Germany AAR

Post descriptions of your brilliant victories and unfortunate defeats here.
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mrchuck
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Re: Germany AAR

Post by mrchuck »

Their gunnery has improved more than somewhat, but I have a 1kt advantage in speed for all units.
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Interesting. CA Scharnhorst has been placed into 4th DD division. WAD? who knows!
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We will chase down and destroy them at all costs.
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Nightfall. Ordered flotilla attack, still in pursuit. A stern chase is a long chase.
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(continues)
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Re: Germany AAR

Post by mrchuck »

Fatally, the French BBs have come about to engage--possibly reasoning that escape seems impossible.
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My CA division puts several torps into one of the Charlemagnes, and down she goes! Now for the other one...
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Finally got a torp into it. Her captain has skilfully avoided four, but his luck has run out...
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Recalling flotilla attack, no longer needed. DD S24 has got into position on her broadside, one more torp maybe.
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(continues)
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Re: Germany AAR

Post by mrchuck »

Yes! Hand that skipper an Iron Cross 2nd Class!
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Ordering all divs to reduce to cruising speed. This enemy isn't going anywhere except to the bottom.
Four more torp hits, the ship is doomed. Heading back to port.
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Deutschland puts another one into her on the way past.

Scorecard. +2P
France now has one BC, 6 B and 9 CA left. Also pretty much disarmed at this point. Rioting in Paris.
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However, a new Russian BB has been commissioned and 3 more to come this year. Time to transfer some forces east.
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Re: Germany AAR

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1912, April. This war has dragged on for 23 months and victory is still out of reach.
Declined a raid on the enemy coast due to the danger of mines and subs, and I'm watching France with ships that have no TP at all.
Now there is a fleet action, their Bs to mine (classed as BBs but they're not, really)
Accepting this one because I think our old ships are better than their old ships.
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Enemy sighted!
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I'd say these are their 6 remaining Bs. Moving in.
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Looks like they're running.
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(continues)
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Re: Germany AAR

Post by mrchuck »

Courbet class has taken 3 torpedoes and is most likely finished. Continuing the pursuit. Bremen detached due to damage: 33% + minor flooding. She's done enough for today.
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Blucher has been torpedoed and it looks bad, Detached and heading back as well. This is my fault for sending her in too close and not watching out for DDs. Lesson learned.
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Torpedoes for the crippled stragglers. Nothing kills like overkill...
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I think I'll be content with offing four of them as the others are rather to close to the light forces screen. Slowing down to cruising speed and allowing the others to get away. Also means they are moving out of range to shoot at us.
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(continues)
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Re: Germany AAR

Post by mrchuck »

The coup de grace...
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Results of the battle. +2P
4Bs vs 1 CA. Blucher did not make it. An unlucky name in both world wars, no exception here either.
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In other news. We have taken control of Finland. Strikes and demonstrations in Russia. We have commissioned four more destroyers, and figured out to build them of 1100 tons. All dissent on the home front has been silenced by the series of stunning victories over our enemies. The standing of the Kaiserliche Marine has never been higher. However, the blockade on France has faltered temporarily due to ships damaged and the loss of the Blucher. With the new units coming this year, that won't last.
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Re: Germany AAR

Post by mrchuck »

1912, July.

There was a lull in the fighting in May and June. BC Goeben is commissioned into the fleet, and the 2nd BC division is established under the brilliant Konteadmiral Kaiser to scout for the North Sea fleet However, this very potent unit is still working up.

The French are attempting a convoy attack, and we must stop them. But in order to defend the convoy, we have to find it!
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There they are. Having established visual contact, we now turn our attention to our guests, which turn out to be the surviving two Bs and screens. Detaching CA Friedrich Carl to keep watch over the transports. Ordering flotilla attack.
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That had the desired effect. French fleet thrown into utter confusion.
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Torpedo attack succeeds!
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Re: Germany AAR

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Closing stages of the battle. Sent two damaged CLs back to base, the remaining two are cleaning up the enemy DDs.
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Second B sunk. CL Suchet is being tiresome but I'm not going after it. 4" popguns, not a significant threat.
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Battle result.
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And...victory!
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While there is a smorgasbord of possessions and 20 value to collect, I don't want any of these and will take the economic boost instead. The fleet is triumphant but mostly heading to obsolescence. I can't defend these places even if I take them, and the FS commitment would be large and probably cost more. I will be focusing on my back yard. On the plus side Russia is now well and truly hamstrung and I will have few problems in the Baltic from here on. Which means I can start thinking about the main game, which is to defeat the RN...Germany's economy is for now the largest in the world.

I am placing the whole fleet into reserve, awaiting the completion of the current building schedule, and designing the next generation of ships.
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Re: Germany AAR

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1912, August
Time to step back a bit and review the current situation, and make some decisions affecting the near future. Here's the almanac.
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Since my next enemy is likely to be Britain, what are they up to?

Ahead in tech. They have lighter than air aviation, which we don't yet. Obvious spotting advantage, and while they hold Norway this is a problem.

Their current capital ships are nothing special, 12" guns, low 20 kts and 10-12" belt. They also have 15" guns now so we must expect new build to have these. BCs 23-25kts and 9" belt, not how the GB AI usually builds them where they are faster but flimsy. Don't care about the Bs, their day is done.

With their new build, they all seem to be less than 24000 tons, so there is a clear opportunity for me to commence ships 5000 tons larger or more now in each category, so we'll outclass them ship for ship in three years time.

Cruisers are a motley bunch, mostly very old and low 20kts again. 9" guns in the more recent ones. Nothing new on the stocks atm.

28 kt light cruisers starting to appear, but I will have three of these shortly myself. DDs mostly <600t and will most likely be replaced soon.

Since Russia and France will take years to recover from the drubbing just handed them, the outlines of the next building are pretty clear:

Two each of 15" BB and BC, BCs to be 27kts or better.

Fast CAs with largest possible gun, 9" right now.

Fast CLs with mines

Fewer but larger and more capable destroyers, since I will be far from my bases most of the time and they won't be.

For the existing units:

Retire the Bs ASAP.

Reserve or mothball the pseudo-BBs to keep the Kaiser happy while I build things that are better

Retire any cruiser that won't do at least 25 kts, which is most of them.

Retire all DDs < 600 tons and start converting the smaller remining ones to KEs.

Retain current true BBs and BCs for now, though they aren't that good.

Other considerations:

Try not to provoke my neighbours for at least two years while the fleet is in flux and most likely at a low level of effectiveness.

Keep building docks with the eventual target of 35-40000 tons. Anything larger than that I have found to be fairly useless--you can't keep them busy enough with the available budget, and by the time you could build massive 50-60kt capital ships, carrier aviation (invariably with much smaller hulls) has made them white elephants. Doesn't seem to stop the AI doing this though.

Next: designs
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Re: Germany AAR

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1912, October.

New docks completed and now at 31500 tons. Let's see what we can build.
Starting with a computer-generated BC design.
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First we'll crank the tonnage to the maximum and the guns to 15", discard the wing turrets and go for a conventional A-B-X-Y layout.
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Hmm, more than 1100 tons overweight. Secondaries far too heavy, reducing number and calibre. Changing accom to normal, I don't build cramped or short range ships ever.
Deck is only 2.5 which is not ideal, but these things are supposed to punch hard and this does. Still 164 tons overweight. I want 100 tons free at least for upgrades, so need to find around 250 tons of savings.
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Reducing the belt to 10.5" and tertiaries to 8 did the trick.
Final design. For this era, not a bad result but the deck is too weak for a really long-lived design. Until we have AON armour scheme, this will have to do.
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Re: Germany AAR

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I'm not convinced BBs are a hot proposition in this period unless you're playing GB, primarily because they will be too slow to have a long working life. As Germany, I cannot afford to build ships which will be useless within 10 years. This is due to hull forms which unduly restrict max speed.

OTOH, good battlecruisers can be upgraded to oil/turbine and provided the armour scheme is OK could be useful for a long time.

So, going to skip BB for now and go to CA.

We'll start again with the computer. Since I don't have superimposed turret tech for CA yet, I quite liked what the computer came up with at the second attempt.

Reduced speed from 29 to 27 and added some protection and 2x TTs, but otherwise left it alone. A pair of these will do for now.
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A note on speed. As you will all no doubt have noticed, extra speed above 27 kts is very, very expensive in terms of additional machinery size and tonnage used. I don't like the tradeoffs needed to get to 29 or 30.

A while back I decided that 27 kts is the best option for large ships for a number of reasons:
1. Speed is not armour. Armour is armour. Thoroughly tested at Jutland and the game reflects this.
2. Very fast units usually can't make that speed after a year or two at the most due to engine wear, and need constant refitting.
3. Max -2 for a 27kt ship is 25 which is convenient in the UI :-)
4. 25 kts is a sensible and sustainable battle speed anyway.
5. I try to design my ships so that any enemy which can force my heavy units to battle usually regrets it...because of these very tradeoffs. With the BC class from the last post, I am not happy about the deck armour and this may well come back to bite me. But I really wanted 15" guns, and even though they're -1 now, well worth upgrading later if the ships survive

Most of the time the player is not in the position of the US in late WW2, where you can have exactly as much stuff as you want on any tonnage you care to name, and hang the expense.

To finish up on this topic, here's the CL building at the moment:
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CL tech lags considerably until the 20s so this will do for a while yet. This class doesn't have mines but the next iteration will. These are surprisingly upgradeable too, I've discovered.

For DDs, no particular issues with the way the computer designs them, with the general exception that I will always add some mines and minesweeping gear, and lose perhaps a couple of knots and maybe a gun to do this if necessary. Mine warfare is very important in this period and an unlucky mine strike can wreck your day. Same goes for ASW when available, certainly more valuable than an extra popgun or two. This changes when airpower becomes a thing, but in 1912 it isn't. By the time it is, DD tonnage will be bigger anyway so we can handle all the threats. Unlike real navies, the player generally cannot afford to make specialised classes of DDs for AA, ASW, SSM, SAM etc (and managing this with the existing UI would be a complete pain too), and as this is only a Larger campaign, even more so.

I will start reducing secondary guns from 6" down to 5 or 4 in this period, because you then have a secondary battery which can be converted to AA relatively cheaply when the time comes, which will be soon (unless you have wing turrets, which I also don't like for that reason).

6" DP no use at all as far as I can tell, and appear late in the game too.
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Re: Germany AAR

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1912, November-December

The big news this month is that I now have 15" +0 guns available, and can incorporate these in the new BC after a minor rework of the design.

I have taken delivery of 2 BBs and a BC with the latest fire control, so the newest ships currently in service all have 8x 14" which is not bad. And the budget is back in the black, so I can look into new build and rebuild.

Interestingly, I was able to build some CAs with 4x 12" -2 and these can now be rebuilt into B-team BCs which I may well do if the budget permits later. They will top out at 25kts with the currently available engines, but given what other nations have this could well be worth it. At the very least they can check the Russians in the Baltic if the need arises.

The older CAs can't go faster than 23kts so their future doesn't look bright. But I don't want to annoy the Kaiser by scrapping them just yet. There is no sense in having a brace of max 23kt CAs, they will be utterly outclassed AND it's almost as expensive as building new ones. If possible I might stick director fire on them but that's it.

The older CLs just have to go, but only 5 remain anyway--I work this class hard in the early game and have lost 8--so there you go.

I decided to upgrade the 5 remaining sixgun 'BBs' to director fire since this is relatively quick and cheap. They may last one more upgrade to increased elevation, they may not. But if I'm going to keep them, they might as well be useful. This will take three months, and by then I'll have new construction to start.

Got an intel report about France in December.
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Nothing much to fear there. I suspect peace treaty conditions have been applied, but in this version (52) the game won't tell you. Even so, smaller, slower and much less armament than mine so fine by me!
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Re: Germany AAR

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1913, August-September

Build and rebuild programme going OK. The only things currently under construction are two BCs and two CAs. Let's have a look at these 12" CAs I have from the previous generation. I have two of this class and one other very similar.
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Guns 4x 12" -2. Belt 6. Deck 2.5 All in all not bad. OK, time to make them BCs I think.

I can get these to 25 kts and Director with new turbines--no faster as the hull form won't allow it, and still have 36 tons free.

On balance I think it's worth it (just). I will need to be careful how I use them.
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Sent all three for rebuild. I have a massive pile of cash left over from the war (132k) which I need to spend before the Kaiser spots it, so budget being quite negative not an issue right now.

In September the boffins figured out AON, so now I can start to design some really serious boats.
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Re: Germany AAR

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1914, February.

Not a lot going on in the last six months. There's not much point in designing new ships right now, until the current ones are closer to completion--couldn't afford to build them anyway. Dock size expansion continues regardless-currently 34500 which is well ahead of everyone. My design strategy remains to have fewer but bigger and better in every class wherever I can.

The scientists have finally worked out how to make an airship, so I'm building bases for them in Germany and all the Baltic possessions to level this particular playing field.

Also have 5 medium subs on the stocks.

Submarines do not impress me much in this game and I rarely build more than 5-10 unless the Kaiser makes me. The AI seems to do OK with them; my experience has been uniformly underwhelming. Waste of money I reckon, but you need to have at least 5 just to stay in touch, so that's what I do.

I tried building a huge SS fleet with matching tech emphasis in one game to see if Donitz was right, but it seems to me, the more you have, the faster they get sunk. Occasionally one will do something useful like sink or damage and enemy unit, but I don't have much use for tonnengeschlacht and have never been able to get anywhere with it.

If you use prize rules, you have high losses and low results. Or, you can go unrestricted, and exchange temporary tactical success for the chance of long term strategic disaster by provoking neutrals--like Germany in the world wars.

You get where you need to go quicker by destroying enemy fleet, not merchantmen.
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Re: Germany AAR

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1914, October-1915 April
Had to happen...
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Also I took a -3P for the night fighting innovation event, we are a long way off radar and it's worth it.
Now to design a BB for His Majesty which will be worth having.
This is what the computer came up with. I asked for a BC as usual.
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I want it heavier, better armoured and bigger guns. Let's see how far we can go.
Displacement to 34500. Reduced guns from 10 to 8 but made them 15". Reduced secondaries from 6" to 5" and 8 instead of 14. I'll accept the ROF penalty for turrets, this will go away in time.
AON scheme. Deck now 4, belt 12. Good! Now this is a worthwhile boat. More than 100 tons left over.
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April: commissioned two new CAs, design for Hertha class BC ready, budget in the black again. I need to time the start of the Herthas carefully. I can't possibly afford to build them all; will be starting the month before the review, halting them straight after, and complete as funds or wars permit.
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Re: Germany AAR

Post by mrchuck »

That was close...
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Commencing to build three of these things. Also: we have developed 16" +0 guns. At this point I'm reducing gun development priority from high to medium, because by the time we get 20" they'll be irrelevant, and whatever happens from this point is OK by me.
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Think nothing of it, your Highness. Need to free up some budget to do other stuff. The fleet is badly out of balance and the cruiser arm is a mess. Need more DDs as well. We can have 1500 tonners now.
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Re: Germany AAR

Post by mrchuck »

Here's what I'm actually going to build. Those Herthas may or may not ever be completed. Dockyard size is now 37500 and I can redesign these with 16", much more better as they say. But not yet.
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Meanwhile...Britain
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They still have 17 Bs on the books. While I have 5 modernised to BB standard, they are becoming an increasing liability and will soon go. Global commitments eh?
France...
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...and Russia
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Looks like we already have an edge on all three of them in the capital classes. Just need to get all the others organised.
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Re: Germany AAR

Post by mrchuck »

1915, October-December

Rising tension with GB.

Here is the BC I really want to build.
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I'll get this design ready and substitute it for the Herthas, which I don't really want.
Scrapped two 1892 CAs, can't do a thing with em. We're still third in CA tonnage, but I'll need to watch this.
Taken delivery of one of the two Mackensens (8x 15") with another next month. This will make room in the budget for two Von der Tanns (8x 16") and more DDs hopefully. Just about time to scrap the old sixguns. No TP, not really survivable any more.
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Re: Germany AAR

Post by mrchuck »

1916, February-June
Scrapped the two smallest of the sixguns, mothballed the other three.

Two new Von der Tanns on the slips. Scrapped the Herthas too--if you allow enough time, the Kaiser's attention moves on to the next bright shiny thing he wants. e.g. Belgium, and you can get away with this.

There is now budget for more flotilla craft which I badly need. Five G9s of 1500t commenced. -559 funds per month, I can live with that.
Rebuilding the three newest CLs with above-water TT and mines. The other 4 are a dead loss and not really worth upgrading.

I am adding directors and gun upgrades to my old 23kt CAs. I can't get rid of them yet so I have no choice.
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Re: Germany AAR

Post by mrchuck »

1917, February.

Rheinmetall has finally developed the 10" gun I've been asking for since 1910, and Germania Werft has got some of the bugs out their triple turrets. I can now design a fairly serious CA. Still no superimposed turret tech for this type, but I'm happy enough with it.
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Ready to start another cruiser build cycle. Disposed of the 4 old CLs.
Apart from 4 old CAs of 23kts, I have all recent build cruisers of 27kt or better so this is looking up, but I don't have enough of them.
Time to start putting some stick about while I have an edge...
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