inches. As such, depending on the gun model an in-game 4" gun might be represented by 100mm, or 102mm, or 105mm, all fo which would be listed as 4" to simplify the "translation" to game terms.
Regarding the rank of podpolkovnik (lieutenant-colonel): Historically the engineering ranks were different than normal "deck ranks" and in period covered by the AAR underwent several changes, where they would switch back and forth between having their own ranks, using army ranks or navy ranks. For sake of sanity I will not model all those changes and the ranks used will be those historically used by ground service troops and marines. As such Admiralty Lieutenant-Colonel would be very roughly equivalent to a captain, but isn't a deck officer.
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Post by garrisonchisholm on Oct 10, 2020 12:19:31 GMT -6
"The ship was built in France and because of that it was incredibly... French."
This made me 'lol'; bravo.
I love the side-views of Pamyat and Gromoboi. Very proud profiles they carry.
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Post by janxol on Oct 13, 2020 14:14:41 GMT -6
The past, the present, the future
Protected cruiser Avrora
Mikhail was tense. More tense than ever before, in fact, as he was more than aware of the danger of the situation he was in. He was standing on the starboard wing of Avrora's bridge, looking through binoculars at the primary reason of his concern - that reason being another cruiser, visible at a distance of about six thousand yards. Despite the fog surrounding the two ships Mikhail could clearly see a rather large turret on the ship's bow and stern, as well as a Dutch flag on her mast. Muzzle flashes illuminated the calm sea as the Dutch vessel unleashed yet another salvo, shells whizzing past Avrora and splashing around her. The Russian six-inch guns - all five which could be brought to bear - roared in response, managing to score a single hit on the enemy's hull. "Damn you!", barked captain Zavragin on Mikhail's left. "That's a whole lot of crap on that tiny hull! I know you're overweight, you bastard. Half of your country is below sea level, why is it so hard for you to go under!" The Dutch ship was actually faring better than the Avrora, as by this point both ships were hit multiple times and hits on Avrora were both more numerous and more serious that on the Dutch vessel. "Captain, it seems we've misidentified the enemy ship! That's eight-inch guns she's pointing in our direction!", noted Mikhail, raising his voice to make sure he's audible over the sound of gunfire as Avrora's three-inch guns let loose their shells. "And she appears to be gaining on us!" Zavragin groaned in anger. "She shouldn't be catching us! She can make twenty one knots at best! Get report from the engine room, whatever is slowing us down I want it dealt with!" "Yes, captain!" With that Mikhail left the wing to get back inside the pilothouse. He cast a quick glance at the engine order telegraphs, making sure they are set to "ahead flank" before approaching the voice tube that connected to the engine room. "Engine room, report!", he shouted into the tube. Answer did not come. He waited for a few seconds, then repeated his call and waited again, putting his ear to the tube from which he should hear his answer. No answer came. After a few more seconds he went back onto the starboard wing. "No response, captain!", he reported. "The voice tube could've been damaged!" "Understood. Go! Yell at them in person. This ship can make twenty three knots and we need all of it RIGHT NOW. Go!", responded the captain, not even turning to look away from the Dutch cruiser. "Yes, captain!" Mikhail dashed down the narrow stair leading down from the wing onto the main deck. With a loud bang a shell from enemy cruiser struck one of Avrora's funnels. Painful cries indicated that at least one person aboard was hit by shrapnel resulting from the explosion but at the current time it was not Mikhail's main worry. He run towards the hatch at the side of Avrora's first funnel. Down below deck, through the corridor, down again, passing below the ship's armored deck. As he passed crew members they moved out of the way or hugged the corridor wall to make way. When Mikhail reached the engine room it was immediately clear that there was damage. Looking down from a catwalk suspended accross the room Mikhail could see several wounded, while in the far corner a mechanic was extinguishing a small fire, which luckily appeared to be mostly under control. "Chief, report!", demanded Mikhail. The chief engineer approached the catwalk, his eyes turning between the wounded and Mikhail. "We have fractured mountings, leaking pipes and perforated uptakes, commander. Might be more, not sure. The starboard engine got damaged so bad we had to shut it down and we have four casualties. And we're still dealing with that mess!", he pointed towards the fire. "The starboard engine, can it run?" "It will risk further damage. The pipe can burst, the pistons are barely secured to the shaft, the cylinder is... I do not advise it, commander." "Understood. Possible damage is a chance we have to take. Keep the engine running as long as you can, as much power as you can. If it falls apart, it falls apart, we need the speed. NOW!", commanded Mikhail. "Yes, commander!", acknowledged the chief, before turning back to his men. Mikhail went back into the corridor and back the way he came. He stopped when passing one of the petty officers leading a damage control party and grabbed his arm. "If you have nothing critical on your head, the engine room needs some fixing up! They have a fire in there as well!", shouted Mikhail, making sure he can be heard over the six-inch gun that just fired two decks above. "Yes, commander!" Mikhail continued on his way. As he reached the hatch leading outside to the freeboard deck, he witnessed a shell land on Avrora's bridge. Mikhail instinctually ducked back into the hatch as shrapnel from the explosion cut through the air, his eyes wide open and fixed on the superstructure where he had last seen captain Zavragin. "Doctor to the bridge!", he yelled down the corridor, before running out to the deck and up the stairs leading to the bridge. The first person he saw was the junior watch officer, lying dead on the floor. There were several others as well, wounded or dead. Captain Zavragin was laying on the floor, struggling to crawl towards the pilothouse. "Captain!", Mikhail approached him and turned him onto his back. Their gazes met, Mikhail's look of worry and Zavragin's - full of pain. There were multiple shrapnel wounds in his chest, each resulting in a growing spot of crimson. "The ship is yours..", Zavragin said through clenched teeth. "Remember me..." And as the spark in Zavragin's eyes vanished and the captain faded into this grim sleep, Mikhail woke from his - realizing he'd fallen asleep in the chair in his admiral's office. 10:00, January 12th, 1900, St. Petersburg, Protected cruiser Avrora Standing on the port bridge wing of Avrora Mikhail looked down onto the foredeck, full of tightly packed men. All in their dress blues, the entire four hundred ninety members of Avrora's crew were present - vast majority standing on the foredeck and at the sides of the bridge superstructure, while the officers were standing on the wing with Mikhail. "And so I must leave you all, as I was called to a different duty. I want you to know that I was proud to be the captain of this vessel. Proud to be sailing with such fine men. I wish you continued luck and calm seas. You, gentlemen, were the best crew I've ever had", said Mikhail, finishing his goodbye speech. He turned back to the officers and started exchanging pleasantries and goodbyes. "Keep her safe", he said to his former first officer, who was now the ship's captain. After the goodbyes Mikhail stepped down onto the deck and from the ship back to the pier. As he was walking away, he found himself casting glances back at his former vessel. "The best crew you've ever had?", repeated Dmitri, who was waiting for him about twenty meters from the ship. "You doubt that's true?" "They were literally the only crew you've ever had", noted Dmitri. "Which - technically - makes my statement true", parried Mikhail. "You were constantly complaining!" "I didn't say they were good. I said they were the best I've ever had. I could say they were the least incompetent, but that doesn't have the same ring to it. All things considered, and especially other ships considered, they weren't a bad crew." For a minute they walked in silence. "What do you think of Kaiserliche Marine?", asked Mikhail. "They're the wurst, why?" "Did you just...? Never mind. I was thinking about international situation on the seas and I am reaching a conclusion that the Germans are our main concern in Europe." "I don't disagree. But why the Germans? Why not the Royal Navy, which is significantly larger?", asked Dmitri. "For one, both the Tsar and the Kaiser have... Large personalities. The kind that can't fit in one room. With the addition of having a land border I would dare say relations between our countries are not necessarily "stable". The good news is that the current situation in Europe is quite calm, for the time being at least. We have had particularly good relations with the French and of course there's been talks and games and all the unofficial talk about a Franco-Russian alliance, except nobody is actually willing to make the deal so far. I would of course support such an agreement because even if half of French warships are floating art installations, they do have quite decently sized fleet. While we're on our own, I worry. And then there's Japan, who still hold a grudge about the Triple Intervention. ..", said Mikhail, his thought slowly drifting away. 10:30, January 21st, 1900, General-Admiral's office Doing his best to look as majestic and official as possible, Mikhail straightened himself in his chair, looking towards the door of his office. Those opened and admiral Vassili Borisovitch Yevtushenkov entered the room. He was a rather sizeable man in his fifties, with a grim look on his face, most of which was covered by a sizeable gray beard. "General-admiral Mikhail Valentinovitch Koshkin", he greeted him. The most well known talent of admiral Yevtushenkov was being able to use a fully formal and respectful form of addressing a person, while at the same making sure to relay the full extent of his disapproval, disrespect and hatred towards that person when he intended to. Such was the case here. Nobody who ever saw Mikhail and Yevtushenkov in one room could have any doubts that the two of them greatly disliked each other. "Admiral Yevtushenkov, how glad I am you could finally make it. It feels I have requested your presence at least three times in the past two weeks.", said Mikhail with a polite smile on his face. That was precisely the case. And while the first two instances were "requests", Mikhail made sure the third one was a direct order. That was most likely the reason Yevtushenkov finally appeared. "I understand that you had many duties and little free time, admiral, since you've been in command of the fleet in absence of the General-admiral. I have good news for you. As I have now taken this position and have acquainted myself with any information I needed to act in my full capacity, you are no longer required to take on these additional duties. I will be taking over command of the fleet, effective immediately, and you will return to your normal duties." For a few moments there was silence, as the two looked at each other. Cold fire was burning in Yevtushenkov's eyes, while Mikhail was simply smiling. Though while he was smiling, on the inside he felt like staring down a bear. "With all due respect, general-admiral...", said Yevtushenkov, making it clear that no respect was intended. "I have commanded battleships while you were still in officer academy. I..." "And now you're still commanding battleships, while * I* am in command of the navy", interrupted Mikhail. For another quiet moment they stared each other down. Then Yevtushenkov glanced at Dmitri, who was silently watching from an armchair in the room's corner. "I understand, general-admiral...", he said slowly, as if seeing Dmitri made him realize there is a witness to anything that would be done or said. "Good! That will be all. Dismissed.", said Mikhail, the entire time maintaining eye contact with Yevtushenkov. Very slowly, like a hand-cranked battleship turret, the admiral turned towards the door. While he made his best not to show his anger, there was no doubt in Mikhail's mind that he was absolutely fuming. As soon as the door closed behind Yevtushenkov - slightly louder than usual - he looked at Dmitri. "Meetings with him are always interesting", he said. "He's angry because he anticipated he would be the one to take over. He could cause problems if he really wanted...", said Dmitri, getting up from his seat and coming closer to Mikhail's desk. "On the other hand, he is one of the most experienced battleship commanders in the navy. I would be a fool to get rid of him... And I can't blame him for being angry. We've obviously never liked one another but that's just nature. Assholes like him can't stand assholes like me. I am prepared to throw him a bone from time to time, but I intend to remind him of his place whenever he tries to forget it. Now, let us take a look at those reports about Kaiserliche Marine, shall we?"
Still going forward. This time I actually managed to advance time. No longer in January 1900!
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Post by specialist290 on Oct 13, 2020 15:18:58 GMT -6
More insights about Mikhail's background. Even before being promoted to admiral, it seems he had quite a burden on his shoulders to have command fall to him under such circumstances.
Yevtushenkov could prove a double-edged sword. Let's hope he remembers that both he and Mikhail ultimately serve the same Tsar and Motherland, whatever personal animosities may lie between them.
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Post by janxol on Oct 14, 2020 14:11:31 GMT -6
The past, the present, the future - part 2
Varyag-class protected cruiser
11:00, February 12th, St Petersburg, General-admiral's office Mikhail spent majority of his time focused on the Kaiserliche Marine. Having established that the Germans are the primary threat, he sought to devise a plan that would allow the Russian Navy to be prepared for it. His mind was running wild, going over scenarios, playing out imaginary battles and comparing the assets available to both navies. "It's the Baltic that's the real issue...", said Mikhail, looking at Dmitri over the map of Europe stretched across the desk. "The Germans can have thirteen battleships, seven armored cruisers and thirteen protected cruisers in the Baltic within a few days. They outnumber the Baltic Fleet two-to-one. What we have is four battleships, three armored cruisers, seven protected cruisers and one art installation. They can establish a blockade, if not at the Gulf of Finland then at the Danish straights. And even if we had the strength to contest control of the straights, they have access to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kanal, which means there is no way for us to prevent the Kaiserliche Marine entry into the Baltic. They won't be able to just sit in the straights, because they have the Baltic coast to protect, which means we would have the means to provoke them to a battle. The question is: could we win it? Otherwise there's commerce raiding, but to do that our ships would have to run the blockade through Skagerrak, which is dangerous, but doable if majority of the German fleet would be forced to remain in the Baltic. The issue then is the lack of ports past the straits. The raiding ships would have to go back and forth through the blockade whenever in need of resupply or repair." "If we were to raid the German shipping in the North Sea our ships would have to be able to remain in that area for extended period of time. I fear they would be limited by their range, though we could alleviate that somewhat if we snuck supply ships past the straits. Perhaps disguised as merchant ships of neutral nations...", mused Dmitri, his eyes tracing the movements of Mikhail's fingers over the map. "Sneaky. I like it.", agreed Mikhail. "There are also the four battleships of the Dvenadtsat Apostolov-class to consider. I am reluctant to count chickens that haven't hatched yet, but the presence of these four vessels would greatly alter the balance of this matchup. Our number of battleships would effectively double, though the German ships would still outnumber us." "The numbers would not be in our favor, that's true. But consider the individual ships as well. The Varyag-class cruisers are over two times larger than largest German protected cruisers and the Germans use smaller caliber guns. Even outnumbered two-to-one, I would say our protected cruisers would not be outmatched. As far as the armored cruisers are concerned, I would say the Bayan is still the most fearsome warship in the Baltic and no German cruiser can face it." "That may be true, but your assumptions rely on the idea that our brave sailors will be able to score hits in a capacity that is at least somewhat similar to that of their enemy. I am actually skeptical of that at this moment in time. And even if you're right about the cruisers and the gunnery performance of their crews is a pleasant surprise, the battleships are an issue. They may use guns of 280mm as opposed to our 305s, but they are sturdy ships with good armor.", noted Mikhail. "Additionaly, I have recently been informed that the Germans laid down a battleship of the new Nassau-class, which at this moment we know nothing about except the fact that she's supposed to have a displacement of fourteen thousand tons. And I fully expect them to order more. Unfortunately, we can't really plan against it until more is known about the design. One more thing that just came to my mind is that we should plan in advance to arm civilian ships if need arises and field them as auxiliary vessels."
Hansa, a Hertha-class armored cruiser of the Kaiserliche Marine
Schwaben-class battleships are the primary units of the German battleline
12:00, March 6th, St. Petersburg, General-admiral's office "Do you really think Japan is a threat?", asked Dmitri, as both he and Mikhael were standing over a map of North-East Asia. "They may have territorial ambitions, but they don't have the funding to field a large navy." "Five battleships and eleven cruisers. It's a navy and it's larger than the Pacific Squadron. The Japanese also felt insulted by the Triple Intervention and they have big plans for expanding of their military, navy included. They wanted the Liaotung Peninsula and now we have it. And since I very much believe they still want it, I indeed think Japan will be a threat. They lack the funding but their "warrior spirit", as some may call it, makes them extremely unpredictable at large...", responded calmly Mikhail. "I am starting to believe our eastern problem is the reverse of our western problem. While we want to be able to get out of the Baltic in Europe, in Asia we don't want the Japanese to able to get into Port Arthur. " "I am not entirely sure what you mean..." "The Japanese navy as a whole is smaller than ours, but it is larger than the Pacific Squadron and roughly equal to the Baltic fleet. They are perfectly aware of that and so they will do what they can to prevent us from unifying our forces. That would involve destroying the Pacific Squadron before the Baltic Fleet arrives. Now we know that as well, which means we would avoid risky engagements before the forces are joint. So, naturally, the only option to get rid of the Pacific Squadron would be for the Japanese to attack it in port... ", said Mikhail. "We should fortify it. Get me Lieutenant-Colonel Sapalyov. He was in Port Arthur before to oversee harbor expansion, so he has first-hand knowledge of topography. I will want him to come up with plans to further develop and fortify Port Arthur. This should make it easier for us to maintain control of the Peninsula and to eventually to keep there a larger naval force to project power in the region."
Mikasa, a Fuji-class battleship built in Great Britain for the Imperial Japanese Navy
The Japanese navy is also equipped with several German-built armored cruisers based on the Hertha-class
Artem Ivanovitch Sapalyov and his engineers got to work quickly and presented complex plans for Port Arthur harbor and fortifications by the end of the month. After taking financial considerations into effect, Mikhail approved the first phase of expansion, which would involve construction of two coastal batteries of 152mm guns, chosen after careful analysis of performance of available gun models, and setting up defensive minefields in chosen areas. Mikhail also made preliminary plans to hold a fleet exercise later this year, planning to schedule it for June. He was really hoping that the diplomats would stop teasing the French and actually decide if they want an alliance or not. It would certainly help to change the balance of power in Europe and Russia would certainly stand to gain a lot from it.
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Post by janxol on Oct 19, 2020 11:34:34 GMT -6
The 1900 Fleet Exercise
Svetlana-class protected cruiser
15:00, April 5th 1900, St. Petersburg, General-admiral's office Dmitri closed the door and turned to face Mikhail. He looked over him with concern, sensing that something is clearly not right. Mikhail was sitting at his desk, leaning forward and resting his elbows on its wooden surface, his palms in front of his face, finger interlocked. His empty gaze was looking past them, and whatever it was that it was focused on, it had to be something only the admiral could see, something buried deep in his thoughts. It didn't even look like Mikhail is aware of Dmitri's presence, though he had to be, since he gave the permission to enter. "Mikhail?", asked Dmitri. "Are you alright?" The general-admiral didn't move. "Yes", he said only. "It certainly doesn't look like it." "I am alright, Dmitri. It is just that..." For a second a shade of some unknown emotion broke through Mikhail's grim expression, but then it vanished as well. After a short moment he turned his eyes towards Dmitri, though there was no certainty if he was actually looking at him, or past him. "This responsibility I find on my shoulders... It brings back shadows I have struggled to bury. Echoes of the past I cannot forget...", he said slowly. "But this is something I will deal with on my own." "If I can help you, I will, Mikhail. If only you want to talk about these things..." "No. No, I do not, kontr-admiral Vedernikov", said Mikhail, this time his eyes firmly fixed on Mikhail's face. Addressing Dmitri like this made it crystal clear that this line of discussion is over. "I am sorry, Mikhail. I only ask you about these things because you are my friend and I worry.", said Dmitri, as they kept staring each other down. "I appreciate the thought, Dmitri. But talking about these things is not something I want or need", said Mikhail, as both his expression and voice became more gentle. "Tea?" "Yes, please. How was your meeting with the Tsar?" Mikhail ringed the bell to summon Eugeni and thought back to yesterday's appointment with Imperator Nikolai II. "Good, actually.", he said. "It was kind of surprising, to be honest." "Well, I do know that certain companies in steel industry are quite happy. So I guess "stressing the importance of a strong navy" was a success?" "It wasn't the difficult part. The Tsar was very much aware of the navy's importance, he was just in denial about its costs. In the end, he seemed to at least partially understand what I was trying to convey. He has already announced an increase in the navy budget." For a moment they interrupted their discussion when Eugeni knocked on the door. They requested the tea and promptly continued. "I know. I also know The Germans, British and Austrians were not particularly happy about this announcement.", noted Dmitri. "I also would've preferred for it to be more quiet, but part of the point of this whole thing was to let the steel industry know that times are good for business for them.", said Mikhail. "Can't be helped I suppose. Have you read the recent report from France? Due to delays in equipment delivery Imperator Aleksandr II will likely not be completed according to schedule. They expect about a month of delay in construction." "Oh well. As long as they don't add a tumblehome, I'm not that bothered.", responded Mikhail. "Meanwhile the Japanese ordered another battleship from the Brits, and several armored cruisers." "Great Britain also decided to increase their naval spending, to keep their navy prevalent, as they put it", added Dmitri. "If only we could pull money out of our asses whenever someone threatens to build a larger navy. Great Britain is one thing, but this also caused France, Japan and USA to increase their naval spending, and it could snowball further. Also, Germans are building coastal fortifications in East Prussia, which means they are as weary of our Tsar as we're of their Kaiser... Regarding this navy exercise we have planned for June, do you have any more thoughts on it?" "Actually, I believe it would be beneficial to include Gromoboi in the exercise, which means we should bring her out of reserve into active service. As we discussed, commerce raiding could be our primary focus in case of a war and Gromoboi is a ship well suited for that.", said Dmitri. "Very well. I will take this into consideration. I am really hoping to be pleasantly surprised during this exercise, but I also do not count on it..."
15:30, June 17th, 1900, Baltic Sea, Battleship Imperator Aleksandr I "With all due respect, general-admiral... While I am honored to be accompanying you, I fail to see the point of my presence here. I am not a deck officer" Mikhail turned his gaze away from the blue horizon to look at Artem Ivanovitch Sapalyov, who was keeping him company on Imperator Aleksandr I's flying bridge. He noted, with slight surprise, that the lieutenant-colonel looks a bit worried, though Mikhail had no idea what could concern him. "We're neutral observers in a naval exercise, Artem Ivanovitch. We're going to evaluate the performance of warships, crews and commanders. Since you are working on engineering solutions to many of our problems, I thought it best that you witness these problems first hand.", said Mikhail. Artem Ivanovitch was still looking worried, which prompted Mikhail to ask. "Is there something wrong, Artem Ivanovitch? I remember the trip on the Avrora, you didn't seem distraught back then, so I assume being aboard ships is no issue for you?" "No, sir. I have simply never been on a warship in combat conditions.", responded Artem Ivanovitch. "These are simulated combat conditions. You have nothing to worry about. The ships will not shoot directly at one another, but at the target barges", Mikhail pointed towards the bow. Directly in front of Imperator Aleksandr I was cruising Imperator Nikolai I, another Rostilav-class battleship and during this exercise a flagship of the Blue Force. The distance between the two ships was greater than usual in the battleline, as each vessel involved in the exercise was towing behind them a barge, roughly corresponding in size to its parent vessel, which was supposed to be a target for the enemy team. Additionally each warship hosted a team of observers who were recording hits and other data about the ship performance. Apart from the two battleships, the Blue Force consisted of several other vessels. Behind the Imperator Aleksandr I was steaming protected cruiser Varyag, while on the starboard side of the battleships one could see a group of five Veseli-class destroyers, cruising alongside the large ships in the line ahead formation. To the port and behind the battleships, at a bearing of about 220 and a distance of about 10 000 yards the Bayan was visible, with kontr-admiral Dmitri Vedernikov aboard. The last ship in the force was the protected cruiser Avrora, barely visible in the distance, and acting as the forward scout. "Still, shouldn't we move to the armored conning tower for safety? With round flying around..." He really wasn't a deck officer... "There are several reasons not to. For one, we are supposed to observe things and your really can't see anything from down there. For this reason ship commanders will not use the conning tower as their command station unless given no other choice. In my entire career at sea I recall only one time when command station was moved to the CT. Usually only the helm is transferred into that can.", explained Mikhail, with a slight smile. "Captains really don't use the conning towers?", asked surprised Artem. "Not really. The superior visibility of open positions is preferred in vast majority of cases. The captain needs to be aware of his surroundings" "What happened that forced you to use it?" Mikhail's smile disappeared. "It was during the war with Netherlands... We have raided a convoy and were chased by enemy cruiser. Things got ugly, the bridge took a direct hit..." The ship is yours... Remember me... "And because of the damage I was forced to move to the conning tower to retain effective control of the vessel. I was still going in and out, though, just so I could see what's happening...", said Mikhail. "May I ask a question regarding this exercise, admiral?" "Of course." "You said that you meant to make the forces balanced against one another. Still, the Blue Force has one armored cruiser, while the Red Force has two - Pamyat Azova and Gromoboi." "That's because neither of those two cruisers is the Bayan. Dmitri was always saying Bayan is worth more than these two combined, so... I am prepared to mercilessly make fun of him if he's wrong. And to be frank, I expect that Gromoboi and Pamyat Azova will be part of the Red battleline, seeing how the Red Force commander is admiral Yevtushenkov." "Who's in command of the Blue Force?" ... "I have no idea...", admitted Mikhail, after a moment of trying to remember.
Moments passed as Mikhail awaited contact between the forces. It wouldn't be until 16:45 that something finally happened. Far in the front Avrora changed course, and started moving to the north-east, almost perpendicular to the original course of the force, which was 295. The Avrora spotted the "enemy". Mikhail noted that the flagship before them accelerated, and soon he spotted the engine order telegraph of Imperator Aleksandr I move to "ahead full", mimicking the telegraph on the enclosed bridge below them. In case of these battleships, it would be a speed of roughly 16 knots. With flag signals passed around, the escorting vessels matched the new speed. Soon Mikhail spotted smoke and soon after that the ships of the Red Force, approaching from north-west. Avrora had now turned back towards the battleline, as has her "enemy" sibling ship, scouting for Red. Both scouts would soon rejoin battleships to provide screening together with the other protected cruiser of the force. As forces closed the distance, the red battleline started changing course towards a more eastern direction and Mikhail realized that they have spotted the Bayan. By turning in that direction, as opposed to turning west, the Bayan wouldn't be in position to pass in front of them, as was probably the Blue Force's intention. On the other hand, the wind would now favor the Blue Force. Soon the engine order telegraph jumped to the "ahead flank" position, the ships started to turn to starboard, while the main gun turrets traversed to port. The conditions were set, the engagement was taken and now the battlelines were lining up with one another. With the ships turning and Mikhail being able to take a closer look at the Red Battleline - now unobstructed by the ship in fron - he noted that he was right about Yevtushenkov. The Red battleline contained not two but four ships, with both armored cruisers following the battleships. Apart from that the formations of two forces were almost a perfect mirror of one another. And then, like a thunder rolling over the sea, the main battery of the Rostislav fired, the shells falling a few hundred yards short of the Blue Force. Artem ducked, so that his eyes were barely above the railing. Mikhail found it somewhat funny, especially seeing how his face was expressing a mixture of fear and curiosity battling for control over his body, but said nothing. As the ships started opening fire the air filled with smoke and shells, flying in both directions. First powerful and slow, the firing of the main batteries, then the secondaries and tertiaries joined in, so that there was hardly any break in the gunfire. And yet, despite large amount of shells flying through the air, there were barely any hits on targets of either force. Mikhail turned their gaze towards the Bayan. Her crew has already realized the original plan wouldn't come to fruition due to the battlelines moving in the opposite direction, and that they were out of position. The cruiser was now steaming at flank speed, putting all of her famed speed to use to catch up with the battleships. She was making good progress. Interestingly, the Bayan was still to port of the Blue battleline, and clearly even now she wasn't intending to join it. In fact, she appeared to be directly behind the Red battleline. And then Mikhail noticed the barrels of her aft turret, poking out to starboard. This made it clear that the Bayan was intending to flank the Red Force and get on their port side. This was both clever and risky. On one hand, with all main of the Red battleline traversed to starboard to aim at Blue battleships the Bayan would be fairly safe. And she was more than capable of dealing with protected cruisers. The possible danger would come from the destroyer line, following the battle on the "friendly" side of each respective battleline. The Bayan's planned approach would put the Red destroyers between the cruiser and the battleships, and put her in danger of a torpedo raid. While the Bayan certainly had speed, she couldn't outrun destroyers and she was a large and long vessel. Her turning circle was by no means small either, which meant she could rely only on her own guns to keep destroyers at bay. The destroyers were of course not allowed to actually fire torpedoes during the exercise, they recorded positions and firing solutions, so that the observer teams could asses probability of imaginary torpedo hits. The Bayan was getting close and soon opened fire from her forward guns, straddling the target barge of the Gromoboi. With the corner of his eye Mikhail spotted flag signals being exchanged between the Red ships, but from this angle he had no way of knowing what they were relaying. He watched, as the Red armored cruiser, the Pamyat and Gromoboi turned away from the battleline , only to turn in and back towards the Blue force, bringing their guns to bear on the Bayan. Bayan turned to port, to utilize her aft turret. There were now two battles going on in close proximity. One was the armored cruisers - the Bayan against the Pamyat Azova and Gromoboi. The other were the two pairs of battleships and their respective escorts. Mikhail had to admit that detaching both armored cruiser to stop or at least delay the Bayan was somewhat surprising for Yevtushenkov. It was at this moment Mikhail noticed something. Very slowly the Red battleline was getting ahead of the Blue battleships and was gradually forcing them to turn. While the ships were identical, the Red battleline was clearly faster, and after a short moment Mikhail had an idea why. The commander of the Blue force was too fast to command a speed increase and as such the ships were already suffering from fouled grates and the stokers were getting tired. Yevtushenkov chose to remain at cruise speed far longer before ships got into firing range and as such his vessels could still maintain their top speed. He was now using this minor advantage to gradually dictate a change in course such that the wind will no longer work against him. Mikhail kept watching the exchange of fire, which lasted for many hours. And finally, as the sun set the gunfire ended, as the two forces gradually lost sight of one another in the darkness. "Well, I believe that's the end of that excitement", said Mikhail, looking at Artem, whose head was still barely poking up above the railing. After a short a signaling light appeared in the darkness, as the two forces exchanged messages via morse code. The exercise was over, it was time to go back to port and asses the results, as well as find out which neighbors were most concerned about this noise...
Well with that exercise over, I guess it's time for Koshkin to complain about the terrible accuracy. Where are the fire control techs, Artem?
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Post by boomboomf22 on Oct 21, 2020 10:06:12 GMT -6
Very well written! I am quite enjoying your AAR
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Post by janxol on Oct 21, 2020 14:59:02 GMT -6
The coming storm
14:00, June 25th, 1900, St. Petersburg, General-admiral's office "Thank you, Eugeni. That'll be all for now", said Mikhail, as the aide put down a pile of documents onto his desk. As Eugeni was leaving, he turned towards Dmitri, who was glancing over even bigger pile of documents. All of this paper contained observations, conclusions and results of last week's exercise. "Well then, Dmitri. Can you tell me what we learned?" "That our gunnery is terrible?" "I'm pretty sure we knew that already...", said Mikhail, sitting down at his desk. "So, to sum up the general result of the exercise... All ships of Blue force "survived", while on the Red force two destroyers were "sunk". However, after summing up the points for all hits inflicted upon all the barges... Yevtushenkov and his Red force actually won this engagement... Huh... They have inflicted substantial damage to the battleship target rafts, which are worth quite a lot of points in grading of this scenario. The actual damage that would be dealt to the battleships, taking into account the ship armour and shell characteristics was assesed as "light to moderate". So in essence, not only can we hardly hit anything, our shots tend to do next to nothing even when they actually hit." "I am pretty sure that is a problem all navies are trying to deal with. Actually, the British are experimenting with a new battery layout. They want to increse the caliber of secondary guns to achieve more penetration power.", said Dmitri. "I heard. We may need to explore that idea ourselves at some point. And here I have the accuracy statistics for all the ships... Oh dear... Yeah...", Mikhail sighed. "And so, the trophy of being the least inaccurate goes to the crew of battleship Evstafi, Yevtushenkov's flagship. They are followed closely by battleship Imperator Nikolai I, and trailing behind them is the Bayan.", Mikhail smiled and looked at Dmitri. "The crew of the Bayan, who - along with the ship itself - were so praised by her resident kontr-admiral, managed to score a total of..." Dramatic pause. "Twenty two hits during the engagement. That includes exactly ONE hit by the ship's primary guns." And with that, Mikhail laughed. "We were completely out of position!", protested Dmitri. "We spent most of the time catching up and even then we were cut off by Red armored cruisers. We fought one on two and we fared good!" But Dmitri's defensive tone only made Mikhail laugh more. If he didn't laugh, he'd have to cry. There were far too many ships on the list whose accuracy was exactly 0%...
The three least inaccurate ships of the exercise Top to bottom: Evstafi, Imperator Nikolai I, Bayan
Protected cruiser Diana
18:00, July 13th, 1900, Sea of Japan, Protected cruiser Diana (Avrora-class) "What are you doing, you bastard...?", muttered captain Shishankov. "Can you identify her?" "On it.", replied his first officer. With that, the captain turned around, went into the pilothouse and then to the navigation room. "You are absolutely sure we're in our territorial waters? ABSOLUTELY?", he asked. "Yes, sir. There's no mistake.", responded the navigator. "Observers up top can just see the coast of Sakhalin." Shishankov groaned and hurried back to the port bridge wing. "If we're in our territorial waters, why do I see a Japanese warship?!", he said angrily, looking through binoculars. The ship in question was kind enough to present them with a near perfect broadside. There was also no mistake that she was flying a Japanese flag.
Japanese ship spotted by Diana
"There are fishing boats reported missing or lost at sea and we find a Japanese ship. I have a bad feeling.", said Shishankov to his first officer. "Captain, we have a positive ID. Protected cruiser, Izumi-class. 3200 tons, 21 knots.", reported the first officer after a few seconds. It was something. With the Japanese warship being significantly smaller, slower and less armed than Diana, he could feel some confidence. And yet, he didn't. He understood the implications of this situation. He understood what it could lead to... "Ahead full, give me twenty knots", he commanded. "Ahead full, aye." Shishinkov took a deep breath. "Battlestations...", he ordered grimly, before turning back to his first officer. "Whoever fires first will start a war..."
9:45, July 13th, 1900, St. Petersburg NOTE: due to 9 hour timezone differences the following is happening roughly at the same time as events in the Sea of Japan
Mikhail was fuming. Furious. And it must've been clear from his facial expression, because as he entered the office of Minister of Foreign Affairs, everyone present suddenly fell silent. " Thank you for coming, general-admiral", said the minister after regaining his composure. "We have urgent matters to discuss, though you probably have more information about it than I do." Mikhail glanced at other people in the room - a general from the army and the naval secretary, realizing that they know next to nothing about unfolding events. "There's been a series of incidents in the Far East. Japanese warships violated our territorial waters around Sakhalin and sunk at least three civilian vessels, claiming they were fishing in prohibited area. The area in question is clearly and obviously in our jurisdiction, which makes this an act of aggression.", he said bluntly. "The Pacific Squadron is mobilizing and they are under strict orders to fire upon any Japanese vessels near the coast of Sakhalin. The bulk of the Baltic Fleet can move within forty-eight hours." Slightly shocked at this response, the minister took a deep breath. "Am I supposed to understand that your recommendation is to go to war with Japan, general-admiral. For a moment there was silence. "Minister... The Japanese military units have trespassed into our territory. At least twenty innocent civilians have died as a result of their unprovoked actions. One does not simply go into another country's territorial waters and one does not accidentaly sink fishing boats. The Japanese warships are reluctant to leave our territorial waters even when escorted by our vessels. When our ships signal "Get out", the IJN responds with "These waters belong to Japan", while cruising within sight of Sakhalin coast. "War" is not my recommendation, but we have to take a stand. Such actions must not be tolerated. The Japanese will either comply, respect our borders and pay reparations for the damage and loss of life they caused, or they will get exactly what they want - which appears to be war.", said Mikhail. The minister nodded. "Thank you for your input, general-admiral. I will do what is within my power to avoid this war, but I agree with you that this will not stand." And yet, despite the readiness for action of the Russian fleet, it would seem that the case with Japan is not a simple "war or no war". As one could expect, this would lead to a lengthy diplomatic exchange, and repeated close calls when Russian and Japanese warships met in area of Sakhalin. By order of admiral Andrei Maximovitch Yablokov, and with approval of general-admiral Mikhail Valentinovitch Koshkin, all reserve ships of the Pacific Squadron were put into active service. The Japanese activity soon decreased, but clearly had no intention of letting go of this dispute just yet. In August the first stage of Port Arthur fortifications was finally complete, with two 152mm coastal batteries coming into service. The Engineering Committee under lead of Artem Ivanovitch Sapalyov was still working on further expansion plans. It was also in this month that Japan has reportedly increased their naval budget. On a somewhat unrelated note, a Russian spy in Great Britain managed to take hold of complete plans of new British battleship, though it didn't prove particularly revolutionary - whatever advancements of secondary battery the British were thinking about, they were apparently still just a theory. The new British Mars-class battleship
And then came September... A month that Mikhail would gladly skip if given the choice...
22:00, September 8th, 1900, St. Petersburg, General-admiral's office Mikhail was sitting at his desk in a dimly lit office, with thoughts circling around him like vultures. Thoughts that were clearly his own, and yet foreign. They were invasive, wild, paying no heed to what his mind would demand. He thought against them when they assaulted his brain, but at the same time he clung to them when they were almost gone. They were vultures, preying on his weakness... In his left hand Mikhail held a silver locket with a flower engraved upon its cover. In his right he held a half-empty glass of vodka. As he put down the glass, the turned his gaze to objects laying in front of him on the desk. On the left, a decently sized bottle of vodka, a reservoir from which he refilled the glass. On the right lied a revolver. It was certainly no service weapon, as it was far too intricate, maybe even ornamental. It had a gentle artistic touch to it, as clearly the gunsmith responsible for its making took his time with the design, putting in far too much detail in the gun's finish for it to be a standard military issue. Right next to the revolver on the desk stood a single bullet. As Mikhail watched it, it seemed to taunt him. The flicker of light in the metallic surface, a hypnotizing spark dancing on the bullet's head. Such small a thing, yet having so much weight... Mikhail meant to reach for the bullet, but found himself unable to let go of the glass, as if some unexplained force didn't want him to grasp the malicious object lying next to the gun. So instead he raised the glass and took a sip of the liquid, before his eyes drifted towards the locket. Very slowly, he caressed the little thing with his thumb, admiring the flower on its surface. Then, even slower, he reached for the opening mechanism, revealing the trinket's inside. He found himself looking at a black-and-white photo. A portrait of a young woman, at most twenty years old. She was smiling with the brightest smile Mikhail has ever seen in his life, her eyes looking directly at a camera and through it transcending time and space, peering into Mikhail's soul. His memory filled in the information that was lost on the photo - the color of her eyes, a vivid green. Her hair, the color of chestnut. Her dress, only a small part of which was visible on the photo, a pale green. Mikhail closed the locket and clenched his fist around it, his gaze once again drifting towards the bullet. As he was watching it with curiosity, the bullet just kept standing on the desk, mocking him. A knock on the door caused Mikhail's eyes to dart towards the entrance to the room. He slid the locket into a pocket on his chest, before opening a drawer in his desk. He put both the gun and the bullet inside, closed the drawer and turned its key. Only once the key was secure in his pocket did he straighten his back, making himself presentable, and looked towards the door. "Enter.", he said calmly. Dmitri entered the room, eyeing Mikhail suspiciously. "That's a late hour to still be at the office...", he said. "And I can't help but notice you're drinking alcohol. Assuming it's the same bottle you "smuggled" in this morning, I'd say you've gone through about a liter." "Well... There's a certain party in late December, the Tsar and a lot of officers are going to be there. You may remember what happened last time. And I have just realized I only have three months to build up an immunity to alcohol, and that I should probably get started.", responded Mikhail, smirking. "Although to be honest, I'm not sure if the Tsar could even manage to promote me any higher..." "Have you perhaps considered doing the opposite and maybe not drinking at all, if you're concerned about that? "But where's the fun in that?" "Right... Would you like to get some fresh air? It would also let me to evaluate whether you can walk straight and get home.", suggested Dmitri. Mikhail smiled. "Dmitri, I am a pure-blooded Russian. My father was Russian, my babushka was Russian... A liter of vodka is not nearly enough to incapacitate me. But very well - let us get some fresh air." He got up and - without much noticeable sway - started walking towards the door.
Real history tid-bit: Sakhalin was was a point of dispute between Russia and Japan ever since Russia gained control of the island from China.
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Post by specialist290 on Oct 21, 2020 16:42:49 GMT -6
For all his other faults, Yevtushenkov seems at least to be a competent commander. The fact that his flagship had the best (or at least least worst) gunnery of the whole exercise speaks volumes.
I wonder which Mikhail finds less painful to deal with -- the diplomatic crisis with the Japanese, or the personal crisis brought on by painful memories from the past.
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