[NGTM-1R]

Some newcomers joined the fleet.

This is Tsukaba.

Tsukaba is the very definition of a badnought. Note her ridiculous armament layout, her turreted secondaries to save a tiny amount of weight, before I have the proper tech, and just the sheer stupid of it all. I built her because, lacking superfiring turrets, I wanted to have some early BCs  and I couldn't depend on getting superfiring tech anytime soon. Every time I look at this ship I want to set her on fire. Halfway through their construction run, last war, they ended up being superseded when the US sold me superfiring X, superfiring B, and triple turret tech too. Too late to make it worthwhile breaking them up on the stocks, but...


Then, a year later, war with France again. It starts with a convoy action, where a French Linois-class CL attacks my destroyer screen off Destroyer Oite replies with a single torpedo as the DDs turn to run, which happens to set off a magazine detonation on the French ship.

That's a good girl.

Furutaka intercepted a French raider but couldn't catch it. Twice. Reasonably sure it was the same ship too. The French refuse to fight around the Home Island (probably afraid of getting interned), and in a possible battlecruiser action of Haiphong they decided to hide in port. Y'know, I don't remember France having the "Cautious" trait. Germany and Italy and Austria-Hungary, yes.

Chiyoda gets the first non-golden-beebee kill, a Cosmao-class CL, though it damages her rudder causing her to sail away from it for 15 minutes. Izumi duels with my old nemesis Tage, getting pretty badly shot up, but also damaging Tage enough that it doesn't press the engagement. Furutaka tangles with a Brennus-class semi-dread and draws it off a convoy, getting damaged but surviving. Asama finally sinks that thing Furutaka chased around. Izumo gets another French raider, this one CA-weight.

And then the Tage has to scuttle, because it's out of fuel. TAKE THAT BAGUETTES.

More new stuff joining the fleet.

The Hizen-class BBs are slightly more powerful than most of their contemporaries worldwide, with smaller guns, but more of them. The followon Hiei class has 12 13" guns and is already in the pipe, so the Hizens may not have a long service career.


The Kongos are not nearly so formidable as their RL namesakes, but represent a significantly more powerful vessel than any currently active French ship. Even their similar-weight ones are hampered by fewer guns and less armor for similar speed due to an inefficient turret layout.

Furutaka chases a protected cruiser but can't gain. And then abruptly I invade Cochin China and conquer it for no adequately explained reason. The French respond with a coastal raid, which will be opposed by the Tsukaba-class ships. BADNOUGHTS, AWAY. Two of them versus a single French Lille-class, which is definitely a better ship, but hopefully numbers tell.

Or not, whatever. Ikoma barely even fires, and Tsukaba gets shot up pretty good. The Lille takes some hits, but is moving and shooting fine, where Tsukaba is down to 17 knots from engine room hits. I still maintain the action at long range for awhile, keeping them away from the port, then once dusk hits I put my ships into port. It's a technical win for the French, but they also decide to go hide in port at Cam Ranh Bay.

Asama and Tokiwa turn things around some by sinking another CA. Maybe if I kill enough of them, the French will have to spend all their money building new cruisers. Wait, ****, that just means battlecruisers. They don't even like to build CAs once they have BCs. I'm getting reports of strikes and unrest in France again, though, that's a good sign. BC Kirishima sinks a very unlucky raiding light cruiser. Then Kirishima and sistership Okinoshima team up to fend off a raid on Takao, sinking a French Duquesne-class BC and a destroyer, and sending that Lille-class that beat up the Tsukabas running home with a couple turrets blown off. DD Inazuma acts as angel of mercy, recovering the French survivors.

The French decide to peace out, and my politicians agree against my recommendations, once again letting them get away without losing much, to my annoyance considering I had more than than four times their VPs. As it's 1913 I decide to remove my older CAs and predreads from service, leaving only the semidreads and semibattlecruisers active.

[NGTM-1R]

I am at war with Great Britain.

I am the weakest naval power on the planet.

This is going to go very badly.

But I know at least one thing: somebody is going to get Pearl Harbor'd here, and it's not going to be me.

Japan gets to play a special scenario, Surprise Attack, at the start of a war if they so choose. It's got more in common with Port Arthur than Pearl Harbor, as enemy ships start at anchor and have to get steam up while your destroyers charge in to launch torpedoes and your battleships push up to hopefully reach them soon.

The Brits at Weihaiwei are about to experience it.


Dozens of torpedoes later from several of my newest ships, inculding the Oite- and Umikaze-classes, they have hit...a couple of CLs and one of the BCs. Little less than I'd hoped for. Oite has probably also gotten her squadron killed by moving between the minefield and the BCs.


Oite's squadron confirmed for dead meat. Oh well, here are the ships it was composed of.



More torps put another into a BC and some into the CA and another CL. The DDs are finally starting to break off, from damage or empty tubes. This scenario would be child's play on Captain's mode where I could direct the torpedo launches...the battleships run in and get torpedoed, things going badly even more, but sink another CL and an Invincible-class BC, plus bombard land batteries. CL Yaeyama, built to replace the first Yaeyama, rams and has a mutual-kill fight with a British CL in the dark. On the withdrawal a couple of minesweepers and a merchie are also sunk. Wandering destroyer Sawakaze, lost in the dark, finds another cargo ship that must have been carrying ammunition, because it blew up when hit.

I believe we have achieved the perfect definition of cluster****. I lose 6 DDs and a CL, for three CLs, two MS, two merchies, and a BC, plus everybody getting torpedo damaged up in here.



The Hiei-class BBs. Pretty decent for the type considering my lack of 14" guns, but got their asses kicked by underwater tube launches at Weihaiwei.


Haruna-class BC. Like the Kongos, but ABY instead of AXY, with 13" guns.

[NGTM-1R]

So I took a Fleet Action, at very bad odds technically, in the Sea of Korea between Weihaiwei and Inchon, for one reason.

I have battleships. The Brits do not. They have something like a dozen battlecruisers, but only a few Bs and no BBs.

Hiei leads the fleet, followed by Hatsuse, Aki, and Hizen. Battlecruisers Kongo, Tsubuka, Ikoma, and Kurama are there, but are not used as a scouting unit; the British battlecruisers could eat them alive. Instead they fall back on the main body and offer supporting fire. First the British battlecruisers fight them, but decide this is too heavy for their blood, so they break off. Then the single British BB that wasn't even supposed to be there tries to fight all four of mine, which doesn't go well, so the battlecruisers have to come save it. Then they start to pull ahead; cumulative minor damage has actually hurt Hiei quite badly and the other ships are also limping from minor aliments.

But one British ship, an Inflexible-class, falls behind. And enemy ships are exposed, their destroyers having cleared out of the way of the big shells. The battle line cuts west, angling to pass astern of the limping Inflexible, and the destroyers go in.

Ultimately there are relatively few torpedo launches at anything but the crippled Inflexible-class, but at least one connects with a Princess Royal-class ship as well and another with an enemy predreadnought, and the Inflexible takes something like a dozen hits. A DD are lost, but the British break contact, having had enough. The Japanese fleet turns for their base as well.

It is not a great victory. But it is a victory. Japan is still in the fight, standing off the might of the British Empire, cutting them down one capital ship at a time.


There is a certain irony to it. The Royal Navy's heavy ships were always known as Britain's walls, first of wood, then of steel, an insurmountable obstacle to her enemies. Now they've met their match in the form of Japan's walls of steel, and the gleaming blades of her swords, the humble destroyers of the battlefleet. The Battle of the Yellow Sea is where the idea of the invincible Royal Navy died.

And I could win this. It won't be easy. But I actually could. As long as I keep squeezing out victories to make up for the Brit blockade.

There's another fleet action coming up between the Goto Islands and Jeju.

Situation as follows.

Scouting units comprised of three Tsukaba-class BCs and the Kongo are forward, having detected enemy scouting forces (the blue dot) and are falling back on the main body, composed of two BBs, Hiei-class Hatsuse and Hizen-class Aki. So are the main body's screen of light cruisers. Intelligence suggests the British have 2 BBs and 4 to 6 BCs against my 2 BB and 4 BC. Superiority of Japanese light cruiser and destroyer forces in both number and equipment is considered assured.

My objective is to inflict severe damage on as many British ships as possible, forcing them to return home for repairs and lifting the blockade. Sinking enemy ships is desirable, but not essential.


The enemy scouts broke contact as well, and now...there's nobody to be found. Don't tell me the Royal Navy is going to try and avoid a fight?

IT BEGINS! Enemy ships in sight from Ikoma's masthead, range 23000 yards. Coming to port, course 090, to close the distance.


He's a CL, running south, then cutting north. There's another one out there too, might be the other CL of a scouting line. That new  unidentified contact just opened fire with heavy guns. That's an enemy battleship or battlecruiser. Closing the range.


There they are. Formidable-class BB, other ships in support. That B might be another BB, not sure. The glare warning means we're close to sunset, so this is going to have to be quick. Only madmen fight fleet battles at night.


The Brit sent in their DDs to keep from close pursuit of their battleships. I had to turn away, but no torpedo hits for the Brits and two of their DDs are dead in the water from trying, and...ooohhhh ****. There's their BC scouting force! This is no time for hesitation. They don't seem to have much of a destroyer escort and it's already past dusk. Darkness is only minutes away. DESTROYERS FORWARD! TENNO HAIKA! BANZAI!

Then darkness ****s everything up and I lose contact, so the destroyers abort their runs. I direct all ships to form on Hatsuse, and turn for the Goto Islands and from there Sasebo.


Or not. ****. This was exactly what I didn't want. Those destroyers better get in there quick now!


Suzukaze answers the call, at least. The rest of them are lagging behind a bit...


Well that amounted to a great heap of nothing. Suzukaze got her torpedo launchers blown up before she could launch. A British Wolverine-class DD took some 12" fire from Kongo and is about to sink.

Everyone sorts back into formation and heads home. Again.

End result? Disappointment. I sank three DDs and got some minor damage on a BC for some minor damage to Hatsuse and Suzukaze.

But it's enough. A peace treaty is offered, and signed, next month.

I did it.

I won. I didn't beat the stuffing out the British exactly, but I was holding them off effectively and actually doing better than they were. I won.

[NGTM-1R]

I retired the Hizen-class BBs and the Tsukaba-class BCs. They were old and bad. Ironically, Sagami and Suwo, my two semidreadnaughts, are still in service after them. They're going out as soon as I get in my latest battleship, though.

New arrivals to the fleet.


Hokaze-class DDs. I have a little over a dozen now with another dozen on order. They have one more gun but less firepower because their guns are smaller, compared to the Umikaze-class. On the other hand: three quad torpedo mounts. They're basically a Japanese optimized destroyer, meant to deploy the Oxygen Torpedo Madness that is the late-game IJN.


Mimasaka-class battlecruiser. I've got two of them. Armed with the largest guns currently available to the IJN, and weighing in at 41000 tons, these are my best ships currently. They'll stay my best battlecruiser to the end of the game, as even the next class currently building are actually intended to replace the Kongos, and weigh in at 30k tons. (Though they're surprisingly close, as they mount only one less gun, and have very similar armor schemes and identical speeds. The use of quad turrets to economize.)

In case she doesn't commission before the game ends, also, meet Hizen II.

Hizen II is the only ship of her class, though if I intended to play beyond 1925 she would likely have at least one sister. Her gun caliber is relatively small for an endgame battleship, as by now the Brits and US are rocking 16" guns and if I were playing them, maybe worse. This has saved weight for the heaviest armor scheme I have yet imagined. At 17" thick on the belt, her belt thickness exceeds that of Yamato by a whole inch. 5" of deck armor is comparable to American WW2 battleships pre-Iowa, as are her conning tower and turrets. Hizen II is a monster designed to close to 10000 yards against the worst the enemy can throw at her and beat them down with fire from her twelve guns vs. their eight or nine guns.

She would be even better IF I COULD USE ****ING OIL-FIRED ENGINES but since I have no source the game will not allow it even though by the 1920's everyone was making the switch anyways.

I have just had a war with Russia kick off after they blew up one of my DDs at anchor, so now Mishima and Awaji are out to show the Russian Navy (still Imperial in this universe) that they can get stuffed, scrubs: I beat the British. What hope do you have?

Well, some. Their BC is a ship of the Fokshani-class, a classic Russian "axial" AQQY triples design with 14" guns, but her armor is ridiculously thin. Also the destroyers charged into the convoy it was guarding the moment I gave the order for "Flotilla attack" and the results have been...ugly. They're like little buzzsaws, spewing torps all over the place as they tear through defenseless merchant shipping.

Old Russian BB Petropavlosk turns up, takes one look at the destroyers, and decides it wants nothing to do with this mess. Awaji and Mishima have the Fokshani down to 10 knots, all turrets knocked out, though Awaji has lost her after turret and taken some fairly noticeable damage as well. Petropavlosk charges back in and sends in its DDs, which torpedo Awaji, forcing her to turn away...and then things really go to **** for the Russians.

Because arriving from out of the blue are Hatsuse and Hiei. And the ships that defeated the Royal Navy are hungry for blood. On one side, there's Mishima, low on ammunition but still with 35% in her magazines and undamaged. On the other side are two Japanese battleships, fresh and fully loaded. In the middle is a 24k ton Russian BB from 1912, who already has three of her five turrets out of action with jams and has less armor than the Fokshani did.

Pretopavlosk manages to extricate herself from this situation, barely, and limps north at ten knots, with Hatsuse and Mishima in pursuit. (Hiei is derping around for some reason.) A few more rounds stop the Russian BB too, though Mishima is now out of ammo for her forward turrets, and expends her last three main battery rounds fending of the last three Russian DDs. The battleships chase them off the map, while the DD escorts for the battlecrusiers commence the usual Death Pinwheel maneuver of circling the dead-in-the-water ship and spamming torpedoes at it. It absorbs about eight before they run out.

Awaji, having reverted to AI control down there, proceeds to sink herself by trying to run at high speed and stressing her watertight bulkheads. The AI cannot into damage control, and this happens sometimes unless you're on Captain's mode and take over control of damaged ships to prevent it.

Goddammit. It's still a victory, but by far less of a margin then it should have been.

[NGTM-1R]

So it's a fleet action, in Tsushima Strait, against the Russians.

...in 1922, though.


Meet Shiribeshi. Along with her sisters Amagi and Teshio, these are the last battlecruisers I'll build before the end of the game. They're 30000 tons, and quite well-armored for their weight, with 8 14" guns. I built them to replace the 12"-gunned Kongo-class ships, but in terms of armor, speed, and firepower, they're actually quite capable; probably moreso than the Mishima or Haruna classes. Even compared to the Mimasakas they're surprisingly close.

Actually, there are a whole bunch of Tsushima fleet actions. They're all, relatively, inconclusive. Only one ship larger than a destroyer is sunk in three fleet actions, though numerous ships on both sides are damaged to varying degrees. The last battle is closest to "decisive" as the Japanese have a clear ascendancy at the end; both Russian battleships and most of their battlecruisers are suffering from heavy damage when the engagement breaks off. This is also where the lone ship sunk happens: Russian BC Tendra, which was trying to limp back to port after numerous 14" gun hits from the Mimasaka twins and Shiribeshi when it apparently sank out of my sight. Hiei and Hatsuse took a pair of torpedo hits apiece but handled it like champs and were still making 19 knots at the end of the battle. They only counted as at medium damage, despite significant gunfire hitting them as well.

The Russians are also getting blockaded by my German allies now, my submarines are screwing them over more locally. I got three "our submarine has torpedoed an enemy BB!" messages in a row. Apparently in this universe the IJN's focus on attacking capital units with submarines is actually working. Go figure.

The Russians offer peace terms in January 1923, and despite me pushing for their collapse, the government accepts. Welp. At least we got to keep Kamchatka.

Too late for the war, a new CL class joins the fleet.

If the Matsushimas look kind of derp...it's because they're kind of derp. They're an 8-gun broadside on 6" guns, and a six-gun broadside on 5" guns, but I don't have dual or triple turrets for primary battery on CLs yet. This doesn't stop me using turrets for secondaries! Which is asinine, but oh well. Check out all the single turrets I had to scatter everywhere now that other nations are starting to show off designs with dual turrets, just to match their broadsides. Also check out how their secondaries are on top of their torpedo launchers because derp.

I also lay down another battlecruiser of the Shiribeshi class, which won't complete before the end of the game, and design a new light cruiser with less derp when the French sell me the design for CL dual/triple turrets in 1924, and finally, after refitting most of my light cruisers with above-water torpedo triples or quads, design a final battlecruiser that I will bequeath to my successor after 1925. The 52k ton Tsukaba will be the first BC of the new era, just as its namesake was Japan's first dreadnought-style capital ship. It mounts 16 guns, 15", in four quad turrets, and has armor comparable to Mimasaka or Shiribeshi. I think it's a worthy gift for whoever comes next. I also leave them a design study for a 1500-ton Fubuki-clone destroyer with quad torpedo tubes.

So at the end of the game, I'm at 61 prestige, which is pretty good all told; enough that I'm told my successor will name an aircraft carrier after me. Personally I'm hoping for a Shokaku-class. Japan's naval budget is larger than anyone but Germany, the UK, and the US, but her fleet tonnage is comparatively quite small even to those groups; they're carrying large classes of battlecruisers at or under 30k tons, which are old and no real match for what I have, even my own 30k-ton ships (which are much newer than theirs). The four IJN battleships (Ironically, by rushing, I not only launched Hizen, but also a sistership to her), by contrast, outnumber and outmass the battleship fleet of any other nation besides the US (though weirdly, Italy comes close; not sure why they need them).

The IJN CL fleet by contrast is relatively dated, still carrying a large number (six) of 1899-vintage Izumi-class ships, but they're still quite deadly in comparison to most CLs of the world. It's about average in size, both ways. The IJN DD force, on the other hand, could beat up any two of the other nation's DDs with comparative ease, in terms of numbers and tonnage.

[Phantom Hoover]

You might be the only person I've seen bother to retitle their posts.