Lessons Learned : The Ryukyu Kingdom disagreement.

[Kaiser Kirk]

I took the first round of fire away from the Chinese AC as the crew had been at their stations too long.

I have not made the time to fully re-read the seekrieg rules, but I don't remember rules for engine failures. They could be there.
For now, I am expecting reciprocating for more than 1 hour to be subject to breakdown.

In small engagements I will look closely at such things.
In larger fleet engagements I will not.

[Kaiser Kirk]

I had hoped to be working out how to run wars sometime in June or July ..or maybe October.
So that whenever we got to them, I'd have a plan.

Unfortunately, this war occurred.
I find it interesting that player-player conflicts don't cause problems,
but this escalated to war so fast.
Or it could be that the NPC will have no hurt feelings, and so they are safe to 'play with'.

Since I had time, I decided to go with the more detailed approach to start with - this would be the time to explore.
I thought I would just "run the clock" until something important happened and then stop and ask the player for a decision.

This fit with Fox's desire to trap the Chinese- who he correctly guessed had propositioned the Northern Fleet in Busan.
The Chinese for their part, expected the Japanese may try something eventually, and hoped to wipe out the force sent to retake Jeju.
As Busan was 160nm away, once contact was made, the Chinese forces followed the pre-plan and moved to anchorages midway down.

This setup by both sides was a very good way to test this pregame concept. 
Each side had decision points, so as things moved forward the clock could be stopped, decisions made, and the clock restarted.

Unfortunately, with all the different forces, this has led to a great deal of tracking on my part.
I've now made maps for 0600, 0545 and 0530...


It is Interesting.....but this is just not sustainable.
Certainly not something I can do "normally".

After the fracas at Cheju-Do,

So I will probably go for Fleets and Mission Assignments.
I will likely ask for 3-5 names as "Characters" to which random attributes will be assigned and tracked.

Then I can move things in more 1-month blocks and do rolls to see which commanders succeeded /failed.
I will have to take into account force qualities as well as modifiers.

Small battles I will take care of.
Large Battles I will stop and ask for input on.

[Desertfox]

Sorry about jumping the gun, but the Chinese went for the only two locations the Japanese simply could not have them be. It just wouldn't be in character for them to let the Chinese take them unchallenged.

I find it interesting that player-player conflicts don't cause problems,
but this escalated to war so fast.
Or it could be that the NPC will have no hurt feelings, and so they are safe to 'play with'.

Definitely played a part. NPCs are also weaker and right now is the best time to fight a war, when all you are likely to lose are ships due for the scrap yard. Plus player vs player conflicts have tended to be far away from the homeland, much less has been at stake for both parties so far. But I bet we'll see more as we run out of land to colonize.

My plan was working perfectly right up to the point I forgot the Chinese could reposition closer, ironically after I had done just the same. The observation posts in Jeju are proving extremely troublesome, proving why the Chinese can't stay there.

[Kaiser Kirk]

This battle was a long and complex one with several phases.

Long long ago I ran through several Seekreig Battles.

I also liked to play "Star Fleet Battles" which was similarly time intensive.

I am using Seekrieg IV. 
I had planned to play test it this summer and come up with a way to do battles tailored for Springsharp and our rules.
Unfortunately the series of events means I'm using it now.
I do modify somethings like damage points to match our SS ships. So while SKIV  awards damage points based on std. displacement, I'm going by the SS "Suitability"
So the Japanese torpedo boats were taking 3x 90mm rounds to reach sinking condition, unless a critical hit came into play.

Now, in the case of torpedoes, I also made a roll for where on the ship they were hitting, and instead of automatic crits, I only did them for the citadel. so all  of the Asama Armored Cruisers 'should' have sunk with 2 torps vs. 1. 4 survival, but instead 2 made it with bow damage. That seems more 'fair'.

The first battle I found the charts...which I remembered how to use, but not the rule book.
So I crafted my own movement rules for Acc and turning. Which I'm continuing for now. Basically big ships accelerate 1kt/turn, DDs 2kt/turn, dump 2 knt shallow turn, 4knt fast turn. Different turn rates. Seekrieg thinks the New Jersey should be able to hit 33knts in 6 min from a standing start. I am dubious, and I've read somethings that indicate a longer time to work up to speed. So I'm keeping what I started for now.

For Fire Control, I'm mostly using the Seekrieg chart.  I limit FC effective range to our Tech levels.  I've also started allowing fire at 50% greater range with a 2% chance, and at 100% greater range at 1% chance, that's to account for those rare hits at Tsushima and Jutland far beyond the expected ranges... and because I felt sorry for the Torpedo boats with no FC.
Imagine my surprise when a 1% hit was an engine critical and wiped out half the boilers on a Chinese destroyer.

Currently, Seekrieg gives hit% with a number of different variables, Fire Control Type being one, but range being a big one.
The range bonus gets very large under 8000 yards, which makes the 1908 FC very effective.
The lack of any fire control is a rather large negative.
Rate of Fire is limited by Range as well...but under 10000 yards that's 6 aimed shots/gun. One can use 'barrage fire' to fire faster, but I have not yet.

For this set of battles,
I made an Excel spreadsheet to track the relative position of units as they changed speed.
Then I made subsheets for Torpedo 1 & 2's battles.
I wound up graphing parts of the Torpedo 2 chase.
For the combats I made a turn/turn/turn in columns, took the ranges I had developed, and put the modifiers in.
Then rolled dice...alot of dice. I should use an online program for that.

Curiously I seem to have rolled far more '00' than '01'. I recall about 4 '00' but the only '01' I can remember was the Japanese hit on the engine room.

Anyhow I tracked which ships were being hit and the #hits. When the damage or crit indicated it, I shaded that ship red or orange.

Overall...laborious.
Interesting to "Explore" this system.

I really need to come up with a way to bundle combats.
And I can not run through these on this micro scale any more.

The further set ups will have to be fleet goals, and random rolls to see who gets what done.

[The Rock Doctor]

Whatever is happening seems very expensive.

[Desertfox]

I got caught in a terrible situation, this isn't going well at all. Bloody dawn torpedo attack screwed everything up.

[The Rock Doctor]

It's okay, I have old torpedo-boats I can sell you.

[Desertfox]

Eh those old torpedo boats weren't going to last long either way, I was just hoping they'd be more useful. But if this war lasts longer than 6 months, I might take you up on your offer.

[The Rock Doctor]

I feel like the torpedo attacks thus far have been amazingly successful compared to my expectations, and I expect it might distort my near-future building plans.

[Kaiser Kirk]

I feel like the torpedo attacks thus far have been amazingly successful compared to my expectations, and I expect it might distort my near-future building plans.

They have been amazingly successful.

For some reason the dice gods have really really smiled on torpedoes. Hit rates are 50% higher than they should be.

The other aspect is the early 1900s torpedoes are so very short range that they are being launched at basically point blank range
Seekrieg is really more balanced for WWII, and so really favors very short range torpedo attacks.

Which I don't like. 

Once we finish the Cheju-Do portion, I will be doing some further modifications to how Seekrieg handles these.

Overall the current approach to this war has failed, as it's turned into 15 minute micro management.

Lesson learned.

On the bright side, I'm getting faster and clearer on how to run battles.

It's been interesting relearning this.

After this series of battles is done:
Both sides will designate some Characters. I will roll aggression/tactical/strategic/ etc. categories. They will modify how effective they are at implementing things.

I'm going to have Foxy make "Strategic Plans" on a monthly basis.  Goals per unit.
I will then compare that to the Chinese plans

and come up with some random rolls for what happens. Probably based on the search rules from Seekrieg.

IF there is a major battle I will give Fox the scenario and ask for goals/ aims for his side.
That will be played out.

But I plan to run through 6 months in the the last two weeks of May.

I have to find a way to moderate wars at a more reasonable rate.

[Desertfox]

4km is point blank range? My ships really did shoot poorly... unlike those blasted Chinese destroyers. I don't remember what wargame Maddox used back in N-verse 2.0 or Rocky in 3.0 but they both also gave high torpedo hit rates.

While the 15 minute turns are interesting, they are unreasonable going forward, although I wouldn't expect a scenario like this one with so many moving parts so close together to happen very often. Rolling for "if battle happens" then just going straight to battle, should be a good plan going forward.

My main "lessons learned" problem is, that the Japanese aren't learning anything new (as far as torpedoes go), both of the major losses have happened exactly as expected. The real lessons have been in the value of scouting, command & control, and the use of speed to gain strategic and tactical advantages. It has validated the decision to go with a fast (24kts) battleship design with a fast cruise speed and all oil-firing.

[Kaiser Kirk]

4km is point blank range? My ships really did shoot poorly... unlike those blasted Chinese destroyers. I don't remember what wargame Maddox used back in N-verse 2.0 or Rocky in 3.0 but they both also gave high torpedo hit rates.

By the WWI standards of ~8000m, yes 4k is point blank.  I looked at several navweaps torps from that time period, chose an 18" with a 35kts/5000 yard range - which was longer than some.
Launch should be at a point where the ship can't just turn away and let the torpedo run out of range.

Prior to the development of Continuous Aim concepts led to better optical fire control and changes in mount design allowing them to be used... 1-3km was the expected battle ranges.
With that 1905 fire control, ranges bumped out to 4-6000 with 8000..or more viewed as a possibility.

Night, or looking from the light into the dark, is a big negative.  Your BLs should have had a hit, but I think the 75mm got 'extra, so you got 75mm QF hits from ships with fire control once the opponents were in range...and they were not in range long, and did smoke and EM for a couple minutes at the beginning of the escape effort.   

Compare that to the up-to-date, and apparently aptly named Torpedo boat destroyers - you're in range, it's daylight, and they had the speed to keep in range for an extended period of time, or in the case of 2nd torpedo- the destroyers are 2 knots faster.

Night, no fire control..that's about -21-24%, add in range, about -3 to -6%.   
Daytime with just simple firecontrol - +2-+4...add in range...+22-24%... or so.  So yes, the daytime fire was far more effective.
Then there's modifiers for speed, aspect, smoke, evasion, concentration of fire (which hurts more when lots are shooting at few, less with few vs lots), etc.

What I was not doing was doubling the damage from the penetrating hits, which I probably should have been, instead I was making the Chinese get 3 hits or a fatal crit.

[Kaiser Kirk]

This battle I thought would be difficult to track because of the 6 starting groups, and Desertfox's response to the surrender demand was to order his forces to scatter...Way more tracking.

The full order never got off because Fuji took a bad hit.
The lack of radios to talk to the Torpedo boats has been a recurrent problem.  A leader type with a radio is advised !

Because the Chinese were to the Northeast and South, places to escape to were limited.
The Yodo class was fast and got free.
The Suma class just wound up pinched between forces.  They wound up slugging it out with 6000 ton heavily armed 'scout cruisers'. They got some hits, but not the lucky one they needed.

The Chinese wound up with the problem of - shoot up the defenseless freighters, or try to capture them. But with Tsushima Scout's 8 cruisers shadowing them 12000m north, and the IJN main fleet + advance force being watched speed towards them, capture was not an option.  So they sank em.

For the battle, with all the ships going different directions,  I actually used a ruler and counters to track where squadrons were.  I had to figure out the distance they could go per 2 min/turn , and then could move them.

Trying to decide what Springsharp's damage rating MEANs continues to be a bit more of an Art Form than hard and fast.
I really look for hits that are likely to cause flooding.
Some Seekrieg Crit state multiple damage.
I tend to discount superstructure hits- they really should not matter to flotation.

Paying attention to if a shell is hitting main belt or end belt has mattered alot.

One hit on Hidden Dragon was at a shallow angle, I had to first figure out the penetration, and then figure out on that diagonal how much of that 4" belt it had to move through- turned out 12" of 4" belt. For an 8" at 6000 yards, thats a no.

For firing at the freighters/TB... I did not dice that out.
I just looked at the number of QF guns the fleet had. The total ROF was about 300, even limited by the range. More if I added the 24 DDs.
I figure if they had training about 1st ship engage far right, next ship the one next to that...as long as there were more targets than firing ships I didn't have to worry about 'over concentration'.
I then figured out the likely To Hit, at 13%, and realized that put about 8 shells in each target each turn. So give it a couple turns and a freighter has 24+ shells in it, and should have a couple fires.. For a civilian ship, loaded with men and supply that many common or HE should wreck it.  I figure the high speed ships at the end could just come in close and put holes at the waterline.

At least this battle-  Flotation and armoring lots of places mattered.

Losses :
Chinese
3x 1895 DD - sunk
4x MTB-A – sunk 
1x 1895 AC – light damage to bow by Torpedo.
2x 1893 SC – splinter damage upper works.
1x 1908DD – 1 hit, engine room damage max 24knts
various – superficial

Japanese
BB Fuji - sunk
BB Yashima- grounded
3x AC Asama class -sunk
1x AC Asama class - grounded
PC Suma - sunk
PC Akashi - sunk
20 x TB Akatsuki class - sunk
11 x TB Ikazuchi class  - sunk
4x Uji - Sunk
1x Aux Kobayashi Maru - Sunk
12x Freighters (troop transports)- Sunk.   (-1/2 Land unit, 1/2 Deployment Unit, presume with distance would have made round trips after initial assault landing)

[snip]

Well, guess this is going to prove as good an excuse as any to start scrapping the old guard and turning them into MTBs and subs as fast as Fiat, Hotchkiss, Panhard, and Renault can crank out the engines and batteries. In confined waters the torpedo will be king, so keeping the Albion Channel open will be served far better by putting as many fish in the water from as many platforms as possible. I also clearly need something a little more rapid fire than a 140mm secondary gun to protect the big boy toys.

[Kaiser Kirk]

Well, guess this is going to prove as good an excuse as any to start scrapping the old guard and turning them into MTBs and subs as fast as Fiat, Hotchkiss, Panhard, and Renault can crank out the engines and batteries. In confined waters the torpedo will be king, so keeping the Albion Channel open will be served far better by putting as many fish in the water from as many platforms as possible. I also clearly need something a little more rapid fire than a 140mm secondary gun to protect the big boy toys.

Actually the 140mm should be pretty good ~8-10 ROF with a good shell.
The 75mm is a little light.
The 90mm is better, good ROF/shell, still a tad light. 
As destroyers get bigger, more bigger guns will be needed to stop/slow them.

I think one lesson was- having that Destroyer screen go out and meet and beat well down range of the big boys was much safer than trying to shoot a bunch of tiny racing craft in a couple minutes.