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Germany v USA 1904

Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2026 2:33 pm
by martinworsey
A significant fleet action based upon the German War Plan 3 for the invasion of the USA.

I intended this to be a version of the 1901 battle from Steam & Iron but a little research discovered that the German plans were more mature around 1904. This is much larger as well with asymmetric fleets.

I have been surprised at the outcome when play testing.

Ships largely based upon the following:
Friedman - American Battleships, Naval Firepower, Naval Weapons of WW1
Dodson - Before Dreadnought, The Kaiser's Battlefleet
Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860 - 1905

Re: Germany v USA 1904

Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2026 8:21 pm
by f11supertiger
Cool idea for a scenario.

Re: Germany v USA 1904

Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2026 5:06 pm
by martinworsey
An updated version.

I have tried to adjust the scenario to try and reduce the possibility of US AI getting stuck in Massachusetts Bay.

I have adjusted ships to give more historical gun ranges. I also added "Central Rangefinder" fire control. US procured Barr and Stroud rangefinders in 1903 and the Germans had stereoscopic rangefinders. William S Simms had demonstrated firing by continuous aim and this was adopted in 1902 but spotting for long range fire was experimental in 1904. The Germans did not have much interest in shooting much over 6,000m at this time but probably had the equipment to do so (see N. Friedman - Naval Firepower). It is therefore debatable as to using "Central Rangefinder" or "Local"; probably on balance I thought it would be better to use "CR" as shooting would be expected to be better than the SAW in 1904.

I have tried to improve the appearance of the ships by using deck colours from the NWS site and also made some improvements through greater familiarity with the editor.

I have attached the "Ship Parts" used previously for the (British v French) Scenario as these are used in the ship designs. I have used a couple of crane designs and included these as "Ship Parts 3" for anyone who has already uploaded "Ship Parts" or "Ship Parts 2". If not, then you will need to copy and paste "Ship Parts" AND "Ship Parts 3" into the Graphics File (Rule the Waves 3>Data>Graphics).