VarangianGarde

Not you, man. I'm not nearly as able a seaman as some on here, but I did teach English.

Enforcing British Rule. Drop the "the" for a more natural sound.

Whatever, Gunkanjima, this is how you actually "Battleship Island."

Widely seen as a costly kleinkrämerei, SMS Eisenadler (variously nicknamed "Bleigans," "Wilhelms Torheit," and later affectionately "Eisengans") took years to build, featured a strange and unique main armament, and consumed significant resources from the Reichsmarineamt. The passages contained herein chronicle the strange history and adventures of the Kaiserliche Marine's most misbegotten ship. ----------------------------------------------------- Alfred von Tirpitz, Konteradmiral and Head of the Reichsmarineamt Kapitel 1: Kaiser Mit Uns 10 February, 1907, Leipziger Platz, Berlin He looked up from the plans, the specs, the clutter and whirlwind of the morning's Industrial Intelligence report. There it lay, as real as the keel that grew in the Armstrong Whitworth dockyards in Newcastle. They'd done it. That damn Admiral Fisher had gone and made some new absurdity, some great gaping chasm that the Reichsmarineamt would have to cross. "Six 305s to a broadside, 26 knots, 150 mm at the belt. Even our cruisers can't get away from that thing." "Is this madness, or brilliance?" von Tirpitz thought to himself. Dreadnought was a revolution, a stroke that put all the plans, the work, the build up of the new fleet instantly in the dustbin of obsolescence. It had been a frantic year since the British had revealed her to the world. Day after day, week after week, going over exhaustive design specifications for Deutschland's answer to the new battleship. They'd done it to. They had the plans. The foundries burned and the steel flowed in a great river of production to Wilhelmshaven. Pretty soon they'd lay the keel, then the Marine would answer the Royal Navy's challenge. Then there were the damn turbines. Stroking his parted beard, the admiral thought, "The devil take that man. One million Marks per turbine? Well, you have us over a barrel now, Mr Parsons." The new Deutsch dreadnoughts would use the simple and true vertical triple expansion marine steam engine. It wouldn't be compact and efficient like Dreadnought, but at least they could keep up, and put eight of Krupp's finest 280 naval guns on any enemy at sea. "Twenty-six knots? How many boilers can you cram in a damn hull? Damn you too, Fisher." he muttered. "Do you know what a headache you've given me? You know what, why should I should I run the Naval Office? I'll put your name up to the Kaiser, Jacky. You'll get along famously." With that, the old Prussian collected his thoughts, and began the onerous outline of an answer to this new British monstrosity. "Invincible" he scoffed. -------------------------------------------------------- I'll be adding continuing passages in the OP as I create them. Wanted to put together a fun little story on a ship that never was, and the odd happenings that might have happened in that timeline.

I'm excited to see the new updates play out. Thanks for all your work, @Nick Thomadis! The one thing I hope we'll see soon now is greater freedom on barbette placement.

I knew it. Steampunk aliens totally landed in Russia, planted Rasputin, and overthrew the Tsar...

The Japanese hybrid carriers were fascinating attempts to "throw shit at the wall and see what sticks." I mean, they were terrible at being fleet heavy units, and on the carrier side had all the power of the lightest "Jeep carrier." Perhaps this is unfair, as the concept was undermined by a serious shortage of trained pilots and effective fighters. Holding only roughly 20 aircraft, the only thing Ise managed to do was have a more effective reconnaissance arm, which indeed did help it avoid US sub attacks on a number of occasions. Ise was desperate, crazy, a little bit of brilliant jury rigging, but ultimately unsuccessful as either a fleet heavy unit, or as a light carrier. It was a good try and an interesting footnote of naval history, but I doubt the game could support this.

Seeing the same thing myself. Already tried resetting password, but nothing doing yet.

Well they sure as hell didn't scuttle the Seydlitz. Reading the Jutland damage report for that ship is eye popping, and damn compelling. * Edit: This might be a little Crusader Kingsy, but what if there was something like the Scapa Floe incident? If your crew is interned after losing a war, maybe there'd be a mechanic to deny the ship to the victorious power.

If nothing else, I'm really excited to try out the new light cruisers @Nick Thomadis and the devs are brewing up. Happy to be patient as we await Alpha 5, and looking forward to drawing more inspiration once we see how the next version shakes out.

Although I think the devs are working on more late tech designs at the moment, I'd love to see some more distinctively Italian designs as well!

Some of the late tech cruisers available to Germany seem to fit that bill (aside from the prohibitive cost of speed). I'd always like to see more hull diversification, just so we have more options to play around with in ship designer. I do hope submarines are a factor in the campaign, so that frigates, corvettes, and escort destroyers make sense.

You know, unironically, arcane and abstract arguments erupting about the nature and efficacy of the Soviet admiralty genuinely entertain me. Also, if you get this many naval enthusiasts together, its bound to happen. ...anyways, we're two days past the update. That hardly makes them Blizzard. Free Hong Kong.

I have a brilliant new strategy to fool enemy spotters! *Submitted accompanying bug report sent 03/09/20. Hopefully this is already addressed in V5.

Hey @Nick Thomadis, Any chance the new light cruiser hulls will have superfiring turrets?

Updating as of end of February: 4. WWII era light cruisers: RN Town Class, IJN Mogami class, USN Brooklyn Class, KM Konigsberg Class CLs adopted a significantly sleeker look, especially characterized by flush decks, light belt armor, ~6" main armament, and rated speeds of 30+ knots. Crucially, these ships featured superfiring turrets, something very lacking in the current stable. @Nick Thomadis I've noticed that the 1926+ CA design could provide a decent visual starting point for CLs of the later years. Principally, I'd adjust the default speed to ~36 knots, adjust the standard armor accordingly (and keep the upper limit cap on CL armor), and treaty limit caliber to 6" (or 7"-8" for non-treaty fleets).

Submitted a bug report through the game as well, but here's the image for the casemate guns fixed in place as the rest of the ship goes down. @Nick Thomadis

@Tlmitf deals text wall of damage. Это супер эффективно!

Great work collating the list, @disc. I'd suggest adding oilers, colliers, and tenders to a "support ship" class list. Here's the link to the discussion:

Question for you guys, with example: How can you eyeball where belt armor transitions to extended armor in the ship designer? Example below: Armor Stats:

If you mean as a liability, I totally agree. However, I don't know of any situation where a munitions ship resupplied during battle. That'd be insanely risky.

In line with @RAMJB comment on Ultimate Admiral: Galactic Star Cruisers, I think taking inspiration from BSG: Deadlock's Admiral Bonus Tree would be a cool idea. Obviously that should be adapted to, you know, surface conditions upon Earth's seas, and realistic bonuses to crew morale. Still, all of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again.

Praise to the devs! That's a beautiful sinking animation.

I agree. Although I'm not sure what mechanics the campaign will eventually use, the bow ornaments and color schemes of the fleet are best suited to fleet review and would, if anything, only affect prestige and standing.

@Nick Thomadis #themoreyouknow😉