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Hadrianoth
Oct 25, 2010
Jeune Ecole

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Arglebargle III
Feb 21, 2006

Jeune Ecole is leading at this point. 1909 has already been run but with the budget all tied up in big ships I didn't have the opportunity to change building strategies anyway. (Japan has the undeveloped shipbuilding industry modifier which makes its ships take forever.) The vote will continue until after I post the 1909 update.

Decoy Badger
May 16, 2009
Decisive action!

Hoping for an ingenious turnaround - is it possible to lose every single war and still survive out the game?

Riso
Oct 11, 2008

by merry exmarx
Nelsonic supremacy.

Galaga Galaxian
Apr 23, 2009

What a childish tactic!
Don't you think you should put more thought into your battleplan?!


Battleships Thunder
Burning Steel Churns In Ocean
Decisive Battle


I should not be writing Haiku

AtomikKrab
Jul 17, 2010

Keep on GOP rolling rolling rolling rolling.

We must be decisive

FredMSloniker
Jan 2, 2008

Why, yes, I do like Kirby games.

Decoy Badger posted:

Hoping for an ingenious turnaround - is it possible to lose every single war and still survive out the game?

Well, w're playing as an admiral, not Japan, so as long as we don't get fired, we've won in at least some sense, yes?

Arglebargle III
Feb 21, 2006

Survived, yes.

xthetenth
Dec 30, 2012

Mario wasn't sure if this Jeb guy was a good influence on Yoshi.

Arglebargle III posted:

Survived, yes.

There are other win conditions?

Arglebargle III
Feb 21, 2006

Sort of. Part of the replay value is setting your own goals.

Arglebargle III
Feb 21, 2006

1909
"It is our duty to arm with all our might." -- Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz


1909 arrives and I don't even notice. (The game passes much faster at peace.) I continue to watch the battleship hulls take shape.


In the late 19th century, fireboxes were arranged next to sidewall boilers. That is, the boiler was next to the fireboxe(s). This arrangement was stupid, and in the early 20th century engineers moved the boiler to a tube inside the firebox itself. Combined with side drums that captured the heat wasted out the sides of fireboxes, small tube boilers would be the standard technology until the technology moved on to turbo-electric drive in the 1930s. Small tube boilers raise steam much faster than sidewall boilers.


Torpedoes can be launched accurately out to a mile now.


I must have played 20 games in this thing and I'm still not sure what this does. I believe it makes light cruisers slightly less vulnerable. Before this tech, we can only build light cruisers with the protected cruiser armor layout. Protected cruiser is a minimal protection layout that puts the belt and deck deep inside the ship, protecting only vital machinery. Now we can fit normal armor onto our light cruisers, but it's much heavier than protected cruiser armor.


Our need for the primitive Miyuki class is questionable now that the war is over.


I hike tensions with the US again in the hopes of a little more money. Economy has stretched the budget to nine months at this rate again.


It's harder to penetrate armor at an angle than at 90 degrees. British AP shells were defective in this regard through 1917, when a British officer at dinner with Swedish naval officers listened to their second-hand German stories from Jutland about how British AP shells had fragmented rather than penetrate. He was level-headed enough to finish his dinner before rushing off to telegraph the Admiralty.


Tensions with Russia and France are very low, and this is bad because they're the only powers in East Asia we might win a war against.


No money, especially not to tell trawlers how to throw bombs better.


It is August 1909. There is not much happening in the world. Dreadnought building continues apace. (AI nations do not fight wars with each other; a major flaw in the game.)



I cancel the outstanding Miyuki orders on the understanding that double torpedo tube mounts are not far away.


The United States is hot on Britain's heels.


Huh, so that was a real thing after all. (I don't know what an economizer is. An oil-sprayer to improve coal combustion?)



The trawler crews figure out how to throw bombs themselves. (I kid, ASW mines are scary pieces of technology. ASW mines are an electrically-activated minefield connected to a control station equipped with hydrophones and galvanic sensors (wires) on the seabed. Operators can detect a submarine approaching with the hydrophones, and when the sub crosses the tripwire its magnetic field trips the galvanic sensor. The operator detonates the minefield and the submarine is crushed. They only work in confined waters but they are deadly.)


After a long struggle with the largest and most complex shipbuilding project in Japanese history, Satsuma is commissioned before her elder sister Kashima! We blame the French.



Venerable is not significantly better than Settsu. At least we can compete in quality, although I wonder about her guns.


With 5+ centerline turrets and triple turrets, we are getting nearer to freedom in determining a standard layout. (Improved triple turrets and B turrets have not yet arrived.)


Other nations are commissioning second-generation dreadnoughts already, but their first-generation ships are somewhat more primitive than ours.


Finally!


Finally!


It is January 1910.




I lay down a new ship immediately. We are still on a deficit sustainable for only ten months.


It is January and the Russians have a Christmas present for us! (Russians celebrate Christmas in January I think. Russians!) Tensions with Russia are still not as high as with the United States, but this is a good start.




We're still pissed at Westerners generally.




It is February 1910. I'll stop here. Not much has been happening as tensions are low and I've had to husband my money building expensive dreadnoughts. The first dreadnoughts are finally coming into commission!

With the conclusion of the vote, I will come up with a building plan and run 1910.

Decisive action has carried the Admiralty by one vote. My build focus will be battleships for the time being. Of course I wish I had the budget to build battleships, battlecruisers, light cruisers, and destroyers, but you guys picked the second-poorest nation in the game.

I'm a little relieved at this pick. Now is when we really need battleship tonnage, since our B fleet is useless cannon fodder and what dreadnoughts we build now will remain the backbone of the fleet through the rest of the game. Light cruisers are great and Japan doesn't have to worry about blockade much, but switching to cruiser focus now would leave me with five battleships completed and two building -- not very comforting when the United States already has nine in commission and three building. Also, double torpedo tube mounts and light cruiser swivel tubes are not available, meaning any destroyers and cruisers we lay down right now would need refits in the near future.

Arglebargle III fucked around with this message at 06:29 on Nov 20, 2015

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

So, will we finally get a war with Russia?

We need to make them sadder to feel good about ourselves. :japan:

Ikasuhito
Sep 29, 2013

Haram as Fuck.

I'm suspicious, if there is one thing this game likes to do it's railroad you into fighting a nation you have no interest throwing down with. (read the USA)

xthetenth
Dec 30, 2012

Mario wasn't sure if this Jeb guy was a good influence on Yoshi.

Arglebargle III posted:


Huh, so that was a real thing after all. (I don't know what an economizer is. An oil-sprayer to improve coal combustion?)

Heat exchange devices to recover the residual heat from combustion products by preheating the process water for your boilers. So basically it pulls heat out of the exhaust to put into the water rather than throwing it away so you don't have to do that heating by burning fuel.

I'd recommend the wiki article but it reads like the author had only a pamphlet for a particular brand of economizer and a severe concussion to work from.

The name feedwater heater for a very similar device is quite a bit more descriptive and has a significantly less poo poo article on wiki for those interested. It has pictures.

I'm pretty sure Oil-sprayed coal is mentioned as pretty much that, it's kind of a big deal and doesn't really have a nifty name.

xthetenth fucked around with this message at 06:23 on Nov 20, 2015

Arglebargle III
Feb 21, 2006

:stare: The random number generator does not like me.

acidia
Oct 31, 2012
So, war with the U.S. again? :negative:

AJ_Impy
Jun 17, 2007

SWORD OF SMATTAS. CAN YOU NOT HEAR A WORLD CRY OUT FOR JUSTICE? WHEN WILL YOU DELIVER IT?
Yam Slacker
Nope, increased tensions versus the random number generator.

TildeATH
Oct 21, 2010

by Lowtax

AJ_Impy posted:

Nope, increased tensions versus the random number generator.

Finally, an opponent we can defeat!

KYOON GRIFFEY JR
Apr 12, 2010



Runner-up, TRP Sack Race 2021/22
It would be good to build some new fleet destroyers for our inevitable surprise attack on Dairen.

xthetenth
Dec 30, 2012

Mario wasn't sure if this Jeb guy was a good influence on Yoshi.

TildeATH posted:

Finally, an opponent we can defeat!


You'd think that. And then we miss every shot.

ro5s
Dec 27, 2012

A happy little mouse!

Every shot strike our greatest foe - the sea itself.

Arglebargle III
Feb 21, 2006

KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:

It would be good to build some new fleet destroyers for our inevitable surprise attack on Dairen.

Double torpedo tubes seem close. But yeah I'll be running off some destroyers. The thing is, destroyers take 9-14 months to build, so they're easier to ramp up in case of war. Battleships not so, as we've seen.

CoffeeQaddaffi
Mar 20, 2009

TildeATH posted:

Finally, an opponent we can defeat!

You can never defeat the RNG.

Crowsbeak
Oct 9, 2012

by Azathoth
Lipstick Apathy
Seriously how can we not do Destroyers?

Also how hard it it to get AI to fight each other?

Crowsbeak fucked around with this message at 18:54 on Nov 20, 2015

Flappy Bert
Dec 11, 2011

I have seen the light, and it is a string


Crowsbeak posted:

Seriously how can we not do Destroyers?

Also how hard it it to get AI to fight each other?

The AI actually never fights each other. Probably a limit of being made by literally one guy.

Galaga Galaxian
Apr 23, 2009

What a childish tactic!
Don't you think you should put more thought into your battleplan?!


Crowsbeak posted:

Also how hard it it to get AI to fight each other?

Essentially Impossible, the AI does not fight wars amongst themselves, it is a big weakness of the game. The only time the AI hurts other AI is when you've got an ally in a war. If you've got an ally sometimes you'll get pop ups saying operations of your ally have awarded you VP or that so and so allied/enemy ship(s) were sunk during a battle.

Arglebargle III
Feb 21, 2006

1910

"I left these shores, at Vancouver, a red-hot imperialist. I wanted the American eagle to go screaming into the Pacific. It seemed tiresome and tame for it to content itself with the Rockies. Why not spread its wings over the Philippines, I asked myself? And I thought it would be a real good thing to do." -- Samuel Clemens, American author




The fleet in February 1910.


gently caress. gently caress.


I don't want to raise tensions with the US and I don't want the US to have more bases in Asia. A flurry of frantic telegrams brings together an international coalition to put pressure on the United States for its reckless imperialism. (I chose the least bad option here.)


AAAAAAAAAAGHHHH!


Doesn't Sumatra have oil?


Yes. gently caress. In 1910 the United States was the largest oil producer on the planet, by miles and miles. The Texas oil barons don't need Sumatran oil, and we do. Now we will have to go to war with America if we want to get it.


The battleship fleet continues to grow. I almost want to support treaty restrictions so I can have an excuse to remodel their turrets and replace the old Italian guns with the newer Japanese models. But that will cost about 25% as much as a new battleship.


gently caress! Go away America! I don't want this to happen. I am forced once again to choose between raising tensions with the US and losing prestige.


I really don't want to fight another war with the United States and I have a little prestige left in the bank, so I take the humiliating option.


More battleships, more deficits. :( We will not be able to afford the four battleships building in parallel that I wanted.


Cruisers and battlecruisers will now form a separate force with their own Vice Admiral in control. This is a big deal on Admiral mode, since we could not control scouting cruiser squadrons directly. Now we can. (This arrangement was more operational than tactical in real life. The Grand Fleet was withdrawn to Scapa Flow to protect it from torpedo attacks, but the Battle Cruiser Group was stationed further south on the Scottish mainland to be able to respond more rapidly to German surface raids. Beatty's operational control of the group left much to be desired. Maneuver and gunnery drills were sadly neglected.)


The United States is putting mine rails on their cruisers.


This is an odd one. We don't get to know who we're running up tensions with. At 19 prestige I choose the tension and prestige option.


Tensions with Russia increase! Nice! Russia and USA are now equal for the first time in ever.



USA and Britain continue to have more money than us.

Improved 13" guns arrive. This will become our standard artillery. (Missed the shot clicking through notifications, oops.)

Relations with the US randomly get worse...


Yes! For gently caress's sake! I'd really like to be able to raise tensions generally without worrying about the United States specifically.


Okay. Real talk: as Japan we can't afford not to do this when the chance comes up. We have only two possessions and no oil.


gently caress! (Another turn of bad luck for the LP, oil access would be a nice catch for Japan in 1910.)


gently caress!


2 Small 2 Tubular



I had to do a double-take here. 13" guns are lighter than 12" guns? Okay!


Without enough money for a fourth battleship, I design a battlecruiser. She's not exactly light but I'm hoping she'll be cheaper than another Iwami. Her design speed is impressive; we'll see if she can meet it. (This is equivalent to the fastest British battlecruisers of 1910; the fastest large warships in the world at the time.) Tsukuba, if we ever find the money to build her, should at least be able to run down enemies and escape heavier foes.


Sadly she's only slightly cheaper than a battleship. We'll have to do without for the moment.


For the first time, tensions are highest with Germany and Russia. We should be able to beat either of these enemies in the Far East. (Germany doesn't have the base capacity to fight us seriously despite her big fleet.)



That's redundant. I start eying the research budget to see if I can find any battlecruisers in there. The research and intelligence budgets together would launch less than one battlecruiser. Sad.




I want a war with Russia but free prestige is free.



Torpedo protection 2 is a big deal. Big ships now have a reasonable chance of escaping destruction after one or two torpedo hits.


I do the math in my head and we just barely can't afford Tsukuba without bankrupting the Navy.


I lay her down with the new torpedo protection.


It is February 1911 and we will run out of money in 32 months.

------------------------------------

At home with a sick child today so more updates!

Arglebargle III fucked around with this message at 19:21 on Nov 20, 2015

Riso
Oct 11, 2008

by merry exmarx
I still don't get BC.
They are not supposed to and can't fight BB so why bother armouring them significantly above what a CA will have as armament?

xthetenth
Dec 30, 2012

Mario wasn't sure if this Jeb guy was a good influence on Yoshi.

Riso posted:

I still don't get BC.
They are not supposed to and can't fight BB so why bother armouring them significantly above what a CA will have as armament?

Because scouting elements fight each other.

Pharnakes
Aug 14, 2009

Riso posted:

I still don't get BC.
They are not supposed to and can't fight BB so why bother armouring them significantly above what a CA will have as armament?

So you can wreck old/damaged/outnumbered BBs and, most importantly, Fisher style BCs and CLLs.

Speleothing
May 6, 2008

Spare batteries are pretty key.

Riso posted:

I still don't get BC.
They are not supposed to and can't fight BB so why bother armouring them significantly above what a CA will have as armament?

Nobody knows what BCs are supposed to do. So they have to do it all!

Arglebargle III
Feb 21, 2006

1911

"The Empire's fate depends on the result of this battle, let every man do his utmost duty." -- Z flag; Japanese signal


The fleet is still where we put it.


It seems the Americans see us as engaged in an arms race. I do not see how our armament program can possibly be threatening to them. They after all nearly double us in big ship tonnage.


I choose a studiously neutral response. (British approaches to Germany were met with similar frosty responses. The Germans were not interested in unilateral disarmament unless Britain was willing to abandon her policy of containing the strongest continental power -- a policy that had served the island nation well for 600 years.)


Disarmament talks end with no change to the status quo.


Tsukuba is already over-budget.


Mothballing the remaining pre-dreadnought ships in reserve brings the budget to a reasonable deficit. We can even build destroyers or cruisers now, if we are willing to spend down the war chest.

Even further harsh economy with the active service delivers a small surplus. (Virtually the entire 1908 fleet is rusting at anchor now.)



The Russians are building inferior dreadnoughts.


The French seem to have some reason to rebuild cruisers.



We may have lost the war, but we'll never lose the yacht race! (I have seen wars start over yacht races.)


New riveting machines are delivered to shipyards.


This is a tough choice. A treaty with Britain would be sound policy against Russia, but I am concerned they would do little to help us against the United States. A treaty would antagonize other powers. With Britain on our side we could easily defeat Germany or Russia, but Germany has little worth seizing in the Pacific. There is only one option here that will not lead to budget reductions.



Success! We get 12 million more yen and edge towards war with Russia or Germany. I am still convinced these are our most easily-defeated opponents.


Russia commissions a new battleship.


Germany has little that I want. I am willing to reduce tensions bilaterally.

That 12 million yen disappears as quickly as it appeared. (This is why you run up tensions to war.)



I build a submarine to see where we are technologically.


Some sort of training accident has given us the excuse we need! Russia, prepare for war!


GLORIOUS WAR! Russia will be helpless. Probably. Let's check their dispositions on the map.





Supplies attack at Port Arthur!


Oh. When the advance destroyers look into the harbor they find it so bare that we call off the attack. (Lame, that's the second time we've been bilked out of the Japanese signature move. I'm starting to think there's something to this LP curse.)


I start training and lay down some destroyers and submarines. It's a pity double torpedo tubes are still not ready. This time I begin torpedo drills immediately.


Harukaze is cramped, uncomfortable, and not very cheap, but she squeezes on four torpedo tubes and four guns. (This would be a better ship if we had double mounts!)


I can afford to build six; but I expect funding increases in the near future.


Raiding Russia's far east trade begins immediately.

Russia has three pre-dreadnought battleships somewhere around here, but where? (Probably being hurriedly put in fighting order after years tied up somewhere quiet.)


Russia' fleet slightly outweighs ours, but they are on the other side of the world for now.



The Russian navy declines battle in the Far East. This is sure to be a recurring theme. We can now only hope that the Army will make good on their stories about a confrontation in Manchuria. (We can also hope for an unexpected clash, where neither side gets to choose to accept or refuse battle.)
(I know I've been told to try for decisive battle, but up against obsolete Russian reserve ships we can smash them in single action. I will be hoping to bring them to battle at all rather than waiting it out for a decisive action.)


Russia is building raiders. (AMCs are not exactly cheap, but they build very fast. You have to sell them after the war though.)



Our far-foreign old light cruiser Chishima is the first casualty. The Russian fleet is on its way.



Double torpedo tube mounts come out just in time to make the Harukaze class obsolete one month after it was laid down. I decide to just let them finish as I build the more modern Shirakumo; we need destroyers.


Spooked by the loss of Chishima the Diet considers peace. This time the old dove demands war!


Real submarines are available.




The Russian fleet is in Southeast Asia! (Whoops! I completely missed that.)


The Diet is more spooked than I am. Two old light cruisers are nothing; those were headed for the scrap heap anyway. As they have just shown they are no longer fit for detached service.


We are blockaded! Gagh! I have to reactivate the mothballed battleships. The Russian fleet will surely start to suffer from its lack of bases soon.


It is December 1911. Our old battleships should end the blockade, but we have less than 5 months of money left.

The Russians have moved much faster than I thought they would. But now we are in home waters and they are operating far over their base capacity. We will seek the decisive action and crush them under the rising sun! Not that we'll actually use the sun to crush them, I mean, since they're near Japan they're under the rising sun, and that's where we'll crush them.

Decoy Badger
May 16, 2009
We got blockaded by a bunch of obsolete pre-dreads that we can smash in a single blow? Someone is missing serious quantities of bushido.

Pharnakes
Aug 14, 2009
Unfortunately the game doesn't let you choose when to break out, you just have to keep going until it rolls at fleet battle or other battleship engagement.

Party In My Diapee
Jan 24, 2014
Why does your game say 1.22 b4, and mine only 1.22? Am i not seeing the beta download link, or are you just using an old beta that was made into the official 1.22 patch.

Arglebargle III
Feb 21, 2006

I do not know. Haven't had any trouble with it.

AtomikKrab
Jul 17, 2010

Keep on GOP rolling rolling rolling rolling.

You should also consider making some max weight CLs with 8 inch batteries and 7 inch secondaries. Relatively cheap and able to do some damage to the enemies screen.

(I had improved 8 and 7 inches by the time I started them and so they just eviceserated a flock of old enemy CAs, taking out twice your tonnage with no losses is very good.)

Pvt.Scott
Feb 16, 2007

What God wants, God gets, God help us all
Hahaha, this is the best. You finally get the war you've been desperately clawing for your entire career and it turns out your rivals in the army have assassinated all messengers sent to get the fleet out of mothball, just to humiliate you. They've probably been feeding you false progress reports this whole time. I hate it when I forget to do stuff like mobilize troops or take ships out of mothball. You'd think a checklist at the start of a new war would be a cool idea, not that this is the game that would have something like that.

Arglebargle III
Feb 21, 2006

Pvt.Scott posted:

Hahaha, this is the best. You finally get the war you've been desperately clawing for your entire career and it turns out your rivals in the army have assassinated all messengers sent to get the fleet out of mothball, just to humiliate you. They've probably been feeding you false progress reports this whole time. I hate it when I forget to do stuff like mobilize troops or take ships out of mothball. You'd think a checklist at the start of a new war would be a cool idea, not that this is the game that would have something like that.

I didn't expect them to send 21 pre dreadnought battleships! The Russian AI is handling this very differently than the americans.

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Pvt.Scott
Feb 16, 2007

What God wants, God gets, God help us all

Arglebargle III posted:

I didn't expect them to send 21 pre dreadnought battleships! The Russian AI is handling this very differently than the americans.

Well, that's even better, we don't have the budget to fight a war they'd never fight in real life, sending their western fleet in force to the Pacific to beat up the Japanese for their lunch money, so we didn't ready those ships on purpose. We are are so going to rock these chumps. I have faith in you.

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