DLC, an Italy AAR

[mycophobia]

The commanding officer column almost makes me regret starting an AAR at this juncture, that will be such a great way to add more character to any AAR! Doesnt seem like its activated now but it will be amazing to see what you can do with it once it is rerady.

Ship's history is great as well and is cool to see you recounting history of your ships like this

[garrisonchisholm]

Au Contraire mon ami!

[garrisonchisholm]

For interests sake, these are the current unassigned commanders in the Regia Marina (I'll grab future screen caps with more diligence to widening pertinent columns).

The list of assigned commanders is longer than a page, and the list of retired officers is already more than 100.  These are the commanders who died in service (the end-of-life is not recorded for retired officers).

I feel kind-of bad about Captain Brivonesi.  Probably should have promoted him ashore at least after surviving #20.  However, at least we can now see what happened to his ship.

Here is something to think about with commanders.  By and large they are all naval professionals, it takes something momentous to wreck a battle or ship, and interfering in the normal command structure of the navy costs you prestige.  As such, my policy - especially when I am play testing as fast as possible to find bugs - is to not meddle with it.  It would take something like noticing my flag admiral in an active theater was Incompetent for me to consider removing him.  That said, it provides delightful color and if you pay attention to the minute details you will notice some ships perform better or worse or differently.  At the moment the list of Special Abilities is incomplete, as I believe we will eventually have such traits as Former Aviator for instances, a nice trait for a carrier captain.  When I release the fleet review post (tomorrow-ish) it will include a summary of the officer core ...corps.  (sheesh gare...)

[vonfriedman]

Lord Nelson's "Special Abilities" were perhaps: boldness, shrewdness in teambuilding, clarity in communicating, trust in subordinates, seamanship.

However, it is less clear which of these qualities would make a naval officer better suited to command a BB division rather than a DD flotilla.

This also depends on the specific war situation. Excessive boldness can be a problematic quality for an officer, especially in the case of an inferior navy, which should rather favor a well-calculated caution.

.

[garrisonchisholm]

(ish)

Prince Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi               The House of Savoy               King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

A spring storm lashed Taranto as the Commander in Chief of the Regia Marina whisked through the courtyard of the Ministry with his entourage.  Ammiraglio d'armata Prince Luigi Amedeo held an unusually large entourage, as The Abruzzi was a vital, driven man who problematically could hardly even whiff a problem or task without diving straight in to help, unfortunately quite commonly with no thought at all to his schedule for the day (picture a combination of Bear Grylls and Grand Moff Tarkin - yes you can, just try).  His Chief Adjutant began enlarging the staff pool so that there would be sufficient officers available to take custody of any "passing adopted responsibilities" The Abruzzi chanced to take on.  Currently the number was 6, and everyone hoped that was sufficient to prevent another culinary disaster.

Luigi swept into the conference hall and straight up to the lectern, staff and officers scrambling to have everything needed immediately in place.  As per his usual, there was no time lost on preliminaries.

"The decisions we begin to make today will govern the future of naval construction.  The first card is the current state of the world's navies, followed by the Regia Marina's relative performance to date-"

"The relative parity of the world's navies is weighted fairly by economy rather than diplomacy, supported by the 3-year Dreadnought Holiday which was ended by the Treaty War of 1906-9 and caused the world to start building both simultaneously and without any 'false starts' caused by immature technologies."

"We will not be considering battleships for some time, at the moment they must be deemed adequate due to our many pressing needs-"

"I dare say 20 years ago the Navy could not have imagined possessing 16 useful battleships at once, but the profound investment in their construction makes our current plight obvious;"

No Battlecruisers

No Modern "heavy" cruisers

No Modern "light" cruisers

Insufficient ocean-going destroyers

This is a sorry state that was thrust upon us by the need for victory."

"The new Ninos have had their first 8 ships ordered and a Heavy Cruiser design study has been funded, but the funds must somehow be found to meet all of the above needs for a 2 or 3 ocean fleet with improved aerodromes and hopefully within 10 years.  The Navy must get to work."

The Abruzzi left the lectern as swiftly as he arrived, and energized debate filled the remainder of the day.

So very roughly this is the state of the State; a large empire swiftly achieved with insufficient budget to conveniently craft the fleet required.  It should be noted that no nation so far has launched an aircraft carrier, so our protagonist is uncertain of the validity of this new weapon.  To my knowledge exactly 1 torpedo has been put into a ship by an aircraft in our history, and that ship survived.  It is possible to convert the mothballed pre-dreadnoughts to CVLs, and it would be much cheaper than new construction, but that new construction could be a barely armored 35 knot, 34 aircraft ship that might have a much longer service life.

So I invite comment and critique, and in some-days time The Abruzzi will weigh all the data in hand, and all the opinions expressed, and decide what should be built first.  I will add the promised aircraft listing in a day or two, but at the moment no aircraft are very remarkable, everything conforming to circa 1924 naval aircraft.

[boomboomf22]

From Personal inclination I would perhaps take the largest of the available predreadnought battleships in hand for conversion to aircraft carrying warships, as otherwise there is naught use for those hulls but the scrapyard, and it is a great pity to send an already paid for warship to the breakers yard. I have in my own experience found that it is not impossible to convert smaller predreadnoughts into perfectly usable AVs to provide scouting for the fleet, a role they answer to for low cost and good effectiveness.

[rs2excelsior]

I would agree with the above sentiment - with aircraft in general, much less aircraft carriers, still a very unproven technology I think priorities for new construction must go towards proven ship types. Still, it would be beneficial to explore - I would recommend studies for the conversion of and existing obsolete pre-dreadnoughts and armored cruisers before considering new construction. Should a converted carrier prove useful, more purpose built hills can be ordered later, using lessons learned from the conversion.

In terms of new construction, I would focus on new ocean-going destroyers, if that is a capability that the navy lacks. While the design of the Varese heavy cruisers is interesting, I would recommend seeing to the fleet’s escort forces once light cruisers for patrolling foreign waters is in place. Only once the destroyers, heavy cruisers, and a possible CVL conversion is in place would I begin examining a new battleship or battlecruiser class.

[widecarman1]

about the war against Germany, is that a feature of the DLC, or was them all declaring war because they left the treaty completely random?

[garrisonchisholm]

Nov 11, 2021 15:26:38 GMT -6 widecarman1 said:

about the war against Germany, is that a feature of the DLC, or was them all declaring war because they left the treaty completely random?

No, that was an event caused by game circumstances.  Disarmament Treaties are different, compelling the nations to reduce their fleets below given total levels, more realistic than before.  But since the game is asking you to make painful decisions about ships the game strives to take into account that such Treaties help reduce tensions.  So tensions were globally low, but then after a random event card (colonial crisis I think, and with tensions low I took the more rewarding option) I had another event in a month or two, Prime Minister assassinated by anarchists supported by Germany.  Well, why the heck would I let that pass when I had just humiliated England?  So I made an ultimatum, and war broke out.  Russia was my ally so I doubted I would see much action and it would be over soon.  What I didn't count on was with tensions universally low (0 or 1 worldwide) the nations of the world would start joining my war.  Before it was over, Germany was isolated by every major naval power.  From the Italian point of view it wasn't a very active or rewarding conflict, though I "spun" it as Germany acting out against being strong-armed into signing a treaty at a time when they thought they could really compete with England in building, which I thought made sense.

[prophetinreverse]

Nov 10, 2021 18:03:13 GMT -6 boomboomf22 said:

From Personal inclination I would perhaps take the largest of the available predreadnought battleships in hand for conversion to aircraft carrying warships, as otherwise there is naught use for those hulls but the scrapyard, and it is a great pity to send an already paid for warship to the breakers yard. I have in my own experience found that it is not impossible to convert smaller predreadnoughts into perfectly usable AVs to provide scouting for the fleet, a role they answer to for low cost and good effectiveness.

While I too have had success converting pre-dreadnoughts into light aircraft carriers, they usually were the ones I built between 1903-1906 that had like 16-18,000 tons. All of his remaining pre-dreadnoughts are those 13,100 ton Da Vinci class ships, and seeing as how that class was designed with 6 9-inch guns and 12 1/2-inch thick belt armor, I really doubt that you can get a good carrier out of that.

As crazy as it sounds, I’d make a light carrier with the same number of planes and a fraction of the cost from an old cruiser, then take one or two of those Lepantos in hand for conversion to a regular carrier when the time comes.

[maxnacemit]

I think that the predreads you have left are way too slow for CV or AV conversions, but using Vettor Pisanis is possible. On an unrelated note, I see twin turrets on Nino Bixio. Does that mean that "double/triple turrets on CLs" techs have ben changed to allow things like Omahas and Yubari or is it a PC?

[garrisonchisholm]

Nov 12, 2021 2:55:58 GMT -6 maxnacemit said:

I think that the predreads you have left are way too slow for CV or AV conversions, but using Vettor Pisanis is possible. On an unrelated note, I see twin turrets on Nino Bixio. Does that mean that "double/triple turrets on CLs" techs have ben changed to allow things like Omahas and Yubari or is it a PC?

No, the Ninos are just cheap & small, but modern, light cruisers.

[garrisonchisholm]

(I am going to choose Captain Novari as our air-power advocate, currently minding the last days of one of the 2 remaining light cruisers in Casablanca, & where he has devoted much time to the aviators at the local aerodrome)

This is a report on the development of the aircraft's potential as a weapons system supporting nautical operations.  To this point the major conflict fought with meaningful aircraft combatants was the Franco-Italian 2-part war of 1917-1922.  The period of combat after the 8 month Summer Onset was by far more destructive, both along the Continental Front and in Algiers, and it was here the first great air battles were fought.  While naval aircraft are lagging somewhat behind those obtained by the army, above is a listing of the known qualities of the world's naval fighters.

Though many aspects of aircraft deployment are being discussed in naval circles, to this point no navy has launched or laid down a ship designed to operate them.  Given our dominance in the Mediterranean it is doubtful the navy truly needs aircraft carrying vessels for the Mediterranean Fleet, however with responsibilities in the vast Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia it may be desirable to have the capability there.  Given such contemplation, what follows are two write-ups of possible fleet units.

First, the 12 da Vincis could be economically modified to each carry 18 aeroplanes for attack or defense, though their aging hulls would not permit greater than 21 knots.  However should they come under fire their 12 1/2 inch belt and 2 inch deck armor should be useful.  They are pictured simply with their guns pared away, not yet redesigned.

These ships could be ready in 19-20 months.

Alternatively, and for greater expense, a more useful design might be drawn up from the keel, and while lightly armored would offer much more flexibility in operations.

It should be noted, in the same way that our battleships are twice as big and fast now as they were 20 years ago, it is possible to imagine a future where an aircraft could weigh more than a ton and yet approach 200 knots in speed.  We would encourage the Admiralty to not be dismayed by the current quality of aircraft which can scarcely carry out an attack 50 miles away from their departure point.  Below are listed the 4 aircraft types first deployed by the Regia Marina, currently as fleet scouts with a 4 plane search element and 16 plane fighter squadron in place at all 27 of our airfields.  It should be noted that there are 12 further locations suitable, though our previous administration deemed their development unnecessary.

Prior to an understanding of aircraft deployment however the Navy must come to a decision regarding its total composition and forecast its war deployment, as these factors have immense bearing upon the extent to which the technology of aircraft will be embraced.

[maxnacemit]

I'd say 21 knots is waaay too slow for a carrier. I'd just build modern fast CVLs. Also, what does the "Naval patrol aircraft" class include? Will it include AEW&C aircraft later down the line and will it mean some of these planes could be carrier-capable?

[aeson]

Nov 12, 2021 15:49:52 GMT -6 maxnacemit said:

Also, what does the "Naval patrol aircraft" class include?

The flying boat category was renamed.