Parthian Empire

[Kaiser Kirk]

This fixes the belt issue Foxy pointed out. It's 50tons more displacement as a result.
At 4500 tons still affordable and should be reasonable for distant stations.

Enter ship name, Parthian Armored Frigate laid down 1913

Displacement:
   4,500 t light; 4,743 t standard; 5,481 t normal; 6,072 t full load

Dimensions: Length (overall / waterline) x beam x draught (normal/deep)
   (490.49 ft / 485.56 ft) x 48.56 ft x (16.40 / 17.72 ft)
   (149.50 m / 148.00 m) x 14.80 m  x (5.00 / 5.40 m)

Armament:
      8 - 6.50" / 165 mm 43.0 cal guns - 143.30lbs / 65.00kg shells, 180 per gun
     Quick firing guns in deck and hoist mounts, 1913 Model
     4 x Single mounts on centreline ends, evenly spread
      2 raised mounts - superfiring
     4 x Single mounts on sides, forward deck aft
      4 hull mounts in lower casemates- Limited use in any sea
      4 - 3.54" / 90.0 mm 50.0 cal guns - 23.55lbs / 10.68kg shells, 350 per gun
     Anti-air guns in deck mounts, 1913 Model
     4 x Single mounts on side ends, evenly spread
      4 raised mounts
      20 - 0.45" / 11.4 mm 50.0 cal guns - 0.04lbs / 0.02kg shells, 1,500 per gun
     Machine guns in deck mounts, 1874 Model
     2 x Twin mounts on centreline ends, evenly spread
      2 raised mounts
     8 x Twin mounts on sides, evenly spread
      8 double raised mounts
      Weight of broadside 1,241 lbs / 563 kg

Armour:
   - Belts:      Width (max)   Length (avg)      Height (avg)
   Main:   2.56" / 65 mm   359.32 ft / 109.52 m   12.47 ft / 3.80 m
   Ends:   Unarmoured
     Main Belt covers 114 % of normal length

   - Hull Bulges:
      0.00" / 0 mm     0.00 ft / 0.00 m   0.00 ft / 0.00 m

   - Gun armour:   Face (max)   Other gunhouse (avg)   Barbette/hoist (max)
   Main:   1.18" / 30 mm   0.98" / 25 mm      0.98" / 25 mm

   - Armoured deck - single deck: 0.98" / 25 mm For and Aft decks
   Forecastle: 0.79" / 20 mm  Quarter deck: 0.98" / 25 mm

   - Conning towers: Forward 2.56" / 65 mm,  Aft 0.00" / 0 mm

Machinery:
   Coal and oil fired boilers, steam turbines,
   Direct drive, 2 shafts, 39,485 shp / 29,456 Kw = 28.50 kts
   Range 8,880nm at 12.00 kts
   Bunker at max displacement = 1,329 tons (20% coal)

Complement:
   318 - 414

Cost:
   £0.524 million / $2.095 million

Distribution of weights at normal displacement:
   Armament: 291 tons, 5.3 %
   Armour: 827 tons, 15.1 %
      - Belts: 461 tons, 8.4 %
      - Armament: 66 tons, 1.2 %
      - Armour Deck: 282 tons, 5.2 %
      - Conning Tower: 17 tons, 0.3 %
   Machinery: 1,576 tons, 28.8 %
   Hull, fittings & equipment: 1,607 tons, 29.3 %
   Fuel, ammunition & stores: 981 tons, 17.9 %
   Miscellaneous weights: 200 tons, 3.6 %
      - Hull below water: 32 tons
      - Hull void weights: 50 tons
      - Hull above water: 25 tons
      - On freeboard deck: 44 tons
      - Above deck: 49 tons

Overall survivability and seakeeping ability:
   Survivability (Non-critical penetrating hits needed to sink ship):
     5,025 lbs / 2,279 Kg = 36.7 x 6.5 " / 165 mm shells or 1.0 torpedoes
   Stability (Unstable if below 1.00): 1.26
   Metacentric height 2.6 ft / 0.8 m
   Roll period: 12.7 seconds
   Steadiness   - As gun platform (Average = 50 %): 71 %
         - Recoil effect (Restricted arc if above 1.00): 0.38
   Seaboat quality  (Average = 1.00): 1.26

Hull form characteristics:
   Hull has a flush deck,
     a ram bow and a cruiser stern
   Block coefficient (normal/deep): 0.496 / 0.509
   Length to Beam Ratio: 10.00 : 1
   'Natural speed' for length: 22.04 kts
   Power going to wave formation at top speed: 55 %
   Trim (Max stability = 0, Max steadiness = 100): 56
   Bow angle (Positive = bow angles forward): 12.00 degrees
   Stern overhang: -6.56 ft / -2.00 m
   Freeboard (% = length of deck as a percentage of waterline length):
            Fore end,    Aft end
      - Forecastle:   20.00 %,  19.03 ft / 5.80 m,  17.39 ft / 5.30 m
      - Forward deck:   30.00 %,  17.39 ft / 5.30 m,  15.75 ft / 4.80 m
      - Aft deck:   44.00 %,  15.75 ft / 4.80 m,  15.75 ft / 4.80 m
      - Quarter deck:   6.00 %,  15.75 ft / 4.80 m,  16.90 ft / 5.15 m
      - Average freeboard:      16.49 ft / 5.03 m
   Ship tends to be wet forward

Ship space, strength and comments:
   Space   - Hull below water (magazines/engines, low = better): 112.7 %
      - Above water (accommodation/working, high = better): 150.8 %
   Waterplane Area: 15,652 Square feet or 1,454 Square metres
   Displacement factor (Displacement / loading): 106 %
   Structure weight / hull surface area: 70 lbs/sq ft or 340 Kg/sq metre
   Hull strength (Relative):
      - Cross-sectional: 0.86
      - Longitudinal: 1.26
      - Overall: 0.90
   Caution: Hull subject to strain in open-sea
   Hull space for machinery, storage, compartmentation is cramped
   Room for accommodation and workspaces is excellent
   Ship has slow, easy roll, a good, steady gun platform
   Good seaboat, rides out heavy weather easily

Warning: Date too early for machine gun - 4th battery

Designed to be a long range raider to supplant the steam frigates.
Range is 28 days at 12 knots with a 10% reserve.

With the engines generating 28.5kts, interior space is "Adequate",
While at 29 knots, it is "Cramped".  For a Long Range ship, "Adequate" seems
more important than 0.5knots.

Battery is arranged like the French LaMotte-Picquet class

Decks :
+4.8m   Weather Deck
+2.3m   30mm Armor Deck, Top main belt
-0.2m    Main Deck
               -1.5  Bottom Main betl
-3.70m    Engineering Deck
-4.31m    Double Bottom, Bilges

Misc Wt :
40t - void Construction Reserve

24t - 1910 fire control
25t - Long range radio

8t - 'Windcatcher' evaporative cooling
36t - 4 x T3  21" Torpedoes 3t each (for anti warship work)
24t - Marine Squad
1t - small arms locker
8t - extra pumps
24t - 2 subsurface tubes each side, 16 torpedoes, 16" size (for anti-merchant work)

[Jefgte]

Designed to be a long range raider to supplant the steam frigates.
Range is 28 days at 12 knots with a 10% reserve.

Good concept for long range raider but...
This is also a good scout cruiser for the battlefleet.
Add perhaps mines capacity (?)

=> 2 jobs for one  design  ;)

[Desertfox]

It does have 14 torpedo tubes of two types.

Is there a reason for the extremely heavy AA armament? No one has decent aircraft as far as I can tell.

I still question the "raider" mentality. Parthia just has so many very exposed sea lines. That said these should make very good raider hunters and I like the bit unusual armament layout. 

[Kaiser Kirk]

Aspects



Storyline wise, the Parthians have wound up following OTL French concepts.  They  first had a fleet based on some coast defense ships & mtbs, and long distance raiders - then about 1896 there was a conflict with Gujurat where they found they did not project power well. Now they want a core main fleet force to oppose the Byzantines supported by more distant units. The latter would both protect Parthian trade, and force the foe to try to disperse their units to protect their trade.  Given the Parthian basing and range, they should "win" those. A new version of that goal is being able to operate off the Atlantic seaboard and Eastern Med, which the Cape Verde base allows.

A) Two types of torps - somewhat of a deliberate error .  For logistics, I should scrape the tonnage for all full size torps.
However I swear I've seen the concept on some RL ship.   The idea is that sinking a merchant with 6" shells might take a lot and waste ammo, so have some nice lightweight torpedoes that will open a big hole. Meanwhile if you wind up fighting a real warship, you want the best you can get.

B) Mines. As I recall the struggle with this ship was weight. I had a number of missions, and I wanted a heavy hitting gun, but long range, and good speed.
There was also the issue that they would be operating in distant sealanes, where mines might very well sink ships under the wrong flag. Parthian offensive use of mines is still conceptually close blockade or to close a chokepoint.

C) the battlefleet scout cruiser is a concept posted several earlier - on June 24th "Designed as a fleet scout and skirmisher"  It's the one with all the 120mm guns pointed forward to kill destroyers with.

D) Extremely heavy AA armament : A fair observation...kinda.   There's 4x 90mm AA Guns. That's twice that of period ships... but certainly lots more could be fitted.  I don't like the mental "look" of lone guns at the waist.  SoI've kinda settled on either a diamond or a square pattern, which means 4, as a 'standard'.  So on the one hand, there's 2 guns each side instead of 1... but that's still only 2 guns bearing.

E) Oh but the MG's...
The old 1874 twin barreled Gardner guns are not intended for AA use. They are intended for ship security at dockside at foreign stations, or coverage of boarding crews during searches at sea.

F) "Raider" -
Too much is hanging on that word, that is part of the mission of the ship, not the sole mission.
However, it's good to challenge concepts. But it risks me explaining.... muhahahahahahaha

One problem with having a slightly undefined world is things like trade are not well developed. Which makes assessing things like raider viability harder.

The Suez canal opened on schedule.
That does several main things -
one it allows Byzantine to bypass Parthia for the silk road merchandise.
Two it allows Byzantine to project it's main fleet to Parthian shores. We incorporated that in the history with the Byzantine fleet smashing the Parthian in our last conflict.
Three it means the old maritime silk road route around Africa dried up three decades ago.

I presume the land based silk route from Western China ->Northern Parthia->Byzantine still functions but has lost much of it's trade.
At the same time that China-Europe seaborne trade should be booming. That includes India and the rest of South East Asia.
Many vessels probably hopscotch ports, and work their way down the Parthian and Arabian coasts on their way to Suez. The entire Suez trade could be interdicted right at the Gulf of Aden, that's where the Byzantine strongpoint is, and trade might then go east around the horn. Actually I expect transshipment at Panama. Meanwhile the Americas actually have semi-modern native states which presumably have significant trade with Europe.

Also, the premise is that these NPC nations are capable of fielding small, but modern militaries. They have decent economies, so there should be decent levels of trade with them.

On the other hand, historically by this point in time the Baku oilfields were producing 20% of the worlds output, and 1/2 of that available on the world market....and that was WITH the US fields in production. Here, Baku belongs to Parthia.
Here- there are no US oilfields in Pennsylvania or Texas cranking out oil.  There's no Indonesian oil either.
While all major nations are deemed have "sufficient" for wartime use, I think it's logical that Parthia should be the predominant world exporter of oil.
Granted, I expect that Rome and Vilnus will start producing oil in the Americas shortly, but in terms of trade routes those locations are far from the customers and so that generates new sealanes.

So Parthia has need for sealane protection, now has bases that cover all the sealanes, and wants to be able to both protect and project power on those sealanes far from the main field of battle. The sudden colonization trend merely emphasizes this as suddenly many European powers are putting resources far from where they can actually project significant force.

So that's my...concept. Which I don't know is valid and this is a group thing..... there's lots of things that need to be ironed out a bit.

[Jefgte]

...The Suez canal opened on schedule.
That does several main things - ...

Suez canal is open.
Iberian, Roman & Byzantine cargos use it to commerce with far east countries.

I have not see Parthian cargos in Red Sea, Suez &  Mediterannee (?)

[Desertfox]

Since you are likely sending crews over to the captured merchant, wouldn't it be better to use simple limpet mines instead or the torpedoes? Which reminds me, any space for captured merchant crews? These ships can hunt far away from land, potentially too far for lifeboats.

I still think the AA armament is too heavy, I haven't seen any Zeppelins yet (is that correct?). That said some quick-firing 90mm guns could come in handy for punching holes in merchants.

The problem with calling it a raider as I see it, is that Parthia used to have a policy of Jeune Ecole and only very recently added an empire. So I could see the idea of commerce protection to still be quite foreign to Parthian officers. Say this ship is out and runs into an enemy raider itself. Based on a "raiding" mentality the captain would likely seek to avoid engagement even against a weaker opponent while an OTL British officer would seek battle even against a superior opponent.  That said I think that's a problem everyone here will have since colonization is so recent for everyone. Merchants are going to suffer quite heavily in any major war untill lessons can be learned and processed. Modern privateers/mercenaries could make a tidy profit...

[Kaiser Kirk]

...The Suez canal opened on schedule.
That does several main things - ...

Suez canal is open.
Iberian, Roman & Byzantine cargos use it to commerce with far east countries.

I have not see Parthian cargos in Red Sea, Suez &  Mediterannee (?)

Unless barred from it, I would expect you would see Parthian cargos there, despite our countries conflicts, they seemed to trade each other alot.
The Iranian plateau is not likely a giant exporter, but with a more robust economy, I expect a fair amount. There would also be oil and petroleum products. I would expect Parthia to have a booming chemical sector and in the future-plastics. Though it's possible tha there's a rail line to your Black Sea coast and some of it goes that way instead of Suez.

[Kaiser Kirk]

Since you are likely sending crews over to the captured merchant, wouldn't it be better to use simple limpet mines instead or the torpedoes? Which reminds me, any space for captured merchant crews? These ships can hunt far away from land, potentially too far for lifeboats.

I still think the AA armament is too heavy, I haven't seen any Zeppelins yet (is that correct?). That said some quick-firing 90mm guns could come in handy for punching holes in merchants.

The problem with calling it a raider as I see it, is that Parthia used to have a policy of Jeune Ecole and only very recently added an empire. So I could see the idea of commerce protection to still be quite foreign to Parthian officers. Say this ship is out and runs into an enemy raider itself. Based on a "raiding" mentality the captain would likely seek to avoid engagement even against a weaker opponent while an OTL British officer would seek battle even against a superior opponent.  That said I think that's a problem everyone here will have since colonization is so recent for everyone. Merchants are going to suffer quite heavily in any major war untill lessons can be learned and processed. Modern privateers/mercenaries could make a tidy profit...

It pains me a bit to not have the unified torpedo armament in the first place, and Limpet mines would be much better, and I've even thought of them.
I don't understand why they were not used, perhaps there may also be a desire to do these things quickly without having to board- but I've never encountered discussion of them being used historically. So that's the type of innovation that will wait for experience.

Oh, and one of the problems with submerged tubes is that they can't really function over 20 knots, so they are useless in a full speed fight.

Brigs: I is a good idea.  I'm pretty sure I built tonnage for that into the series of 4 dedicated raiders that are being constructed. Or tried and ran out of tonnage. There, I wanted to make sure they were free to go for a period without having to stop and release crews.  These, if they wind up in the role, are expected to either put them lifeboats, or stick them in a cabin until the next neutral port or ship.

So I tinkered with the ship, if I drop the speed to 28.25knots, then I can free up 50 tons for a brig. But since I originally was working at 29 knots, I'm not keen on that.
I noted that the miscellaneous weight includes tonnage for a Marine Squad, so guarding prisoners for a while is something that can occur.

Anti-Aircraft : Well, technically you are correct, they have 4 guns instead of 2, so that is heavy..but not egregiously so.   
I would be hesitant at 6, and I would draw the line at 8 or 10 popping up.
The other question is does that unbalance the units to make them too powerful... I'd argue that in this time period 1 gun is just as effective as 2. If anything I'm wasting tonnage.
I like my elevated corner guns :)

Jeftge, you have an opinion or a concern on the 4x 90mm AA  ?

As for Naval Zeppelins- that's the only air force Parthia has currently. The fixed wing aren't cutting it yet so they aren't fielding any, but they are flying Zeppelins out of the Southern Arabian Peninsula to cover the Gulf of Aden. They expect others will mimic them. Actually I believe Rome has some semi-dirigibles, but I wasn't sure if they were planned or built when I was skimming.

Conceptual matters
Interesting way to view things.
But...  :D

To me, I've viewed Parthia as having extensive trade interests in Asia and the East African coast. Historically the East African trade with the Arab/Persian world existed, with several of the towns being founded by Persians or Omanis- both part of Parthia.  Trade links with India and the Spice Isles seem natural too. Meanwhile there was long a nautical trade from the Roman world to the Chinese, with stops along the Parthian coastline.  There's a map on Wiki of Roman 1st century trade in the Indian Ocean, tons of ports on the Indian coast, while Parthia was a source of gold and wine.

In this version of Navalism, I've taken that premise and placed Parthia-instead of the British- as the one to interdict the East African slave trade starting in the 1870s, and they put a squadron at the straits of Malacca to protect trade back then. Parthia has existing frigates, and armored cruisers, and the support ships, for those missions.
So...it's not new to Parthia, showing the flag and protecting trade, and controlling sealanes over a significant area has been something that they've been doing for 40 years.

The Imperial aspect is the new part. That's down to the new Emperor and a change in strategic direction...plus population pressure caused by medical advances.

[Jefgte]

...Jeftge, you have an opinion or a concern on the 4x 90mm AA  ?...

No problemo.
I considere 4x90mm as secondary armament useful vs torpedo boat & with high angle vs aircraft.

[Kaiser Kirk]

Since Rocky's showing off, I thought I'd show the similar take the Parthians had.
Their "Gatekeeper" and "Tortoise" class CD BBs are ageing poorly, and with the new colonies and the faster and bigger ACs out there, the Parthians have been looking at
how to get small  but powerful ships that would be a 2nd class BB.
That design series led to ..gee can we add a little speed so it matches the older Cruisers out there and is faster than the various ships that can kill it.

Kinda a Parthian Graf Spee.
There's another with 3T2, but the older L40 guns.

Tortoise, Parthia 2nd Class Battleship laid down 1911 (Engine 1912)

Displacement:
   17,700 t light; 18,806 t standard; 19,933 t normal; 20,834 t full load

Dimensions: Length (overall / waterline) x beam x draught (normal/deep)
   (544.78 ft / 538.06 ft) x 85.30 ft x (26.90 / 27.87 ft)
   (166.05 m / 164.00 m) x 26.00 m  x (8.20 / 8.50 m)

Armament:
      6 - 13.58" / 345 mm 45.0 cal guns - 1,263.25lbs / 573.00kg shells, 100 per gun
     Breech loading guns in turret on barbette mounts, 1909 Model
     2 x 3-gun mounts on centreline ends, evenly spread
      4 - 6.50" / 165 mm 45.0 cal guns - 138.89lbs / 63.00kg shells, 250 per gun
     Quick firing guns in deck and hoist mounts, 1899 Model
     2 x Single mounts on sides, forward deck aft
     2 x Single mounts on sides, aft deck centre
      10 - 6.50" / 165 mm 45.0 cal guns - 138.89lbs / 63.00kg shells, 250 per gun
     Breech loading guns in casemate mounts, 1899 Model
     8 x Single mounts on sides amidships
      8 hull mounts in casemates- Limited use in heavy seas
     2 x Single mounts on sides, forward deck centre
      2 hull mounts in casemates- Limited use in heavy seas
      4 - 3.54" / 90.0 mm 50.0 cal guns - 24.25lbs / 11.00kg shells, 300 per gun
     Anti-air guns in deck mounts, 1911 Model
     4 x Single mounts on sides amidships
      4 raised mounts
      Weight of broadside 9,621 lbs / 4,364 kg

Armour:
   - Belts:      Width (max)   Length (avg)      Height (avg)
   Main:   10.0" / 255 mm   376.64 ft / 114.80 m   10.17 ft / 3.10 m
   Ends:   2.56" / 65 mm   161.38 ft / 49.19 m   10.17 ft / 3.10 m
   Upper:   3.94" / 100 mm   376.64 ft / 114.80 m   13.78 ft / 4.20 m
     Main Belt covers 108 % of normal length

   - Torpedo Bulkhead:
      1.50" / 38 mm   376.64 ft / 114.80 m   26.08 ft / 7.95 m

   - Hull Bulges:
      0.00" / 0 mm     0.00 ft / 0.00 m   0.00 ft / 0.00 m

   - Gun armour:   Face (max)   Other gunhouse (avg)   Barbette/hoist (max)
   Main:   11.0" / 280 mm   3.94" / 100 mm      10.0" / 255 mm
   2nd:   2.56" / 65 mm   0.98" / 25 mm      2.56" / 65 mm
   3rd:   3.94" / 100 mm   0.98" / 25 mm      0.98" / 25 mm
   4th:   0.24" / 6 mm         -               -

   - Protected deck - multiple decks: 3.74" / 95 mm For and Aft decks
   Forecastle: 1.18" / 30 mm  Quarter deck: 1.57" / 40 mm

   - Conning towers: Forward 10.04" / 255 mm,  Aft 0.00" / 0 mm

Machinery:
   Oil fired boilers, steam turbines,
   Direct drive, 4 shafts, 54,517 shp / 40,669 Kw = 25.00 kts
   Range 6,190nm at 12.00 kts
   Bunker at max displacement = 2,029 tons

Complement:
   838 - 1,090

Cost:
   £1.753 million / $7.013 million

Distribution of weights at normal displacement:
   Armament: 1,963 tons, 9.8 %
   Armour: 6,572 tons, 33.0 %
      - Belts: 2,673 tons, 13.4 %
      - Torpedo bulkhead: 544 tons, 2.7 %
      - Armament: 1,146 tons, 5.8 %
      - Armour Deck: 2,050 tons, 10.3 %
      - Conning Tower: 159 tons, 0.8 %
   Machinery: 2,174 tons, 10.9 %
   Hull, fittings & equipment: 6,498 tons, 32.6 %
   Fuel, ammunition & stores: 2,233 tons, 11.2 %
   Miscellaneous weights: 493 tons, 2.5 %
      - Hull void weights: 175 tons
      - Hull above water: 40 tons
      - On freeboard deck: 86 tons
      - Above deck: 192 tons

Overall survivability and seakeeping ability:
   Survivability (Non-critical penetrating hits needed to sink ship):
     26,984 lbs / 12,240 Kg = 21.5 x 13.6 " / 345 mm shells or 4.5 torpedoes
   Stability (Unstable if below 1.00): 1.17
   Metacentric height 5.3 ft / 1.6 m
   Roll period: 15.6 seconds
   Steadiness   - As gun platform (Average = 50 %): 71 %
         - Recoil effect (Restricted arc if above 1.00): 0.62
   Seaboat quality  (Average = 1.00): 1.20

Hull form characteristics:
   Hull has rise forward of midbreak,
     a ram bow and a cruiser stern
   Block coefficient (normal/deep): 0.565 / 0.570
   Length to Beam Ratio: 6.31 : 1
   'Natural speed' for length: 23.20 kts
   Power going to wave formation at top speed: 54 %
   Trim (Max stability = 0, Max steadiness = 100): 59
   Bow angle (Positive = bow angles forward): 15.00 degrees
   Stern overhang: -6.56 ft / -2.00 m
   Freeboard (% = length of deck as a percentage of waterline length):
            Fore end,    Aft end
      - Forecastle:   15.00 %,  25.10 ft / 7.65 m,  25.10 ft / 7.65 m
      - Forward deck:   15.00 %,  25.10 ft / 7.65 m,  25.10 ft / 7.65 m
      - Aft deck:   55.00 %,  16.90 ft / 5.15 m,  16.90 ft / 5.15 m
      - Quarter deck:   15.00 %,  16.90 ft / 5.15 m,  18.54 ft / 5.65 m
      - Average freeboard:      19.48 ft / 5.94 m
   Ship tends to be wet forward

Ship space, strength and comments:
   Space   - Hull below water (magazines/engines, low = better): 97.5 %
      - Above water (accommodation/working, high = better): 137.7 %
   Waterplane Area: 32,485 Square feet or 3,018 Square metres
   Displacement factor (Displacement / loading): 103 %
   Structure weight / hull surface area: 161 lbs/sq ft or 786 Kg/sq metre
   Hull strength (Relative):
      - Cross-sectional: 0.93
      - Longitudinal: 1.97
      - Overall: 1.01
   Hull space for machinery, storage, compartmentation is adequate
   Room for accommodation and workspaces is excellent
   Ship has slow, easy roll, a good, steady gun platform
   Good seaboat, rides out heavy weather easily

Variant N
More of a BC concept

1st deck would be 3m,
Main Belt would be -2.15 to +0.95
Protective deck would be -2.15 to crown at 0.35
Upper belt 0.95 to 5.15
TDS tops at +0.35 above WL

The goal of this is a "cheap" 2nd class BB which can be used as a station ship for new colonies, or as a convey escort as needed.

To achieve this, it is expected that it will not need to face main fleet dreadnaughts, but may be required to fend off armored cruisers or some version of the new large armored cruisers. 

The provision of the 345mm guns is intended to ensure that any non-Dreadnaught will be vulnerable to it's guns. The level of defensive armor should provide protection against the raider's guns at longer ranges. The heavy secondary means that considerable HE fire can be brought against any raider which tries to close in.

The initial concept for this vessel was to mount it's guns like Von Der Taan, to allow for cross deck or foreward fire. However,that's not doable at 345mm.

So the follow up plan is to have gun layout like Dante Alegheri, with A on the raised forecastle, and PQY all at weather deck level.
PQ are to be facing each other, with P being ...0.5m or so higher - whatever is needed for the gun barrels to be slighly "over" the guns of Q.  I don't know how, of it's necessary to sim that.
Alternately, they can be offset slightly from centerline, with their gun barrels parallel to each other. Which would require no extra sim weight, but "sides aft deck forward" would look odd.

Upper belt : The upper belt is from +2.06m to 4.06m for 77% of it's length and from +2.06m to +6.56m for 23% of it's length. This generates an average height of =2.575m.
The upper belt is capped by the 30mm armored deck.

Main & End belt : Covers from 0.5m above the crown of the protective deck to -1.8m below it.   The 65mm protective deck backs the main belt.   


Decks
+6.56  forecastle deck
+4.06  weather deck
         +2.06 top of main belt, bottom of upper belt
+1.56 Crown of portective deck, 4th deck
-0.94 bottom of protective deck slope, 3rd deck
          -1.8  bottom of main belt
-3.44 2nd Deck
-5.94 Engineering Deck
-6.99 double bottom, bottom of torpedo defenses
-7.25 - Keel

[Desertfox]

I'm confused, it has 6 main guns in two turrets but you mention a APQY layout, which is it?

[Kaiser Kirk]

I'm confused, it has 6 main guns in two turrets but you mention a APQY layout, which is it?

Sorry, this is a 'tinkering' ship, version N in a sequence that started with a 12k CDBB "A", which was APQY.
Production vessels I try to clean up the final verbiage.

Anyhow, Rocky's blazingly fast tinclad put me in mind that I had a similarly sized and armed ship sketched out somewhere. Thought it would be fun to share, even though it's aiming for some different goals.

[Kaiser Kirk]

Looking through the iterations, from the original to O, I see some note changes. The notes for "O" seem to be those from "I".

Most of the range of ships was exploring dedicated heavy colonial station ships and "I" is meant for that. They were 8x330mm, and a 7.25m draft imeant to allow some shallows/rivers gone up that deeper ships might not. It also means it could replace the "Gatekeeper" and "Keymaster" on Hormuz as that harbor has depth restrictions.

So that one was not fast, or long ranged, completely different ship from Rocky's long legged speedster, which is why I didn't bother putting it up.

[Desertfox]

I have a feeling we are going to see a lot more "colonial" battleships (and small battlecruisers) the way we are set up. Battleships are rapidly getting very expensive and while pre-dreads will be able to hold that role for a bit, they will be outclassed by ships like the Tortoise in due time.

[Jefgte]

In our shipyards, the large Battleships will be replaced by Aircraft Carriers.
They will need strong escort ships.
Pocket BB or CB. (20000t).
I like this orientation.