General Social/Chatter Thread

[Jefgte]

Byzantium needs 6000t cruisers with 6x191 to renew its fleet of old cruisers.
Byzantine ACs are also fast and are classified as scout cruisers (for 21kts BBs).
The downgrading of 500t DDs to Costal TBs forces me to quickly build 2 flotillas of 1140t DDs.
I like the Pocket BBs Kurnaz class very much, they are cheaper than the BB Imperator class or other big BBs.

[Jefgte]

I am trying to decide what to do about your 16000t pocket DNs.
They are similar to designs I've considered, but I only had so much resources.

Currently I'm struggling to decide on a caliber and design for new "Light Armored Cruiser" aka heavy cruisers.
The Pocket DN has long been "on the table", with a speed boost to 23-26knots. Those would counter yours.

Originally, these Pocket BBs (Kurnaz-Kalin)and BCs (Gaqus-Gadhla) were intended to oppose Japanese BCs & DNs in addition to the 6th and 7th battle divisions to avoid sending "Bigs" to station in Australia.

Currently I'm struggling to decide on a caliber and design for new "Light Armored Cruiser" aka heavy cruisers.

Byzance is going to develop OTL County class 8"gun.

[TacCovert4]

  So I went straight to 'light battlecruiser' sizes and to the original concept of the Invincibles.  The firepower to annihilate any cruiser afloat, the armor to withstand light and heavy cruisers at combat ranges, and the speed to both run down cruisers and flee from full-up battlecruisers armed with 14in guns or greater. 

Which is where I've wound up - I'm calling them "light armored cruisers" to distinguish from the 28,000 ton large ones.
and we've circled around to my tinkering with gun ME and bores to get just the right tool for the job :)
I have a 255L50 in service, and an unused 235L43, either is pretty handy.  A new 1915 tech 10" class has the problem of too MUCH ME, the MVs turn out so high you'll wear down the rifling before you'll empty your magazine.....so I can scale down the length and go with a shorter (lighter) gun firing a heavier shell (+10% per 1915 tech)...if I want to take the time to develop it. 
Since I'm squeezed on BP...I think I can take that time.

Conversely I've walked away from the battlecruiser as it is in its historical guise, in favor of keeping the light ish but still capital grade armament a la invincible.  I'd love to do a 240mm gun, but I'm opting for the extra penatration and punch of the 11in gun for now. 

[Kaiser Kirk]

Stormbringer and Mournblade are fast battleships, the large "battlecruiser" concept was only slightly "cheaper" and so did not prevail over them, and seems unlikely to happen for Parthia.
I don't have any 280mm, 255 is the closest. But I designed the 300L41 and 235L43 to drop into existing PD / AC barbettes, I just haven't gotten around to actually doing so. 
The Invincible analog - particularly after Wilno's Archer beat a predread - is much more doable, and looking like my lead contender right now.

[The Rock Doctor]

Mid-sized cruisers always throw me for a loop.  They feel unnatural, an aberration and artifact of naval limitation treaties.

[TacCovert4]

Mid-sized cruisers always throw me for a loop.  They feel unnatural, an aberration and artifact of naval limitation treaties.

Agreed to a degree.  At least the 10,000t cruisers with guns in the6 to 8in range. 

I think that without the treaties we would have seen the following naturally happen:

Cruisers like the Leander class of 5-7000t armed with 6in guns as DD leaders, fleet scouts, etc.

Cruisers like the Hawkins with 7-7.5in guns in the 7000-9000t range as general purpose cruisers

Super-Cruisers with 8in-10in guns in the 12,000-15,000t range

Battlecruisers with 13-15in guns in the 25,000-35,000t range

I think that the huge BCs like the Lexingtons would have been an aberration as fast battleships came about and by the mid-20s you'd have seen BCs drop in size with something like a 35000t Renown with 8x15 being the gold standard for the type, but even those types of battlecruisers wouldn't be all that useful with battleships speeding up to around 27kts.  Just no reason for 'true battlecruisers' in the guise they had become by mid-WW1 to continue to get built or exist when you have battleships 5kts slower with full-up armor schemes that can duel with their counterparts.  Lexington wasn't a very useful battlecruiser anyway, and I'd see that ship being obsolete for its size very quickly as even by the US tendencies a 1920 SD successor class would have 10 or 12 x 16in guns and as you're not going for MORE guns you'd be looking at gaining the 4kts in speed on probably the same 43,000t.  Why have a 35kt BC with paper armor on 43,000t when you can have a 27-29kt BB on the same tonnage?  Hence my argument that any true BCs built after 1920 would actually drop in size down to 35,000t with fewer big guns and built primarily for either independent anti-cruiser operations or for leading the fleet screens and taking on the larger 12,000t cruisers.

[Desertfox]

Mid-sized cruisers always throw me for a loop.  They feel unnatural, an aberration and artifact of naval limitation treaties.

And I absolutely love them! Probably because they are unnatural and an aberration.

[The Rock Doctor]

Mid-sized cruisers always throw me for a loop.  They feel unnatural, an aberration and artifact of naval limitation treaties.

And I absolutely love them! Probably because they are unnatural and an aberration.

I am completely prepared to buy that explanation.

[The Rock Doctor]

Me:  Why am I getting error warnings about not enough shafts for 31 knots?

Also me:  The ship's beam isn't supposed to be 114 metres, is it?

[Desertfox]

Are you building another round battleship?

[The Rock Doctor]

For a while, it was a square destroyer.

Not a very effective one, mind you.

[The Rock Doctor]

That said, I have committed to building something kind of dumb in 1919, so you might not be disappointed.

[Jefgte]

That said, I have committed to building something kind of dumb in 1919, so you might not be disappointed.

1500t DD with 1x12" gun.

;)

[The Rock Doctor]

You're in the ballpark, Jef.

[The Rock Doctor]

2/19 is interesting to plan around.  I'm planning a second armored cruiser for 1/20 but can't start it early because I'm expanding the dock now.  I've got a bunch of new techs finishing and the engine year is turning over so I don't want to lay down a lot of new stuff.

But I've got almost 12 BP unspoken for right now.

Maybe it's time for a refit/refurb binge.