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[Fishbreath]

I fired up Steam and Iron before running out the door this morning, and found that on December 30th, the German High Command gave me instructions to poke my nose into the Gulf of Finland. They didn't offer me the chance to say no, so I activated my two 26-knot light cruisers and nothing else, to give myself an edge in speed over whatever the Russians turn up with.



Four hours later, at 10:20 a.m. on December 30th, spotters on the Augsburg sight an enemy ship. A moment later, they sight other ships in line.



At 10:22 a.m., Augsburg tentatively identifies the lead ship in the line as a pre-dreadnought, and one of the following ships as a dreadnought. The count of ships in line goes up to six. That's more than enough for me to turn tail, so at 10:24 a.m., I do. A light cruiser or destroyer shows up on the after starboard quarter.



Leaving aside the issue of whether or not Augsburg spotted an actual dreadnought, which I'll get back to in a moment, I'll probably bend my cruisers' course southeast a few points, and then maybe I can put a few rounds into the bows of the light cruiser/destroyer.

The bigger question is what, if anything, I ought to do about the Russian battle line. I would be surprised if it were a mixed force, so it's probably either an all-dreadnought force or an all-pre-dreadnought force. If it's an all-pre-dreadnought force, I think I would want to sortie the Baltic Fleet on emergency activation, using the light cruisers to keep in contact with the Russian fleet and the mighty German battle line to crush them. If, on the other hand, it's a dreadnought force, bringing my battleships out to play would be a terrible move.

If it is actually a missed force, it's hard for me to make a decision. I think my initial plan is to drop to about 21 knots and see if the Russians are gaining or losing ground at that speed. If they're losing ground, there are pre-dreadnoughts in the line, but if there are also dreadnoughts, it would still be a bad idea for me to come out to play. If I'm still outrunning them at 21 knots, I think what I'll do is run the light cruisers just north of west for a little bit to see if I can get better information on the Russian line. If the cruisers see pre-dreadnoughts exclusively, I'll sortie the Baltic Fleet; otherwise, I'll probably run for port.

[Fishbreath]

Exciting times ahead in the Baltic Sea.

Augsburg and Magdeburg run to the west a bit, and eventually the Russian line takes the bait and turns southwest toward them. They come under fire, but escape unscathed and get good identification on half of the Russian line at 11:15 a.m. on the 30th. These three were the leading ships, so I feel relatively confident in declaring that the dreadnought they spotted earlier was just the crew of Augsburg making a mistake on identifying a ship at very long range.



I order the Baltic Fleet to raise steam and get to sea. It takes two hours, and that's dusk in the Baltic. To avoid running into the Russian fleet in the dark, Augsburg and Magdeburg stand off to the southwest.



At 9:35 a.m. (just after full daylight) on the 31st, the main body of the fleet works up the west coast of Gotland (where my gut tells me the Russians went), while the two detached light cruisers take the east side.



I don't catch anything before the sun goes down at 3:00 p.m, so I send the main fleet up toward the Bogskär lighthouse because hey, I'm in the neighborhood, and Augsburg and Magdeburg stand in toward the objective, and while they're there they blow up the Odinsholm lighthouse, bringing my tally to two for this sortie.


Picture from 5:00 p.m.

The real SMS Magdeburg had a literal encounter with Odinsholm in reality, running aground and sinking in 1914.



My Magdeburg escapes, slipping away with Augsburg on the night of the 31st. The scenario time limit gives me only about an hour of pre-dawn twilight on the morning of the 1st, so, despairing of my chances, I send both the main fleet and the detached light cruisers to look for some transports to hassle, which would make this sortie less of a waste of operations points. The battle fleet hits the eastern approach to the Gulf of Bothnia, and I send the light cruisers toward the western approach, when, at 9:57 p.m...




Well! That's fortuitous. I give Magdeburg my provisional approval to paint a cruiser silhouette on her smokestack, and also give the order for the light cruisers to turn away. They almost lose the Russian fleet in the night, but stumble upon it again just as the fleet gets close at 10:29.



The fleets are basically on top of each other at 10:43. A light rain has started, too. Between the night and the rain, I have very little to do here; visibility's between a mile and a mile and a half.



Now I'll have to apologize: I kind of got too excited to remember to take screenshots through this part.

As the fleets merge head-on, Braunschweig, the largest-gunned of my battleships (with 11-inchers) collides with an enemy cruiser, and my light cruiser Bremen collides with a different enemy cruiser. Bremen comes free almost immediately; it takes Braunschweig about forty-five minutes to get under way again. That doesn't stop her firing, though, and reports of hits on enemy ships come in thick and fast. The game helpfully labels ships on the map, but I still can't tell which ones are mine in the crazy free-for-all that develops. Wittelsbach and Zähringen, two of my less-capable class of pre-dreadnoughts, take torpedo hits, and I send both of them limping south away from battle. Meanwhile, Braunschweig runs north after a fleeing enemy ship, the other three ships of the 8th Battle Squadron in line, and quickly dispatches her.



That brings us to 11:45, and at this point I turn the fleet south toward home. Two of my battleships are already on the cusp of sinking thanks to torpedo hits, Braunschweig's beautiful lines are no doubt wrecked from the collision, robbing her of two knots she dearly needs, and my other three ships have taken varying numbers of hits. I doubt I'd want to run across another Russian force in this state; so, of course, I do. The Russian pre-dreadnoughts come out of the night headed north at the very same time that my ships are headed south, and they pass once before turning away from each other. I do this intentionally: the single pass sets Braunschweig on fire, takes two more knots off her top speed, and renders her my fastest battleship afloat at 14 knots. The remainder of the night is spent in tense hope that the Russian ships don't happen upon my ragged line again. The rain helps. The remainder of the 8th Battle Squadron, proceeding at its maximum speed of 14 knots, happens upon a Russian destroyer, which was damaged earlier in the night. The two of them together prove to be a match for the single damaged destroyer. Augsburg and Magdeburg, both practically undamaged, finish it off.

No other Russian ships menace me from the darkness, to my great relief. Braunschweig burns for most of the night before the damage control parties get her under control, and happily (or perhaps miraculously), none of my ships sink. The moment of truth, then: the post-battle report.



...phew. That's a huge relief—after getting a couple of battleships torpedoed and almost breaking one by whacking it into another ship, I was worried that even the things I sank wouldn't tilt the victory point balance to my favor. I've spoilered the detailed analysis.

Spoiler: Detailed analysis (click to show/hide)

Points of note, in no order:

Wittelsbach is about as heavily-damaged as a ship can be without sinking. Before I ordered the general retreat, I would evaluate each ship on an ongoing basis to see whether or not I should detach it and pull it out of battle; after Wittelsbach took her torpedo hit, the ship list screen said she was 100% damage, and when I looked at the detail screen, it said she had 100% flotation damage. I'm still not entirely sure how she made it back to port, but I definitely won't complain. Losing any one of the battleships would have wiped out my

I presume Braunschweig is going to take longer to repair because she was on fire for seven and a half hours. Patching a hull is way easier than completely replacing the upper works of the ship.

This screen lets me piece together the Russian order of battle a little bit better. R Light Cruiser Divisions 3 and 4 and Destroyer Division 6 were deployed in support of the battle line, which comprised three pre-dreadnoughts (Andrei Pervozvanny, Tsesarevich, and Slava) and five cruisers. Bayan, Admiral Makarov, and Pallada, the three I sank, were all the remaining examples of the Bayan class, an obsolescent type.

Rurik was also present, and she's a much more interesting ship, being basically a pre-dreadnought battleship—she has four ten-inch mains, and eight eight-inch secondaries. I'd trade one of my Wittelsbach-types for her without much hesitation.

Once again, the Russian lighthouses performed poorly in battle, and one was even badly outmatched by even two light cruisers.

Intelligence reports that one Russian cruiser and one Russian battleship will be in repair for eight weeks, which is good to know; having sunk the three cruisers that I did, I can probably guarantee that I'll be superior in force to any non-dreadnought Russian force if I have time to sortie my battleships. Unfortunately, I can't emergency-activate units of the High Seas Fleet, which limits my ability to respond to the Russian dreadnoughts.

Anyway, here's the bad news:



It's going to be a few months before I can even sortie pre-dreadnoughts. Expect Augsburg and Magdeburg to see a lot of action going forward.

All that said, I'm cautiously pleased with this result. It certainly cost me a lot in terms of battleship-months, and it didn't gain me much more than a successful anti-merchant cruise, but at the same time, it also cost the Imperial Russian Navy in units instead of just prestige.

[Anvilfolk]

Awesome! I've been enjoying this quite a bit! I hope you keep doing it

[Delta Foxtrot]

It's been an interesting read thus far. Keep it up.

[sackhead]

wow this is fantastic reading, i loved the battle report and the depth and description of you stratergy. It almost sands like an article on an actual battle

[Fishbreath]

From mid-January until February 24th, operations are suspended due to winter weather (by which I suspect they mean ice). I figure to use the time to keep my fleet in good nick (as no German ever said) and well-trained. It'll be a welcome respite for the crews and ships, in or near their home harbors and safe from the Russian menace.



...or not. Figures that it would be Magdeburg that sinks, given that I just made a point about her surviving past her historical sinking. Oh well.

Tomb Raider has me pretty busy in the evenings now, so expect the next update no earlier than this weekend. I'd like to sortie some light cruisers into the northern Baltic and catch some more freighters; that's been a winning strategy so far. Even with Magdeburg gone, I still have Augsburg and two Bremen-class cruisers, which are good for 23 knots. Unfortunately, the Russian dreadnoughts can handle 24, so I'll probably want to employ them as separate squadrons. That way, Augsburg can either flee or lead a potential Russian dreadnought on a wild goose chase, while the two Bremen-class cruisers escape. I'm much more likely to come across cruisers, pre-dreadnoughts, or destroyers, though, and these three light cruisers are on the right side of the outrun/outgun formula for all three of those potentialities.

In related Fishbreath wargame AAR news, Command Ops is about to release its next major patch, which, thanks to a long open beta, is probably going to be one of the most polished they've ever done. You may remember that I have a Command Ops AAR called 'Eine Brücke zu weit' started, on the topic of German paratroopers in the invasion of the Low Countries, and once that patch comes out and I've finished this campaign, I believe that's the direction I'll be going next.

[Anvilfolk]

Nice

I still have some of your Command Ops AAR's to read, but I really need to sit down and read'em like a book

[Fishbreath]

Steam and Iron designer Fredrik Wallin was kind enough to answer a few of my questions when I was reporting the bug about the Salamis event, so I've gone ahead and quoted him on a few things here. On emergency activation and interceptions:

If you elect to pass on a scenario when the enemy does something and you have no ships activated, the whole operation is abstracted and there will be no losses or engagements. You can chose to play out the scenario and wait until something is sighted, by submarines or something else, and then emergency activate. Admittedly, the chances of catching anything is rather slim in many cases. In the Baltic, the Germans are disadvantaged by the relatively remote location of their main base, Kiel, so emergency activating the Baltic Fleet will rarely accomplish anything, the Russians will be almost home before you get close to the reported sighting. The advantage of playing out a scenario, even if you don't do anything, is that the enemy will be subject to attrition by submarines and mines and such, so if you have the patience, it is the more rewarding and realistic course.
 
The same thing is true in the North Sea, but only to a certain extent. If the Germans only do a hit and run on the East Coast and remain undetected on the way in, they will be halfway back across the North Sea before anything can get up steam. This is mostly dictated by Geography. But there are some situations when emergency activating can work, for example if you detect the enemy early with submarines or other recon means. And the British in the North Sea have plenty of submarines, while the Germans in the Baltic are rather starved of them.
 
But the best way of catching the enemy is if you have superior intelligence, and the British will often have an inkling of what the Germans are doing. The same with the Russians in the Baltic, they have a decided intelligence advantage. Historically, all major battles in both the Baltic and the North Sea were the result of one side having advance intelligence, Jutland, Dogger Bank, Östergarn, while no one ever caught a raiding force starting from port, so this reflects history.

So my most recent victory was unmatched in the annals of naval history. I'll take that. On lighthouses and their durability:

I thought I should explain that all land targets regenerate on the reasoning that no naval bombardment will completely eradicate a target. The destruction of the target in game simulates that the mission is accomplished and enough damage has been inflicted to fulfill the objective. So next week the target will still be there. This might be more true about a railyard or a town than a lighthouse, especially Bogskär which is quite small, but other lighthouses can be substantial.

Which is perfectly reasonable, and what I'd figured on anyway, but I still like the thought of a team of crack Russian lighthouse builders braving the stormy Baltic to rebuild, week after week.

[Fishbreath]

@XPav apparently has some sort of giant electromagnet (perhaps in the shape of a pickelhaube) with which to draw in the Russian fleet. My sorties have not yet been fruitful in terms of catching large Russian units, except for my one lucky night action.

I sortie again on February 26th, bombarding Windau and laying a minefield just to the west.





At around the same time, one of my submarines torpedoes a transport.



After laying the mines, the Minelaying Division heads back to port, while Augsburg, Bremen, and Lübeck head north to sniff out some Russian merchant shipping, and carry out the weekly bombardment of the Bogskär lighthouse. They sink two merchants and scuttle another, while U-25 boards and scuttles a fifth. The light cruisers pick up almost three hundred survivors and head back into port. The losses map picks up a few more Russian dots.



Intelligence reports that the battleship Poltava has entered service, and that two of my less-capable battleships are back in service. I also got a seaplane carrier. I'm not sure what it does.

[Fishbreath]

Another sortie, March 3 through March 5.

Augsburg, Berlin, and Lübeck sortie from Danzig, headed to the north end of the Baltic Sea. They'll lay mines in the channel to the east of Åland, then hunt for merchants.



The weather starts pleasant, and the cruisers steam north on the night of the 3rd. They reach their minelaying objective at about 2:00 a.m. on the 4th, drop their mines, and turn south. I put them into a search line—that is to say, so that the areas of sea they can see just barely overlap—and run them east and west. They come across two small merchants, and it's only a few hours from twilight when I decide to risk a quick run up into the Gulf of Bothnia. It pays off; I run across another three small merchants and one medium merchant on the way up.



The Russians happened upon one of my merchants at one point, and I might have caught some of them asea were I luckier. Either way, I increased my victory point margin by about 40,000, to a total of 460,000. Getting close now.

[Fishbreath]

My car hunt behind me, I finally have the time to write this very brief update that's been on my to-do list for three weeks.

I sortie again on the 11th of March with the usual three light cruisers. They lay a small minefield, then hunt for merchants. In the space of an hour or two, they run across three, one of which was torpedoed by a U-boat, and that same U-boat boards and scuttles another.



The Imperial German Navy edges closer to victory.

[Fishbreath]

The valiant light cruisers of the Baltic Scouting Forces sortie again on March 24th. Running up the Baltic on the east side of Gotland, I put my cruisers into a search line, and to my great surprise, I spot an enemy warship.



The spotters say a light cruiser. I pull my ships back together into a line and run it down, only to find that it's merely a destroyer, which the three light cruisers quickly dispatch.



Even before I can fully reform the search line, though, Augsburg, further east of the other two cruisers, spots three more warships. I can hardly believe my good fortune: it's the Aurora, a protected cruiser from 1900 of which I have several pictures from my time in St. Petersburg, a symbol of the October Revolution, and all around an important symbol of Russia.



The spotters say she has a destroyer and another light cruiser in company, but I don't believe that. Since the destroyer and maybe-cruiser are in formation, it's more likely that they're a pair of destroyers.

Once Augsburg has gathered her consorts, I order the formation to turn around and engage. My gut feeling proves correct: it's two destroyers and Aurora. They turn to run, the destroyers laying smoke and interposing themselves between my cruisers and Aurora.



I have three or four knots on the Russian formation, so the range closes pretty quickly. Notice that the wind is in my favor: in the Age of Sail, I'd be on the pansy, able-to-run-away side, but without having to worry about wind propulsion, I can stick to the side where my gun smoke and funnel smoke blow away and theirs interfere with their targeting.

Aurora, being an old protected cruiser rather than a modern light cruiser, mounts six-inch guns as opposed to my four-inchers, and scores the first hit of the battle at 7,750 yards, despite her relatively ancient fire control systems. The Russian destroyers come under fire first, and within an hour, they're both so thoroughly wrecked that they can no longer keep up. My formation, capable of 23 knots and running at 22 (so the poor 23-knot cruisers can keep station) catches up with the 19-knot Aurora, and although Aurora scores a few more hits, it isn't long before the greater weight of metal on my side begins to tell. Aurora is forced south, and just before noon...



Although that engagement already makes this a glorious victory, I still have some objectives to complete: sink a transport and lay a minefield on the far side of Åland. I stop by to visit some old friends along the way.



After laying the minefields, the Light Cruiser Division locates and snaps up some tasty merchant targets, thus fulfilling my other objective.



The cruisers turn for home. Although Augsburg took seven hits and is down to a maximum of 21 knots, she's not badly damaged, and will be back in service in three weeks.

Spoiler: Detailed results (click to show/hide)

Another 60,000-VP swing puts me up to an advantage of 540,000, which ends up being 538,000 after I don't do anything the next week. It's now early April, 1915, and with good fortune I could plausibly end up finished by the end of the month.

[Zrk2]

I don't know how I missed this before, but it's great.

[deoloth]

I always enjoy reading LP's of strategic games, and you just make them so educational 

Didn't think i would enjoy this as much as your Battle of Britain II, which was pretty good, but i was wrong it seems.

[Fishbreath]

Truth be told, this one has been educational for me, too. WWI naval combat wasn't really up among my favorite periods before now, and learning enough to compile the list-o-things-that-changed from the 1850s to the 1910s was pretty nifty. I would love to come back to BoB2 eventually, but fixing the particular problems I encountered will require getting to know the BoB2 codebase and actually working out a fix on my own, which looks devilishly complicated. Someday, though.

Thanks for the compliments, though—it's much easier to keep to a schedule when I know there's an audience out there.