Return of the Battle Hexagon - Episode 12 - British Legendary Campaign

[@judet2992]

“How many times do we have to teach you this lesson, old man?” -British fleet blockading Italy, probably.

[@dougjb7848]

Do the Dukes all have the flaw “+90% suck?” Ah, no. The AI capital ships all have the buff “+90% AI cheese.”

[@aaronp3411]

You’re doing it wrong bud. You need to replace all of your main guns with the magic 10.8”!!

[@Inkling2B]

If he does a refit on those, he could increase the beam and decrease the gun size. I like getting the most modern gun I can, even if it's smaller. Then I up its diameter/caliber until it is where I want.

[@darrenchapman2786]

Please try to make a 'semi' accurate Nelson or N3 class with the super structure at the rear (if you can). I would love to see your take on it.

[@walterengler5709]

LOL -- they target lock is often followed by the AI having 1000% targetting bonuses for some reason, and often with the penetration issues. The underlying error is in the code is somewhere deep, in somewhere that deals with a value across all aspects of firing and accuracy and penetration. My guess is the distance calculation goes off, or the angle of attack. They have really messed up the code

[@briancox2721]

Intercessor doesn't appear to be getting rearmed completely between battles. She went in showing 6 torpedos, fired a single salvo, and showed empty magazines. She has three twin launchers? So she only had a single salvo on board.

[@BrotherMunro]

I’ll look into that, she might be in an overloaded port

[@ximiraxelo7375]

One of the most interesting things in this series are the coments and the reports of the battles written by some very talented viwers

[@BrotherMunro]

Absolutely!

[@cathyharrop3348]

Bundes Marine and Half Measures The Times: 11 January 1913 The navy of the Austro-Hungarian Republic, the Bundes Marine, has a number of Heinrich class battleships in their active fleet. These Dreadnought style ships, armed with eight 13.5” guns in four twin turrets are embarrassed only by the twin 8” turret mounted super firing over the X turret. The presence of this useless pair of midsize guns provides no real firepower to the ship and extends the citadel, compromising the armour protection. Still with the numbers of these ships the Bundes Marine has they should be able to sortie them effectively. And there would have been no better time to do this then when the Otranto Squadron, led by the Royal George class Dreadnought flagship HMS Audacious, came back from repairs and refits to reestablish the blockade of the Adriatic Sea. With her three sisters HMS Royal George, HMS Centurion, and HMS Ajax, the battlecruiser HMS Tiger and her sister HMS Panther, and with a brand new C-Class destroyer HMS Cameroon, this is not a force to be trifled with. Yet the Bundes Marine, in a moment of foolhardiness, sent only one Heinrich, the Erzherzog Karl, with one Trabant class protected cruiser, the Frundsberg, and an even smaller and less well armed Kurstein class protected cruiser, the Sankt Andrä, to meet the returning blockade squadron. If the Bundes Marine had sortied their entire force they might have lost all their active ships, but they at least would have had the chance to inflict damage on the Otranto Squadron sufficient to once again force it to return to port for repairs. But by their half measures they would only lose three ships while failing to inflict any damage on the Royal Navy, even on the boldly handled HMS Cameroon. The Otranto Squadron formed for battle out of their cruising formation for the day. The battle line consisted of the HMS Centurion, HMS Royal George, HSM Audacious, and HMS Ajax. The battlecruisers were lead this day by the HMS Tiger, with the HMS Panther following. The HMS Cameroon was sent ahead to scout the enemy and find the protected cruisers hiding in their smoke. All three groups headed North West. Once they sighted the enemy they could see the Erzherzog Karl was sailing North East, so the whole of the squadron turned starboard 45° to close on her. This brought the faster battlecruisers across the battle line as they opened their broadsides. As they closed the HMS Tiger got the first hit on the Erzherzog Karl at 17 kilometers. The capital ships were then ordered to preserve ammo until the range closed. With the HMS Cameroon ahead she began to engage the Sankt Andrä with 5” shells and an attempted torpedo strike. The Sankt Andrä dodged the torpedoes but this left her unable to close on the HMS Cameroon and allowed the HMS Tiger to bring her 5” secondary to bear. The Sankt Andrä sank from a combination of 5” fire from the HMS Cameroon and the HMS Tiger, losing 425 officers and ratings killed or lost at sea from her 477 crew complement. As she sank the HMS Centurion got the next hit on the Erzherzog Karl. The HMS Cameroon, already having played a major part in the battle, was directed to charge the Erzherzog Karl for another attempted torpedo strike while putting her 5” fire on the Frundsberg, which was attempted to cut the HMS Cameroon off from her flagship. But a combination of 5” fire from the battlecruiser, battleships, and especially from the HMS Cameroon overwhelmed the Frundsberg’s damage control and the ship was abandoned by the 53 of her 876 man crew. Now in position, the HMS Cameroon attempted to torpedo the Erzherzog Karl. The torpedoes missed, but they drove the Erzherzog Karl back towards the battle line and the battlecruisers. As the capital ships pounded the Erzherzog Karl with their 13.5” shells, the Erzherzog Karl began to flood fore and aft, and then took a flooding hit in their engineering space. The flooding in the engineering space was soon controlled, but the Erzherzog Karl kept taking hits aft, and the bulkheads could not control the flooding from the stern compartments. The flooding drove forward through the ship, and eventually, under fire from the whole of the Otranto Squadron, the Erzherzog Karl failed, and sank with 737 officers and ratings killed or lost at sea from her crew complement of 847, demonstrating another weakness of the Heinrich class, the insufficient crew level to provide effective damage control. As noted, the Royal Navy suffered no appreciable damage or any casualties. The few hits from the Erzherzog Karl’s secondary guns only scratched some paint.

[@cathyharrop3348]

Questions in Parliament and Press The Times, 20 January 1913 In her recent battle with the Westfalen class battleship König the Iron Duke class dreadnought HMS Emperor of India suffered 104 officers and ratings killed or seriously wounded, extensive damage including the total destruction of her main tower, damage to her B, X, and Y turrets, and flooding fore and aft. With this second failure of an Iron Duke to finish a battle the Royal Navy and the Director of Naval Construction are under serious criticisms from both the Press and Parliament, with the Iron Dukes suspected of having serious stability problems arising from carrying ten 13.5” guns. The conduct of the Captain of the Emperor is also being questioned, with critics claiming he should have finished the Stralsund first and then kept an effective distance from the König where his superior range would prevent the 10.8” guns of the König from getting hits rather than closing to as little as 6 kilometers.

[@trynnallen]

The Times, 22 January 1913 Opinion Columns In light of the recent article in The Times regarding the "problems" of the Iron Duke Class. I am reminded that while Britain enjoys a relatively free press, articles like the aforementioned would be better sent to the Navy for their analysis, and not plastered about for all and sundry to read. The Times has given the people and it's sailors a reason to distrust a complete class of His Majesties Navy, and have provided the German Navy a glint of intelligence that they may not have had in regards to the casualties and damage inflicted by those sausage eating swine. I would like to remind The Times that while they have a duty to inform the public they do not have the right to aid the enemy in it's analysis of our Navy's capabilities and short commons, rare that they are. In short articles like those published can be summed up as, People like you are what cause unrest.

[@SalvaBarbus]

We've gotten kind of used to that, but oh Lord the way that Sankt Andra ship evaded torpedoes was bullshit of the highest caliber. You shot them from inside smoke, and I doubt they had any kind of hydrophone capable of detecting a torpedo almost even before it hit the water.

[@cathyharrop3348]

07:39: We have seen both the V-1 and V-13 class German destroyers. These are V-13 I believe.

[@dougjb7848]

17:10 To paraphrase Obi-Wan: “run, Duke, run!”

[@mechastophiles2118]

If the Iron Dukes don't want to pen anything with the regular shell setup, maybe set them up with HE/SAP?

[@jarrodkopf6813]

Secretary of the Admiralty Ricky Kopf January 1913 Not a lot of time has passed between my last entry and now. However, the Royal Navy has been seeing a lot of action against the Germans, but not much action against the Austro-Hungarians. The occasional battle we are currently seeing though is their constant failed attempt to break the Mediterranean Fleet's blockade, which is usually led by one of their useless battleships. The Germans, on the other hand, are very obsessed with building "battle hexagon" battleships. Earlier today, one of our Iron Duke battleships engaged one of their new Konig-class "battle hexagon" battleships along with some smaller ships. Although we won the battle by sinking all except their battleship, our battleship sustained moderate damage and will be out of action for a couple months. The enemy battleship sustained light damage in return. This has me and Admiral Munro concerned as the shots might have hit the upper deck armor instead of the side armor. However, I may have a solution to this problem: ditch the Cordite in favor of a better burst charge for our shells. The reason: the higher the burst charge, the faster the shell travels which means better penetration. Speaking of concerns, the Spanish have gone quiet despite being at war against us. This has me worried as the Spanish might be building a modern Spanish Armada in order to deal a decisive blow to the Royal Navy. Join us next time as we see whether we upgrade out of Cordite, and what the Spanish are up to this time.

[@dougjb7848]

6:05 You absolutely must keep torpedoes off until you’re abeam / abreast the enemy ship. Otherwise your ships always launch from about 20^ off the enemy’s stern for a guaranteed automatic miss.

[@cathyharrop3348]

The Iron Dudes Ride Again The Times, 18 January 1913 The Kreigsmarine’s Westfalen class battleship, which hardly can count as a Dreadnought, is armed with six twin turrets carrying 10.8” guns, a loosely constructed superstructure, and an utterly pointless twin 7.1” turret mounted to super fire over the aft 10.8” turret. Because the “World’s most technologically advanced navy” hasn’t developed the ability to super fire more than one turret the main turrets are mounted one forward, one aft and two each on the port and starboard sides, reducing her broadsides to only eight guns. Clearly designed as a cruiser killer, the Westfalen class should not be able to stand up to a full Dreadnought design as the extension of her citadel to cover the aft 10.8” turret compromises her armour scheme. Which says what about the Iron Duke class? The HMS Emperor of India, our own King’s greatest title, along with the C-class destroyer HMS Clacton and the B-class destroyer HMS Barfleur, a veteran ship, encountered the battleship König, the Danzig class protected cruiser Stralsund, and two V-13 class destroyers, the V-22 and V-27 in the North Sea trying to break the Royal Navy’s blockade. The captain of the HMS Emperor of India, acting as Commodore, ordered the destroyers to close in the hope of clearing the escorts away and exposing the König, and followed at his best speed. The HMS Clacton with her 5” guns and the HMS Barfleur with her veteran crew and the volume of 3” fire she can put out were able to batter the V-27 as she closed and wasted her torpedoes on trying to hit the HMS Clacton. The 5” hit from the Clacton breached the forward compartments of the V-27, the 3” fire from the Barfleur destroyed a main gun and the main tower, impeding the ship’s damage control. The V-27 sank from flooding losing all but five of her 119 man crew. As she closed on the second destroyer the HMS Clacton led the HMS Barfleur closer to the enemy, turning her guns for the moment on the Stralsund, and smoking up to avoid the 10.8” fire from the König. As the V-22 appeared from her smoke the HMS Clacton turned her guns on the German destroyer. Though the König destroyed the B turret on the HMS Clacton this did not deter her from closing on the V-22. The 5” and 3” shells from the Royal Navy destroyers caused flooding fore and aft on the V-22. The HMS Barfleur took a 7.5” hit from the Stralsund just as the V-22 succumb to flooding, losing all but five of her 119 man crew. The HMS Barfleur and HMS Claction were ordered to retire, leaving the HMS Emperor of India, still closing on the battle, to continue the fight. The Clacton had taken four casualties. The Barfleur took seven. The battle now was an exchange of fire between the König and the HMS Emperor of India, with the Emperor putting her 5” guns on the Stralsund. The battle proceeded with all ships taking hits on their main towers. But as the HMS Emperor of India closed to less than 6 kilometers the König’s 10.8” guns hit and destroyed the Emperor’s main tower and set the ship on fire. Now flooding aft, the HMS Emperor of India still tried to focus on the König while now receiving 4.2” fire. Every salvo from her 13.5” guns on the König would shake the Emperor, causing her to lose her already battle limited fire control. Having edged away from the König’s 4.2” gun range, the HMS Emperor of India switched to high explosive shells rather than armour piercing shells. Now at 8 kilometers away, the König was still getting more 10.8” hits damaging three main battery turrets then the Emperor was getting 13.5” hits on the König. The HMS Emperor of India took a flooding hit forward and another on the repaired fire control station. Another hit on the remains of the tower from a 7.6” casemate gun convinced the Captain of the Emperor to retreat and put all his guns on the Stralsund. Still taking 10.8” hits from the König, the HMS Emperor of India finally sank the Stralsund with her eighth 13.5” salvo, the Stralsund going down with 963 officers and ratings of her 1020 crew. The Kreigsmarine reported that the König took only 28 casualties in the battle and were able to recover 67 survivors of the Stralsund, V-22 and V-27.

[@FunkThompson]

I'm having similar issues. Clearly outmatched enemy vessels just wrecking my capital ships. Had a 10" CA single-handedly sink a 30k BB with 13.5's and 8" secondaries. Plus tons of "Go do this thing with a minor nation!", click yes, no mission, nothing.

[@edwinchai1336]

From what I can tell all the damage on your ships is extended areas, maybe try increasing armout ib this locations if possible?

[@BrotherMunro]

I’m running all or nothing so that’s to be expected (this is a lot more valid in the balance mod)

[@OnboardG1]

The variable accuracy seems to be due to the gun recoil penalty spiking up and down. Maybe some hull modifier?

[@BrotherMunro]

Yes the guns drop in accuracy as they fire due to recoil and it gets better with some techs. I wish there was a visual feedback for the player with ships that actually roll when they fire

[@glenmcgillivray4707]

I wonder if the +1090% bug is connected to the -100% aiming progress bug. Both being overflows perhaps.

[@BrotherMunro]

Maybe! There have been significant improvements in 1.3.9 I hear but I haven’t been able to try it out yet

[@cathyharrop3348]

Junker Kapitans Fail Again The Times, 25 January 1913 The Prussian minor nobility, known as Junkers, have long been the mainstay of the nation’s military officer class. But as Germany has become a naval power in the world this tradition may have failed them, as the Junkers clearly have no respect for the idea of commerce. How else to explain the fact that every Kreigsmarine ship larger than a destroyer simply fails to defend their merchant ships and armed transports against commerce raiders from the Royal Navy. They should be recruiting their naval officers from Hamburg and Bremen, not Königsberg and Pomerania. The Danzig class protected cruiser Gazelle had four German Merchant Marine ships under her protection when the Interceptor class fast protected cuiser HMS Intercessor and the C-class destroyer HMS Claudia spotted them. The HMS Intercessor and the HMS Claudia closed, and the Gazelle retreated, leaving the four transports unprotected. The HMS Intercessor closed on the transports as the HMS Claudia moved to cut off the column. The fire from the HMS Claudia sunk the Kaiserin class 5 thousand ton, 26 man crewed armed transport Rheinland III, taking down all but two of her crew. The HMS Intercessor put three of her last six torpedoes into the Ägir II, sinking her instantly but letting her crew get off the ship with eighteen survivors. The HMS Intercessor then sank the Kaiserin III and then the Kaiser Fredrich III #3 each with one survivor. With the transports all sunk the two Royal Navy ships chased down the Junker Kapitaned Gazelle, which wasn’t as fast as its namesake. At 500 meters the HMS Intercessor took a 7.5” hit from the Gazelle that killed or seriously injured 34 casualties on top of the eight lost earlier in the battle. Hoever the two Royal Navy ships pounded the Gazelle until fires overwhelmed her damage control parties. Only fifty-six of her crew survived abandoning ship out of a crew of 1020 officers and ratings. In total the German Merchant Marine lost 19 thousand tons of shipping capacity armed for service in their far flung colonies. These losses are demonstrating the inability of a land power like the German Republic to maintain a serious of colonies around the world.

[@adamtruong1759]

I refuse to believe the Iron Dukes have anything wrong with their design that would explain their bad performance, but I do believe they need to get their crews up to Veterans to exploit their true potential. It's just that it's rough for the ships to get that level of crew experience. Another issue might be shell quality as the British shells at this time were not the best performing shells in the world.

[@firehuntert7500]

Seems like the game knows it can't beat you, so it's pulling out all the stops to win using cheese

[@birlyballop4704]

Re Iron Dukes: Ideally, remove turret Q, add tech and armour and rebalance - could be tanky. But also could be six months and more to refit a never stellar class. Better, maybe, mothballs. But you say not in this campaign. Looks like Dukes are crook.

[@BrotherMunro]

Removing the Q would make them an Orion basically. We’ve got the Queen Elizabeth’s on the way they should perform better!

[@birlyballop4704]

​@@BrotherMunro8 x 15" MkIII, goody.

[@jaywerner8415]

Oh neat some Pacific Action. Was wondering when that would start happening. But yeah the "battle Hexagon" is certainly a "interesting" design, i use that term loosely. For real though is their any REAL downside to wing turrets? Besides ya know, probably being easier to knockout/explode due them being on the EDGE of the ship rather then in the middle. It is always interesting seeing Wing turrets that can Fire Cross Deck.

[@dougjb7848]

More likely to be affected by heavy seas, at least in early dreadnoughts. Complexity of ammo systems from central magazines (you want them in the center of the ship, not directly inside the armor belt).

[@raijasuni7481]

We need a unconventional refit.

[@Karibanu]

A-H always seem to build the most "interesting" ships, in my campaigns too... The absolute rubbish defence stats on British hulls seem to make them perform even worse now.

[@BrotherMunro]

Resistance is such an important stat and the British hulls are generally terrible for it

[@Karibanu]

@@BrotherMunro Yes, we were an obviously backwards nation when it came to naval shipbuilding... not like the Soviets.

[@jaywerner8415]

@@Karibanu Insert Russian Bias Joke here.

[@jaywerner8415]

@@BrotherMunro Which is weird cus the Royal Navy is famous/infamous for a reason. Admittedly most of that Rep comes from the Age of Sail, but regardless "Ya don't Tussle lightly with the Royal Navy". (Then again most of the fleet was just sitting in the harbor for most of WW2 so.... Eh its not like the Germans deployed their fleet much if EVER)

[@dougjb7848]

WW2? I think you mean WW1?

[@adrianfinkler6913]

👍

[@dougjb7848]

That’s not really a hexagon. Battle lozenge, maybe.

[@6000Chipmunks]

It is sad, but this game still lacks all semblance of reality. Keep all ships at flank speed... Close to ramming distance (in what I can only imagine is an attempt to increase weapon accuracy.)...AKA: Kamikaze mode. *Which unsurprisingly, also increases the enemies weapon accuracy...or SHOULD. NEVER under ANY circumstances, use your superior weapon range to your advantage...As would be the case in real life. The blunders of Jutland notwithstanding. Then Fire torpedoes, that either fail to detonate, or miss entirely... Get hit by enemy torpedoes... Play by completely disregarding the men, all historical, and realistic aspects of naval warfare and like a complete yabo. Win campaign on Extreme Difficulty, anyway. **** BRILLIANT **** (I've had this game since alpha one, and every day I want to play it, but alas, doing so in any realistic way, is to just make the game hard for no reason.) I'm seriously hoping that the next main update later this year will force us to actually play this game as a naval combat game, and not Space Invaders.

[@nathanshoaf5452]

Day 6 of asking for Hms agincourt

[@nathanshoaf5452]

Also, please don’t sell the iron duke herself

[@NOTRTGAME]

First