Late US ACR Tonnage Incorrect

[BullHalsey]

They're limited to 13K tons, which is incorrect.  Probably the most solid and capable armored cruiser class ever built, the Tennessee class, was just shy of 16K tons at full load.  14.7-15K ton is probably what we would want to see.  Also, when trying to build said cruiser, say 1906, the tonnage slider is mostly red.  The most you can get is 10,770/13,000t with just the bare hull.

I worked around it best I could and tried it again anyway against 1910 era British Battlecruisers after reading this; The appearance of the British Invincible-class battlecruisers in 1908 and the larger, faster ships of her class that followed reduced the viability of the Tennessee class as fighting units drastically. While some Navy circles considered the Pennsylvania and Tennessee classes the only ones "dignified enough to bear the name of armored cruiser," it was also generally agreed after the Battle of the Falkland Islands in 1914 that a battlecruiser "could destroy either a [Tennessee] or a [Pennsylvania] at extreme range without receiving enough punishment to note in the ship's log."  Difficult to argue with that assessment but I tried it anyway, 2v2, and managed to close them at top speed and inflict significant damage, even sinking one to a Jutland type detonation.  Still no question about which is the superior class of ship.

Also, they had 6" casemate guns where the max allowance is currently 5".  Can make a significant difference at close ranges against armored targets.

It would be nice to build a proper Tennessee, and also not have that strange thing with the available tonnage starting so low.

Interestingly enough, these ships were still considered so powerful that discussion went on all the way into 1928, regarding upgrading them as they would be more powerful than any new cruiser of the time following the Washington Navy treaty.

...So I've been plugging around, trying to replicate any late ACR, and haven't been able to do it very well.  Tonnage and general hull limitations prevent it.  I managed something of a Duke of Edinburgh class, with the correct main battery, but there was nowhere to place all its 6" secondary guns.  Probably would have made it overweight even if there had been.

Edited May 31, 2020 by BullHalsey