On His Majesty’s Naval Service – A Rule the Waves AAR

[grumbler]

1907 - Dreadnoughts at Last!

The year 1907 opens with a bang, as one of our ships runs aground off the coast of Xistan, and foreign agents try to exert pressure to examine it and reveal its technologies.  We demand that Xistan return the ship, and dispatch a show the flag squadron to reinforce our demands.



We get the ship back, but tensions increased across the board 9with the exception of Italy, which went from 10 to 9).  Tensions now are
Germany: 7
France: 5
Russia 7
USA 5
Japan 6
Italy 9




Also, in January, the RN commissions the last of the Admiral class battleships (HMS Frobisher) and the second batch of 8 Harvester class destroyers.   The eight oldest of the 500-ton Active class destroyers are moved to mothball status, and the most recent 8 of that class will go to the reserves once the new DDs have worked up, keeping fleet strength at 36 active and 16 reserve destroyers.


Destroyer production will halt for the time being, since all of the 500-tonners have been replaced. This leaves the RN with just two battleships and two heavy cruisers under construction.  A new 12" coastal battery is begun at Gibraltar (the advantages of the much more expensive turreted 12" coastal battery are unclear, so we opt not to build that).  The issue of Gib brings up the issue of shore batteries in general, and the Admiralty is concerned that the 4" batteries in the UK are obsolete.  We will begin replacing them with 8" batteries this year (larger batteries being too expensive and unnecessary against cruisers; the battle fleet will be able to fend off anything slower than a cruiser).



With few ships being built, the budget is showing a surplus.  This will not be true once the new shore batteries are begun.



In February, tensions with Germany climb to 8 for no discernible reason.  Tensions with Italy decline to 8.  If Germany's tensions increase again, or Italy's declines, I will move the Med reinforcements back to the Home Fleet.



In April, the US commissions another battleship and I ask the Fourth Sea Lord to brief the whole of the Admiralty on the global fleet situation.  The US has 15 battleships built or building, and is by far the biggest battleship fleet.  The Germans and Japanese are building Dreadnought battleships, and the Russians, surprisingly, a dreadnought armored cruiser (BC).

It is clear that Britain will have to commence building dreadnoughts before the Duke class is finished.  We have nine months before Duke of York commissions to come up with a design.  At the same time, DNC delivers plans for the proposed new colonial cruiser.  It is based on the Colony 2 class, at 6,000 tons, 22 knots, and a 4" belt, but features 4x 9" guns and 12x the excellent new 5" gun design, rather than the 8x 6" (in troublesome turrets) and 10x 4" of the original unsatisfactory Colony 2 design.  The board agrees that this ship should start replacing the original Colony class colonial cruisers at a rate of 2 per year.



In Jun, the PM asks the Admiralty to sponsor his beloved gunnery competitions again.  He's the PM, so competition it is.  Two hundred thousand pounds worth of shells later, HMS Argyll is the winner, and becomes elite.



In July, DNC delivers a design that is to cover for the failure to develop a satisfactory scouting armored cruiser:  a dreadnought armored cruiser.  He has taken the design that was being developed for the Duke follow-ons, and deleted one turret and 1" of armor from the belt, conning tower, and turret faces (now all 9" vice 10" in the prospective battleship design) and increased speed to 25 knots.

The cost of this new design is £7.1 million, as opposed to the £4.5 million for the last AC design, but this ship is faster, much longer-ranged, and much more powerful.  It is certainly twice as powerful as an AC design, and so the order is placed.  The CAs will be replaced in the home fleet by BCs on a 1-for-2 basis, and the ACs will be refitted for colonial service, obviating the need to build many of the Colony 2 class ships.




Tensions continue to rise.  By August, tensions with Germany, Russia, and Italy are all at 8.  Combined, they don't have the strength of the RN, but war on multiple fronts would rob us of superiority in some theaters.  Let us hope it does not come to that.

Also in August, a British shipbuilder quietly offers the Board a deal:  if he gets more contracts, he and his clique in the Commons will support a larger naval budget.  We refuse (improves prestige at a cost of budget).



In December, HMS Foxhound is blown up by Russian saboteurs in Gibraltar.  I recommend to the PM that we take this out of Russia's hide.



The PM agrees, and the UK declares war.


Battle immediately erupts as Russia sorties cruisers into the North Sea.


The Russians flee before battle can be joined.



Our counter-thrust into the Baltic catches the Russian fleet near Osel.



The Russians flee once again.



At the second battle of Osel, the Russians flee once again, but the Russians accept battle in the Second Battle of Little Bank.

[grumbler]

I have the armored cruiser Devonshire under command, with protected cruiser Boadicea (yeah, I forgot to correct the name in the OOB) and three destroyers in direct support, and AC Shropshire and two more destroyers in indirect support 80 miles north of us.



Devonshire is a powerful unit, with 8 7" guns, but with somewhat faulty turrets (-20% ROF).  I am anxious to see how she performs.



Lacking knowledge of the enemy position, I continue to the northeast.



Almost immediately, we encounter enemy ships at very close range in the rain.  Boadicea looks to have a sporty time in the next few minutes!



1939: Both fleets turn away before positive identification occurs, though, and Boadicea slips free to the north.  Some minutes pass with both sides trying to get a grip on which ships in the darkness are friends, and which foes.   Devonshire positively identifies an enemy armored cruiser, and fires a salvo which scores two hits.  Two hits on a first salvo is outstanding shooting.



The Russian cruiser turns to parallel Devonshire's course, and gets hit four more times in the next two minutes.  Only then does the enemy cruiser get a firing solution and return fire.

By 1942, ten minutes into the battle, Devonshire has scored at least 10 7" hits on the enemy cruiser, and visible damage is heavy.  So far, no other ship has fired more than a single salvo, and the Devonshire is untouched.



At 1945 the Russians hit Devonshire for the first time.  Damage is minimal.  The enemy cruiser is identified as a Rossia class (10,300 tons, 4*8" and 14*6"guns, 4" belt, 20 knots) – a near-equal to Devonshire and probably a ship to be engaged at longer range, given all those 6" guns (which need to be within 3500 yards to penetrate Devonshire's belt).



The enemy cruiser turns away, and Devonshire turns hard to port to chase it without getting closer to the enemy destroyers.

At 1949 HMS Eclipse launches torpedoes at the Rossia-class cruiser.  Here they are (center of screen).  Looks like a good shot.  The enemy cruiser is down to 10 knots.



1952:  Things looking bad for Rossia-class cruiser, but torpedo reliability sucks.  Devonshire is still turning to pursue.



1953:  The torpedoes miss.  The cruiser must have increased speed, or the torpedoes not performed at full speed.  Torpedoes are still slow.



1959:  Devonshire is still moving west to find the damaged Rossia class cruiser (the circle is sighting range) and engages and hits (twice) a destroyer trying to screen the cruiser. Three more hits follow in quick succession, and the destroyer slows to ten knots, badly damaged.




2002:  Devonshire spots torpedoes in the water and evades. The Burni-class destroyer is hit again and starts to sink.

2008  The Devonshire is still casting about for the missing Rossia-class cruiser, and destroyer Fleet decides, for some reason, to torpedo the sinking wreck of the Burni-class destroyer Devonshire left behind.



The Devonshire pushes west to find the enemy cruiser, leaving the destroyers to the British destroyers.

2040:  Having searched west, then south, without luck, the Devonshire turns towards the Skagerrak, knowing that the enemy has to pass it to get home.  The trail is pretty cold, though.  The enemy, we discovered from later logs, had evaded towards England, not towards Russia.



By 2 AM the trail had grown cold enough that the British force withdrew.  The battle was over.

The British forces scored medium damage on the Rossia class AC and heavy damage on the two destroyers (they were sunk in the battle, but apparently raised afterwards ). The Russians landed one shell hit on Devonshire.  The convoy the Russians came to raid never saw them.




In terms of points, the British only had a 2,398 to 97 victory (24:1), so that was just a marginal win.  I think that, if I can sink the entire Russian navy without suffering a hit in return, it might score above marginal.



HMS Devonshire had a better than 13% hit rate in 164 shots fired.  Gromoboi had an 8% hit rate, but hit just once in 12 rounds, so that might not be statistically significant. 

The naval budget increased with the outbreak of war, of course.  The Admiralty declared mobilization, and brought ships out of reserve and mothballs.  An inshore patrol system was established using the older destroyers and the minesweepers built for that purpose.  Anticipating losses, the Admiralty also laid down the first of the Duke of Marlborough class dreadnoughts:



The new class didn't have the 14-inch guns of the previous class, but did have the new 5' anti-torpedo-boat gun [in the new version of the game, you can't have 12" secondary, nor, indeed, have secondary turrets yet].

Thus ended the month, and the year 1908.

[grumbler]

Graphics aren't showing in my posts any more.  Anyone know (or guess) why?

[Jaron]

You are not linking the images properly. Be sure you use the direct link as I have below.

[grumbler]

You are not linking the images properly. Be sure you use the direct link as I have below.

That was it.  Cheers.

[grumbler]

I'm behind on posting these.

1908 The Year of the Bear

January started with yet another battle in the North Sea as Russian raiders tried to take out British shipping.  On January 13th, 3 RN cruisers (Devonshire again, plus Derbyshire and Cornwall) plus three destroyers, faced an unknown enemy force.

Cornwall starts in contact with an enemy CL.  Derbyshire is ordered to her support.



The Russians flee to the north, and are faster than our ships, so no action occurs.



An hour later, the Russians reinforce with two armored cruisers.  One flees to the northeast, but the other closes from the northwest.



1410: More and more Russian ships arrive in the west, eventually numbering 2 Rossia class ACs, 2 CLs, and 4 DDs.  Our ships head north to keep between the two groups of ships.




1455:  After 45 minutes of chase, our ships get into a melee with the lead Rossia class AC and its four attending DDs.  Our own DDs get roughly handled, with Fortitude sunk and the rest badly damaged.  The Russians lose 2 DDs sunk and damage to the other 2.  The Rossia class AC is badly damaged and our cruisers mostly untouched.



1515: Twenty minutes later, the situation is largely unchanged, other than further damage to the cruisers on both sides.  The Rossia class AC has been hit by at least 25 major-caliber hits, but steams on.  Derbyshire has been hit ten times and has lost half her broadside.  Cornwall has had a jammed after turret since the start of the battle (bad turrets on these guys).

To the south, an enemy CL has been dancing around.



1600:  45 minutes have passed, with the British cruisers hitting the Rossia-class AC three or more times a minute.  Cornwall even torpedoed it.  Still, it is just listed as "heavily damaged" – not sinking.  The British cruisers are running low on ammo.  It might be that it simply isn't possible to sink enemy cruisers.

I could even lose this scenario; one of my destroyers, HMS Fleet, had an engineering breakdown and had to drop out of formation. I ordered it to return to base.  En route, it was taken over by the AI, and redirected to suicide-charge an enemy CL.  It is about to get sunk.  The AI sucks.

(Moments later, the AC sinks)



1640:  Night has fallen, I have extricated the Fleet from its encounter with the Russian CL, and gathered my ships into a mutually supporting force.  Force speed is only 10 knots, but I won't detach any ships for the AI to suicide with.  The enemy has broken contact but was last seen to the north, so northward I go with three ACs (two undamaged) and three destroyers (all badly damaged at the least).



That pretty much ended the battle.  I searched for another four hours, but never regained contact.

The battle ended with a British major victory even though the point totals were far more even this time at a bit more than 5:1.



Note that Rossia absorbed 169 7" shellfire hits and one torpedo before succumbing.  That's whack!

HMS Devonshire was a great shooter for the second battle in a row. Derbyshire slightly out-shot her, but was always at a much closer range.  And Devonshire is lucky; the enemy never laid a glove on her despite firing at least six torpedoes at her.




This battle was a bit more satisfactory than the previous one.  Gun damage seemed disappointing, but the number of hits were about what we expected, and our ships and guns performed well.  Destroyers didn't accomplish much as torpedo boats, but they kept the Russian destroyers from accomplishing much, either.


On February 8th, HMS Lysander, a Leander class CL, sights an enemy raider north of Ireland.



The enemy turns to flee and Lysander works up to full speed to pursue.  At 1448 the enemy is identified as a Diana class CL. That's the Russian opposite number to Lysander; slightly larger, same main battery, slightly slower, and with a thicker armored belt but no protection for her guns.







1430: My plan is to maintain my distance at about 5kyd, where I can just penetrate Diana's belt (she can penetrate mine at 10kyds) and rely on my better crew and fire control to outshoot her and knock out her guns.  Then I can close to ranges where the hits will really start to mount and sink her. 


1530: After an hour of maneuvering and desultory fire, the two cruisers are settled on parallel courses and firing about a round a minute.  Diana has been hit four times and Lysander once.  Diana is only replying now with four guns.  However, splinter damage from a near-miss has perforated Lysander's funnels, and speed is down to 19 knots because of the lack of draft.



That hit proves to be the decisive hit of the battle, because it makes the Russian cruiser faster.  The Russians begin pulling away.  By 1700 they are out of range and, as night falls, out of sight as well.

The scenario ends in a tactical British victory.



When the statistics are examined, though, they prove very disappointing.  Not only did Lysander achieve a lower hit % than the Russians (though she got more hits due to her better crew's superior rate of fire) despite her fire control superiority, the hits she scored didn't do much damage. 679 rounds fired to inflict light damage on an enemy CL is unsatisfactory.  We need to rethink light cruiser design.  A heavier belt and lighter deck might serve us better.  In retrospect, Diana was probably a better design than Lysander.  Her speed was insufficient, though.

We need a faster light cruiser with the ability to dish out damage at short ranges.



In the aftermath of this battle the Russians send out peace feelers. I am torn between the desire to take more territory and the concern that refusing negotiations will increase tensions with Germany and Italy enough to cause them to declare war.  I push for hard terms, hoping the Russians refuse.



The Russians know they are not going to prosper through more war, though, and accept the terms we offer.  We take control over Angola and Sakhalin.







Tensions drop across the board as peace returns.  Unfortunately, this means a significant cut in the naval budget, from just over £31 million to just over £25 million.  This leaves us spending more per month than we are budgeted, though the reserve can sustain us for the next eight months.  By then, we will have finished the three cruisers and one of the four battleships now under construction, and so will go back into the black, but there will be no more new construction until the budget improves or we finish our first dreadnought.




In June we face the Albania Crisis.  Who in their right mind would want to rule Albania?



Tension with Italy drops to 2.

In August, a crisis erupts in the African nation of Abcessya.  The PM requests my advice on how big a force to send to protect our citizens. I press for a large one and play up in the press how ready the RN is to intervene anywhere.  The Navy's prestige increases, and the PM is forced to provide the navy more money.  The wogs don't care for it.



Tensions with France spike to 8.



In September, the Foreign Office proposes compromising with the French on some colonial issues, as a means of relaxing tensions.  I oppose this, not least because higher tensions mean more money for the navy's budget.



In November, we buy the patent for triple turrets from Italy.  The next dreadnought armored cruiser class will have three triple 12" turrets rather than four double turrets.



As 1908 comes to an end, the RN's building program is badly out of balance; four capital ships and a colonial cruiser are all we can afford at the moment.



The fleet itself is not unbalanced, but it is starting to face a block obsolescence problem.  The Colony class CLs are getting a bit long in the tooth, but no really satisfactory replacement or rebuild is in the works.  The planned replacement of the CLs (on a 2-for-3 basis) with the Colony CAs stopped after three ships, because the replacement ships were too expensive to maintain (2 of them cost almost £290,000 per year on station, compared to the £250,00 for the three CLs).  The CLs will just have to soldier on and hope they only face AMCs.



The dreadnought race is fully underway now.  There are 10 BB built or building in the world, and another 8 BC.  Germany, like Britain, has 2 of each under construction.  Russia has a dreadnought of 25,500 tons under construction!

The only bright spot is that we can build a dreadnought battleship in 27 months.  The Russians, Italians, and Japanese take 33 months, the Germans and Americans 30 months.

[Razgovory]

Some of them turned into pictures of kitty cats.

[grumbler]

I see what happened.  I consolidated all my design files into a "designs" folder, and din't account for the fact that the pictures were directly linked.  Thanks for the heads-up.

[grumbler]

1909 – Another Year of the French

The year starts with the world at peace and tensions high only with France.

I get the sort of temptation that I hate:  British scientists perfect the 10" gun (exactly the worst caliber for our needs). 



The Admiralty waffles around with the idea of a cruiser armed with this gun, and produces an excellent 15,000 ton 26 knot Armored Cruiser- killer, but it ultimately is clear that such an AC would interfere with our BC building program.



The year progresses normally until April, when a diplomatic crisis erupts in the Balkans.  The PM turns to me again to determine the British response.  I can allow general tensions to rise, or blame a specific country.



I sleep on this, and decide that tensions with France will come to a head sooner or later, so best to lance the boil: I tell the PM that France is to blame.



Tensions with France jump to 11.

[/img]


In May, the PM has another of his harebrained schemes, this time a sailing regatta to reduce international tensions.  He's the boss.



Tensions do decline, but it costs the navy £20,000.

In June, the last of the Colony 2 class ACs commissions, and the Admiralty is forced to pick a design for the new CL.  The choice is between two specialized cruisers, one that is designed to work with the fleet and do Home fleet scouting and patrol (it needs speed and close-range firing capacity) and one that is optimized for colonial work (it needs range and a medium-range battery), or a design that can fill both roles.

The problem with the colonial cruiser is that it must be affordable.  If it is to replace the 4,000 ton Colony class on a 2-for-3 basis, it must weigh 6,000 tons and cost no more than about £1.8 million.  In order to meet this requirement, the designers keep it coal-fired, provide a protective deck rather than a belt, and limit speed to 24 knots.  The resulting design looks suitable only for colonial service:



This is much too slow for the fleet's use.

The CL proposed by the Constructor for the fleet scout cruiser is a radical departure in design:  oil-fired, 28 knots, and armed entirely with our excellent 5" gun. The light weight of the gun allows for a total of 12 to be fitted.  At first glance, the colonial cruiser looks the superior design, with a broadside of 4-6" and 4 5" to the Tribal's 7-5", but the Tribal has all its guns firing under central fire control, so its combat capabilities should be similar, and it's speed is what pays for the lack of 6" guns.  It should be able to get close enough to use its lighter guns more effectively.  Plus, it should be a superb destroyer-killer.



One of each design is ordered.



In July, I give the annual speech to the Navy League.  Though I could mouth platitudes that would reduce world tensions, I refuse to compromise:  France's foreign policies are a danger to the nation, and I refuse to deny that.  That this will increase the navy's budget does not sway me.



Tensions with France climb to 11.  A lovely little war with France would suit me very well.



In August, the French ambassador comes with a most astonishing message:  the French want us to curb our naval program in "the interests of peace!"  "In the interests of France" is what he means.  I advise the PM to reject the offer in the strongest terms.



As I'd anticipated, and even hoped, this results in a French declaration of war (yes, the picture says Britain declares war, but that's because that's the newspaper picture available):



The French sorties their Atlantic fleet and we intercept them off Land's End.



The French wisely decamp, leaving us the bloodless victors.



In the Med, though, the French do offer battle off Corsica.



Our forces consist of 2 Norfolk class CAs and 3 Enchantress class DDs under Rear Admiral John Jacobs.  His mission is to sink all merchants in the area.



At 1455, Norfolk spots an enemy ship to the NW and turns to investigate.  Jacobs orders the rest of the force to increase to flank speed and intercept.



1500:  the French ship is identified as a light cruiser.  Rain begins to fall as she and Norfolk trade long-range salvoes.



The French cruiser is identified as a Sfax-class, very similar to our own Agamemnons but lacking fire control.



1514:  As Jacobs pursues the fleeing French CL, this... thing appears to the west.  Could this be the convoy we are seeking?  We will soon find out.



1523:  Whatever it is, it is a force of ships.  The Sfax class slips away to the northwest, faster than our ships can pursue.



1529:  Six minutes later, the situation is a little more clear.  The two enemy ships closest to Jacobs's force are a transport and an armed merchant cruiser.  This is the convoy.  The only question is:  does the AMC trail a group of other escorts, or a group of merchant ships? Jacobs starts to concentrate his forces.



1540:  The rain continues to interfere with our ability to identify the enemy, but the pattern is starting to emerge:  the French port column is likely all merchants, and the starboard column escorts.  What kind of escorts, though?



1547:  Jacobs's ships can now see the enemy more clearly:  it looks like the starboard column is merchants, as well.  There is a brief moment of humor when one of the lookouts reports that he has sighted an enemy battleship, but that sighting turns out to be just one of the merchants getting hit by British shells.



Jacobs orders the Norfolk to pass between the enemy columns, the destroyers to engage the port column, and Argyll to engage the starboard one.

1602:  The battle is turning into a slaughter, as the British ships overhaul the convoy and smash its ships with close-range gunfire.  Norfolk switches her attention to the starboard column.



1617: Fifteen minutes later, the convoy is no more.  All six ships are sunk.  Jacobs musters his cruisers for a sweep to the north, in case the French CL is hanging around.  The destroyers are detached to pick up survivors.



1647:  The destroyers have finished picking up survivors, and are hurrying to rejoin the flag, when the Argyll spots an enemy ship only 10,000 yards to the north.  The squadron increased speed to flank and turns to intercept.



The ship is identified as a CL before it flees to the north and out of sight.

1653:  No sooner does the cruiser disappear than another ship is spotted 10,000 yards to the west, heading west.  Again, the squadron pursues.



1702:  The new contact is identified as a destroyer.  It must be suffering from engine trouble, else it would easily outrun the British cruisers.  It is taken under fire by both British ships, but is a difficult target and few British guns can bear, so it escapes immediate harm.



1708:  The engagement is short.  At 1708 the Argyll hits the destroyer three times and it stops and sinks. Again, the destroyers move in to pick up survivors.



[After the battle, we discover that this was just a minesweeper, which accounts for its lack of speed and combat power.]

Jacobs again sweeps to the north, to see what he can catch.  At 1805, he again encounters the Sfax-class CL, and trades long-range fire with it.



As expected, the French cruiser flees.  Insofar as Jacobs can tell, neither side suffered any damage in that engagement.  The British continue to the north.

The sun sets at 1730 and night has closed in completely when, suddenly, at 1930, an unknown ship appears through the darkness, only 3000 yards to port of the column.  Could this be the CL again, nosing around trying to find out what happened to the convoy?



The ship immediately turns to escape, the British ships in pursuit.  The French are faster than our cruisers, but Jacobs now has his destroyers with him, and they are faster than the French cruiser.  Perhaps they can slow down the French to the point that the British cruisers can keep up.

However, a stern chase is a long chase, and Nice is not many miles away.  It isn't clear whether the British can overtake the cruiser before it reaches safety.



A very confused series of maneuvers follows, as the enemy cruiser (still unidentified, but whose identity is obvious) zig-zags all over the place.  The British ships cannot fire because the enemy is still listed as "unidentified."  At 1940, the French cruiser rams HMS Forward (but is still too far away from her to be identified, it seems).



The enemy's fire doesn't harm any of the other British destroyers, but the Forward sinks.  The British ships cannot fire because they don't know that the French ship that rammed a British destroyer and is firing on the others is hostile.  Maybe they think it is Swiss.  At least Forward has inflicted damage, though not in the recommended way.

1947:  HMS Argyll is hit by an enemy torpedo.  It is unclear whether this will cause the British to consider the French cruiser to be hostile, or not.  Jacobs is extremely frustrated.



This does, indeed, trigger British fire, and the melee becomes general as the Sfax tries to pick off the destroyers trying to get into torpedo position, while the Norfolk pounds Sfax from a distance and Argyll employs damage control.

Suddenly, at 1958, the Sfax-class cruiser blows up from a Norfolk 7-inch shell that penetrates her magazine.




With the loss of the last French ship at sea, the battle ends.  It is a major British victory.


The Sfax was the only real French warship out there, so it isn't surprising that the French lost this one.  The Sfax only actually hit the British with one shell (a 3" hit on HMS Felicity) but inflicted a lot of "unconventional" damage via torpedo and ramming.

The stats show the same favorable rating for the Norfolk-class cruisers that we had seen before:  good hit rates (12% and 14%) and the ability to survive damage.  The inability of the destroyers to get off a torpedo shot continues to worry the Admiralty.



(Though this battle was a slaughter, it was more fun in many ways than any of the earlier ones, because it was the British on the offensive against enemy merchants, it was at night or in poor visibility, and it necessitated good search tactics and formations).

Almost un-noticed, the Germans commission their first Dreadnought battleship, SMS Worth.  The design makes for an interesting comparison to our own Duke of Marlborough class.





The Germans opted for a larger ship, heavier armor and a bit more speed and gave up cross-deck firing and the heavier 12" gun.  They also continued to employ torpedo tubes in an all-big-gun design. I think our design more modern, though I'd loved to have been able to add some tonnage and some armor.

The fleet mobilizes and the Admiralty meets to consider force dispositions.  In Northern Europe, we have a crushing superiority: 14 battleship, 14 cruisers, and 41 destroyers, to the French 7 battleships, 1 cruiser, and 11 destroyers.



In the Med, we also have a decisive superiority over the French, who have but a single battleship there and no support ships.



It is in the colonies that concern exists.  We should have examined French deployments more carefully as tensions rose, and matched their overseas presence.  We will have to hope they cannot raid too much before we get counter-forces in the areas they infest.  We also hope our colony-class CLs don't offer battle against enemy cruisers.

In West Africa, the French have a light cruiser raiding, and we have no forces.  We dispatch 2 Agamemnon-class CL.



In the Indian Ocean, it is even more concerning:  the French have 3 CA there, and we have only 1 CA and 7 obsolescent colonial CLs there.  We decide to move the Mediterranean Fleet's two cruisers (1 CA, 1 CL) there, and send 2 more CA and 2 CL to the Med, to follow to the IO next month.



In Southeast Asia, the situation is much like that in the Indian Ocean:  a powerful French squadron facing colonial cruisers.  The med cruisers will move here in 2 months, when the IO reinforcements arrive. (Yes, the map has the wrong focus)



The rest of the world has no French presence.

We also lay down two more Tribal class CLs with the extra funds provided for the war.

In September, the French made several attempts to break the British blockade but fled each time when intercepted.  British ships sank two French merchants, French ships sank one British merchant and one submarine.



In October, much the same.

In November, the French come to their senses and offer peace.  I press for hard terms, but know I can't press for total victory.



The French concede.



Picking the French colonies to take over, we opt to remove their naval presence from the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean.



With the coming of peaces comes a vast reduction in world tensions and also a vast reduction in the Navy's budget.  We are left with a £380,000 per month deficit.  Some of that will come off when overseas ships return home, but I can foresee austerity in the shipbuilding budget looming again.



The year ended with no more drama.

[Drakken]

GB at war with Russia? And France?? In 1909??? 

Sadly, I'll pass this one.

[grumbler]

GB at war with Russia? And France?? In 1909??? 

Sadly, I'll pass this one.

It's not a historical simulation at all.  It's a fantasy framework for designing warships and managing budgets in the equivalent of the early 20C.

[The Brain]

If it's fantasy, why are there no chainmail bikinis?

[HisMajestyBOB]

I picked this up a few months ago and completed two games as Austria-Hungary and CSA. It's really fun; not historical, certainly, but I love the gameplay: designing and building my ships, then sending them after the enemy (usually France) and winning a glorious victory watching them explode. It has a strong "just one more turn" factor for me.

[Norgy]

Nothing's better than the "just one more turn" factor.

[celedhring]

Really tempted to get this, do these guys run sales?