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 It is 1914, and Europe has been plunged into the greatest war yet known to man. Across France and Belgium, men are fighting and dying in their millions. This is the war that will imprint the image of Trench warfare upon the hearts and minds of future generations – Futile charges, gas attacks, relentless shelling and tanks. These are how we think of the Great War. But that is not the only story, both sides had two great fleets, the Royal Navy was the pride of the nation, and part of the tension that lead to the war stemmed from the fact that the Kiaser wished Germany to have a fleet to match Britain. The naval arms race had been going on for over a decade, and both sides had the new Dreadnaughts, but the key to the war was the British Naval blockade – it, along with the war on two fronts was what caused starvation and ruin to Germany and her Austria-Hungarian allies. We are going to fight out that war. What is Steam and Iron? Steam and Iron is Naval Warfare's naval war simulator. I'm going to come clean here, its not pretty – its damned near basic.  Here is the British Fleet sailing out to meet the enemy. Now these are proper 1990's graphics, but lets face it, most of the time you're not going to be in this close - as Admiral of the fleet, you're going to be looking at this view.  Here is the same fleet, zoomed out – here you can see the Battleships are steaming south to form up with its escorts. But even that can be small.  This is the entire North Sea – the Area of Operation – the whole world is “modelled” but this is the only part we have to worry about. So, why use this over Jutland? Well, partly I have already done Jutland, and while it has a a Campaign and 3D models, it has the worst interface known to man, and I'm just not willing to put myself through that again. While this game works in 1 min turns. (Don't worry, you can set it to run and process those turns at a very high rate.) This means I can have better control over this ships and the reporting of the battles. The Campaign has you setting the missions for the fleets and reacting to enemy movements. Turns are 1,2 or 4 weeks. During which there is one scenario generated – I'll be using 2 week turns, as 1 week would take forever and 4 weeks leads to to large battles. Didn't you do this before? Yes, I started a campaign a few months ago, but then my computer died in a horrible HD crash. I then did Over the Top, which ate up more of my time than I was expecting. But now I'm back! There is one choice. Britain of Germany
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Jun 22, 2015 05:20
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| # ? Apr 16, 2024 17:28 |
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Britain! I think that a new thread should come with a new start - besides, I want to see the Hochseeflotte transformed into the Unterseeflotte.
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Jun 22, 2015 05:35
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Germany Lets try this again! By Tirpitz's glorious beard we will sink the British navy.
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Jun 22, 2015 05:35
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Deutchland.
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Jun 22, 2015 05:44
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Deutschland! Gott mit uns!
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Jun 22, 2015 06:04
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Deutschland Deutschland Uber Alles!
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Jun 22, 2015 06:56
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What's the place for you and me? Ger-ma-ny!
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Jun 22, 2015 08:05
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Stick the thing on repeat and let's be Germany again. We can try to sink Lowestoft again.
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Jun 22, 2015 23:58
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Germany!
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Jun 23, 2015 00:07
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Germany Maybe I'm wrong, but England doesn't seem like it would be much of a challenge.
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Jun 23, 2015 00:57
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Germany again!
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Jun 23, 2015 01:29
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It has to be Germany
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Jun 23, 2015 01:32
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Germany. We will rebuild Doggerland upon the shattered wrecks of British ships.
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Jun 23, 2015 03:38
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Germany, aber naturlich!
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Jun 23, 2015 03:41
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Germany, more ships to shoot!
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Jun 23, 2015 07:09
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Germany Also, do we have commerce raiding submarines in this game?
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Jun 24, 2015 07:21
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Germany it is Lets see if I can continue the fashion of winning the war but taking NOTHING BUT CRITICISM from you guys.  If you want lucky ships, grab em before I sink em.
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Jun 24, 2015 07:27
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I'll take SMS Moltke
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Jun 24, 2015 07:33
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SMS Blücher.
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Jun 24, 2015 07:37
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SMS Derfflinger more speeeeed 
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Jun 24, 2015 07:54
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SMS Seydlitz bitte.
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Jun 24, 2015 08:27
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SMS Friedrich der Grosse
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Jun 24, 2015 08:35
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SMS Kaiser So glad to see this LP back!
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Jun 24, 2015 09:52
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The Hochseeflotte rides again! Nice to see this LP make a return.
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Jun 24, 2015 12:01
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All right, sink em vessels, admiral! No matter whose.
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Jun 24, 2015 12:12
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SMS Grosser Kurfürst.
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Jun 24, 2015 12:22
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SMS Prinzregent Luitpold
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Jun 24, 2015 12:30
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SMS Scharnhorst or does the game not simulate anything but the european theatre?
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Jun 24, 2015 15:01
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I need a lucky ship but am unfamiliar with the Hochseeflotte and won't have time to look up ships until after work. What should I pick? Edit: SMS Von Der Tann!
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Jun 24, 2015 15:23
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HMS Warspite
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Jun 24, 2015 15:45
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 It seems I am once more destined to command the German High Seas Fleet. The war is still young, and although the Royal Navy is much larger than we are, we are sure out better design and German engineering will prevail!  I send out my submarines in a net to scout the most obvious approach for the British ships.  My superiors have decided that it will be a good idea to make an early sortie with the battle crusiers, first to show our presence, then to sink some transports on the English coast.  I activate the I Scouting group and all its auxilleraries. This and sending the Prinz Henrich to train costs me most of my operational points.   The Fleet sets sail.   We hear nothing of the British fleet, and soon reach our battlecrusier stop, now on to the English Coast!   Contact, the ships sound to battle stations and ready themselves for the first battle of the war.  German efficency is confirmed, the first salvo is fired by the Sedlitz, who lands four hits right off the bat! The Moltke also lands a hit on the target. It is also gratifying to know that these ships are EXACTLY where Geman intelligance said they would be! (The objective is the yellow circle)  That opening salvo is all that is needed to cause both ships to stop in their tracks and begin sinking! The second ship is down by 22:15. Two kills, no damage and minimal ammunition expendature.  We then turn south, looking for more kills. Night has fallen, and I don't want to be hanging around until dawn. That would give the Royal Navy time to mobalize ships to hunt us. We have achived our objectived and proven the enemy impotant in their own waters. Now we shall head for home!   Intell put the British ships in the water, I adjust course to try and skirt them. If we can engage on our terms, we might be able to do some early damage.   Tuetonic efficency continues, as one of our cruisers sinks a Submarine!   An enemy ship is sighted. The positioning is near perfect, with the port of Emden nearby for any damaged ships to head towards. I ready the men for engagement with a souring speech that everyone was too impressed with to note down.  The Kolberg Identifies her as a Birmingham class light cruiser.  Two larger ships are spotted right behind her.  Damnation! She is a pre-dreadnaught – we are not engaging the Battlecruisers it seems. I am now already planning the disengagement.  Then the spotters update their identification to a Lion class battlecruiser. We may be in for a proper fight!   Neither side have taken a hit, and now the battlecrusiers enter firing range of each other.  The enemy make a turn, and we land a hit on one of their ships.  We have our range, and another hit is landed.  Soon two more shells hit the rearmost battlecrusier. The British have yet to land a hit on any of our ships, and our destroyes are speeding up to close the distance to give them torpedoes.  As soon as I say that, we take a hit. Of course.  British ships are soon finding their range, and our battle crusiers take a few light hits, but the first torpedo is launched.  This causes the Royal Navy to turn tail and run! [img]http://lpix.org/2109078/31.jpg[/img  They turn back into our fire, but I am hounding them with my destroyers.  They break again, but not before one of my destroyers is hit hard.  This time they break contact more severily, but we pour fire into one of the Birmingham crusiers.   Contact is made once more, and the two lines of battlecruisers fire off against each other. It seems that our two fleets are almost equally matched – a great oppertunity for I Scouting fleet.  We continue to trade fire, but I begin to worry about the damage my ships are taking. Although we seem to be getting three or four hits for every one we take, so I have to hope the British are hurting just as much as we are.  The Von Der Tann is the biggest worry – she's only taken three hits, but one of them was to the water line and she is taking on some water.  A couple of minutes later a round slams into her engine room and I have to seriously think about breaking off the engagement.  All three British ships are medium damage, and it looks like the rear turret on the center ship is out of action – as it is pointing in the wrong direction. But the Sedylitz takes a passthrough hit, and I continue to worry. This has now become a game of brinkmanship. We are still dealing more hits than we are taking, but there is no way of knowing what damage we have done, only the damage we have taken.   The British may have blinked first, my Crusiers and destroyers have reorganised themselves and come in for the kill from the north, and the British break off the line they have held for the last half an hour. Torpedoes enter the water.  HIT! Two fish slam into the side of the rearmost Lion class. Another soon hits the ship in the middle of the line.  The last ship is immediatly immobalized and falls prey to my wolfpack. Two more torpedoes hit her.  The balance of power shifts in a instant, and the Royal Navy goes into full retreat.  There is blood in the water. The Destroyers score another hit.  This leaves a second Lion class ship dead and slowly sinking. Only one remains, and it is facing our entire fleet.  She flees north at full speed – a speed my damaged ships cannot match. I decide to let her go – someone must tell the Admralty that Germany rules the waves!  We maul the stricken ships while the British head north. Our battlecruisers are begining to report less that 20% ammuntion supplies remaining.   The first British ship sinks, and it looks like the last remaining Lion-class ship is coming back for more! [img]http://lpix.org/2109267/53.jpg[/img  The second ship sinks, and the last of the Battlecruisers is doing nothing more than observing and doing some long-range sniping of our forces. The bulk of the fleet turns for home while the destroyers are sent to run the enemy off.  We have literally given all we have to give! The Lion-class makes one more sweep before heading north and breaking contact.  Victory is most assuridly ours! Our damage is light and two of the newest british ships are at the bottom of the sea. The points difference for damage is nearly twenty to one.  The Queen Mary and the Princess Royal are our prizes, and you can see the difference in gunnery at the bottom – we scored nearly ten times the number of heavy hits than we took.  The Derfflinger arrives, and we now have superioity in battlecruisers!  Although we are going to have to wait on the repairs – the Von Der Tann is going to be in dry dock for a long while! I'm rather happy with how that went!
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Jun 24, 2015 16:08
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Who are you and what have you done with Grey Hunter?  This sort of thing is exactly what the HSF needs to do - sortie in as much strength as possible, and hope that Computer Jellicoe sends them an equal or weaker force so they can wear the Grand Fleet down piece by piece.
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Jun 24, 2015 16:33
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Hazah! Two battlecrusiers sunk on our first engagement, suck it Beatty!
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Jun 24, 2015 16:34
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drat nice show!
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Jun 24, 2015 16:39
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Trin Tragula posted:Who are you and what have you done with Grey Hunter?
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Jun 24, 2015 16:40
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Meanwhile, in an alternate universe... Yeah, I'm thinking that this time, the first update went just slightly better.
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Jun 24, 2015 17:49
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Grey Hunter posted:Although we are going to have to wait on the repairs – the Von Der Tann is going to be in dry dock for a long while!  That just means you have a long while before you can try to sink my lucky ship again.
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Jun 24, 2015 18:38
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Classic Beatty gunnery on display here.
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Jun 24, 2015 19:01
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Wow, talk about an opening for "my" Seydlitz: 25 hits scored. And yes, Grey Hunter's specialty is sinking the Royal Navy ☺.
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Jun 24, 2015 19:12
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| # ? Apr 16, 2024 17:28 |
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Once again Grey Hunter bests the royal navy, this time without even being on the same side!
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Jun 24, 2015 22:50
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