General Social/Chatter Thread

[Kaiser Kirk]

124 ships for Byzantium in 4HY (1921-22)

That will be interesting, at 116/124 that's a fair number of smaller ships.

I was looking more at a series of new classes in all categories,
and then trying to build them in decent numbers for either 4 ship divisions or 2 ship pairs.
So there's a lot of destroyers, subs and patrol craft in my list, but also some bigger ships.

...which is apparently not an option unless I magically get another 35-40BP.

[Desertfox]

Iberia also supplied a fair amount of the IJN's sub fleet. You can always pad small ship numbers by building Auxiliaries.

Japan has more than enough 300ft (~100m) docks, so I can really pump out small ships without hitting dock limit space. I did run into an issue in that the Fubuki class DDs are 350ft and don't fit into those docks... So some of my "cheap" destroyer studies have more to do with dock space than BP limits.

[Kaiser Kirk]

I try hard to keep my units in the shortest dock they can fit
and still do the design task.

I have more 50m and fewer 120m than I'd like.
Plus I need overseas small docks.

While in peacetime, the small units can be maintained
by rotating through the 160m, in wartime I'll want
the ability to tie those up in repairs.

Further, once I have a small second dock somewhere
like Rio, then I can build local small craft without
blocking potential emergency repairs in the larger dock.

So I'll likely looking at slowly building out additional territorial
docks.

[Jefgte]

Quote from: Jefgte on Today at 09:21:56 AM

124 ships for Byzantium in 4HY (1921-22)


That will be interesting, at 116/124 that's a fair number of smaller ships.

Much MTBDs, some DDs & scout cruisers too.
Building the 4 BBs took us a lot of BPs. We have to catch up on the smaller ships backlog.

[The Rock Doctor]

My math says I'm now in a position to add a new BP every turn.  I expect most of you are in the same boat, or close to it. 

That will be fun.

[Jefgte]

I could too.
:)

It' time to buy aircrafts & tanks...
Oups, new rules to come...

[TacCovert4]

My math says I'm now in a position to add a new BP every turn.  I expect most of you are in the same boat, or close to it. 

That will be fun.

Close.  It's about a BP every other turn for me. 

[Desertfox]

I don't have any small (50m) docks, which is nice, but also don't have anything outside of the home islands, which is a big problem and needs to be rectified in the coming years.

I spent everything on capital ships and destroyers, leaving a gaping hole at cruisers. So as I move to building cruisers and big destroyers, there's going to be a ton of dock space open for small cheap auxiliaries. 

The BP a half already started...

[The Rock Doctor]

I've got eleven 50m docks, and the 2/20 report will show them chock full of floating goodness.  Ten 40t MTB, four 20t MTB, and four submarine chasers.

1920 is also the first year I can do the BP/turn thing. 

I'm also going to build a couple of IC at home every two years.  It's not as profitable as colonies, but a lot easier to defend and probably politically important, too. 

[The Rock Doctor]

Had to re-acquaint myself with how immunity zones were calculated.  I remembered that the concept existed, but...guess I'm getting old.

Anyway, it's relevant while I figure out what cruiser concept to pursue.

[Kaiser Kirk]

I think the question for Wilno is also if you are concerned with potential fights in the North Sea, given the average visual range is short.

I haven't actively done IZs on my ships yet.
I model the guns with Logis Ballistics tool (in the past I used BigGun, which I can finally use again via DosBox)
That gives me a 90deg pen, and I try to get that armor at roughly the Fire Control range.
Just below that range, shallow angles will keep me safe.
Most of the time, I fit a protective deck, so I have additional interior armor.
The Gilgamesh class has a 420mm belt backed by a 65mm protective deck as it was built for 345mm guns at 6000m.
The fun thing is replacing the engines saves 1000 tons, so I can upgrade the decks.

For Decks, as a minimum fit decks splinter proof to the biggest guns I expect to face.
For some older cruisers I have to up that as the Byzantine 191mm was bigger than expected.
I'm now adding dollops of additional armor to capital ships, seeking to put the deck pen range
out past 21-24km, so not even mast tops are visible.   
I'd love to use foresight and slap 150mm decks on... but I haven't been able to justify that. 

[The Rock Doctor]

First time I've thought about it in a long while - notionally for a cruiser protecting trade in the Atlantic.  Replacing my old Armored Cruisers rather than taking on battlecruiser roles.

[Kaiser Kirk]

Cruiser level penetrations are a bit hard to find,
but they have them for the Omaha class : http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_6-53_mk12.php
The Omahas had issues with dispersion and barrel life if I recall correctly, but pushed for a max 6".


However, there's reason for great caution there.
1) we don't have a 6" treaty limit. There are a bunch of 180-195mm guns out there.
2) Battleships can see each others hulls out to 18-21km, smaller ships can not. The effective engagement range is likely to be shorter for a cruiser
and even shorter for a DD.   Seekrieg actually has a table for that crosswalk. The upshot is >20km should not be a worry. Probably not much over 16km.
3) You can see the numbers I generated for Parthian guns as a frame of reference here  https://www.navalism.org/index.php/topic,7037.0.html
4) buried under research -> gun research is :

High Explosive Shell 'High Capacity' :  Nose fused,  thin bodied. Will penetrate <1/8 diameter.
Semi-Armor Piercing 'Common' : Nose and base fused, armor cap. Will penetrate < 2/3 diameter
Splinters : Can penetrate nearby armor up to 1/6 shell diameter.

That last - splinters - is useful for guarding your machinery from a superstructure hit. Those intermediate handworked guns in the 7-8" range fielded by many navies
will blow through a 25mm deck.

[Kaiser Kirk]

Gone for a bit for Christmas.
-KPOD

[Kaiser Kirk]

Gone for a bit for Christmas.

Happy Holidays all !

-KPOD