Autumn, 1890.With the war having started and both navies starting to do their work, both sides have been able to get a glance at each others ships and equipment. First off, the navy of Nemorland has had two kinds of ships sighted by the forces of Sothweg. The first of which, and most numerous, is the
Spear class. A light and small scout cruiser capable of very high speed. Armed with two six inch guns as a main battery and three four inch guns as a secondary with a additional four two inch guns as a tertiary, it is fairly well gunned for a cruiser of its size. Additionally, it carries four torpedo tubes on the ship in single mounts. The second ship the Nemorland navy has that was spotted is the
Niflung Class, a slow, squat, and heavily armed ship with four heavy nine inch guns in two turrets, along with five six inch guns, one of which has a very distinct look due to its placement that serves as a major identifier that makes it easy to tell what class of ship it is, despite looking similar to a particular German coastal defense ship. It is quite slow, however, and the Sothweg's aren't sure if the craft has torpedoes, submerged or otherwise.
Meanwhile, the ships of the Sothweg Navy are...rarely seen actually. In fact, some of the captains in the Nemorland Navy joke about them being ghost ships, or Sothweg not having a navy, and some others claim they are hiding. However, they are certainly seen. Oddly, they seem to be colored very strangely which has lead to some...interesting identifications. However, like Nemorland, only two kinds of ship were sighted. Firstly, there is the
Minnow class, a very small corvette with a single three inch gun and two, two inch guns. It arguably can be called a torpedo boat destroyer, having three torpedo tubes and going at a respectable speed. Though, a bit slow for a torpedo boat destroyer. Noticeably, it has two boats at the back and a small crane to pick them up after being launched. The second the Nemorland's spot is the
Serpent Class. It is a small armored cruiser, which has been refereed to as a 'Light Armored Cruiser'. It has a good speed for its class, and three six inch guns, two in a single turret at the front and one in a single turret at the back. Somewhat amusingly, it has six three inch guns in turrets that are atop small little protrusions from the upper hull. It is unknown how many submerged torpedo mounts it has, however. But it certainly has at least one.
The Western portion of the Evandron ArchipelagoFor the most part, the west remains quiet initially. However, its not long until something happens. A small fleet of two spear class slowly makes it way down the many islands, attempting to gather information on the area and forcing any merchant ship to heave to. Naturally, this is not something that is left unanswered for long. A moderate fleet of a number of the Minnow class would seem to try and find the two spear's for a time. Every so often their smoke being seen, or the ships themselves barely seen. Their numbers were a bit difficult to discover from the ranges, however upon closing, it was somewhere between four to six ships, clearly minnows. The captains considered their options and decided not to engage despite wanting to due to night coming soon, and so simply aimed to evade. However, the small ships after detecting them would not spend the night for nothing. They would dock at the nearby port of Merkenessöy send a message. After this, when day broke, the small task force of spear class ships would continue on, looking for any sign of those smaller ships, or merchants.
Seeing how the rest of the nearby area was not under threat, along with other reports, the 1st cruiser squadron moved south. It would take some time, but after a few days, they would meet up with the smaller ships and go on the hunt for these attackers. After five days of searching, they'd find them in the early morning. The two captains of this fleet naturally would not be stupid, and seeing the reports, would move to sail away. However, keeping ahead at flank speed for long periods of time is unsustainable, even if you had engines that never broke down, and eventually, when the other fleet was out of sight, they'd make a course change and start slowing down to a more manageable speed. However, just as dusk was starting to fall, the task force of Minnows would spot them, and by a stroke of luck, they wouldn't spot them in return.
In the night, the two forces would start to close, one unknowing, the other fully aware of the other. Yet, they wouldn't meet. Slowly, the distance would increase before the Sothweg forces would change course, and the task forces would close yet miss again. And then again. Yet, as the light started to come up, the Sothweg forces would finally see the enemy and be in range. The Nemorland ships would be swift to start heading to flank, seeing a force of two cruisers and at least 4 smaller ships and open fire on the odd, zebra like stripes of white and black on their enemy ships. The fight would last for roughly an hour as the two scout cruisers tried to flee.
One of them would not be as lucky as the other.
Both the Fork and the Glave would be struck in the engagement, however the Fork would suffer a particularly strike by one of the 6 inch guns. The shell would end up going through the thin armor and manage to get a lucky hit onto the engine room. While this didn't damage the engine itself too badly luckily, it would badly hurt and kill some of the stokers. This would, for the minute or two that there were very few people actually tending the engine, would make the Glave suffer more and more damage, however, in the end it would manage to get out of range of the enemy's guns.
Something important to note, is that the Gunners on the Sothweg ships were more accurate than their counterparts. However, despite all this doom and gloom it may seem for the Nemorland naval forces, there were a few solid hits on the enemy cruisers, and one reported hit on one of the smaller ships. The Sothweg navy claims the Glave to be sunk, while the Nemorland Navy Claims the M-3. Time will tell if these claims are accurate.
The Central portion of the Evandron ArchipelagoDespite what one might expect, the amount of naval combat or sightings in the central part of the archipelago is...very lacking. Despite this, the Nemorland navy bombards the hills and eventually the port town of Erlandthrop, destroying the defenses Sothweg has, the shipping of the port, and all in a massive display of force of about nine ships commonly returning every other day like clockwork. Three of which are Niflung class ships. During this time, another small force of two cruisers heads to the south to scout and find convoys. Unlike in the west, the force sent here only briefly spots the two cruisers, numbering about 5 or 6, the cruiser captains decide to avoid and evade, and spend most of their time in the south dealing with merchant ships, and occasionally trying to shake the small taskforce off them, which they do to good success, much to the Sothweg's annoyance.
These two ships aren't enough to make that much of a difference, however, with artillery support, the town of Erlandthorp is expected to fall within the next few weeks and, with the requirement of troops being less in Erlandthorp, more are put on the other island, where an advance on Siggetoft has started. The fighting hasn't reached the town directly yet, but its close.
The Eastern portion of the Evandron ArchipelagoHere in the east, things go similarly to the other fronts. A small squadron of two ships of the spear class head south and start scouting and hunting any enemy merchant shipping they can see. However, they wouldn't be bothered the entire season as they did their work until they started returning. Luckily for them however, they'd never encounter the Sothweg fleet in this area. Yet, that fleet wasn't simply idle. Every few nights along this section of sea, Sothweg ships would slip through the darkness near a port, and open fire, simple as that. It started with the smaller islands like Ortrewley and Ormodlay which would have any shipping in port sunk and the port facilities themselves damaged along with other parts of the small island bases. Yet, it would not be long before it moved to full on ports like Pilbury and Steywall. The attacks prioritized the major ports and islands, though some of the smaller ports were effected too.
The Nemorland Navy didn't simply take this and ignore it, and sent some forces out to try and intercept, or rather, scare them off. However, the distance involved from the nearest, non occupied forces meant that it would take some time until they could do anything. However, there was an idea. They could try to link up with the raiding forces returning to base to resupply on coal and food and then attack this raiding force. They'd attempt to meet up with the force near the end of the season and try to intercept the larger force, and they'd be able to spot this force and engage early in the morning. The captains of the raiding force would elect to not get into a fight, however with the Nemorland navy's ships being faster, they were able to catch up and start the engagement.
Once more, the Sothweg navy showed to be more accurate than the Nemorland navy. Of course, slightly more accurate doesn't mean too much, and they were outnumbered 2 to 1 in terms of cruisers. However, the Nemorland navy would soon find that, despite the occasional hits they were getting on the Sothweg cruisers, they'd be dealing with them quite well. Much better than the Nemorland ships. Despite this, the Minnow class ships in the engagement would not do as well, with two of them, M-5 and M-6 being hit by multiple cannons and getting disabled and sunk.
However, that isn't to say the Nemorland forces simply did well and ran away with the battle. Later in the battle, forces closed to extremely close range as the Nemorland forces were confident as the remaining Minnow maneuvered to get away, with only the two Serpent class cruisers remaining in the fight, attempting to cover the M-4's escape. The lead ship of the Spear class, Spear would attempt to get close to the SKMS Adder and launch two torpedoes at it, however, ahead of it was the SKMS Cobra, which would launch a torpedo from its submerged mount...
All the torpedoes would miss, although the Adder almost got hit in the stern by one, but the Spear would get badly hit and be forced to withdraw as the other forces started focusing on the Cobra, which was closer than the Adder. The Nemorland navy, having most of their ships taking at least moderate damage and running low on ammo tried to withdraw before they took a hit to the engines that would seal their fate. The Sothweg navy would not follow, clearly desiring to withdraw themselves and cut their own losses. The Sothweg Navy claim the Spear as sunk. Meanwhile, the Nemorland Navy claims the Cobra and the M-5 and 6.
The world outside of the Evandron ArchipelagoOtto von Bismark was dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II and replaced by Leo von Caprivi. Ellis Island is designated as an immigration station in New York. The territory of Oklahoma is created. The first official cricket county championship match begins and ends with Yorkshire beating Gloucestershire. And George Francis Train circumnavigates the world in 67 days after his previous record of 80 is surpassed by Nellie Bly.