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Author Topic: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]  (Read 80059 times)

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Offline niffiwan

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
:lol:

I'm somewhat surprised, I thought Q-ships historically kinda sucked with lots of resources poured into them & not many results in return. Is the Herault's spree typical in RTW?
Creating a fs2_open.log | Red Alert Bug = Hex Edit | MediaVPs 2014: Bigger HUD gauges | 32bit libs for 64bit Ubuntu
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m|m: I think I'm suffering from Stockholm syndrome. Bmpman is starting to make sense and it's actually written reasonably well...

 

Offline Enioch

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
Yes, if you keep your subs to 'Prize Rules' after Q-ships come into play.

Historically, Q-ships were **** because the Germans switched to unrestricted warfare pretty much immediately. If the sub doesn't surface to engage with guns, the Q-ship just sinks.
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline Lorric

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
RTW?
Even now, my brain still automatically reads that as Rome Total War.

 

Offline StarSlayer

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]


I-64 always keeps one in the tube for tricky Gaijin.
“Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world”

 

Offline Spoon

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
Quote
Literally the best guns in the game (don't talk to me about 18-inchers, they only come in -1 varieties)
I don't get the logic behind this. Yamato's 460mm guns were just fine? Where is the RTW dev getting the impression from that 18" should only come in -1? Like, why even put them into the game if 18" -1 is basically just 17" 0, while 17" +1 is actually 18 0 ?  :confused:

Pretty amazing submarine war so far. I dont suppose its possible to just straight up gather a mass of ships and do your best Kantai Kessen doctrine impression and attack a french port? The subs keep taking their large ships out of commission, so this seems like a good moment to strike?
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 

Offline Enioch

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
Quote
Literally the best guns in the game (don't talk to me about 18-inchers, they only come in -1 varieties)
I don't get the logic behind this. Yamato's 460mm guns were just fine? Where is the RTW dev getting the impression from that 18" should only come in -1? Like, why even put them into the game if 18" -1 is basically just 17" 0, while 17" +1 is actually 18 0 ?  :confused:

Because the damage done by a shell is relative to the caliber but not the gun performance. An 18'' shell will do more damage than a 17'' shell, even if fired from a 18'' -1 gun and the 17'' shell is fired from a +1 gun. But first it has to hit and pen

So, you can trade accuracy and penetration performance for damage performance if you get the 18'' guns, but given that the 17'' rifles do monstrous amounts of damage anyway, I'll stick with good gun handling over derpguns.

As for why the 18'' guns are gimped, it's because the game is only meant to be played up to 1925, remember? At the time OTL, the only 18'' in the world were the British BL-18 Mk1s, which were...badly designed and badly implemented.

Quote
Pretty amazing submarine war so far. I dont suppose its possible to just straight up gather a mass of ships and do your best Kantai Kessen doctrine impression and attack a french port? The subs keep taking their large ships out of commission, so this seems like a good moment to strike?

That's what the blockades are for. You essentially park your battle line in front of their ports and go 'come and have a go if you think you're hard enough'. They can either feed you 150+ VPs per month or come and fight.

As for port strikes (taking your ships against actual port facilities) that's non-viable (and thus not a game option), given the shore batteries that will be there to assist them and the defensive minefields. A surprise attack is OK, because you catch them napping; and a targeted bombardment mission is also viable, because they usually target colonial sites, with minimal defenses, but if I were to attack, say, Brest, they'd have enough shore batteries to blow me out of the water.

Right now, given that the Germans can sorta maintain a blockade, my priority is to gobble up colonial holdings. The plan is, after I've grabbed a big yummy bit of the French empire, I'll take the superdreadnoughts up north and add like 130k active tonnage to the blockading forces.

It is also mportant that I whittle down the enemy submarine fleet before I deploy the big guns. All of my capitals have excellent torpedo protection, but if they are deployed close to the enemy sub pens, they'll be easy targets and there's no reason to feed the Frenchies expensive kills.
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline StarSlayer

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
When your ships are added to the blockade by ze Germans if the Marine Nationale decides to sortie out do would you actually have a combined action with units from the High Seas Fleet?
“Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world”

 

Offline Enioch

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
Can't answer that without spoilers.

Spoiler:
I haven't the foggiest. My ships never reach France.

It is possible for ships of your own nation to show up in a battle and not be under your control, so I assume that this is also possible for ships of allied nations (i.e. a could of German BBs would have shown up) but there are no guarantees that they'll join the fleet battle in any sort of organised manner.

'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline Spoon

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
Always on point with answering the questions  :yes:
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 

Offline Enioch

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
It's either that or do actual work.  :p
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline Lorric

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
This just showed up in my recommended videos:


I hope it isn't prophetic. :D

 

Offline Enioch

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The submarine warfare continued in June, with luck favouring the French this time around. The Japanese submariners sank more merchant tonnage, but the French managed to torpedo the destroyer Satsuki off Madagascar.





That was quite enough for the Admiralty, who decided to initiate Operation C: the detailed reconnaissance of the French forces in Djibouti. Akitsushima was employed as a scouting vessel, a raider and a spy ferry from Madagascar to Djibouti; she repeatedly snuck into the Red Sea and returned with valuable intel. On one of her forays, she was intercepted by a French light cruiser, but managed to escape with only light damage.



The R & D department delivered again with an improvement to the ITMS system. The feed from the ITMS receivers was considerably improved, allowing for more accurate shots at range; and the resolution of the scanners was near-doubled, allowing for more accurate tracking. The role of the ITMS in firing control was set to a higher priority; Japan was moving away from the optical viewfinder systems that had been her mainstay for decades. The engineers reported that integrating the new designs to built ships would require drydock time; but the Musashi was still at a stage of her construction where the new systems could be added with only an extra month's work.



By the end of the month, the Admiralty had all the scouting information they required. After a series of meetings with the Army Chiefs, it was decided to allocate part of the Navy's resources for Operation U-Go - the invasion of Djibouti. Finally, the Japanese felt confident enough to begin their major offensive.













This confidence was further bolstered by the continuing success of the Silent Service; and by the demonstrated inability of the French to mount any relevant defense to the Japanese activity in the South China Sea. The home waters were locked down and secure.









In September, mere days after the launching of the Musashi, the landing convoys started their trip from Madagascar, South-east Africa and the homewaters. Hiei herself was deployed on-site, to support the landing operations. On the 11th, the Japanese landing craft reached the Obock coastline; after a four-hour bombardment of the French defenses by Hiei and Akitsushima, the Japanese Army alighted on the beaches.



The advance proceeded as expected during the first two days, with the Japanese establishing and fortifying a thirty-mile beachhead into French territory; but, once beyond the effective firing range of Hiei the French quickly rallied and established a new defensive line. The Japanese advance ground to a halt and trenches were dug. The stalemate would drag on for months, with both sides straining to resupply and support their troops.





And bad news came from the submarine fleet. The French had deployed a new Q-ship ace: the Atlantique, under the command of Henri Valerian, had sunk two of the most modern Japanese subs.



In January (more than two years into the war), the Takao was commissioned into the Navy. Her trial runs would show that she was somewhat slower than expected, but in all other matters she performed to the Admiralty's satisfaction. And, as she was still quick enough to escape any battlecruiser in existence, the Admiralty welcomed her with open arms. Her sister-ship, Atago, would follow up a few months later.





Disaster struck in March, when the Akashi, one of the Akitsushimas was torpedoed and sunk in the Red Sea. The increased submarine activity in the area led the Japanese Admiralty to believe that the French were planning some sort of counterattack.



The Army held on, bitterly, as the body count grew higher.



Good news on the home front! The last French raider operating from the South China Sea struck a mine as it made its way past Formosa; the Tage went down with all hands, her magazines cooking off in an explosion that was seen from the mainland.



NO. Stop asking.



And then, on the 22nd of July, the submarines I-64 and I-60 report sighting a massive French convoy heading down the Red Sea. Torpedo strikes account for two freighters, but the size of the convoy is staggering. It is clear that the French are trying to reinforce their troops in Djibouti; the Navy springs into action.



Hiei is on station, if low on fuel; she moves to the north with a destroyer escort and Akitsushima as a forward scout.



The weather is perfect, but the Japanese almost manage to miss the convoy; they show up on Akitsushima's ITMS systems an hour or so after daybreak. Hiei's fire control acquires the convoy's destroyer escort shortly after; a long-range shot lands a high-explosive shell on the trailing ship, cooking off one of her torpedo launchers.





The Hiei's ITMS control reports solid contacts among the convoy transports, but can't seem to track any dedicated warships beyond the destroyer escort. One transport (moving toward the Japanese instead of away) is tentatively identified as an auxiliary cruiser but that's it. Where are the French capital ships? Have they seriously left this convoy undefended to such a degree, knowing what the Japanese had on-station?



Apparently? Yes, yes they have. For God's sake, they're still operating Catapultes! Compare this...



...to this. Honestly, Yamamoto muses, driving his ship into the French convoy and opening up with main and secondary batteries, there was no reason to bring Hiei along.



At which point, Hiei's A turret jams in its bearings; and the French destroyers rush in, in a suicidal charge.

Hiei responds to the helm beautifully, in a high-speed turn to port, that brings her bow to bear on the closing destroyers; her own escort and secondary batteries open up on the French ships. Suddenly, a panicked cry by her lookouts; a hint of a torpedo trail in the water, too close, much too close. Two fish scream past, mere metres from her port side; another finds its mark and buries its warhead straight into her starboard bulge.



A massive water fountain washes over the starboard batteries and the ship shudders; Yamamoto demands a sitrep. Damcon teams report in: Hiei's first layer of underwater armor has been brached, but no further. She has lost maybe forty tons of fuel from her broadside tanks; but the actual damage is minimal. Flooding is surprisingly low and limited to non-essential compartments; the ship isn't even listing. The engineers report that she can easily do thirty knots even now; in fact, they doubt she'd have trouble reaching her top speed, but don't want to risk a (frankly improbable) bulkhead collapse until they have the time to shore up the neighboring compartments.
 
The bridge erupts in cheers again. Hiei is unsinkable.



And, as her main batteries open up yet again on her enemies, the French get to know that too.



In less than two hours since the beginning of th engagement, the last French ship is a smoking, sinking wreck. Hiei would reach Madagascar by the night of the next day, for refuelling and resupplying her ammo stores; the dockyard hands pronounced the damage 'but a scratch'.



And the Admiralty were more than happy to counter France's anemic claims that they had severely damaged the Japanese giant, when the Hiei left the docks in ten days, her damage fully repaired.



If that was the first rude surprise for the French, then July had a second one in store. For on the 30th of that month, the French garrison forces in Djibouti stared in wonder and mounting horror, as twenty-five thousand elite Askari troops of the Japanese Alliance, accompanied by four units of artillery, emerged from the Ethiopian hinterland and engaged the French lines from behind, near Lake Abhe.

It's time we talk about one of the most dramatic and legendary accomplishments of the Great Franco-Japanese War: The Long March.
« Last Edit: September 02, 2018, 04:18:08 am by Enioch »
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline Thisisaverylongusername

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
'Tis merely a flesh wound!
If the opposite of pro is con, then is the opposite of progress Congress?

 

Offline Enioch

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In February 1933, with the Japanese and French forces locked in a deadly stalemate in Djibouti, the Army Command sought out ways to upset the situation to the advantage of the Japanese. Feeding more troops to the entrenched French was deemed unacceptable, as any gains would not justify the cost in lives; instead, a daring scheme was proposed, in combination with the Foreign Office.

The Japanese had nearly fourty thousand native Askari troops in South-Eastern Africa, supported by the 1st African Artillery Brigade. If these forces could, somehow, be moved overland to Djibouti, they could open up a new front and, hopefully, overwhelm the French defenders. Unfortunately, there was a small problem: this would mean moving the equivalent of an entire army through British-held Kenya and, after that, the independent state of Ethiopia.

Ethiopia would not be a problem. Her Emperor, Haile Selassie, had often declared his hostility toward the French and Italian colonies to the north of his country; he was willing to allow the Japanese passage and even contemplated a formal alliance, provided the Japanese provide military aid and modern artillery to Ethiopia in return. Convincing the Brits to let the Askaris through Kenya would be a more tricky proposal - as it would be tantamount to Britain declaring war on France.

Secret negotiations began on the 20th of February, with Japan probing for a potential alliance. The British were more than hesitant at first, but a military analysis of the situation convinced His Majesty's Government that the French defense of Djibouti would be untenable in the long term and that providing assistance to the Japanese could serve as a major bargaining chip in the future. Yet, in classic British fashion, Albion decided to play both sides.

France had also been pushing the British for permission to open the Suez canal to her warships. So far, it had been the position of the British that the Canal would be closed to all combatants. Yet now, with the Japanese also pushing for permission to cross British territory, this situation changed.



On the 14th of March, the British declared that they would allow (under very specific and strict terms and conditions) the passage of military vessels, supplies, armament and personnel through 'canals and waterways' of His Majesty's African holdings. This permitted the French convoys to cross the Suez; but (less obviously) it also allowed the Japanese to cross Kenyan territory, provided they kept to waterways and canals (and the British authorities were more than willing to turn a blind eye in the few cases where that was impossible).

The march was gruelling and not helped by the fact that the rainy season (with soaring temperatures and pouring rain) was in full effect, but the Alliance Askaris handled the 2500+ kilometre trip with inhuman endurance. The Long March took them two full months, under the worse conditions imaginable; but their arrival in Djibouti, on the 30th of July, achieved their goal of complete surprise and smashed the Djibouti stalemate.



But not all news were good. France had delayed deploying her capital ships so far, but, with the Suez opened to her, that was no longer the case. On the 14th of August, the Akitsushima, on patrol off the coast of Djibouti, received a message from I-75 that another major French convoy was en route.

Hiei was still en route back from Madagascar and at least two days away; Captain Uchida of the Akitsushima decided to engage the French convoy with only his destroyer escort. The decision would prove disastrous.

At 12:30, the Akitsushima spotted the enemy convoy and moved to intercept. Long-range fire, scored multiple hits on a transport ship; the Japanese force closed in.



It is at this point that, out of the haze to the north and the ground clutter to the south, two more contacts appeared on the Akitsushima's plot - both closing in at high speed. A few minutes before 14:00 hours, they had been both identified.





To the north, a Marseille-class battlecruiser opened fire against the Japanese raider. And from the south, closing the jaws of the trap, a Nantes-class battlecruiser approached, steaming at flank.

What happened from that point on is uncertain, but a few facts are known. Upon identifying the enemy capital ships, it became clear to Captain Uchida that victory or escape was impossible - at her best, the Akitsushima could only do 29 knots and she had not been properly serviced in a while. He signalled his escorting destroyers to disengange and turned to close the range on the Nantes, hoping for a torpedo attack.



Unfortunately, only the Akebono managed her escape, as the French ships' gunnery focused on the destroyers. The Mikazuki was hit on her torpedo launchers and the resulting explosion sheared the entirety of her superstructure away; the Nagatsuki came under concentrated fire from the battlecruisers' secondaries and slowly succumbed to flooding. It still savaged a French destroyer that closed in to finish the job.



As Akebono slipped under the horizon, she could see the enemy battlecruisers charging back to finish off the foundering Akitsushima. The light cruiser's wireless set had long since fallen quiet and she was burning from stem to stern, but her main batteries were still firing.



At 18:35, the horizon behind the Akebono erupted in a massive fireball; the thunder of the explosion reached the fleeing destroyer moments after. A 15-inch shell from the Nantes had penetrated the forward magazines of the Akitsushima. The French reported no survivors.



The deal with the British had allowed the Army to reach Djibouti; but had cost the Navy a precious light cruiser and two destroyers, for minimal returns. It was a disaster.



Unfortunately for the French, they could not afford to leave their battlecruisers in the Red Sea. With the sinking of the Wittelsbach, the French fleet was just big enough to reliably evade the German blockading ships, but not with two of their best battlecruisers absent from the Atlantic. As the Germans pulled the noose tight in September, the privations of war began to choke the French population; the Nantes and Marseille were recalled, having suceeded in resupplying the beleaguered defenders of Djibouti.



On the 6th of September, Akebono returned to the coast of Djibouti, to patrol and confirm the departure of the French BCs. Upon her return, she was spotted and engaged by a French Catapulte-class destroyer, the Belier.



Commander Beauclerc of the Belier immediately knew that his ship would not be able to escape the much more modern and well-armed Japanese destroyer. He ordered a frantic attack, to close the range and engage with torpedoes.



Unfortunately for him, Akebono did not flinch. Captain Usawa brought his own ship around on a closing course and launched at point-plank range. In a mad turn to avoid the Akebono's torpedoes, the Belier rammed the Japanese ship.



The French ship's bow knifed into the Akebono's own forecastle. Fortunately for the Japanese, the Mutsuki-class destroyers had heavily reinforced bows, to support the weight of the two front-mounted turrets; the Catapultes, with their deck-mounted guns did not have such an advantage. The bow of the Belier crumpled like a concertina, locking the ships together; but the Akebono suffered no heavy damage and her bulkheads stopped the flooding.



With her front guns smashed to bits and her boiler cracked, the Belier hung on the Akebono's side like a dead whale. Beauclerc ordered his men to strike the colours, but there was no time to execute the command. The loss of the Akitsushima was still much too recent and the gunners of the Akebono were itching for payback. Her rear turret had jammed under the shock of the collision, but her two front turrets were still functional and they opened fire at the Belier's hulk at point-blank range. In the space of a minute, six shells smashed into the Belier, punching deep into her broken vitals, sending shrapnel scything through superstructure and bodies, smashing her boilers and spilling flaming fuel all over her decks and internal compartments. By the time Usawa ordered a cease fire, only three men of the Belier's crew of 160 were still alive.





As the Japanese sailors attempted to disentangle their ship from the wreck of the Belier, it became obvious that the structural integrity of the Akebono would be compromised during the long trip back to Madagascar. Usawa ordered his men to take up axes and power-saws.



Four days later, the Akebono reached Madagascar, her crew having removed the entirety of the ship's bow and relying solely on internal bulkheads. They were hailed as heroes for their amazing seamansship.



And only two days after that, the last defenders of Djibouti capitulated. The Admiralty rejoiced. Now it would be possible to sail the battle fleet north, through the Suez and into the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, to completely and utterly lockdown the French blockade. Total victory was in sight.





And in a bit of further good news, the Hiei's exemplary performance had provided the necessary impetus for the laying down of her first two sisters: Kirishima and Haruna. The two new ships were, externally, almost perfect copies of their older sister, could reach the same staggering 32-knot top speed and mounted the same insane underwater protection. However, they were All-or-Nothing designs, which saved the engineers a ridiculous amount of weight. That meant that, instead of the Hiei's respectable world-leading 16-inchers, these ships would bear the Type 94B 17-inchers: the biggest and best naval rifles in the world, guided by the best fire control systems in the world. Lessons learned from the construction of the Hiei brought their projected completion time to just over two years.



NO, Fromage. You are going down.






-END PART 5-


{No Update Tomorrow because RL and family}
« Last Edit: October 01, 2018, 07:28:23 am by Enioch »
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline Enioch

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- PART 6 -
The Silent Service Reborn

In all honestly, Germany had little choice. While Japan had scored major victories in the Eastern and African fronts, those successes were due in no small part to the efforts of the Kaiserliche Marine, without which the Marine Nationale would have been able to deploy the entirety of their battle-line to the East; and, more importantly, the war was not only waged at sea. Three long years of indecisive trench warfare had ravaged the European countryside. The French could not bring their colonial empire's weight to bear, because of the German blockade; the Germans had no empire to speak of, partly because Japan had consumed most of it. Both countries were exhausted.

And so, when the French made overtures for peace, Wilhelm III's government made it clear to their Japanese allies that Germany had nothing more to give.



Spirits were mixed in Japan. On the one hand, the images of destruction from Europe - of the hundreds of miles of trenches and the apocalyptic landscapes of no-man's-land were horrifying. On the other hand, the Emperor had been assassinated, an act that bordered on sacrilege, and there were those who claimed that the Germans had betrayed the alliance by pulling out.

In the end, in a way, cooler minds prevailed. In the Treaty of Rome, France was given her peace, but at a humiliating cost. Germany was granted severe war reparations, that would bring the French state to near-bankruptcy; The French were also made to acknowledge the Japanese occupation of Djibouti. More importantly, in a move that shook the world, the Japanese insisted on those responsible for the assassination of Emperor Hirohito being tried for their crime by an international court; and presented a 140-strong list of those accused, including the Prime Minister of France, Camille Chautemps, and three members of his Cabinet; the French ex-Chief of Military intelligence; and other officials and intelligence operatives.

The Rheims trials lasted for over a year, with fourty-six of the accused found guilty of mandating or participating in the assassination in one way or another by a court comprised of Japanese, German and French judges; the court also included several prominent justiciars of Italy and Great Britain versed in international law. Eighteen of the accused received the death sentence, including Chautemps, who was convicted post mortem, after taking his own life in his cell.

In short, in the aftermath of the Great War, we have: Japan, disappointed, but victorious, with a prize worthy of mention and her rage over the death of her Emperor barely sated; Germany, exhausted but recovering, a young and active monarch at the helm; France, humiliated as no country in the world had been before, at the brink of bankruptcy and simmering with the shock of it all.





For the Japanese Navy, this was a time for restructuring and trimming down. The inevitable post-war slashing of the Naval budget had made it necessary to delay (but, thankfully, not completely halt) the construction of Kirishima and Haruna; the Navy decided to save more on maintenance by scrapping the remaining Itsukushimas and Akitsushimas. This left Japan with no light cruisers; but it was thought that, with the new Takaos on station and with Japan's rapidly growing fleet of destroyers, that loss would not be critical until a new light cruiser design could be drawn up and constructed.





Shortly after New Year of 1934, Mozambique erupted in a small-scale civil war. After the decisive Japanese - German victory, after the formalisation of good relationships with Ethiopia, and with the Japanese star on the rise, many African countries had expressed interest in joining the growing Japanese sphere of influece in their continent. The pro-Japanese faction in Mozambique (which was a neighbour to both South-East Africa and Madagascar) was the most vocal, but was facing fierce resistance in its policy by a small group of conservative / patriotic warlords and chieftains. Japan was invited to settle the matter. By the end of the month, Japanese troops and South-East African Askari were cracking down on violence in Mozambique; fighting would continue over the next few months, but the country would officially join the Japanese Alliance by the end of the year.







Sure, Brits, make my 17-inchers even better.





Less than half a year after your defeat. Seriously, Baguettes?

Please don't make me come over there.



In April, the Admiralty ordered three experimental Hatsuharu-class destroyers. The old Harukazes had proven that minelaying capabilities on a destroyer hull had their worth; the Hatsuharus were slightly overweight compared to the Mutsukis but could carry twelve mines and depth-charge launchers for ASW duty, while not compromising on torpedo or gun armament.



In April, news arrived from the USA. The March 1933 elections had brought the Democrats back in power; and Roosevelt-ojii-san had been elected President of the United States, a position that he would continue to hold until his death in 1945. This heralded the beginning of a new period of improved Japanese-USA relations; while the Uchida-Roosevelt Pact of old would not be renewed, the Democratic administration once more sought to reconnect with their 'Pacific Neighbour'.

Roosevelt was also a proponent of improving the American Navy as a counterweight to the Grand Fleet of the British and as a counterpart to the Japanese forces. Unlike the Japanese, with their few supercapitals, the Americans settled on dreadnoughts of ca 35k tons, with a 'Standard' speed of 26 knots, a middling gun caliber of 14 or 15 inches and a strong deck armor. These ships were no match for the Japanese behemoths (in fact they would find it hard to deal with Japanese Battlecruisers) but the dogma of the American Navy at the time could be condensed to six main principles:

  • Standardise construction; make life easy for our supply and logistics people.
  • There is great profit in not fighting the Japanese.
  • Our Battleships are meant to operate in groups of two or more; the speed and seahandling of different classes must be comparable.
  • The Japanese are our BFFLs
  • We need many ships that are good enough to administer our holdings rather than few ships that are perfect.
  • Do. Not. Fight. The. Japanese.

The Delaware-class dreadnoughts were the first of their type; the verdict of the Japanese Admiralty when they saw the designs was 'Not bad at all, given what they are trying to achieve. We can still blow them out of the water before they can enter effective weapons range, of course'.



Sure, Spaghettis. By all means, pay me good money for ten-year-old tech.







Hon hon hon, Baguettes.
« Last Edit: October 01, 2018, 07:29:01 am by Enioch »
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 
Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
The france blur reminds me a whole lot of the Kaisserreich mod for HOI4 which reates a history in which Germany had won WW2. Might be a nice continuation :P

 

Offline Spoon

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
Rip France.
Also, nice technology 'exchange' with the fromage there
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 

Offline Enioch

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
Yeah, that was an excellent piece of work by my agents that delightful lady in the kimono.

Also, note that France is by no means dead yet. Her capital ship fleet is still bigger than mine.

'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

  

Offline StarSlayer

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    • Steam
Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
Type 93? :3

“Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world”

 

Offline Enioch

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Japan - [Image Heavy!]
THAT IS ADORABLE AND WHERE CAN I GET IT

Spoiler:
EDIT: FOUND IT IN 20 SECONDS OMG.

AND THEN MY WANDERINGS LED ME TO AN IMGUR FOLDER WITH I-19 COSPLAYERS. I AM NOW SLIGHTLY BUT VERY PLEASANTLY CONFUSED.

Also, yes, Type 93s are a thing now. Enemy ships have minimal time to react to torps, because no trails.



« Last Edit: January 04, 2017, 12:34:15 pm by Enioch »
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)